Poor Curly Cat

[Veronica]

We have 5 feral girl kitties who hang around our house. They have all been spayed. I started feeding the first one in 2003. We didn't think about spaying her until after she had three kittens in our backyard. We got a trap and the deal is, if you eat our food you get neutered. Since then we've probably neutered 15 cats or so. All of the regulars will let me touch them now - except Curly Kitten. Some of them actually seem to enjoy petting and will rub up against me before going to eat.

Oh... and they all have really inventive names. There's Mama Kitty, the first cat. She had Gray Kitty, Black Kitty (who disappeared) and MC (Mama Colored.) Gray Kitty was tough to trap and she had Black Kitten and Goggles (who died in our backyard.) I actually ended up picking up Gray Kitty and stuffing her into the trap to get her to the vet. Pretty Eyes kind of looks like Mama and MC, but I don't know if she is related. Curly Cat has a curly tail and Curly Kitten looks like a miniature Curly Cat. We also have Evil Boy. He's been neutered and comes around once a week or so. He torments the girls, except Pretty Eyes, hence the name.

We've had Big Paws, White Tip, Grumpy, Noisy and probably some others that I'm forgetting.

Veronica

[Aggie_Ama]

V- You earned cookies and whatever holiday treats you enjoy! We had an organization at A&M that trapped and sterilized feral cats but it is awesome y'all do it on your own. Does your vet give you a discount?

[Veronica]

I go to a different vet for the ferals than for my indoor kitties. It's $25 to neuter boys and $40 for the girls. The feral vet advertises that she is low cost. Our indoor kitties, Cassie and Tucker were neutered when we got them, so I don't know if that is cheap or not. Cassie and Tucker are rescues from HALO. It seems to me I paid $80 or so to spay Tilda back in 1990. But what I really like is that I can bring them in with no appointment. You never know when they'll decide the food in the trap looks good. We can afford it and I do enjoy watching the outdoor kitties. Mama Cat has been in a goofy mood lately... racing up the trees in the back yard for no apparent reason. While I know their lives aren't great, they are better. Our yard is safe. We're at the end of a street so there is not much traffic. They get food and fresh water every day. Hopefully they are not too much of a nuisance to the neighbors. And we keep them from reproducing willy nilly.

Veronica