Jerry and her outdoor Clan

Photo: Miriam Woelke

 

Jerry’s latest pleasure sounds really weird: She loves pushing caps from plastic water bottles underneath the fridge. She chases those caps and is sticking her paws right underneath the fridge when the caps have disappeared.

Well, one thing for sure: You need a looooott of patience with a cat in the house ! 🙂

There are some further cat news regarding the feral cat family in our garden outside:

Three of Cat Fuzzy’s originally five kittens have died. The two white and grey ones are gone and so is the brown – reddish one. I think that the first two got hid by a car but the brown – reddish one had a very sad fate: He somehow lost his tail. Meaning, the flesh and fur of his entire tail were gone one morning. Only the sinew or whatever makes out the inner tail was left.

It was very sad to see this but I didn’t take him to the vet because this would have meant having another cat staying inside. And I am already loaded with Jerry inside and I don’t know how many family members downstairs in the garden as well as in the neighbour’s gardens. They are all one family and two half – sisters of Jerry’s had litters. One even gave birth to seven or more kittens. One of them also got hit by a car.

It is definitely getting out of control and it is a miracle that none has called the municipality in order to take the cats away. On the contrary because many neighbours are putting out food for them. And the family is spreading and spreading and spreading.

A pregnant cat usually gives birth after two months of pregnancy. Only a few days after having her litter, she goes straight into heat again. What a sad life !

Jerry is fine and very active. She sleeps inside but, otherwise, she likes strolling around outside. At least I got her spayed. 🙂

Street Cat Family in Jerusalem

I saw this street cat family at the Hebrew University Compound in Jerusalem and, of course, they succeeded in squeezing half of my sandwich out of me. 🙂

 

Photo: Miriam Woelke

 

 

Photo: Miriam Woelke

 

 

Photo: Miriam Woelke

Street Cats in Heat

A female street cat’s life has nothing to do with the perfect friendly cat world Walt Disney cartoons like to present. The hard cat life reality is searching for food in garbage cans, trying to escape male bullies while a female is in heat, raising a litter and breastfeeding those kittens. In other words: The life of a female street cat is horrible and let us all be glad that we weren’t born as a cat !

Since Cat Fuzzy gave birth to her her second litter two months ago, she has been in heat twice. One week after giving birth and for the past couple of days. She is running and five bullies keep on surrounding her all the time. However, I think that today, she may be allowed to return to her normal life and the bullies seem to be gone.

 

Cat Fuzzy and her newborns two months ago

All street cats should be neutered or spayed and I heard that the Jerusalem Municipality does it on demand. They do it for free when the cat is a street cat ! Meaning, that someone has to phone them and the Municipality is sending out employees in order to carry out the job, so that the cats don’t reproduce. However, I heard that the Municipality people hardly show up and after having my cat Jerry spayed at a vet, I cannot imagine how this kind of fast neutering / spaying would work. Neutering males is easy and the cat is able to walk away. Nevertheless, getting a female cat spayed is far more complicated, as she needs to undergo an operation in order to have her womb removed. Afterwards it takes time to heal and this can take a week or much longer. The Municipality would carry out the job and then immediately release the cat.

This is why I preferred taking Jerry to the vet where she got spayed in a professional way. Yes, it does cost money but I got a 50 % discount because she is half street cat and half house cat. As a matter of fact, she hasn’t really made up her mind in terms of her identity. She is neither this nor that.

Another feral cat litter in front of my Door

Just a week ago, I moved Cat Fuzzy and her four kittens into our garden downstairs. Street cat Fuzzy had given birth to five kittens right in front of my door a little more than a month ago. When the little one started running and shitting around, it was time to move somewhere else. However, there were only four kittens left and the fifth must have died.

Today I found another littler in front of my door: Brownie, the half sister of my adopted cat Jerry, had given birth or was still right in the middle of it. I couldn’t believe it. Another litter ! A friend of mine said that Brownie felt save near my doorstep. It is located on a porch and quite secure. The problem is that females giving birth will go into heat a few days or a week later. Meaning, all the bullies are going to chase after Brownie again.

Anyway she gave birth to four little kittens and here are some pictures. I put a carrier outside where she and her babies are staying for the time being.

 

All Photos: Miriam Woelke

Female street cats in heat

My cat Jerry is not entering the carrier anymore. I can bribe her with tuna and meat as much as I like: NO more carrier ! This is the reason why I still haven’t been able to take her to the vet for further vaccination. It is a real pain and I am only hoping that in another month or so, we will end up at the vet.

In the meantime, Jerry’s aunt Fuzzy who is living in the street, gave birth to five kittens. As I have mentioned a few times before, Fuzzy and her kittens are living in a little cat tent outside my door. The situation turned out to be a real struggle because a couple of days after giving birth, a cat is going into heat. And Fuzzy is in heat. For the past two days, bullies have been chasing her all over the place. She was in hiding but it didn’t help much.  The bullies sniffed her and started ambushing her under cars and trees. The result was that Fuzzy couldn’t come home to feed her kittens. I tried to feed them but they are only ten days old and don’t know how to slurp.

Finally Fuzzy made it home but we have to be aware of the bullies popping up. They are not afraid to come to my porch right to the tent. When I am home and the bullies start sneaking in, I am throwing water onto them. Last night was the first night, Fuzzy was able to rest with her kittens in the tent. However, this morning, the first bullies came running again.

Fritzi, Jerry sister also living outside, is only six months old but already in heat. It says on the Internet that cats have to be eight months old in order to enter their first heat. The vet told me that this isn’t true because there is a huge difference between house and feral cats. Female street cats should be spayed by the age of four months. I was just in time with Jerry.

The weather got much warmer and this is when the bullies feel their urge and start chasing females. This Thursday, it is supposed to cool down and then the bullies will hopefully take off.

The cat world is a shitty world !

Feral cats giving birth in cold weather

Jerry’s outdoor family has been fine so far. Now the problem is coming up that Fuzzy (Jerry’s aunt) is due to give birth. She is as big as a balloon and could give birth any second. However, this is not a good time because the Israeli winter is really going to hit us these days. Tomorrow night it is supposed to snow. I set up a little tent filled with blankets in front of my door. Cats don’t necessarily give birth in front of other cats and thus, Fuzzy has already organized a place in someone else’s garden. I hope she found a good location because temperature is due to drop down to zero degrees Celsius.

 

Don’t adopt a street cat with a family outside

The lesson I learned from adopting two street cats: Never adopt a street cat who has a family right outside your door. Thus, the cat will never really turn into a house cat but wants to spend a lot of time outdoors.

It has been almost a month ago, since I took Jerry inside and his family is outside in the garden. At first, Jerry was happy and loved to be inside. Especially when the cold weather hit. However, a few days ago, Jerry entirely changed her behaviour. She mostly wanted to be outside and only came inside when she wanted more food, to poop or sleep.

Yesterday was a really bad day. She spent most of the day outside and I saw her being chased by two ugly and dirty male bullies. I am not sure whether it was her hanging in the tree but I chased away the bullies. The cat in the tree, however, ran away as fast as she could.

Jerry is only five months old and I thought that they enter heat after they reach the age of eight months. Maybe the bullies just chased her because there was nobody else. However, she ended up in a trauma. Later on, she walked inside and totally freaked out. She started to run around and just behaving in a violent way. In the end, I threw her out because the situation got unbearable. Now she is back inside and sleeping on the armchair. As nothing has ever happened.

My greatest fear is that I won’t get her to the vet tomorrow morning. We are having an appointment for her getting neutered and if she decides to run outside, I will never get her into the carrier. On the other hand, we have to face reality: I don’t know whether the bullies jumped on her yesterday and I don’t want to end up with a pregnant cat.

Before adopting a feral cat, you should make sure that the cat is without a family. Otherwise the cat will always want to be more outside than inside.

From a feral to a house cat

Photo: Miriam Woelke

 

What once started with the intention rescuing little Jerry from a freezing week of the Jerusalem winter slowly develops into something completely different. Tomcat Jerry has his two half sisters, an aunt as well as a sister living outside in our garden. The weather has become much warmer and the sun is out. The family is sunbathing outside but Jerry hardly ever wants to leave the house any more. He loves his little kitty bed, my bed and my armchair. In addition to that, he got toys and dry food in a little bowl.

What I have also noticed is that he doesn’t show the typical street cat behaviour such as “being always on alert”. As soon as there is a noise, street cats are very much on alert because it could mean that danger is around. In almost every garden of our street lives, at least, one street cat. Most of them are male annoying bullies. About three week’s ago, Jerry’s aunt was in heat and when I came home in the evening, I once found her ambushed and surrounded by six of those dirty fat bullies. I chased them away but it was too late: Fuzzy is pregnant !

Once in a while when Jerry decides to go outside, he usually plays with his reddish sister Fritzi. The peaceful playing doesn’t last very long and, a few days ago, I heard Jerry screaming again. I had a look and found Fritzi with her two paws pushing on his throat. Jerry is the smallest of all and being bullied all the time.

No wonder he stays indoors most of the time where he doesn’t have to expect all the dangers coming along. Fat bullies and even his own family. 🙂

This, however, means that I have to prepare myself for more than just a cold winter week. 🙂

Jerry’s History

This my tomcat JERRY. He is almost five months old and was born as a feral (street) cat. As a matter of fact, I have been feeding his family (mother, father and three half – siblings) since April 2014. I didn’t find them but they found me. They are the worst Schnorrers ever. 🙂 In other words: They know how to get food and beg their way around. And people do provide them with food because the cat family looks organized, clean and well – behaved. At least, compared to the other street cats living in our street.

Photo: Miriam Woelke

Jerry and three more siblings were born by the same mother in late August 2014. Two siblings died one month later. A neighbour told me that one kitten was run over by a car and the second one had climbed into the motor of a parked car without realizing the car being started. I don’t need to tell you any further details what the car did to the kitten.

Cat Mom raised Jerry and his sister Fritzi. Female cats seem to be much stronger and quickly, Fritzi developed a lot of independence and Chutzpe. Jerry, on the other hand, was always shy and, the entire day, was either sitting under a plant or under a parked car until Mom picked him up. 

The disaster started when Cat Mom got hit by a car on December 12, 2014. Fritzi was able to manage alone but Jerry kept on waiting under the car. Waiting for his mother. I kept on feeding the family now consisting of Jerry and Fritzi, two cats from the first litter and a sister of Cat Mom. Then the Israeli winter hit and I decided to help out Jerry. For the other cats I set up two sleeping places in front of my door. A plastic carrier for cats and a little tent. Both filled with blankets and cardboard. I am quite proud that all cats made it. Even when we had snow more than a week ago.

However, with Jerry the two little homes didn’t work out, as the others, including his sister Fritzi, continue bullying him. He is smaller than the others and anything but a fighter. And he is a male whereas the others are all female. 🙂

So, Jerry has been staying with me in the house and, after a few days of hiding and being afraid, he got used to me. He loves his little bed, his scratch post, his toys and even his litter box.

As a matter of fact, he is turning into a nice house cat although my intention was not to keep him forever. I was planning for the cold winter weather and we will see how it goes. If Jerry wants to be more outside when the summer comes.

Before I took in Jerry, I had adopted another male cat from the first Cat Mom litter. His name was Sparky and I took him inside because he got seriously ill. It turned out that a spider had bitten him and the wound got infected. I took Sparky to the vet where he received lots of anti – biotics.

I truly loved Sparky and he was half day outside with his family and in the evening he came inside in order to sleep on my bed. Everything was fine. Sparky got neutered and vaccinated. For me it was nice having an easy going companion but the shock came after one month: I found Sparky laying dead outside in the parking lot. My guess is that he fell over our porch because, maybe one of his sister pushed him.

For a whole week I cried my eyes out and then got over it. For me it wasn’t replacing Sparky when I took in Jerry. I saw the shy little kitten Jerry sitting under a car waiting for his (dead) Mom to come. I just felt sorry for him. So, now I am a kind of stuck with little Jerry. 🙂