A Day in the Life of Ruthie and Charlie

This is my first group of ferals that I trapped to fix and am raising. What I find interesting is how instinctively stealth these feral cats are at killing birds, mice, snakes, and squirrels. These cats are fed plenty…so they don’t do it for hunger. I think the cats were outside from foreclosures and general animal irresponsibility which I don’t relate to at all. Some of the folks down here say I should not fix the cats….because then they will not hunt down the rats. This is so not true. Cats hunt just about anything smaller than them that moves.

Ruthie

One day Ruthie and Charlie’s mother Penny brought me a squirrel after I fed her a can of tuna. A Squirrel…that’s right. And when I got upset she ran off with him. After that I saw Charlie one day pounce on a robin while doing yard work. That freaked me out as well. Now it’s all old hat. I find their “gifts” all over in the back: dead birds, snakes, squirrel tails, you name it. It’s just the outdoor life of being a feral cat. I try to protect the gardener snakes from Ruthie. The other day I pulled up in the parking lot and found her “playing” with a teeny tiny baby gardener snake (who was adorable). Her version of playing with him is pawing him with her razor sharp claws and trying to eat him. Ugh!  His little tail had been removed. So I picked him up to put him back in the lawn so he had a chance to escape her and have a full life.

Charlie

I don’t know what Ruthie and Charlie do all day. I just hope they stay out of the road.  During the summer I would be out watering the lawn and would see them napping together up in this old train tracks embankment, together in the grass. Ruthie is very dependent on her brother Charlie. Because she is so shy. So I hope to get them adopted by someone who will appreciate them both.  I often see them coming down the trees from this embankment to eat around 5pm. They like the privacy this area gives them and probably the protection.

Charlie

The food bowls are always dirty and greasy from raccoons.  So I am having my carpenter build a feeding station that is elevated that I can put out for these cats. Raccoons can’t jump so it will work out great. I’m doing something similar with the cat condos which I am also building for some of the neighborhood strays which will have shelter. When it’s really cold out I heard that solar pool blankets work to warm these houses well.