Looking out for barn cats on National Feral Cat Day

Got barn kitties? October 16 is National Feral Cat Day in the United States. This animal welfare awareness day, established in 2001 by Alley Cat Allies, aims at promoting feline population control nationwide. The group urges veterinary professionals to participate in low-cost feral cat sterilization programs, in the hope of preventing undomesticated cats from overbreeding. 

 “The veterinary community plays an essential role in the humane treatment of community cats both by serving as a resource for the public, and also by providing direct veterinary care and spay/neuter services through Trap-Neuter-Return programs,” said Becky Robinson, president and founder of Alley Cat Allies. “This National Feral Cat Day, we encourage veterinarians to mobilize their communities with the knowledge and resources to help save cats’ lives.”

National Feral Cat Day organizers encourage local individuals and groups to practice Trap-Neuter-Return or Shelter-Neuter-Return programs. So far, hundreds of American communities reportedly participate in such efforts. Annual events include volunteer-led spay/neuter clinics, educational workshops, official governmental proclamations, and fundraising to support local Trap-Neuter-Return and Shelter-Neuter-Return programs.

There’s even a National Feral Cat Day coloring page.

“Trap-Neuter-Return is the only humane, effective approach to care for community cats. Cats are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and eartipped and then returned to their outdoor home,” reads a National Feral Cat Day statement.

“These major programs would not be possible without the veterinarians and veterinary technicians who work or volunteer in spay/neuter clinics or accept community cats into their practices,” Robinson added. “But we can still do more to enlist the support of vets nationwide, and that is why Alley Cat Allies is calling on the veterinary community to get involved this National Feral Cat Day and help increase awareness and education about community cats.”

Image/s:

National Feral Cat Day promotional artwork / logo and coloring page – fair use

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Taking on a gazillion spiders at the horse barn

I hate spiders. I’m not horsing around, when it comes to arachnids – or nearly anything that creeps and crawls.

But I won the first spider battle of the season.

I knocked off work early on this chilly spring Friday and tackled the tack closet mess.

My mare lives in a big, airy stall that includes its own tack closet. It’s extremely convenient, especially on days when I choose to saddle her Western. I don’t have to lug that cumbersome Circle Y out into the aisle. I just swing it up onto the horse, right there in her stall.

It’s also nice to have my own private space for storing all things horsey.

But it was time for clutter busting and spider warfare.

It is amazing how much extraneous and miscellaneous stuff can pile up in this unshared space during the cold winter months.

While my horse was turned out, I took everything out of the tack closet for sorting and cleaning. And I was amazed at all the curious items I found, besides all of the expected contents (such as horse tack and grooming supplies).

• One long-missing flannel shirt
• One pair of muddy galoshes
• Two dirty English saddle pads
• Two pairs of riding gloves
• Two unmatched reins (one Western and one English)
• Three extra halters
• Three hand towels
• Three riding helmets
• Lots of tack calling for cleaning

And nearly everything was covered in cobwebs.

Mostly, I found mouse droppings and spider nests, which I attacked with a vengeance. Determined to wipe out all things spidery before this season's generation hatched, I vacuumed every inch of the tack closet – then threw away the vacuum bag at the barn.

I probably should have burned it.

That’s right.

There was no way I was hauling that thing in my car with those contents. What if a gazillion baby spiders came to life in my car or (worse yet) in the broom closet at home? Perish the thought!

The vacuum bag was nearly full, anyway. I stopped counting the spider nests. And the shelf that hangs over the stacked saddle racks was fairly carpeted in mouse droppings. Bet that’s more than you wanna know. It was bad. (Hours later, I’m still feeling all creepy-crawly, even after a shower and change of clothes.)

Next, I filled a big bucket with pine cleaner and warm water and scrubbed the entire tack closet.

I tossed a ton of junk and cleaned everything worth keeping. I even stuck a few dryer softener sheets in there, as these are rumored to deter tack closet pests from setting up shop.

At least for now, my tack closet and all its contents are spotless and pest-free.

Now, I wonder if I could hire a barn cat to live in there …

Image/s:

Vintage/public domain artwork

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N is for Never Numbering Not Many.

N is for Never Numbering Not Many.

No barn cat or stable dog is ever sterile, no matter what the vet says. Maybe it’s something in the soil. Perhaps pasture life contributes to canine and feline fertility. Possibly, someone left the barn door open and we're pointing fingers at the wrong cat or dog.

Or maybe cats and dogs who live around horses just like to roll in the – well, you get the point.

For whatever reason, barn dogs and stable cats seem to multiply like rabbits. And some of these critters surprise us, even after they’ve supposedly been fixed.

Our own house cat was a barn surprise. 

We adopted the wee kitten, after she was abandoned in a barn in our area. The starving little urchin (see photo - below) was found atop a hay mile, mewing like nobody's business.

At the kitten's first vet visit, we discovered that several other litters of Maine Coon mixes had appeared in local stables. The search began for an unfixed male Maine Coon, who had apparently been barn-hopping.

Did I mention we also have a dog who was born in a barn?

Yes, our mixed-breed family dog came to us as a pup, after spending her first two months of life in a stall. It took DNA testing to figure out who the father was.

The Mane Point is participating again in the April A to Z blogging challenge, posting daily with alphabetical entries.

For this year's A-Z event, a month of posts will offer Turfy’s A-Z Rules of Horsemanship, with all due apologies to the original Murphy of Murphy’s Law,  which basically said, "If anything can go wrong, it probably will."

Horse lovers may have heard some of these uncannily true, yet often ironic, statements in various forms in the past. Or not.

 

Image/s:
Cat at Mounting Blog by MontanaBW
Creative Commons Licensing Photos
Maine Coon Kitten
Photo by Linda Ann Nickerson - all rights reserved.
Turfy’s A-Z Rules of Horsemanship
Adapted from public domain clipart

Feel free to follow on GooglePlus and Twitter. You are also invited to join this writer's fan page, as well as the Chicago Etiquette Examiner, Madison Holidays Examiner, Equestrian Examiner and Madison Equestrian Examiner on Facebook.