I am a feral cat and I am proud of it. We feral cats are called all sorts of names. Some humans even call us vermin! It hurts! It is ok to call us forgotten cats.

To clear up some of the misconceptions surrounding us my furry friends have elected me to tell our story on the condition I tell it with integrity, truth, love and compassion to all beings. Feral stuff becomes very fuzzy once looked at. We are somehow in between everything and everyone, not domestic not wildlife and yet, we have hearts, we feel pain, we purr and we cuddle up with our friends. Sadly, we evoke the worst reactions by mankind to a species. Very little is known about us. Most people don’t even know we have kitten nurseries. When a mother cat needs to get food the other moms take over to nurse. One would think we kitties are the all same irrespective whether abandoned, stray, feral or domestic. This is true looking at us as a species but, our lifestyle and the way we are treated varies significantly. Some of us sleep on a heated pad in Constantia and eat imported, 100 % complete and balanced cat food.

I, Pepe live in a cold, flooded drainpipe and eat what I can find in and around rubbish bins. This is not the end of the world and although I dream of an easier life, there is some really great stuff to find sometimes. Thank heavens humans are extremely wasteful and make a ghastly mess.

We survivors look at our lucky cousins not with envy, but with love. They are our hope! They manage to purr their way into the hearts of humans and some of those humans in turn open their hearts to us. You cannot imagine how wonderful this is! We suddenly get noticed. We are super lucky when compassionate humans start sharing some of those morsels with us. Even better if that human is “with it” and contacts TEARS to get us sterilised. We believe it costs a lot of money to help us. Unfortunately that makes everything worse.

We have asked TEARS to open a special account to help me and my friends. If you think we deserve help then donate whatever you can into our special account. Even a couple of rands help - remember we have got NOTHING. I believe there are some seriously nice Vets around helping us big time. We need needles, syringes, medication… and of course dissolving sutures – very special - just like us. Once done and dusted, we will not let anyone near us to take stitches out. No self respecting kitty likes to be fiddled with around the tummy.

To help us is not an easy task! We pride ourselves in making it extremely difficult for the Cat people. Hope you could hear my cheeky purrs right now. We don’t like to be subjected to the horrors associated with the procedure and will do MOST things to avoid it. We think it is rather funny to watch the TEARS cat team arrive to TRY to outsmart us. Very few humans have got what it takes to be involved with feral work. That team is good because they think like us. We respect them and we mostly do what we can to keep them jolly. They do like a challenge, so we do give them a good go at times. Nothing stops them, they are survivors like us.

You have no idea what cat colonies communicate about. BUT I can divulge the following: If you are a stray or feral cat you better make sure you get sorted by TEARS. They care!
I have been subjected to their welfare. Although it was a little traumatic and I was scared out of my wits, their team made me feel like a loved, cared for Garfield. I was rather concerned at times as it was too good to be true. TEARS make the rules and…., (don’t tell the others) I seriously consider getting trapped again.

Purr Purr and more Purrs to you (do you know there is purr therapy out there to mend broken bones? It is even scientifically proven!)

Must go to check the rubbish bin, there might be a bit of fresh steak!

Love you all

Pepe

 

Account details to help forgotten cats:

TEARS
Standard Bank,
Branch Code 036009
Account: 076 761 584
Please put as reference: Pepe.