A Letter to the OG of Our Feral Cat Colony and Our Lion King, Oreo

Oreo-Winter, 2017

It’s been one year since Oreo crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

That first anniversary is always the hardest, isn’t it?

I decided to write him a letter to let him know what was on my heart…

Oreo, 

We watched you for years as you ran around the neighborhood. Dad would go out on his walks and talk about this super-fast black and white cat on the next street over.

You lived under my neighbor’s barn across the street. Feral. Afraid of human contact. 

When I first started feeding in 2014, you would sit in front the barn and feel the ground vibrations so you would know it was safe to cross the street and come over to grab a snack.

Sometimes, I would see you on the heated bed inside the shed the morning, waiting for me to bring breakfast. 

I always told you to stay. But you never did. 

Sometimes you greeted me with this loud meow that sounded like a cat bird. 

If I took even one step too close to you, you would run away. 

You protected Fluffy and her Kits before I rescued them. I remember The Kits stealing your food right out from under you inside the shed. So I would meet you outside of the shed with a bowl of food to call your own. 

Oreo – Summer, 2015, eating with The Kits

When you were recovering from your neuter in our bathroom in 2015, you started crying at the top of your lungs at 3am and didn’t stop until I released you around 8am 😂😂

But not before you got loose in the bathroom and we stood there for an hour, both too scared of each other to move 😂😂

You were over 10 years old when you were neutered…

You took Trouble, who was just a kitten at the time, under your wing in Winter, 2016. 

You spent two years grooming him to be the next Lion King. 

You and Trouble had one of the cutest and most dysfunctional relationships I’ve ever seen ❤️❤️

Trouble and Oreo – Spring, 2016

You FINALLY officially moved here in Winter, 2016. And, thus, our colony was born. 

And you were The Lion King. 

The first time I played with you, you were too interested in play to be scared of me. 

You danced around my legs for over a month before you got the nerve up to make contact. 

It wasn’t long after that I was FINALLY “allowed” to pet you and show you how much I love you. 

Your colony lives on. 

Your little “seedlings”…Charlie, Junior, Domino, and The Kits…carry your legacy. 

As well as your little Lion King “in training”, Trouble, who is sitting right next to me, purring, as I type and I cry. 

Your grave and flag overlook the colony that YOU created, protected, and mentored. 

Oreo’s final resting place – March, 2018

At last, you found your FOREVER HOME. 

You live on in our colony and in our hearts. 

This morning, I heard your signature “meow” in two cat birds carrying on right above us. 

We hardly ever hear cat birds here. 

I know that was your way of telling me that you are still here. 

I hope you know how LOVED and MISSED you are. 

Thank you for giving me the chance to make right when other humans failed you. 

Thank you for caring for us, our property, our colony and Fluffy and The Kits. 

Thank you for letting us LOVE you. 🌈🎈❤️ 😇 

Love, 
Mommy Kitten 😘

Trouble (left), Rascal (inside) and Oreo – January, 2018. Oreo took his last breaths here just two months after this pic was taken.

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I Am a Feral Cat Caregiver

Oreo (left) and Domino (right) keeping warm during a record cold streak in NJ.

 

And I am exhausted.

People constantly ask why I do what I do when I have so many other priorities. When it costs money out of my own pocket. When I have my own indoor cats to tend to.

My answer?

Because somewhere down the line, a human let them down. Either they were dumped off, their parents were dumped off, or their great-grandparents, etc etc.

Because people may have been feeding them, but nobody bothered to neuter them so that they wouldn’t keep giving birth to kittens who would potentially suffer and die out there. So that feral kittens would no longer be dropped off at shelters and healthy shelter cats who had been waiting for homes would be euthanized to “make room”. So that Toms would never have to fight for territory or mates anymore. So that they could live healthier, happier lives.

We are just coming out of a period of extended record-breaking cold weather in NJ and many parts of the US & Canada. And feral cat caregivers are exhausted and over-extended trying to help our kitties survive it.

We are out there in sub-zero temperatures trying to feed them wet food before their food freezes and scheming ways to keep water from freezing so that our kitties don’t dehydrate. We are trying to figure out HOW we can get them to use the shelters we have set up for them to weather the elements.

We are worrying ourselves sick when our babies don’t show up after the snow storm. When they get sick because of the rough conditions out there. When one goes missing to hunker down somewhere til conditions improve.

Big Orange enjoying his heated shelter during the January Thaw

We look at untouched food bowls and hope that TODAY will be the day they are able to come out and eat.

We look at the pictures we took of them before the storm and HOPE we get to see them soon…alive and healthy.

Shadow before the New Jersey Blizzard 2018. It’s been six days and he still has not returned.

We spend time on social media talking to other caregivers because our families and friends JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND.

We pray to God, St Francis, and/or the Universe to help our babies survive the harsh weather.

We spend money we don’t have on heating pads, heated bowls, straw, shelters, food, medication and supplements…hell, some of us build additions on to our houses or sacrifice our basements, garages and porches for our babies.

We dig our feral cat shelters out of the snow before we even dig ourselves out.

We scheme ways to treat sick ferals who cannot be handled or touched or just put into a carrier to take to the vet.

Fluffy, who is currently dealing with a bout of diarrhea and is too feral for me to help her much.

We look helplessly at our babies who can’t be handled while they deal with a mess on their bum from diarrhea and think “if she would JUST let me scruff her and wipe, she will feel SO much better!”.

Then we get a little break in the weather. And they come back or come out of their shelters. And enjoy the thaw right along with us.

They follow us around and try to trip us as we walk in the snow and ice and mooch treats and love.

They even roll around and play in the snow!

Oreo enjoying the January Thaw while Domino looks on and wonders what is wrong with him!

Those are the moments us caregivers LIVE for. Those are the moments that make it ALL worth it. When they look at us with love and gratitude in their eyes because they KNOW that all we do makes their lives THAT much more bearable.

Feral Cat Caregivers are unsung and often misunderstood heroes!

We may “think” that we aren’t making a difference in the world because we haven’t won a Nobel Peace Prize or saved children from sex trafficking or aren’t making six-figure incomes.

But to that feral cat, we have changed THEIR entire world.

And that’s ALWAYS enough!

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***For pictures of all of the shelters I have out for the Yard Cats, click Feral & Yard Cat Shelter Pics***