Definition of Feral Cat

Definition of Feral Cat

This is a definition by a lady, Dee, who lives in America and who knows a lot about feral cats because for many years she has cared for them. Here definition is practical and pragmatic.

What I would call semi-feral cats.

A TRUE FERAL is completely unapproachable. Except for the dominant male of the colony, the remainder will retreat until a caretaker steps “out of bounds”.

A FERAL is unapproachable also, but will remain in the open unless threatened.

A SEMI-FERAL will allow a certain amount of close distance but can be easily spooked. These are very workable and the ones that I most bring home and work hardest with.

The STRAYS IN THE WILD are those that were domesticated at one time but have been out long enough that they have become skittish. They’re a piece of cake to turn back around.

The DOMESTICATED speaks for itself.

Below is a definition by a scientist, Mr Slater who writes in a superb book about the domestic and feral cat which is entitled: The Welfare of Cats.

“A feral cat is one that cannot be handled and is not suitable for placement in a typical pet home, that is, the cat that is un-socialised.”

I think these two together, one from a scientist and the other from an experienced cat lover provide a nice combination to define the term “feral cat".

Quite naturally, there are varying degrees of wildness amongst the feral cats of any country.  This means that people must be careful when defining what a feral cat is, which is why the definition in italics is a good one because it is based upon an individual cat's personality and characteristics.  One should not generalise when it comes to selecting out feral cats. Each cat should be assessed individually.

Young Deer Forms Instant Friendship with Kitten

Injured Recovering Deer Meets Kitten and Washes Her

If, like me, you are one of those people who likes to see interspecies companionship, then you will like this video. There are actually many videos like this one so in that way it is not special but for me this sort of instant, interspecies friendship is special because it highlights the difficulties that people have in their relationship with people of different cultures and people from different countries.

It appears that the deer is recovering from injury and is being cared for by the person who owns the house where the deer is.  You can see that there is an injury to the deer's leg. It also appears that the kitten wandered up to the bath and in no time at all the deer's mothering instincts took over and she started to wash the little kitten.  Initially the kitten is unsure but quickly begins to like it, presenting her head to be washed. A friendship has been created.

Cats Are Aliens

You can see an alien cat entering a flying saucer floating around the hallway of a home on earth. It's really exciting. It's dramatic. It's really weird but it all makes sense because cats are aliens.  We don't understand them.

To a lot of people cats are indeed aliens.  To a lot of other people they are best friends.  Some people fully understand the mind of a domestic cat while others, well....they just don't have a clue and often people who don't understand the domestic cat also dislike the domestic cat.

In general, what people don't understand they can be frightened of, and what people are frightened of they want to kill - to get rid of it so that they are no longer frightened.

You could argue that a lot of people who like to shoot at cats are frightened of cats.  Perhaps the cure for these cat shooters to get them to understand cats.

It is actually quite easy to learn to understand the domestic cat.  You just have to respect the cat, provide a suitable environment for the cat, feed her well and play with her, be with her as much as possible and then be observant all the time, read some books about cat behaviour or just read pages on this website; it's all here.  Then a domestic cat will no longer be an alien to you but a best friend and an enduring companion that you will miss when she passes on.

Cats Taken to a Veterinarian Less Often Than Dogs

This is quite a well-known statistic and a rather worrying one, actually.  In America cat owners take their cats to the veterinarian much less than dog owners take their dogs to the veterinarian which on a crude interpretation means that dog owners care for their dogs more than cat owners care for their cats!

I don't think it is as simple as that however.  It may be about the fact that dogs are more in your face and more needy and possibly more immediately connected to their “masters", while cats are more independent and possibly hide discomfort more than dogs.

As at 2001 more domestic cats were kept as pets than domestic dogs but despite that statistic dog owners made over 117,000,000 visits to the veterinarian, while cat owners made 70,000,000 visits to a veterinarian.  Quite a disparity.

However, the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association in 2004 reported that cat owners increased the number of visits to the vet from 1.6 in 2000 to 2.3 visits in 2002.  This made them more comparable with dog owners who averaged 2.6 visits in 2000 and 2.7 visits in 2002.

The American Veterinary Medical Association Survey (2002) found that both cats and dogs were most frequently brought in for physical examinations (67% and 69% of visits respectively).

Dog visits were more likely to involve drugs and medications (31% of visits versus 18% for cats). Visits involving vaccinations were slightly more frequent at 71% of cats, against 64% of dogs.

Cat visits were much more likely to involve sterilisation at 14% of visits compared to 6% of dogs. A very low percentage of dogs and cats at 0.6% and 0.3% of visits, respectively, involved micro-chipping identification or tattoo identification.

As for expenditure, in the USA cat owners, in 2001, spent over $6.6 billion while dog owners spend over $11.6 billion on veterinary visits.

Source: Welfare of Cats Published by Springer

Swedish Insure Their Pets While Americans Don't

This is a very short post just to mention that in Sweden 57% of pet owners ensure their pets while in England 15% do it but in America about 1% of cat owners and 2% of dog owners, or 3% in total, had health insurance for their pets. The source is the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association 2004.

What do you make of that?  Insurance is about risk.  People who are more cautious take out more insurance.  People who are prepared to take more risks don't take out insurance unless it is obligatory.  Some people figure out that paying for pet insurance works are more expensive than simply paying as you go when you visit a veterinarian.  Of course, it depends on your cat and how healthy he or she is and there is the risk element.

As Americans are a nation where there are more purebred pedigree cats than anywhere else and as pedigreed cats are possibly more likely to need to see a vet than random bred cats, you would have thought that Americans would ensure their cats more often but apparently not.

This has to be to do with risk and freedom of choice etc. and Americans like their freedoms and to make their own choices.  You probably have to conclude too that Americans don't like to support steady and regular outgoings without something coming back from it.  They also may dislike insurance companies!  I certainly do.