Where to go for feral cat spay/neuter around Columbus OH

So we got quite few kitties hanging around the back yard this time around.

All feral, not mean, but very skittish, will come for food, will even let you pet them while eating, but not much more than that. So unlike for Bob, I doubt we could find homes for them.

It seem to be more humane to feed them and allow them to enjoy their free life in the backyard, as shelters are packed with domestic cats and ferals will not likely to enjoy a life in captivity. So, since nobody could talk about "Birds and the Bees" to these kitties in a sense of population control, it made most sense to trap them, neuter/spay and return back.

Are you in for the cause?

When we first came to the country, one of the things which impressed me was the fact that I didn't see malnourished cats and dogs roaming around the streets looking for food, quite literally close to none. I've asked around and learned that here in US spay and neuter is supported and it is at work to control population of homeless animals. Most of home pets are fixed, and there are various TNR and rescue programs, cat shelters, doctors and volunteers working to help animals in need.

Neighborhood cats lineup of the year

Mama Spot was pretty busy last year. Which resulted in 2 litters of kittens.

She brought in first litter in July, consisting of 2 tiny kittens:

Chilling Out

Once a Kitten is Always a Kitten

I've managed to get one more video for Painter together... Isn't he cute?

Meet Cubic

He is visiting us for some time, but I somehow never introduced him here:

He is wishing everybody Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Painter Likes First Snow

One of the Mama Spot's kittens moved into Bob's heated house right after Bob moved out. We call him Painter (due to white brash on his tail).

He is sweet little kid, or he used to be little and now has grown up a little bit, but is still as playful as he was when we saw him first.

Here is a small video of him enjoying the first snow:

He doesn't seem too bothered by freezing temperatures and below. As long as there is a food in the bowl, some entertainment around the patio and no other cats/ppl around he is happy.

More Sunbathing

Bob Sunbathing

Bob is catching up on last warm rays of sun on our patio:

Bob is Looking for Home

Bob is getting used to be on out top patio. And looking for a cat-friendly home. Never mind the more than ordinary cat appearance. He/she can offer all the friendliness in the world (will jump on top of you and ask to be petted) which coming from a stray cat seem very unusual.

Mama Spot

I haven't see Mama Spot for a while. After previous time when she brought her 4 kittens with her, she mainly came alone several times and just once with one kitten. The same kitten she brought again today.

I don't want to think what happened to other three :(

Raccoon Egor

Nothing special, just a photo of Stalone watching raccoon Egor checking out outdoor cats food:

Usually raccoons come after sunset, but this time he decided to be early for some reason...

Bob is Not Alone

After our initial Bob encounter we figured out what there are few of cats who come over to check for food. They mostly come one by one, and look a like, so I am actually wondering if they are relatives of some sort...

One of cats who comes our back yard to get some food, tiny little one at first glance, brought her 4 kittens along for the day (I guess kitten daycare was closed or something). They chilled out in the back yard, played a lot, slept, played again and then left at night. One little one also managed to explore our top patio.

An Au-Pair Cat

Out neighborhood has a variety of wild life: chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, possums, foxes, deers, birds, even some kind of snakes. We also have cats walking around the house from time to time. Some of them are somebody else's cats, just walking the territory. And some others may not be so, but it is aways hard to tell. We even had mama cat bringing her two baby kittens few times last summer. I doubt they belonged to somebody, but they didn't do any harm, well apart of maybe catching a bird lured to our bird feeder occasionally, but that is life I guess.

Early Morning Exercise

Want a snack? Got to exercise first! Photo instructions of Mr. Squirrel fitness routine:

New California Dr Wild Life

It does look that some of these photos which we made long time ago never made it to the blog (for some reason). Or I simply can't find them.

These are cute animals which along with raccoons and others work hard on entertain Stalone and Shiva.

Humming birds (it is shame that this nice bush didn't produce much flowers this year, I hope it still will next year):

Deers is something pretty usual here... I saw a deers walking around neighborhood and eating flowers from ppl flower beds... They are still pretty cute though:

I love chipmunks - positive little creatures. They always greet me at driveway when I come home. I had one of these stash his load of berries in my shoe (we leave shoes in garage when it is warm):

I don't remember the story how Yuriy came across this little frog, but he brought it home, made a pic of it, and them brought it back. Sometimes we have some tiny frogs hanging on the glass door. Don't know what's up with that:

I can't say I like these too much. I scream and run every time I meet one of them. But I guess they need place to live too:

Squirrel of the Month: September 2012

I am still not sure whatever this furry fella jumped or actually fell from the roof, I just heard some noise and barely saw some movement from the roof to the patio with a corner of my eye.

When I realized that somebody invaded our top patio I went to check it out. The squirrel was picking thru the kitchen door at our kitchen :)

He saw me, turned around, then sneaked thru patio rails to the ground and decided to climb a tree near by, as if nothing had happened.

This is where Yuriy manager to catch him with a camera...

New California Wildlife: Raccoons

So, I guess that is what you get when leave home for long and then don't have much time to pay an attention to it for a while

You get a family of cute, fluffy, stripe-tail and tree-climbing creatures under your deck.

The internet says I shouldn't be so happy...

It also suggests a lot of humane wild animal removal services to pick from.

However these ones didn't do any harm just yet:

Raccoon-mama is more interested into inspecting nearby woods, and raccoon-babies are checking squirrel feeders like they know where nuts should be.

But after all, who said that stealing somebody else's food is the squirrel only job?..

I said "checking", like they are doing it over and over again, which isn't quite true: we only saw them climbing once so far.

It probably was their first time out from the nest. They were so excited that didn't notice neither us making pictures nor the fact that mama escaped to the nest because she saw us first.

See these and couple more of other stripy-tail pictures on Yuriy's blog.

Squirrel of the Month: February 2012

I wished for more squirrels and I got some. And I decided to share pics of some funny ones with you.

Meet the "Miss Back Yard February'12":

Happy B-day to me

This windy sunny snowless winter day I want to wish myself more squirrels: these restless furry creatures never fail to find a motivation to do whatever they want raid our bird feeder: