Gov. Don Carcieri signed a law on June 9th, 2006, making Rhode Island the first state in the USA to require cat owners to spay or neuter their pets. Cat owners must spay or neuter pets older than six months unless they pay $100 for a breeder’s license. Violators can be fined $75 per month.
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Litterbox Problems

It is not very common in domesticated cats, but it can happen that your cat will not use the litterbox. When you try to tame a feral cat or even kitten, the problem occurs frequently. (See our article about >>feral cats and taming feral kittens).

A friend of mine is dedicated to save as many feral cats and kittens as possible and was frequently faced with this litterbox problem in the past. By chance she found a cat litter that’s called Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract Cat Litter. We have reviewed this litter and posted the result on our sistersite >> PetStuffReviews.
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Taming Feral Kittens

If you have trapped a feral kitten and want to keep it, can it be domesticated? Yes, but you need patience and follow some simple rules! The younger the kitten, the better the chances of success. Please keep in mind that vets and animal shelters share the opinion that feral kittens should not be older than 8 to 10 weeks if you want to socialize them. A feral cat’s mom will do everything to teach the kittens NOT to socialize, not to trust you. The faster the kitten is removed from her protection, the better.

First make sure that you kitten gets a health check by a veterinarian and the necessary vaccinations, deworming, etc. Many feral cats carry diseases when pregnant and these diseases (such as Feline Leukemia), as well as fleas and mites, ticks, etc. will be transferred to the kittens.

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See another report on this topic at >>feral cats

Trap - Spay - Neuter - Release Program
FCC Organization (Feral Cat Coalition) formed by Sally Mackler and Rochelle Brinton DVM.

Many animal organizations recommend the S-N-R Program to help the Feral cat population and put a stop - or at least a partial stop - to the ever expanding problem with “wild”- feral cats.

The program basically concentrates on trapping these animals, spay/neuter them (health check and necessary vaccinations included) and release them again. A study shows that this program is working. San Diego Department of Animal Control reports that while the number of cats adopted or claimed by owners has been fairly constant over the years, there has been a decrease of almost 50% in the number of cats impounded and killed within 5 years. Before this program started, the number of impounded and killed cats had been going up around 15% every year! That means that due to the spay/neutering efforts less kittens are born in the wild and less cats/kittens have to be put to sleep.

Feral cats have their origin in house cats that are “released” by their owners. Be it because of moving, laziness, carelessness, or other reasons, many cat owners - unfortunately- still believe that their pet will survive when let go. The fact is that domesticated animals have lost their instinct for hunting and surviving on their own. Cars and other predators kill many. Another problem is that a great number of these “left behind cats” are neither spayed nor neutered. Their offsprings are now born in the wild and turn into feral cats.

Just to show some mind-bugging numbers: A pair of feral cats can have two or more litters per year. Over a period of seven years the cat population can exponentially increase by ~420,000 offsprings! This is a theoretical number; since many kittens born in the wild do not survive too long, feral cats have also a higher rate of aborting a litter, mainly due to diseases. Nevertheless, even if you cut this number in half, it’s an unbelievable increase, started only by ONE pair of feral cats!

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