Barn cats...how to deal with them?

Hey Hannah..I've got some barn cats that need a new home. I simply have too many.

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http://homesteadingexperienceswithbobby.blogspot.com/

http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/10...y_tomfeld.html

Where are you in Iowa? I'm in the SE corner. I COULD get some from my neighbor, but they don't spay/neuter/vaccinate. Their cats are like little walking in bred biological weapons. Wayyyy back in the day, I adopted one. Her mom ran away from the litter. That cat was evil. Demented. I blame it on the in breeding

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“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

Between Muscatine and Burlington.

Ours are not vaccinated. They are all fat and sassy..think the goat milk can be praised for that!

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http://homesteadingexperienceswithbobby.blogspot.com/

http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/10...y_tomfeld.html

Oh hey neighbor! I'll have to think on it. That's another vet bill for fixing kitties. If you still have them in spring let me know. I can't afford another heated water fixture right now.

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“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

I own 4 cats and truly love them. But I don't have any barn cats.

Although I'm probably already exposed to toxo since I had a cat about 20 years ago that went blind due to it, I still would not drink raw milk from anybody who had a bunch of young barn cats running around their barn.

Also had a friend who when he was living in another country went blind in one eye due to toxo.

Normally it's not a big deal but anybody who is milking should seriously be conscious of it.

I recently bought some hay from people with a bunch of young barn cats. Not only did I wash my hands and clothes and boots when I got home from getting the hay, I also took the top layer of hay the cats had been running around on off, and only took the layers that had other hay over them.

I have found dried bobcat poop in the center of a round-bale before. Had it tested at the TAMU lab because I wanted to see if it had contaminated the hay before feeding it. (This was in the middle of the drought; that bale of hay cost me $170! I wasn't about to toss it unless there was GOOD reason to do so!)

Made me wonder how much bobcat, or even domestic cat, poop had been flung through the mower to be distributed throughout bales of hay I had bought through the years. That made me realize that toxoplasmosis oocysts are kind of like so many other things that can cause problems, they can be distributed in hay without your knowledge, flies can carry them about for miles just to deposit them on a single pellet of feed they land on, the dang things are inescapable.

So I made a firm decision not to worry about a problem that I can't do anything to prevent short of sealing myself and my animals into an airtight biodome. If the problem arises, I will treat it and deal with it...but I can't keep the flies from visiting my neighbor's yards, or the wooded areas where the bobcats are.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

Dealing with barn cats: Instead of getting kittens that still need to be trained to use a litterbox and spayed to keep from reproducing, I went to the Humane Society and asked if they had cats they'd like to donate for barn duty. Found out they actually have a program for "Barn Buddies". These are grown, spayed/neutered and vaccinated cats that for various reasons aren't making it as pets. They may be just way to shy and run and hide all the time, they may have too much prey drive, etc. They GAVE me two of them. I crated them in the barn for about a week and then turned them loose. One of them wandered off six weeks later, but the other cat stayed and has done a great job. I feed her twice a day just to keep an eye on her. She was in the shelter since she was a kitten, for THREE years, since she runs when she sees humans. Uses a litterbox and keeps ALL rodents out of there. Every once in a while I see her outside, sunning. Perfect for my barn.

P.S. You know the cat is doing a good job when I spilled some grain back in October and now in January it's still there...

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"The boobs are real, but the smile is fake..."

Yeah I'd be much less nervous introducing an adult cat than a kitten since newly infected ones are the ones that shed the cysts most often.