The American Cat Project - Fast Food Ferals

The "Burger King cats"--or "McDonalds cats" or "Pizza Hut cats"--depending on which drive-thru you frequent--have become a bit of a City legend.

For years I'd handed my business card through one restaurant drive-up window, saying "Call me; I can help," without response. Fed up with countless phone calls from customers who were worried for those tiny sniffle-nosed furballs running around the parking lot, I paid a personal visit to the restaurant business office, and received permission to trap cats and kittens. For two years I fed cats, trapped cats, tamed kittens and found them homes, and accepted the role of grim reaper for the adults, who I took to a local shelter for ultimate euthanasia.

One summer, I trapped a mom and kittens, relieved to have rescued the kittens while young enough to adopt into homes. While removing my traps, I saw a big old orange cat watching me...Another cat! The next day, returning to trap him, I discovered another mother cat, with older kittens, had moved right in from another restaurant. It was a losing battle. In a flurry of activity, I captured all the current cats and kittens and ran for the hills.

The old orange guy turned out to be neutered, 14-year plus lost pet, who was adopted into a new home.

Four years later I learned that some of the cats on the Strip were being neutered and returned, but that no one was providing food and shelter. They were still hanging out on the dumpsters behind the restaurants, drawing sympathy and complaints. Also, all of the cats had not been caught, so more kittens would arrive in the spring. I finally decided that I would trap and arrange sterilization of every cat down there, and provide them with food and shelter.

(Note: Spring 2003, the TC SPCA is currently providing 1-3 spay/neuter surgeries per week for this project).

Access area on private property behind the restaurants

Support your local lumber yard! Would an Ultra Huge Lumber Depot say "sure, Cat Lady, go ahead and put shelters on our property, feed half a hundred cats, and get them fixed, just so long as we don't have kittens crawling all over our lumber any longer?" Maybe, maybe not. We've have received nothing but help from our local businesses, and we encourage you to support them.

Pichou keeps her feet dry

The cats were using fallen branches to cross a small flood control channel. When flood waters rose, the branches were submerged. Because we could tell, from tracks in the snow, that the cats were falling into the water trying to get to the other side, our first step was to install a 2x4 bridge.

I built shelters (designs will soon be posted for others to use) to encourage the cats to move out from under buildings, lumberpiles, and an old shed. Gradually we will close these other places off to reduce nuisance problems.

The cats are fed commercial food, daily. When I took on this project, I had an affordable source of high-grade food. Unfortunately, that source was withdrawn (but was great while it lasted!) and all winter I was paying to feed the cats at regular store prices. However, just this past month (May 2003) the Humane Society of Schuyler County called to offer their excess donated food! One of their volunteers rescued a Burger King kitten last year, whom she named Boo, and when she learned the entire colony was now being cared for, she shared our story with Schuyler Humane.

The cats eat approximately 16 pounds of food a week.

Because skunks cannot jump, they are discouraged from sharing the food (and becoming nuisances to the property owners) by placing the food bowls in a feeding station on legs (unpainted in this photo).

The Shelters

Staff and owners of the nearest businesses have been wonderful. They report when they have seen cats, have checked traps and notified me when they have been tripped, have fed cats when I couldn't make it into town, and have tolerated my presence on their property at odd hours.

As you can see by the cleanliness, and the round nests in the straw, the cats are indeed using the shelters. If raccoons were using the shelters, the four-month-old straw would no longer be this clean.

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