My Feral Tails

12/05/2025

12/04/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17tsV9iSJV/

12/04/2025

Little Socks, one of my colony, died today. I will miss her. She was a mighty rat catcher.

12/04/2025

Thank you to Anonymous who left a pan of ham leftovers at a feeding station❣️

12/02/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/19jPEJkXZT/

LEAVE THE KITTIES ALONE!
The only regulations cats need are the ones that protect them from killing and cruelty.

Outdoor Cats Are Not the Problem - Killing Them Is.

Decades of data from universities, shelter systems, TNR programs, and long-term field studies all point to one conclusion:

Outdoor cats - feral, stray, or owned - are overwhelmingly healthy, stable, and living successful lives in their communities.

Here’s what the research shows:

✔️ 11-Year Longitudinal Study:
Outdoor cats maintained health, disease rates, and lifespans comparable to indoor pets.

✔️ Welfare Assessments:
Free-roaming cats consistently scored high in physical condition, behavior, and overall well-being.

✔️ 100,000+ TNR Cats Tracked:
Fewer than 1% required euthanasia for severe medical issues. The overwhelming majority were healthy.

✔️ 132- Colony Field Study in Florida:
96% of community cats were rated as having a good or excellent quality of life.

The conclusion is unavoidable:

**Healthy community cats do not need to be removed, confined, or killed.

They need TNR - because nothing else works, and nothing else is humane.**

What Is TNR?

TNR = Trap–Neuter–Return

It is the only proven, ethical, long-term method for managing community cat populations.

Trap – Cats are humanely trapped.
Neuter/Spay – They are sterilized, vaccinated, and ear-tipped or tattooed.
Return – They go back to the outdoor home they already know and rely on.

TNR:

• stops new litters
• stabilizes colony size
• reduces nuisance behaviors
• supports public health
• lowers wildlife pressure better than “catch and kill” ever has

What Is SNR?

SNR = Shelter–Neuter–Return
Used when healthy community cats enter a shelter.

The shelter:

• spays/neuters
• vaccinates
• provides basic care
• returns the cat to the location it came from - instead of killing it

SNR reduces shelter crowding, prevents unnecessary euthanasia, and allows outdoor-living cats to continue the lives they were already living successfully.

Why These Programs Matter

• Fewer kittens born = fewer cats entering shelters
• Lower shelter intake = fewer animals killed
• Aligned with modern national standards, including NACA
• The only method with decades of consistent real-world success

If You Aren’t Going to TNR, Then Leave Them Alone.

Unless a cat is truly suffering with no chance of recovery,
there is no ethical reason to kill a healthy animal.

Not for convenience.
Not for theory.
Not for outdated management models.

Mass killing is not management.
It is not science.
It is not public safety.
It is cruelty.

And it must end.

Cats have the right to live their lives.

Support TNR.
Support SNR.
Support community caretakers.
Support humane, modern solutions that actually work.

❤️ PLEASE LIKE & SHARE
Help USA PAW push back against outdated, ineffective policies -
community by community, colony by colony, life by life.

12/02/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1A7vpUFcL9/

Where did our housecats really come from? New ancient DNA study says... North Africa!😺

A new genetic analysis is rewriting the history of our feline friends — and it turns out the domestic cat may be a much more recent arrival to Europe than we thought. Researchers analyzed 87 ancient and modern cat genomes and found that today’s housecats trace back to North African wildcats, not the Levant.

That means domestic cats didn’t wander into Europe with early Near Eastern farmers 6,000 years ago, as long believed. Instead, domestic cats appeared in Europe and southwest Asia only about 2,000 years ago, making them relative newcomers.

Earlier cats found in Europe and Türkiye? They weren’t early pets — they were European wildcats, likely hybridized long before domestication began.

These findings offer fresh insight into one of humanity’s most mysterious companions and highlight North Africa as the true cradle of the modern housecat.

12/01/2025

I nursed this beautiful boy back to health. He spent a month in my bathroom.

11/30/2025

Some dads don’t ask for attention.
They don’t talk about what they do.
They don’t need the spotlight or the applause.

They just show up
in the rain,
in the cold,
in the early mornings and late nights
when no one is watching.

They kneel down to the ones who trust them,
the ones who wait for them,
the ones who feel safe because of them.

This is for the quiet dads
who love the forgotten,
feed the unseen,
and give the kind of steady care
that never makes a sound
but changes everything.

💛🐾
Thank you to the dads in the shadows.
The animals know.
And that’s enough.

11/28/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G5U2JU3xQ/

Your house cat might be the most perfect machine nature ever created. While we're busy building robots and AI, scientists have discovered that cats are already flawless biological masterpieces. From their self-healing purrs to their superhero-level reflexes, these little predators are engineered better than anything humans have ever designed. What your cat does every single day defies the laws of physics and biology.

11/28/2025

11/28/2025

Hummingbirds don’t just sleep, they perform a nightly magic trick for survival. 🌙

Each evening, these dazzling little aviators slip into torpor, a deep, energy-saving nap that slows their entire system almost to a standstill. Their body temperature can drop nearly 50°F, and a heart that normally thunders over 1,000 beats per minute slows to a gentle 40–50 beats. To an outsider, a torpid hummingbird may look utterly still, almost lifeless, but beneath those tiny feathers, life hums quietly, conserving precious energy for the adventures of the next day.

This remarkable adaptation allows these tiny jewels of the sky to survive cold nights and scarce food, emerging at dawn with the same dazzling agility and sparkle they always display. It’s nature’s reminder that even the smallest creatures have incredible tricks up their wings, turning rest into survival, and making every sunrise their grand encore. 🌞

11/27/2025