Smokey

You've found a stray cat - What Next?

Some tips to help you help a homeless cat or kitten If a stray cat appears at your home, it may be

  1. A Lost Pet
  2. An Abandoned Pet -- This, sadly, seems to occur fairly often in Rappahannock County
  3. A stray – adult, kitten, pregnant female or mother with kittens
  4. A feral (wild) cat
  5. A group of feral cats

RAPPCATS currently receives more calls regarding lost or abandoned animals than we can accommodate.  We currently have only our dedicated volunteers and foster homes, and no cat shelter.   We often must encourage callers to explore other options or continue to provide for the cat until its owner can be found, until we can make room, or until you are able to place the cat in a new home.  To help you help them, we’ve put together some resources that will hopefully improve the outcome for the kitty that recently brightened your doorstep asking for some assistance! 

Please review the following information and suggestions.  If you have explored these and other options, email us at rappcats@rappcats.org.
Even if we don’t have room at one of our foster homes, we will do our best to provide further information. 
 
RAPPCATS cautions rescuers regarding municipal shelters, even if they are available to Rappahannock residents.  These shelters have open door policies and become overcrowded quickly, especially in the summer during kitten season; there simply are not enough homes for the animals they try to help. There are very few no-kill shelters especially for cats.

The following are rough guidelines on how you might proceed for A, B, or C

Until you can determine its health status, assume that the cat(s) may present a health threat to your pets!  We suggest isolating any found cat from your pets for two weeks.

 

  1. Medical Emergencies

If you have found an abandoned cat or orphaned kitten that needs assistance immediately (kitten or cat is lethargic, there are obvious wounds, etc.), contact your local veterinary hospital.

Rose Hill Veterinary Practice PC
Small Animal Clinic
21 Christmas Tree Lane
P.O. Box 248
Washington, VA 22747 - Across US 211 from Rapp Co. High School
(540)-987-9300

Blue Mountain Animal Clinic
307 Collins Avenue
Luray, VA 22835-2114
Off Business US-211 near Cardinal Inn Motel
(540) 743-7387

The Rappahannock County sheriff’s office is responsible for responding to situations involving injured, sick, neglected or abused animals.  In our experience, the animal wardens do respond to calls, but you will lose control over what happens next to the animal.  The sheriff’s office has conflicting priorities regarding companion animals, which sometimes results in the office making a life-or-death call that is different from one you may have made.  The sheriff’s office will pay for any care it deems appropriate, however.

Emergency Veterinarians

 

NOTE:  These can be very expensive – Be sure that you have a true emergency before using one of these

Winchester – 164-4 Garber Lane. Phone (540)-662-7811
In rear basement Motel across from Costco on US 522 just south of US 50.
(540)-662-7811

Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg Regional Veterinary Emergency Center
2301 & 1/2 Jefferson Davis Highway
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540)372-3470
CALL for Directions – They plan to move in mid 2010.

Other areas
Use this site and type in your zip code and a list of emergency vets in your area will be provided: 
-
http://www.vetlocator.com/hotline.php?gclid=CJ6G1O2nkJACFQ-kHgodCR0fhw.

  1. Arrange for food and water for the cat(s).   IMPORTANT: Isolate the food and water for the stray from that of your pets (at least until the cat is tested for infectious diseases)!

 

  1. Isolate the cat(s) from your other pets.   This is probably easiest to do initially by keeping your pets indoors or placing the homeless cat in a spare room that is separate from your pets.
  1. If there is no room inside, arrange for temporary shelter for the animal(s).   This will include protection from the elements.    Cages are available from RAPPCATS to isolate and house the homeless cat(s) in a barn or other outbuilding. 

 

  1. This animal may be someone’s lost pet 

Does it have a collar with a phone number?
Does it have a ‘V’ Shaped clip in one of its ears?
Does it have a microchip?  Local vets can check for presence of a microchip.

Assuming you help the cat, Virginia law requires you to a cat to report the finding to RAWL within 48 hours:  937-3283.  You must give your name, a contact phone number, a description of the animal including any identification and the location where it was found.

You must also make a reasonable attempt to find the owner.  We suggest the following possibilities:

Get a picture and/or description and advertise immediately via RappNet

Send info to rappcats@rappcats.org

Create a poster with picture/description and place at local businesses – Co-op, Quicke Mart, etc.

Place an ad in The Rappahannock News Lost and Found
Place a free ad on Pets 911: http://www.pets911.com/services/lostandfound/
Place a free ad on Missing Pet Network: http://www.missingpet.net/cgi-bin/found.pl?VA  
(The Missing Pet Network is a group of volunteers sponsored by the USDA Animal Care Office, who help people find missing pet animals. They don’t accept money, don’t give endorsements, and don’t use advertising on their MPN web pages. MPN is organized by state, or by country.)

  1. Try to determine if the cat is friendly and/or accustomed to humans?  What is its temperament?

 

    1. Friendly
    1. Standoffish

 

    1. Shy/frightened
    1. Aggressive/Mean – this is important (see 9b below), but give the animal the benefit of the doubt wherever possible

 

  1. Feral (wild) Cats

Feral (or wild) cats are special animals.  Many organizations are focused on helping feral cats get fixed and vetted and then returned to their habitat.  If you think you have found a feral cat or feral cat colony, please visit Alley Cat Allies for information on how to help.  They have a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions on http://www.alleycat.org/faqs.html#2.

In case you’re not sure how Kitty feels about us humans, Alley Cat Allies offers the following information on their Web site:  A stray cat is a domestic cat that has been abandoned or has strayed from home and become lost.  A stray cat may be skittish in your presence, but because stray cats once knew human companionship, they can usually be re-socialized and re-homed.

On the other hand, a feral cat was born and raised outside with little or no human contact or was a stray that has lived outside long enough to revert to a wild state. Adult feral cats usually cannot be tamed and are most content living outside. Feral kittens up to eight or ten weeks of age, on the other hand, can often be tamed and placed in homes.

  1. Is it a mommy cat or an orphaned kitten?

 
If you have found an adult female cat, please check to see if she has been nursing kittens. Enlarged or swollen nipples can be a tell-tale sign.  If she has, please continue to provide food for her (kitten food is best for nursing moms) and, in the meantime, try to locate the kittens. Young kittens need to nurse every two hours, so do not confine or trap the momma cat. Mother cats do a much better job of raising healthy kittens than the most enthusiastic human foster mom!  Once you have located the kittens, see below for information on how to care for and find placement for these animals.
For kitten feeding, first-aid and general care tips, or if an orphaned kitten appears to be too little to eat solid food (less than four weeks’ old or so) please refer to

Kitten Rescue Care Handbook on http://www.kittenrescue.org/handbook.htm on how to care for a nursing kitten.
For information concerning feral moms and kittens, refer to www.austinferalcats.org/moms.htm.

  1. Once you have tended to any immediate needs, initiated a search for possible owners and identified a safe place for the cat(s) in or near your home, get them to a veterinarian ASAP.

 

    1. The vet will be able to roughly estimate the age of the cat and its nominal health.  
    2. The cat should be tested for FELV (Feline Leukemia Virus) and FIV (Feline Immune Virus)

If the cat tests positive for either, especially FLV, the situation becomes more complicated.  These diseases are communicable to other animals and can cause a cat to suffer. Placement of cats with FLV/FIV has many special requirements.

Please contact us at RappCats to help you decide what to do with an FELV/FIV-positive cat.  Some organizations exist for the purpose of taking these cats, which can live symptom-free for years.  They can help you decide the best course for the cat.

    1. A Rabies shot will be required if there is no proof of a current vaccination
    2. Feline Distemper shot recommended
  1.  After the situation is stabilized, you should give the owner time to claim the animal.  We suggest you hold the cat for at least 5 days, if there is no identification, or 10 days, if there is identification.  At the end of this period, we urge you to have it spayed or neutered, if it’s old enough.  One unaltered cat and its unaltered offspring can produce over 420,000 kittens in only seven years!  There just aren’t enough loving homes for all these little guys so please help us help them by getting Kitty to the vet. 

 

There is an assistance program available through RAWL at 937-3283 that sends animals to the Shenandoah Spay/Neuter Clinic on a regular basis, usually monthly.  Individuals may also make an appointment and take their animal to Harrisonburg.  Shenandoah Spay/Neuter Clinic phone is 540-437-1980.  RAWL can sometimes absorb part or all of the cost, thanks to donors.

Websites for RAWL and Shenandoah Spay/Neuter Clinic are”

http://www.rawldogs.org/

http://www.spayandneuterclinic.org/

 
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has developed a database of low-cost spay/neuter programs.  Visit http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=sndatabase and type in your zip code and a list of programs will appear. 

  1.  Once the basic health of the cat is established, you can consider what to do next.
    1. Continue trying to identify the cat’s owner
    2. Keep the animal as a pet
    3. Depending on individual animal, consider making it an outdoor or barn cat
    4. Identify a process for finding a home for the animal – RAPPCATS may be able to assist with this

 

BE AWARE that most shelters do not keep cats indefinitely.   If you take the cat to a shelter there is a fairly good chance that it may eventually be killed if it is not claimed or adopted within some time period.