Barn Cats of Valentines Farm
Last month we welcomed two kittens to the farm, Baby and Johnny, a brother and sister duo who are about 6 months old. They came to us from an organization called Care About The Strays that takes care of feral and semi-feral cats by spaying, neutering, vaccinating and placing them with farms or in other outdoor situations. These two were rescued from an abandoned trailer park that was about to be demolished, displacing a colony of thirty cats. Care About The Strays is still in the process of rescuing the rest of the colony and have caught about 15 cats so far.
Baby and Johnny are semi-feral, which means they are semi-wild and not socialized around humans. They are both still scared and shy and spend most of their time hiding from us, but every day they become more comfortable and curious. In an effort to provide them with a diet that is biologically appropriate, in addition to canned food, we are feeding them raw chicken and raw salmon. This will keep their guts healthy and prepared for the food they will later hunt for themselves.
We didn’t decide to get the cats just because we thought they were cute, we got them so they could work! We purposely chose to go with feral cats because they are natural hunters, and we needed to take care of some mice who have tried to make the farmhouse their home. In addition to their natural hunting instincts, cats emit a pheromone that deters mice and other rodents.
The process of settling in feral cats to a new home takes some major patience! We initially kept them in a cage for two weeks but have since released them into the stalls. In a few weeks, we will open the stall doors and let them roam free on the farm, and they will hopefully begin their hunting!
It might be a bit cold for them now that our first frost has come, so fingers crossed, they’ll stay close by until it warms up again. Since they came into our lives we haven’t seen any rodent activity, a very good sign!
It’s been difficult to get photos of them since they’re still unsure what to make of their new human friends. Every time they hear us coming to open the door they’ve already run and found a place to hide. Hopefully they will eventually come to trust us humans, but that may take a while. We’ll make sure to post updates on our blog and the Valentines Farm Instagram account!