After traveling more than 1,000 miles, a bright yellow van rumbles across a field browning with the season and stops in front of a barn in Golden. The van’s cargo — precious to some, a nuisance to others — waits patiently.
Three curious ewes greet visitors with bleats, while chickens peck the ground, unfazed. Two feral cats are about to get a new life at this small home-based wool farm. They’ll reduce the rodent population that’s wreaking havoc on the livestock’s feed stash and the barn’s foundation in exchange for food and a cozy bed.
The cats won’t live in the house. They’re essentially wild animals, largely fearful of humans and potentially aggressive. In places like Los Angeles, where food is plentiful and the weather is fairly warm year round, feral cat populations skyrocket. It’s estimated more than 3 million feral cats roam Los Angeles streets. In many neighborhoods they’re a pest. Last year, more than 6,000 cats, many feral, were euthanized in Los Angeles.
But, if they’re spayed or neutered, well-fed and comfortable, feral cats thrive as rodent deterrents. So feral cats from California are getting a new lease on life in Colorado.
“(Colorado) has a really good spay and neuter program and feral program, but we don’t in Southern California. … So a friend of our founder who lives in Fort Collins said, ‘Why don’t you try coming out here (to Colorado) and bringing some cats?‘” said Silvia Schillo, volunteer and board member at Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats, a Los Angeles-based feral cat rescue.
This is the third trip Kitty Bungalow volunteers have made to Colorado since December as part of the shelter’s free Working Cats program. On this trip, Schillo and fellow volunteer Jan Heuer packed 19 cats into the “Meowgic School Bus,” dropping whiskered workers off at their new homes/workplaces in Salida, Golden and Fort Collins.
“Working cats are cats that are going to live on a farm. They’re going to catch the mice so you don’t have to worry about it anymore. They’re going to keep mice and rats away from the chickens,” Heuer said. “As long as you feed them and provide them warmth and shelter, they’ll keep coming back.”
Schillo and Heuer helped adopters Leah Davis and Randy Snyder set up a warm, enclosed space in the barn behind Davis’ Golden home where two cats will spend two to three weeks getting used to their new surroundings. Afterward, the cats will be free to roam. They’ll return to the barn in the evenings for food and to sleep indoors, safe from potential predators.
Davis hasn’t had cats since she was a child and is excited to welcome these two wary felines to her farm. She has high hopes she’ll eventually be able to pet them, especially the black one, which seems to tolerate human touch. She knows it’s unlikely these two will ever be lap cats — a friend’s pet cat was attacked by a feral cat and had to have its tail amputated.
“I think (the program) is a perfect solution to a really bad problem. I’m happy I can provide a place for them,” Davis said. “It’s a win-win all across the board. L.A. gets rid of their problem, and maybe we can control our mice. Hopefully they’ll be fat, happy cats.”
Kitty Bungalow primarily focuses on neutering Los Angeles’ feral cats. Cats are trapped, neutered and returned to their colonies, where a volunteer monitors the population. Volunteers also catch mothers and their kittens. The kittens are weaned and then socialized during the “prime taming time” when they’re two to four months old and readied for adoption. The mothers are sent to the Working Cats program where volunteers find them “jobs” controlling pests in places like wineries, breweries, barns and warehouses.
“If the cats solve a problem and it’s giving them a life, then it’s great,” Snyder said. “It’s what they want to do: control the mice.”
Kitty Bungalow has placed 35 cats in Colorado and plans to return with another group of working cats in spring.
“I’ve made calls and people need them,” Schillo said. “As long as we can bring 15 to 20 (cats) at a time, it’s worth the trip.”
For more information about Kitty Bungalow, visit kittybungalow.org.
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