My Houston neighborhood has been invaded by feral cats. At least twenty-five have made their home at a foreclosed house that backs up to mine, and now that it is mating season there will soon be more if nothing is done. As defined by Alley Cat Allies, a feral cat is: "A cat who has lived his whole life with little or no human contact and is not socialized, or a stray cat who was lost or abandoned and has lived away from human contact long enough to revert to a wild state. Feral cats avoid human contact and cannot be touched by strangers." These cats do serve a purpose in helping to control rodent populations, and the current thinking among animal welfare groups is that a program encompassing humane trapping, sterilization and return to their neighborhoods is best for both cats and humans to continue to co-exist peacefully.

There are people and organizations that specialize in helping feral cats through the trap and release program. Your veterinarian is likely in contact with local persons who can help you. You can also get more information about feral and stray cats at the Alley Cat Allies, (alleycat.org), a national online organization.

Ferals and strays - what's the difference?

Cat rescue authorities give varying advice on the issue of adopting feral cats. Under normal circumstances, kittens develop trust in humans early, in the first two or three weeks of life. Some believe that even at six weeks the window for socialising kittens is closing fast. In practice, it depends heavily on the individual cat. Some may resist taming even at a young age, whereas there are many success stories with domesticating older ferals. It is true, however, that the older the cat the longer it may take to become accustomed to people and domestic life.

A domestic stray cat is able to rehabilitate and become a member of your family or placed in another home. The feral cat does not fit well with humans and best left alone unless it has become a nuisance. One should contact a local expert to deal with the feral cat.

Early the next morning, I loaded them all in my car and off we went on a thirty minute drive to the new Spay Houston low cost clinic. Even though I was a little late getting there due to rush hour traffic, they took them all in and told me to return the next morning at 7:00 AM to collect them. Physically, I was exhausted and sore; who would have thought that setting and carrying nine unhappy cats in traps could cause so much muscle pain in legs, arms, shoulders and back? And, I am sure they were not feeling any better about life.

Management of feral cats

I collected them the following morning, furry little balls huddled in corners of their cages, some hissing, some meowing and some just sitting and watching. I was instructed to keep them confined for an additional twenty-four to forty-eight hours if possible, to make sure they were eating and there was no bleeding. In all, there were four males and four females, two of which were already pregnant. Most were fairly young. Back we went to the heated room off the garage, where I set them all down on a plastic tarp covered with newspaper, and covered the traps with a sheet. I provided them with food and water and left them to recuperate.

Don't push the agenda, especially with handling. Persist with attempts to stroke and play with them, but back off if they object. They will trust you in their own time if you deal intelligently with their wariness. Your biggest allies in the process are food, patience and faith that there's a great pet behind the fear.

We will try again next week to capture additional members of the colony and go through the same process. Little by little, we hope to get most, if not all, sterilized and vaccinated, so that the colony remains at a manageable size. Sterilization tends to alter a lot of the behaviors that annoy people... spraying, vocalizing and mating being key. Several neighbors have agreed to continue to feed and keep an eye on the colony and to spread the feeding stations around various homes so that the foreclosed house can be put on the market, hopefully without cats as part of the home's features. With any luck, this program will be a win/win for all.

The first and obvious need is to differentiate between the two types of cats. I must back up a bit and note that domestic cats have lived around man for thousands of years, (earliest record is 7500 BC), because farms provided cats with prey. Most farm cats are feral unless the farmer domesticated them by providing food and companionship. This usually began with a litter of feral kittens, (called a kindle), and who can resist those little bundles of fur? So training them to become social with humans is how they became domesticated.

· A domestic feral cat will gladly eat your food but never let you get close so trapping is the method of choice.