featuring Tails from the Alley
Feral Cats
A community issue that needs
the community's help
Allison Couture Otero
D
uring an early morning dog walk this past Saturday, I noticed several cats roaming around the streets of
downtown Winter Garden. It was around 7 am so it was prime time for our little crepuscular (grab your
dictionaries, folks!) friends to be out and about. Some were sitting patiently near doors to homes where
they may be fed or belong, some were lounging under parked cars, one was keeping warm on the hood of
a car that had recently been running.
I have heard people say that historic Winter Garden has a very large feral cat population and I tend to agree given
the number of kitties that I see while out and about. Feral cats can be a problem and the stats show that it’s the
entire community that needs to get involved to lower the number of feral cats as well as humanely care for them.
So what makes feral, or community cats as I like to call them, different than a regular, domesticated cat?
A feral cat is unsocialized and tends to be fearful of people and keep a distance. Feral cats often live in groups called
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WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE
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MARCH 2019