apparently our little farm is also a cat motel...

Well I posted about the first stray we found, and another one just turned up in the same area. Fat and happy (and huge holy crap) but banged up and skittish and probably a bit mean. I think I'll just leave that one alone
I think it's time to just get all our own kitties UTD on their vaccinations and let the others come and go as they please. Where do they all come from!?
I'm just worried there are kittens hiding somewhere, all these random cats hiding out. I guess we'll see.

Cats always seem to congregate in an area that will feed them. I feel like it's the presence of other cats [the ones you own, mostly] that encourage the first few to show up, and then it continues.

I probably trapped, altered, and released a dozen ferals of various temperaments at my last barn. I imagine some people were surprised to find their cat come home with no balls and a marked ear, but I honestly didn't care, it should have been fixed anyway.
Posted via Mobile Device

Cats love barns. Free shelter, usually free food. Warm. I have never been to a barn without barn cats.

I fully intend to trap and fix every cat that comes to my barn. I have too many friends that end up with two dozen inbred kittens every year that get sick, spread disease, generally cause problems. A few adults hanging around is fine but I do NOT want those breeding. Friend of mine lived on a farm - they would go and dispose of (ahem.. Kill) dozens of kittens throughout the year because once they start breeding it's impossible to stop.

That's the thing, there is LOTS of shelter. We have the car port, tool shed, pump house, hay shed, horse barn, shelter out back, two huge trailers (gravel truck) out back with covers on them that haven't been moved in... what, ten years? Another car port, chicken coop, lol.
But no mice and no rats, and they haven't touched our chickens (granted our chickens are guarded by some pretty big turkeys...) so why not let them stick around. I might put a trap out and see if I can get them fixed / vetted but we'll see what the parents have to say.

My old BO HATES cats with a passion and threatens to shoot any that come on his property. There's no cats at my new barn, either. There's a pot belly pig named Guido, but no cats.

We're a bit odd here in Arizona. Lol
Posted via Mobile Device

Many areas have a feral program designed to alter and release at no cost. All the ferals I took in were free to do, except the one I paid for eat more treatment.
Posted via Mobile Device

I've already looked into it, not an option here unless you get in on one of their specified days.

So what's the problem with that? Trap them and take them in the specified days. Sounds like an option to me.

The specified days are all booked up for the next couple months, and I'm not going to book an appointment unless I KNOW I have my hands on the cats (why take it away from someone else who WILL have the cats in their possession) and since they're not around 24/7 (at least I can't find them 24/7 it's a no-go). The 'free' days only come up every once and awhile (once a month or so) and we just don't have the funds to pay for it to be done.