hopitus wrote:

I believe I told you this years ago. There are a couple friends of my
family who
live in the Castro (yes, they are) in the City who regularly sweep
through known
feral colonies looking for abandoned house pets, who do not do well in
feral cat
colonies, but survive anyway. These refugees are usually easily
spotted and with
minimal effort, these dudes bring them back to their small pet shop
which I think
(remember, I haven't been back to BayArea since '87) is in urban San
Mateo area.

My job is in the San Mateo area, too. In fact, it's right next to the
San Mateo bridge. So the rescue group that works with these ferals
are some Peninsula feral-cat group. There are plenty of groups around
that do this. Where I live (East Bay) there are at least 3 such groups,
maybe more. And believe me, they all have plenty of work to do. There
are a lot of feral cats around! (Apologies to non-hopitus readers for
the very local references.)

They are not *collectors* but keep the refugees and care for them very
well, taking
one and then the other lucky cat home for weekend visits. Locals know
about their
operation and send friends to their shop for would-be adopters not
insisting on
kittens. Last I heard from relatives there they are still in business.
This pair is much
more nosy, insistent of inspecting future homes of adoptees, and
actually do a
background investigation on those who seek parenthood of their
charges. Takes all
kinds, right? They don't have to pay for the background checks, they
got friends in the biz.

Good for them! They sound nice, and very smart about pet adoptions.

Joyce

--
Speak your mind even if your voice cracks while you're saying it.