Feral cats sink claws into new career

The Texas Barn Cat-San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition's Working Cat Program finds homes for feral felines that can't be pets but are perfectly suited to be "rodent-control technicians." The Texas Barn Cat-San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition's Working Cat Program finds homes for feral felines that can't be pets but are perfectly suited to be "rodent-control technicians." Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Feral cats sink claws into new career 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

There are some really cool cats on Gary Ryno's San Antonio Country Club security team. And the slightest whiff of them sends sensible rats running. As for the foolish ones that stick around, well, if main mouser Candy doesn't get them, her backups will.

Candy's team of fellow feral felines includes Squeaker (a street-smart stray), Bobby Bobtail (an intimidating tabby), Cane (a tough young tom) and Arby (who once lived under a vacant building).The cats' main duty is to spread their scent. This usually scares mice away, making drastic action unnecessary. But no matter how they get the job done, Marvin Jones, club executive director, is delighted.

"We've seen a dramatic decrease in rodent activity," he says.

Before the rodent terminators arrived, trespassing pipsqueaks were getting out of hand; poisons, traps and pesticides weren't doing a thing to deter them and were bad for the environment to boot.

A search for a better alternative led them to the Working Cats Program, a cooperative venture between Texas Barn Cats and the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition. A sort of kitty employment agency, the program finds homes for colonies of feral felines that are too wild to be house pets but perfectly suited to be "rodent-control technicians."

"Feral cats have been misunderstood, maligned and given little respect, when actually they can control harmful vermin and be very beneficial to the community," says Jenny Burgess of Texas Barn Cats, who came up with the concept. "The cats benefit, and so does the business where they're placed. It's a win-win solution."

Burgess hopes the country club's crew will be just the beginning and that cats will eventually be placed in dozens of places where rodents roam: farms, ranches, seed-and-feed stores and warehouses, for example.

Several weeks ago, she placed a feline named Blue at Doringcourt Stables in Bulverde. Blue's nickname might as well be Dirty Hairy because mice made the kitty's day. He now guards the horses' feed and the barns.

Customarily, feral felines - born in the wild, the offspring of strays - are recruited for such jobs. Cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, and fully vetted before being placed. Burgess often keeps them in her outdoor enclosure for a time and appreciates their abilities and individual personalities.

Employers must confine newly placed cats for two to three weeks - a process called imprinting - so they won't attempt to return to their former haunts. Then they can be released for work.

Ancient Egyptians kept felines to protect grain reserves, but Voice for the Animals in Los Angeles is, perhaps, the first modern organization to recognize the beneficial potential of ferals. In 1999, it introduced 50 into the city's rat-infested flower markets. Merchants scoffed. But when the cats moved in, the mice moved out. The Los Angeles Police Department soon had feline patrols cleaning up rodent-overrun stations. The San Francisco SPCA has placed working cats at a cab company, and Virginia's Barn Buddies advertises rodent-control techs-for-hire on the East Coast.

The movement continues to gather momentum.

In Houston, the Feral Cat Assistance Program is making its mark.

"We've been placing feral cats in barns for some time now, and they've been living handsomely thereby," rescuer Harriet Rankin says. Among her group's success stories: Lone Ranger, Billy the Kid and Annie Oakley, relocated from an unwelcome urban colony to a friendly Needville barn.

Tomball SOS (Save Our Strays) also boasts a successful barn-cat-placement record.

In the greater Dallas area, Barncats, Inc. and Feral Friends are among the advocates. Austin is placing community cats through its Pets Alive/No-Kill Initiative. Brazos Feral Cat Allies is tapping into the kitty-employment market in College Station. Indeed, all across Texas, felines are on the job.

Of course, not all jobs work out. Even cat-friendly management can be swayed by an uninformed public, laments one Houston rescuer, who took some job candidates to a Mexican restaurant and then had to retrieve them when a neighboring business objected.

Happily, such complaints are rare. Once people understand the purpose of the program, acceptance usually follows.

"Ours are great cats … fun to watch and have around," Ryno says, adding that Candy and company quickly won hearts at the club, sometimes sharing tasty tidbits from lunch sacks and seemingly pleased with their new territory.

If you're interested in hiring a few felines to keep your business mouse-free, contact Texas Barn Cats at 210-378-9036 or www.texasbarncats.org, or the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition at www.sanantonioferalcats.org.