Uncle Mal's Personal Tribute to Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County Uncle Mal with Smokie Copyright © 1996 by Liesbeth Koenen Photo scanning by Big Dave Uncle Mal has been an active volunteer for Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County since its beginning -- joining immediately after he looked out of his bedroom window one day in April 1990 and saw three abandoned mama cats with each three tiny kittens playing in his garden.      These 12 cats are now part of his happy family of about 20 "children" he cares for, including Smokie, Sweetie, Mamma, Baby, Spunky, Fluffy, Greedy, Vince, Pumpkin, Goofy, Grandma, Blackie, Rusty, Spot, Grandpa, Pinky, Kitty, and Misty.      Other critters, such as opossums, raccoons and dogs, also know that they'll always find fresh food and clean water on this two-legged sucker's back porch.      He computerized FFSC operations, maintains the database of members, typesets business forms and prints labels, used to print the newsletter, has trapped and fostered feral cats, and for the past nine years has spent one day a week at the shelter cleaning, and playing with his beloved pussies. Uncle Mal is one of the few token males of this almost exclusively female group of dedicated and selfless volunteers. Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County Forgotten Felines is a nonprofit organization founded in 1990 and based in Santa Rosa, California. This all-volunteer group is dedicated to the care and control of the feral cat population. FFSC's 800 members, supporters and volunteers have helped prevent the birth of well over one hundred thousand homeless cats. The more than 25,000 feral cats in Sonoma County are the result of uncaring or nasty humans who abandon their pet cats or drive them to the countryside, then throw them out of the car. The offsprings of these abandoned domesticated cats become feral (wild) again and live a short and miserable life. Since 1990, FFSC volunteers have trapped, tested and neutered more than 12,000 feral cats, tried to socialize them in foster homes, and found loving homes for more than 1,500 cats and kittens. The untamable cats and kittens are returned to their colonies, where volunteers feed them daily, so that the wild bird population is not endangered. FFSC volunteer trappers spend uncounted hours trying to lure the most wary cat into their gentle, humane traps. (It took Uncle Mal almost six months until "Spot," an extremely cautious female, went into his fish-baited trap.) Other volunteers foster and socialize in their homes those cats that seem tamable, until they are ready for adoption. FFSC maintains a spotless adoption room in the nearby Rohnert Park Animal Shelter, where volunteers clean, feed, foster, socialize and medicate these forgotten felines until carefully selected cat lovers are found. This organization is lucky to have the cooperation of dozens of veterinarians who perform all tests and sterilizations at special low prices, yet FFSC's medical and food bills are enormous. If you wish to get more information about FFSC, please write to the address below. FFSC also published a manual of how to set up and run similar cat rescue organizations. For the official "Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County" page, click here. If you can help with the never-ending food and doctors' bills, please make a tax-deductible donation of any amount payable to "FFSC" at P.O. Box 6672, Santa Rosa, CA 95406 "Winking Kitty" by an unknown artist. This animated kitten is reportedly featured on "Felix" advertisements of the British Friskies Petcare company. Multiplication Chart for Cats Two uncontrolled breeding cats create two litters a year at a survival rate of 2.8 kittens per litter. With continued breeding, they create: Year 1 = 12 cats Year 2 = 66 cats Year 3 = 2,201 cats Year 4 = 3,822 cats Year 5 = 12,680 cats Year 10 = 80,399,780 cats Copyright © 1996 by Larry Feign Enjoy more of the artist's prize-winning cartoons and books and "The World of Lily Wong" in English and Chinese. Tips on "Bringing Home a New Kitty" can be found here. Webmaster Ray Savage of San Diego coordinates the nationwide Feral Cat Coalition. His site has much information and many links to documents about feral cats, on trapping and taming them, on raising orphaned kittens, and much more. ailurophiles have visited this page since 20 February 1997