About Finley

I have a huge love for animals. I enjoy talking about them and sharing stories about them. I enjoy the personalities and character of animals. (It is amazing how often their behavior parallels that of humans.)

However, in the spring of 2010 things started to change. I had been feeding a beautiful long-haired black feral cat for over a year in the back of our property that had a litter of 3. All 3 would come for dinner, then, just Magic and a calico daughter – every night for months – rain or shine. I had noticed that both were pregnant but they continued to come.  In May 2010, they obviously determined our farm was a good place to live and moved their litters here – choosing an isolated area by our barn, under a shed. Things snowballed and in time we found ourselves knee deep in a feral cat colony! We had no idea. We have since developed a close relationship with our local SPCA and their feral cat clinics, to say the least.

In 2011 one of the feral cats, that we had not been able to capture, had a litter of 9 kittens. After 5 days they were orphaned. I bottle fed 9 kittens seven to ten times a day but unfortunately only two survived. Our vet said she was surprised any survived at that age. The two survivors are Mikey and Greta and are the stars and center piece characters of my children’s books. 

I have learned a great deal. If you become a caretaker of a colony, you have responsibilities – doesn’t matter if the colony is actually on your property or not. If there are abandoned kittens, you have a responsibility. Getting the cats spayed or neutered is paramount. And you feed them. All that you do is helping your SPCA, because they don’t have the money to take these cats in. They need us to help them help these homeless cats that did not ask to be homeless. I want to take this bully pulpit, if you will, to educate and share with all of you what an incredible situation the feral cat problem is and how you can help.

At Keller Farms we have fixed more than 90 cats so far through the Feral Cat Clinic sponsored by our Sacramento SPCA. The cost is $30 per cat that includes the spay/ neuter surgery, rabies, immunization & parasite treatment. We’ve also placed many of the kittens with adoptive families who are now enjoying the new members of their families.