Mr Monochrome Finds New Home

Mr Monochrome (or McLeod as he is now known) is settling into his new home very well. He is especially fond of his new brother Cruze. Below is a picture of them on McLeods first night there.

I am promised some photo updates soon.

Backyard Catz: Scratches, Homes and Collars

The Grey Lynn cats are all fixed now bar one tortoiseshell female (below) who still continues to evade us.

The week before last we had Bumblebee (below) at home after being desexed. She is very very cute and friendly; we at least I think so. Kelsie would disagree; she did not find Bumblebee that nice after she tried to scratch her, but with me she was fine.

Over the last week I have been re-trapping three of the cats (Tangelo, Pumpkin and Mr Monochrome Senior) because I put collars on them after they were desexed and these were proving problematic. Many colony cats have their left ear tipped (meaning the vet takes a small clip out of the ear) so that they can be identified as having been de-sexed but I thought that this would be better achieved with collars however I now know why this is not actually a good idea. Collars are all well and good on cats who you know and that you can easily pick up should the collar need to be loosened or the cats get stuck on it.

Collars on cats who are not that used to being handled is a different matter entirely. Mr Monochrome Senior somehow got his caught around his stomach and both Tangelo and Pumpkin needed to have theirs loosened. I caught Tangelo by hand but she scratched the shit out of my arm and I had to let her go.

A few days later I went back with the trap and caught Mr Monochrome Senior and Pumpkin and sorted them out. Tangelo however was too smart for me and I will have to try her again this week. Needless to say the collars have been permanently removed.

It is interesting how I have found all the cats handleable when they were at home however as soon as they are returned to outside they revert back to being a bit more ‘wild’.

Good news on the rehoming front though; Mr Monochrome has found a home with a lovely family in West Auckland and he will be going there this week and Mr Monochrome Senior has won over the hearts of Rosilina and her family and he will stay with them when the others have been rehomed.

If anyone reading this is interested in rehoming one of these cats please see our Animal Adoption Page.

The Story Behind the Backyard Catz Colony

After starting to help with a South Auckland cat colony recently Animal Liberation Aotearoa members have started to manage another small cat colony living in Grey Lynn. We came across these cats after reading an article in the local paper, Harbour News.

The article read:

A woman battling with 15 feral cats on her property is at her wits’ end after being refused help.

Grey Lynn resident Rosalina Solomona-Kali says her property has become home to a growing number of cats during the last several months.

She says her two sons are constantly sick with colds, allergies and flea bites and her sister’s two young children contracted scabies while on a visit from Australia last year.

"They just came out of nowhere and before you knew it they were breeding," she says.

"I can’t understand it because we’re not feeding them."

Ms Solomona-Kali started phoning the SPCA in October last year, in the hope it could help with the problem.

She says she was told her only choice would be to hire trapping equipment for each of the cats from a pest control company, at a cost of $50 each.

"I’m from a low-income family, I can’t afford $50 each for 15 cats that aren’t mine," she says.

Ms Solomona-Kali has also contacted the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Council who both said they are unable to help.

She also sent a letter to Auckland mayor John Banks pleading for help.

A response Mr Banks on March 6 confirmed there is no legal action the council can take as the cats have no owner.

In the letter Mr Banks suggests methods such as using Zoo Poo fertiliser and placing mirrors or bottles of water around the garden to scare the cats away.

Mr Banks calls the trapping of cats "emotive, expensive and not without problems", and says it is also often an ineffective and only temporary solution.

But Ms Solomona-Kali says there is such a large number of the cats, she doesn’t think minor measures such as mirrors will work.

She says the skittish, un-tamed cats, some of which are very young kittens, would be difficult to catch without professional help.

The situation has left her feeling exasperated and helpless, she says.

"I’ve gone through all the right pipelines and no-one wants to help me."

When contacted by the Auckland City Harbour News, regional council biosecurity officer Andrew Stein confirmed it is unable to help as it only deals with feral cat populations in rural areas.

SPCA chief executive Bob Kerridge also suggested that Ms Solomona-Kali contact a pest control company who would trap the cats

But after calling several pest control companies in the wider Auckland area, the Auckland City Harbour News was unable to find any who could help.

We responded to this article in the paper by offering to desex, vet check and feed the cats until we find them permanent homes.

This blog will follow their journey, please check back regularly to see what the cats are up to and how you can help.

Backyard Catz Trapping and Dexing Begins

Over the last two weeks have begun trapping and desexing the cats at the Grey Lynn colony. There are eight adults and one kitten in total. On our first visit we caught two tabby females, who we subsequently called Possum and Tangelo, and a little black and white male kitten we now call Mr Monochrome.

We had Possum (the larger one) and Tangelo (the small tabby/tortie) desexed, defleaed and wormed the following day. We then kept them at home for a week until they had healed and a bit and to get them used to people. They were surprisingly easy to handle.

As for Mr Monochrome when we got him he had cat flu, was covered in fleas and was very malnourished. Being that he was so little and unwell we decided to keep him with us until he finds a home. He is far to young to be desexed at the moment and even to be treated with normal flea treatment so we gave a flea bath instead.

After a week at home we returned Possum and Tangelo to the colony and trapped more cats. This time we only caught two; a young ginger male and a slightly older black and white male who might be Mr Monochromes dad. We suspect the cats might be getting wise to our trapping plan as they are way more cautious now.


When we feed the rest of the cats Possum and Tangelo were much less scared of us than they had been before they stayed with us.


The two males we trapped were taken home and desexed, de-fleaed and wormed the following day. The ginger one we call Pumpkin and the black and white one we call Mr Monochrome Senior as he is probably Mr Monochromes dad.


They have been here a week now and we will be returning them tonight and trying to trap the remaining two females and one ginger male.