Lucy’s Storm: What a Feral Cat Taught Me About Rescue, Nursing, and Letting Go

 

In the summer of 2008, four years after we moved to Missouri, a feral cat made a decision that changed everything.

We didn’t know her name yet. We didn’t know her story. But we watched her soaked, trembling, and determined carry her newborn kittens one by one into our garage during a thunderstorm that shook the whole neighborhood. She chose our shed as sanctuary. And we chose to honor that trust.

We named her Lucy.

A Mother’s Instinct

Lucy had no collar, no chip, no known history. But she had instinct. She nursed her kittens for nine full weeks longer than most ferals allow. Even as we offered canned kitten food, she kept nursing. She knew they needed more. She knew they weren’t thriving.

We kept the shed warm, quiet, and stocked with food. Lucy did the rest. Her babies suckled and slept, curled into her belly, while the storm passed and the weeks rolled on.

When the kittens were finally weaned, we trapped them gently, socialized them with care, and found them new homes. Later, we learned both had underlying health issues. Lucy had known. She’d stayed longer. She’d held on.

Lucy in the woods by our home 2009

 Lucy’s Legacy

After her kittens were placed, we trapped Lucy, had her spayed, and released her back into the woods she knew. She couldn’t be socialized, but she could be protected. And so we did through blizzards, hawk attacks, and bitter cold.

Lucy lived for 17 years, defying every statistic about feral cat survival. She was cautious, camouflaged, and fiercely intelligent. She survived predators, storms, and illness. She sunbathed on our patio chairs, made friends with a gray cat who groomed her, and on her final winter night walked through our open door and sat quietly on the kitchen floor.

We gave her end-of-life care, warmth, and companionship. She passed peacefully in January 2025, surrounded by love and buried on the land where she was born.

You can read her full tribute on Cat Adoption Guide.

If you’ve ever watched a feral cat carry her babies through thunder, or wondered whether you’re doing enough know this: warmth, food, and presence matter. Lucy knew. And now, so do we.

Feral Cats Deserve a Better Life

There are billions of feral cats worldwide because of human negligence. Feral is the cat that nobody wanted. These cats were abandoned by their owners and left to survive on their own.  

Some cats survived in areas close to a food source others perished. These cats are living a life much like the wild cats of Africa. They are competing for food water and shelter and just want to carve out space for themselves so they can live a peaceful life with humans.

I have been a colony caregiver since 1999 and in that time I have trapped, sterilized, and given the feral cats their vaccines, tape wormer, and treatment for fleas, ticks, and ear mites. 

 All of the feral and stray cats that I have trapped were either socialized for adoption or released to a controlled colony where they are safe from human traffic.

My husband and I care for feral and stray cats.  At the present date, we have 10 cats in our colony.  The colony where the cats reside is on a side of a mountain ridge that is located in a forest of 25 acres. The cats live in limestone cracks and crevices as well as large thicket dens or hollow trees. 

 All cats are fed twice a day and get fresh water at the feeding station.

In the winter the cats are welcome to sleep and get warm in my old shed.  It is a drafty shed, however, it is dry and it does provide the cats with a good wind block and straw-filled beds. 

Some feral cats will go where they go when the weather turns extremely cold or hot and these cats do suffer. They are too wild to realize that the shed has heat and an air conditioner.  

The feral cats are terrified of the noise that the heater or the air conditioner so these cats will burrow into the leaves or the brush in the forest. For these wild feral cats, we will hike out to them to provide them with food and water.  And when the snow is too deep we will make a path to them.   (see the path my husband created for us to get to the cats or for the cats to come to us.)

It is not easy to be a feral cat, most humans fear them and believe they are vicious and diseased.  Many humans think the best interest of the feral cat is to trap them and euthanize them, and this action is humane.  

I have trapped and taken the feral cats in for sterilization, tested for feline aids or leukemia, and out of the 298 cats there was 1 sick cat and that cat was a neighborhood stray cat, very people friendly. 

Feral cats did not ask for this life, they really had no choice as their human abandoned them long ago.  They are feral because of human neglect, a human error that can only be fixed by the caregivers that dedicate their service to trap, spay or neuter and then care for the cats in colonies.  

Feral cats deserve a better life, where they can co-exist with humans without being feared as dangerous animals, with no purpose on earth.