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15. Relocation & Sanctuaries Relocation• When is relocation appropriate?photo: Doris BurtnerWhen a colony is unmanaged, a crisissituation will often evolve. The cats’ uncheckedreproduction and the typical nuisance behavior ofunaltered cats can lead to intense hostility fromlocal residents towards the cats and anyoneassociated with their care. Often when caring, butinexperienced people first encounter this kind ofsituation, their initial thought is to move the catsto a safer place. They don’t understand howdifficult it is to find a safer place, how arduousand uncertain the process of moving the cats canbe, how important it is to the cats to be able tostay right where they are and how quickly theproblems can be brought under control by spayingand neutering.The cats in a feral colony cherish theirterritory. They know their home intimately withall its pitfalls, shortcuts and hidden passages.Next to food, their surroundings are the factor most important to their survival. Theirhome – inhospitable as the back alley, empty lot or abandoned building may seem to us –is truly their castle and defines their very existence.Because their territory and their bonds to one another are so important to the cats,relocation should be considered only when their location is under clear, imminent threatand all other alternatives have been considered and exhausted. Most problems can besolved through TNR. A community’s initial hostility because of noise, odor and endlesslitters of kittens is ended by neutering; encroachment in a garden can be easily deterredwith a motion-activated sprinkler; a property owner’s complaint might be addressed bymoving a feeding station further away.Relocation is hard work with no guarantees of success. First, a suitable new site hasto be found with a new caretaker. Then, to reduce the chance of the cats running away,they have to be taught their food source has changed and the only way to do this is toconfine them in their new territory for two to three weeks. Otherwise, they’re likely to goin search of their old stomping grounds. Even with a proper confinement and everythingdone by the book, some of the cats may still run away after they’re released.Another consideration is what will happen in the old territory if the cats areremoved. If food and shelter are still available, sooner or later new cats will move in totake advantage of these resources and the cycle will begin again. Put simply, a vacuum127