Caboodle Ranch, a village for hundreds of homeless cats - story and pics

[Kadie]

Caboodle Ranch


The mayor greets his citizens: In Lee, Fla., lies the Caboodle Ranch, a village for hundreds of homeless cats that has its own mini-town hall, church, cafe and even a Walmart. Craig Grant, who built the cat community on 30 acres, has been accused of hoarding and mistreatment of the animals.
Photo: Lara Cerri / St. Petersburg Times (found at sfgate.com)

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Eight years ago, Craig Grant disliked cats. Today he lives in the woods outside a tiny town called Lee, population 350, with hundreds of them. With the help of volunteers, he's built a cat village: city hall with a steeple, a chapel with stained glass and a WalMart with miniature shopping carts. Along the path, there are piles of Purina , kiddy pools of fresh water, and sand boxes of litter.

slideshow (many pics)
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/talk/content/photos-caboodle-ranch


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A stray of a man creates a huge cat family in Madison County

By Leonora LaPeter Anton, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, February 13, 2011

In the middle of a pine forest, behind a chain-link fence, saunters a man in Wranglers and a black cowboy hat. Behind him, a tiny dirt path meanders between doll-sized houses in butter yellow, pistachio green and tangerine orange. Behind him, swarming through this surreal miniature village, cats.

Sleek cats. Fat cats. Scrawny cats. Lazy cats. Scaredy cats.

Cats on roofs. Cats in windows. Cats in doors. Cats on shelves. Cats on stairs. Cats on chairs.

Craig Grant smiles, crooked teeth beneath his white handlebar mustache. He offers a rough hand with dirty nails, nods, looks away. Like he's trying to be personable but it doesn't come easy.

more...
http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article1151027.ece

[CurtEastPoint]

1. I love this guy. Watch "Must Love Cats" on Animal Planet.

They showed Cat House on the Kings (see: http://www.cathouseonthekings.com) last week and may feature him some day. What a nice guy.

[Sonoman]

2. How cool. I am a horse and dog guy, but....

I recently was blessed with two sisters, litter-mate four month-old kittens of a feral cell.

They own my ass, for they have me completely trained.

Sonoman

[gateley]

4. ....

:loveya:

[Sonoman]

17. If I only had a heart....

Not one of those DU things, but you know what I mean...

If I only had a heart, I would pour it out on the floor...

Oh, M E...

If I only had some hearts, I would give them all to you...

Sonoman

[gateley]

3. Those cats look pretty happy -- look at those tails! nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. wonderful. Looks like the cats are living a life of luxury

[WolverineDG]

6. The pics are great

I really like the last one of him walking with a ginger kitty & the kitty has his tail wrapped around his leg, like they're "holding hands," in a manner of speaking.

dg

[siligut]

7. Great story

Thanks for posting. Looks like Colbert featured the little town on one of his shows.

[Earth_First]

8. It seems that veterinary care is infrequent or lacking all together...

Additionally the articles mention nothing about spaying or neutering.

It seems like a feel good story on the surface, but it seems to me that this cannot end well.

[tammywammy]

10. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought that n/t

[ET Awful]

11. Did you read the article?

"He produced a bank statement showing that he paid the vet about $2,000 in November"

"Grant requires the cats to come in spayed or neutered with shots."

I'm going to have to guess you didn't.

Sounds to me like the cats are being well fed, are required to be fixed before being accepted, and are receiving better care than they would if completely abandoned.

The article also references a barn specifically for FIV infected cats to isolate them from the rest one would presume.

Hardly an ideal situation and it definitely has its share of problems, but he's doing a hell of a lot more for those cats than anyone else was.

Hell, I've been to SPCA shelters that had 20% or more of their cats sick with URI's and isolated from the "general population".

[tammywammy]

9. I wonder how well the 20% or so that's sick are doing. n/t

[hollowdweller]

12. I bet there's some MEGA spraying going on there.

Especially if they are intact males.

I had this dream one night one of my kitties had pissed somewhere in the house and I was going all over sniffing plants and furniture to figure out where the acrid cat piss smell was. Suddenly I woke up, it was the middle of the night, and I realized that a skunk had sprayed right outside my window and it was drifting thru the walls of my old, poorly insulated house and finding it's way into my dream.

[flvegan]

13. Caboodle Ranch is little more than a very pretty "feral" cat colony. n/t

[ET Awful]

14. If that's the case, it's only part of the population that's feral.

There's no way feral cats would gather around a human as is shown in some of those pictures.

[flvegan]

18. That's why I put the word feral in quotes.

Very typical of a well-managed feral colony. Spay/neuter, first round of shots, then...many just on their own. Surgery, vet appts, etc may not happen, but a hell of a lot better than what they'd face on their own. URI is hard to treat in a shelter environment, never mind a colony type environment, and that seems to be a pretty decent part of this focus.

I'm not being negative, I'm just being a tad critical.

[Motown_Johnny]

15. A WALMART !!!

Animal Abuse!



:sarcasm:

[Warpy]

16. Hoarding is completely different from what this guy is doing

Animals are usually crammed into filthy cages stacked floor to ceiling or restricted within the house. The conditions are appalling and no attention is paid toward keeping the area clean and the animals fed and watered.

Those cats are free to roam around and some are in good condition.

However, he's on the edge of being a hoarder, paying little attention to their health.

Still, when the choice is between going hungry on the street and dying of illnesses and being in a friendly environment, well fed and dying of illness, his operation is just a hair better than the usual hoarding situation and certainly better than what the cats would face on the street.

My impression is that he's just not very smart about any of this. With the right kind of volunteer help, this place could be turned around. With sick cats segregated and new cats given a period of isolation to check for contagious illness, the overall health would improve.

If conditions ever catch up to the PR, it will be one of the better no kill shelters for unwanted pets.

[Peregrine Took]

19. I love cats so much but hubby developed middle aged allergies. No can do.

Drat!!

[Dappleganger]

20. He's had a number of articles done on the cats...

yes, he gets them spayed/neutered but people are constantly bringing more and just letting them loose on his property. They are mostly friendly but there are plenty which are aloof. He takes donations for vet bills, too. AFAIK he's just a guy trying to do the best he can with what he has but he does get outside help too. He doesn't go looking for kitties, they are brought to him.

[prole_for_peace]

21. I want to go there for vacation.

KITTIES!!!