Lessons From a Feral Cat, Part II: Little Mama’s Final Legacy

Little Mama, one of Fran’s and my adopted feral cats, died yesterday, and we are devastated.

We made the heartbreaking decision for her to be euthanized after several weeks of an illness that led to her refusing to eat and rapidly losing weight and even losing the use of one of her back legs.

She was only about 9 years old — far too young for a cat, especially a pampered house cat, to die. Never mind that feral cats often only live 2-3 years “in the wild.” We had hoped to love her well into old ...