Befriending Isle of Palms feral felines

Keeping stray cats fed a labor of love for North Charleston man

Jessica Johnson
The Post and Courier

A feral cat from a colony on the Isle of Palms.

Jessica Johnson
The Post and Courier

David Bell dumps food on the ground for a pack of about 11 cats who live in one area of Isle of Palms.

It's 8 a.m. on the Isle of Palms and the feral cats are waiting, some comfortably stretched out in condominium parking lots and others lurking in sea oats.

"Here, baby. Here, Buttons."

"Here, kitty," David Bell calls out.

Each morning, the retired teacher, 69, treks from his North Charleston home to feed cat colonies off Palmetto Drive.

There's Cinnamon, Puff and Marky, but a lot of them are just Blacky. They are feral cats, some Bell has known for years. He was struck by the scrawny creatures he saw 10 years ago while driving tourists from one place to the next, a part-time job.

"I saw all the pitiful kitties, just pitiful," Bell said.

He couldn't stand to look at them knowing they were hungry, so he started feeding them. When he has funds available, he traps them, has them spayed or neutered and returns the animals to their beach home.

Feral or stray cat colonies can be found throughout the county. Anywhere there is a Dumpster there are bound to be feral cats, even in the gated community of Wild Dunes. Condominium owners associations and a few homeowners have allowed Bell access to feed the cats. Elsewhere in the county, feral cat caretakers and neighbors don't coexist as peacefully.

Randy McGrew, of McGrew's Carpet Cleaning in Mount Pleasant, said stray cats started appearing around his business a couple of years ago. He suspects they were abandoned by irresponsible pet owners who live in the neighborhoods behind his business.

"I couldn't stand to see anything go hungry," McGrew said, so he started feeding them. "They don't hurt nobody, they just sleep under cars."

But a neighboring business owner didn't feel the same. Mount Pleasant Animal Control officers came to trap the cats after the owner called saying the cats were climbing under his building, digging in the insulated crawl space and sometimes dying there.

About half the cats went missing, but McGrew said he still feeds about 10 cats and an employee found two more kittens hiding in a Dumpster next to the building last week.

Charles Karesh, president of the Charleston Animal Society, said animal control officers throughout Charleston County bring about 1,700 feral cats to the shelter each year, where they are euthanized because there is no place for them to go.

Carol Linville, president and founder of Pet Helpers Adoption Center on Folly Road, said trap-and-release-programs are the only way to reduce stray or feral cat populations. Eventually, the homeless cat population will be reduced through attrition as Linville said she has accomplished at Folly Beach.

Cats are territorial animals, and a spayed and neutered colony can stop others from moving in. Simply trapping and euthanizing feral cats doesn't work, animal advocates say.

"The answer is not killing them," Linville said, adding that it's more humane to spay, neuter and control cat colonies because it's really an over-breeding problem.

Cats have three litters each year, going into heat as soon as eight weeks after a litter is born.

"You can see how the numbers can soar," she said.

If someone caring for a feral cat colony brings cats to the animal society, Karesh said, the shelter tries to work with them to spay or neuter the animals through grants. Pet Helpers does the same, but the surgeries can become expensive.

This month, the animal society is offering $15 spay and neuter vouchers for both cats and dogs to North Charleston residents, and Pet Helpers plans to open a low-cost spay and neuter clinic within the next 60 days that would spay or neuter feral cats for little or no cost.

That's something that could lighten Bell's burden.

He spends hundreds of dollars purchasing food for feral cats each month.

Bell does it because he said it's how he gives back.

"I think everyone can do something regardless of economic status."

"It's strange." Bell says. "I got to be a little crazy, otherwise I wouldn't do this."

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.