(per an npr news comment: re. missing out on the promotional freebies.)

Nothing has changed, apparently -- since the financier-crooks broke the piggy bank of the giant Pool of Money™.
We gots to have more Stuff or ... ... no more Dream. Eh?

(OK OK, I bought something too) -- a temp-controlled (104F) heating pad for the determined-to-stay Outdoor rescue-cat, aka Petra the Garage Kitty; she Loves It, esp. last night at 25F outside and 37 inside, w/door ... unaccustomedly closed.


Ho. Ho. Ho. y'all.

..that I tend to anthropomorphise their predicaments (especially for realizing that they Are, in fact descended from desert animals!)
But you're right; they are, nevertheless lots tougher than we are, with functional fur and a knack for finding some sort of protected spot -- except when aged or infirm, natch.

(Alas, many feral colonies of the sort who are not fed regularly by anyone, possess not the nutrition or overall health to survive in your temps;
hearsay 'data' here tends towards a 3-4ish year estimate of life for abandoned critters with 0 support; obviously the lowest expectations are about rain/cold added to weakness from hunger.)

Petra isn't in that demographic. Now..
And her blood work looked surprisingly good, tested some weeks after her rescue in midst of cold rains and having been mauled a bit in a cat fight, the day she was trapped.
Love. It. every time we Win one.

One person here has been seeking her purloined/cat-napped cat (by a psychpath) for over a year; in process she has rescued ~ 60 cats, finding homes for most
-- some in a rescue cattery elsewhere. She finds them living under decks/houses/blackberry bushes
-- oft starving, with ear mites and parasites, etc. Those are the lucky ones as ... all those maladies can be fixed.
Food and TLC gets them back to robust health: if. in. time.

(We don't 'count' the results VS the millions..across the country too depressing.)
One billionaire could produce a massive improvement within 6 mos, countrywide. Vis spare change.
But you don't amass such $$ without becoming a compulsive psychotic yourself, and very-- very acquisitive, still.
But who knows? One of these may have an epiphany and join Billy's wife et al, in disgorging.

in apposition to that ugly 3-yr. est are some facts:
One tribe, neutered initially and fed regularly for 10 yrs: test healthier than lots and lots of ignorantly-cared-for home 'pets'.
Fantastic blood workup (rare having that test because you have to trap first)
so, in course of relocating the remainders of this group, a couple did get tested.
Their human-provided diet + live critters seems to have been 'adequate'.

The unlucky ones -- abandoned or lost individuals on their own in rough, sparsely-populated areas:
are probably the ones with this horrible half-life.

{{sigh}}
'One cat at a time'

I think there's something to that. But you also have to be prepared to put up with the ones who have had such trauma as makes them aloof to all bipeds ... for the longest time.

Garage Cat chooses to be a loner, mostly -- and obviously enjoys lolling in sun, etc. She now permits the occasional pick-up and head scratch, will also give an affectionate lick on occasion. By now she realizes that I don't intrude on her serenity, and she may mellow further. I no hurry.