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Hitch: free roaming dogs are almost never seen in the UK; someone will always pick up a dog without a visible owner and take it to the police (dogs are a police matter here, you even have to report an RTA involving one).
The ferals I spoke of were numerous in an area which was 95% student. The students would adopt kittens, not neuter/spay them, then abandon them at the end of the academic year. Result: lots of ferals.
After a few years I noticed the pattern changed, instead of adopting kittens they would adopt one of the local ferals for term time, leaving the residents to feed them for the rest of the year. Once it had got to this stage I only rescued those who really needed it.
(Two of the cats I have now: Lucy and Cydric, mother and son, were nesting in my verandah, I fed them but took them to the vet when they developed cat 'flu. They were too wild to home, so I kept them.)
I've never had difficulty giving cats away provided I'd done all the home checks, a thorough check on the prospective peoples, and felt sure the cats were going to a good home. One of the home checks I did was at "pusscat heaven": a beautiful house on the edge of a field; they already had a few blissfully happy cats. They took three of my ferals: if you watch the vid, they had the twins and one of the adults. I kept in touch for a while and recieved email pics of them all snuggled on a bed with their other cats.
Sorry, got carried away.
PS I did become a Crazy Cat Lady for a while!
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