I guess the ear clipping is a universal (an universal?) practice. Our barn cats are all ferals who moved in on their own. We also trap them and neuter them, but we don't mark them which has been a mistake. I thought we had neutered all the brown tabbies until we found a litter in the hay shed after their brown tabby mother had been killed by dogs. Those second generation feral kittens are now our house cats.
