Your description of your strawberries was well worth reading.

Probably some of both. Strawberries need both good drainage and regular water. They are always hungry and like to be fed regularly also. Al

I have Sequoias, too, and found that fertilizer works wonders. I was inspired after seeing the commercial fields nearby with huge plants and lots of berries. I don't fertilize as heavily as they do, but I am adding some organic fertilizer regularly now. I'm on the border of Sunset zone 24. Some of my blossoms dried up when it got unseasonably hot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing strawberries

I did some research and found that cat-facing may be caused by lack of pollination or lygus bugs.

Here is a link that might be useful: strawberry lygus bug