Question…
If someone comes into your house what do your cats do?
We rescued a feral cat 7 years ago. That cat is fine around myself and my husband however, let anyone else enter this house and the cat is gone. He goes into the deepest pits of shadow to avoid other human contact.
Our other cats greet guests like they were family. So does your feral cats hide when strangers come around or do they dive for the shadows?
Nice grammar. Please excuse me while I read up on English sentence structure. :smack:
Anyway, what I am implying is that a feral cat will accept humans as their owners however, any unknown human they dive for cover. While cats brought up around humans are quite friendly and affectionate regardless if they know them or they are total strangers.
We nicknamed one of our cats “Walmart” only because she greets anyone at the door like they are her bestest buddy from way back in kittendom. While the cat we nicked “Psycho kitty” is our feral and will have NOTHING to do with anyone no way, no how, period. You can not, will not make that cat like anyone other than his two guardians. He even hisses at us on occassion when he is in an agitated state.
Feral cats are cool after they are tamed however they do not act like normal cats that are raised around humans. They are of a different attitude all together.
Well, they’re not thrilled when other people come over, but Thor is bolder than the other two and if people do come over (a rare thing anyway) he will sometimes wander in to see what’s going on. The other two are much more skittish. My girlfriend was only able to pet Bella for the first time just a few weeks ago, despite having been in the apartment many, many times in the past seven months. Raul also ate food from her hand for the first time recently.
I think the problem with feral cats is that they’re never going to be comfortable around humans in general, but rather on a case-by-case basis.
And are you having these cats neutered? Because if you’re not, you are encouraging the proliferation of a large colony. I have neighbors who harbor feral cats in the bushes around their house. They get food, but no medical care. They produce endless litters of kittens and die young. I’ve seen a few of them up close, and while some look pretty good, some have obvious diseases and partially-healed injuries. My bet is that FIV and Feline leukemia must be rampant among them. They use the neighborhood children’s play areas as litter boxes. The woman across the street from me is one of those who puts out humane traps and turns the captured ones over to Animal Control, who probably euthanizes most of them. She says she’s trapped over a hundred cats in the past 3 years. This is not a pleasant situation.
I think it’s, “I want to be a soldier as my father was.” If I recall, when the real Kaspar Hauser appeared in a village of mystified Germans, he had couldn’t read or write but had a note that said the above.
I’m probably forgetting my “Strange But True” book so someone please correct me.
Yeah. That is what I am finding with ferals. They will adapt to their caretakers; however try to get them to accept anyone else is a real task. So while your kitties are adorable and lovable to you, yes they are very feral in their own mentality, as ours is.
I wouldn’t trade the psycho kitty, he is challenging in getting him to the vet for medical treatments. Our other cats, you stick them in the cat carriers, and move on; with Sebastian, it’s fight shove into cat carrier, then get to the vets office and he fights you coming out of the carrier. He is such a dork. He is one of our more gorgesou cats though. Long hair that never mats, silky soft, muted classic tabby cat. In the last two days he his left eye has started to water like one of the other cats scratched him. He is starting to get matted around the eye so it’s off to the vet with him. He likes Cardsfan much better than I, so guess who gets cat duty for vet? Yup…Cardsfan. I will comfort and console the trauma cat when he gets home from the vet’s office. :rolleyes:
I have owned cats well over 30 years now and Sebastian is the first feral adopted…and probably the last. I love him, however he is much more challenging to take care of than the other cats.
Got it, missbunny.
For those who were never initiated into the pleasures of Fortean-type weirdness, Kaspar Hauser was an unknown boy who walked into the town square of Nurmburg, Germany, one day in 1828. No one knew who he was or where he came from. He carried a letter addressed to the captain of the 4th Squadron of the 6th Cavalry regiment, and repeated said “I want to be a Rider like my father was” (only in German, of course). The only other answers he gave to any questions were apparently “I don’t know”. He became something of a nine-days wonder, eliciting curiosity in the highest levels of the nobility and sholarship. There were a lot of theories about who he was and where he came from (including being the hidden illegitimate child of various nobles and the heir to the Grand Duchy of Baden. In 1833, five years after he appeared, he was lured to the Anspacher Hofgarten with promises of revelations about his parentage and stabbed to death.
Whew!
Now I gotta Google this guy…
If you’re taking the time to feed them, please take the time to trap/neuter/rerelease them. It will stop the breeding cycle and the colony will stop growing and spreading disease. If there’s a feral cat group in your area, they will be able to help you with expenses and equipment.
Perhaps your neighbours will help you out financially if they see that you’re trying to take care of the problem. 
Some links for you to peruse if you’re interested in caretaking the colony properly:
Feral Cat Project
Alley Cat Allies
Feral Cat Coalition
Bunch of links to state-specific resources thanks to the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon
:eek:
Well you can just fricking well rock me to sleep tonight!!
…can’t sleep…demon dogs will get me…can’t sleep…demon dogs will get me…can’t sleep…
Actually, he really is a sweetie … really :).
romansperson, yes, he looks like a most dignified dog in that second picture. I’ve always heard nice things about greyhounds. But that really is quite a sight in the first one you showed us! You should blow that one up and frame it, to show him when he’s taking himself too seriously.
He looks positively tubby for a greyhound!
My aunt rescued a feral cat, too. He was eating at all the houses on the street. She took him in and named him Neighbors, for all the people who had been feeding him. Judging by how fat he got, they all continued to do so even after he had a home.
vix, we keep Idol a bit on the … erm … pleasantly plump side (for a greyhound) because he’s got inflammatory bowel disease and when it flares up the poor thing can lose weight mighty quick. So we keep him where he can afford to lose a few. Fortunately these last few months he’s been doing well.
And Jules, that’s a greyhound smile you see in the first pic. It’s actually a submissive gesture, it just doesn’t look like it sometimes! Even though Idol’s 7 years old, he still acts like a big puppy, so he is indeed kinda feral, but still a sweetie in a wild way :).
It’s so encouraging to see so many people who care about feral cats. My cousin rescued three from the streets of New York and though they are not trustful of everyone, they are his faithful and devoted companions now - perhaps even more so than kitties that had always lived with people would be.