My feral cat sin't so feral, after all

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In previous posts I have mentioned Kitty, our feral cat who showed up on our deck about 3 years ago to give us the honor of feeding her.

Which, of course, we did, but we could never get close to her. With a dish of delicious Friskies canned salmon in hand, I would open the sliding door and Kitty’d jump off the deck in pure panic, to hide under it, and return only when I went back inside, and the door firmly shut.

Well, little by little she came to realize that we weren’t going to hurt her, so she became less, and less timid, but she was always, skittish, and always kept her distance.

But starting last summer, she got to the point where on nice days, when my wife and I were out on the deck, basking in the sun, the cat would do triumphant figure 8’s around our chairs, showing how utterly brave she is to stroll past those fearsome creatures.

Well, yesterday the cat knocked our sox off.

She was doing her usual figure 8’s and I let my hand drop slowly toward the deck, to see what she’d do. The first time she went past, she let the tip of her tail flick against my hand. Next trip her side rubbed against it. My wife looked on, totally boggled.

On subsequent trips I started stroking her when she went past and she loved it. Then my wife got into the act, and the cat couldn’t get enough. I had to go inside for a couple of phone calls, and afterwards in comes the wife still dazzled, even though her palm was filthy dirty, just like the cat, from the unceasing petting frenzy.

I have to admit it was a totally joyous experience. I’ve gotten to like the cat a lot and worry like hell about her, on cold winter nights. But I’m at a loss on how to provide shelter that she would actually use. Bought a little house at Petco awhile ago, but Kitty would have none of it.

I know, we’re taking a big chance petting her — rabies, etc. I want to take her to the vet to get her shots, and a full-scale cleaning, inside and out, but I think the experience would be so traumatic, our little bond would be broken.

Have you ever heard of a feral cat doing warming up to people like she has?

2

Yes.
Congratulations!

3

Yes

We had two feral kitten/cats (they were nearly a year old when we got them) rescued by the Cats Protection League. It took about 6 months for them to be in the same room as us, and they preferred to spend most of their time outside. Another 3 months or so and Benny would come in, so long as we didn’t move. Max was always more skitty.

Anyway, cut to when they were about 2 years old or so, we went on holiday. When we returned Max was all over us, he lay on my chest and nuzzled up to my chin. Since then, they both get pets whenever they come in, to the point that Max drools and Benny tries to knock you out with his head. Both still get spooked easily, and will scarper if you enter a room unexpectedly - but the change is amazing and very rewarding.

4

Thanks, carnivorousplant!

And heartfelt thanks to you, Martiju for the delightful account of your two cats.

5

huge hugs for Einstein’s equation and his adorable not-so-feral cat :wink:

6

How nice of you, Kythereia!

I hope Kitty stays around for a long while.

7

Six years ago we moved into this little house by the sea, and nothing would do for my oldest daughter but that we go and adopt a kitty from the shelter. We wound up bringing home two. Both of them were somewhere between four and six months old. The male, Kazzpurr, was from the beginning, a friendly sort, but beautiful Izabella had a rough start to life, and was very skittish when it came to humans, to the degree that I had to promise the shelter woman that I would bring her back if she didn’t adapt to our busy household.

At the beginning she made a mad dash out the window and under the crawl space of the house. I made certain that there was always a supply of food and fresh water, and she began, very slowly, to come and sit in my open window. I finally moved her food and water to just inside the window, and she became a bedroom kitty when I was in the room alone, but she would flee whenever anyone else came in.

Gradually she became more comfortable with the rest of the family, though still given to wild flights when the noise and activity became too much for her.

Flash forward to last Autumn. She became trapped in a shed down the road, and was next to death when she was found. She was taken to the shelter, where they took her to the vet, medicated her with antibiotics and nursed her back to health. Due to a botched description the shelter was unaware that she was the kitty I was attemptin to locate. Finally the woman who runs the shelter put the kitty (she is a very unusual looking kitty) together with me (it’s a very small town I live in, and she called. Sure enough, I found my Izabella there.

Since then, she loves everyone, me, family members, friends, complete strangers. She sleeps on the pillow above my head, and prefers to be wrapped around someone’s (anyone’s) neck, and to be petted until she is drooling and purring loudly.

What immense satisfaction, love, bliss is it to have a living creature respond so well to a bit of care and nurturing. I daresay it won’t be long before your “feral” kitty is an indoor kitty!

8

Definitely. Sometimes it takes a while but it can happen. I have a feral who has been living in my house for almost 3 years now. She spent a year in the closed-off third floor. Then after deciding to leave the door open to the rest of the house, it took her 5 months to make it down to the first floor. She lives quietly and peacefully with the other cats but I can’t touch her. However, a few months ago she started sleeping between my legs when I was napping on the couch, and she will get into my lap and go to sleep. But NO TOUCHING!!! I can’t pet her. She’ll smell my hand but NO petting! (Sitting snuggling is fine; just no petting. Weird cat.)

Let the vet know she’s feral. They will deal with her differently than they will a regular pet. If you can trap her, they’ll anesthetize her while she’s in the trap and then do the exam while she’s knocked out.

9

Congratulations! Do try to get her to the vet - most likely she has worms, and she definitely needs her shots. And she needs to be sterilized - if she hasn’t had kittens in all the time you’ve known her, she may have already been fixed. Which means someone threw her out. There is a special room in Hell for such people.

10

Yes, definitely!
If she’s a she, spay her now before you end up on my situation! :stuck_out_tongue:
We have a little stray kitty that comes and eat out of our kitties’ food dish. She’s so sweet we thought she must belong to one of the many college students in the area. Now she’s about ready to pop with kittens and stays hanging around our place! :eek: Since she’s in a delicate state, we’ve allowed her to come inside so she’ll have a safe place to have her litter. There are too many roads, raccoons, and dogs that are allowed to run around off the leash for her to have them outside.
Also, we can make sure the kittens go to a good home where they’ll be fixed, instead of running around feral and having even more kittens. Momma’s getting fixed too, when we can and she’s able to be.

Even if your feline friend is a he, getting him fixed will be good for his health in the long run. :slight_smile:

11

I took in three feral kittens three and a half years ago. They turned out to be all girls but I named them while laying on the floor looking under the bed and one of them looked more boyish and ended up with the name Chester. They graduated from the bedroom after five months and would still scatter if anyone moved. Sophie got out by accident and we had to trap her to get her back. She had a litter of kittens (surprise!) and we ended up keeping one. She got out again when a dishwasher was being delivered and she wasn’t falling for the cat trap again. She’s gone now. :frowning:

Her sisters, Chester and Twinkle Toes are doing fine, you’d never know that Twinkie was wild and Chester lets people see her but doesn’t “do” laps. The kitten we kept, Cobbius, is almost as schitzy as his mother despite the fact that he was raised in the house and has never been outside.

12

Six of our thirteen cats are formerly feral. They are wonderfully intense little creatures. They are extremely affectionate with my husband and me, but leery of meeting other humans. After they have seen a certain visitor often enough, they’ll come creeping out to make friends, but their initial reaction to a new person is “EEEK! Run away! Run away!”

13

Nick was a big orange stray who adopted us when, the vet estimated, he was between six and eight. My father threw him outside every single night, rain, sleet, snow. Well, check that. He stopped doing it when Nick got to be twenty. He lived to 22. I think it was healthy for him to go out every night.

So don’t worry about kitty. She’ll be just fine in the cold and wet.

14

We got Nixie from a friend who resued her after her feral mother abandoned her. She was so small she easily fit into one hand (she’s still the smallest of our cats). She was affectionate almost from the beginning, and quickly came to accept petting and strokes from me, Mrs B, and then 12-year-old Miss B, but only until she decided she’d had enough, at which point she switched to weasel mode and after a brief ears back, tail twitching warning period, began slashing and biting. If you didn’t watch carefully, blood and tears ensued. (She once bit right through Mrs B’s thumbnail.)

We tolerated this, and still tolerate it, although she’s pretty mellow now at age 14, because she is otherwise our most affectionate cat. She has a sleek, silky-smooth black coat and loves to be stroked and petted (head and back only - DON’T touch her belly), She will curl up in Mrs. B’s lap or climb up and drape herself over her shoulder and go to sleep. She likes to be picked up and carried around draped over Miss B’s shoulder, and she will get up on her hind legs and stretch her front legs up to get me to pick her up, then she will walk around on my shoulders and on my arms (held out horizontally with my forearms overlapping) before lying down stretched out along my left arm with her chin draped over my elbow for as long as I care to hold my arm up. She will also follow me around until I stop by a table or other convenient surface, whereupon she will jump up and bunt her head against me while I stroke her (Mrs B: “Nixie’s being a headbanger again”). She can still flick over into weasel mode if you’re not careful, though, but now it’s after 5 minutes of stroking, not 30 seconds.

She’s still wary of outsiders, and will rarely come out of the bedroom while anyone is here, even if it’s the MIL and SIL who visit at least once a week, and we always discourage any visitors from trying to pet her.

She has a voracious appetite for tidbits, although she disdains any sort of dry/moist cat food, and will race into the kitchen when she hears me sharpening a knife or getting out a cutting board, and will sit on my feet with her eyes fixed on the action above until I either show her it’s just veggies being cut up or give some of the meat. The latter is done with great care, as her response reminds me of the opening of Jaws, nothing but gaping maw full of sharp white teeth rising rapidly from below (this is her landshark mode).

We do love her :smiley: .

15

We rescued two tiny feral kittens from the bushes across the road. One, Niblet, quickly became a relaxed, friendly house cat, but her sister, Winkler, is still inclined to panic when someone approaches her. As she has gotten older she has mellowed noticeably. Picking her up is totally out of the question, but she adores being scratched and fussed over, as long as it is on her terms. We figure this is probably about as good as it is going to get (she and her sister are five years old now) and we have accepted this. She is a sweet cat and we are glad we took her in.

Ferals can become happy, loving pets, but time and patience are necessary. Accept them on their own terms and realize that they can be scared of you and love you at the same time. Good luck with yours.