What should I do about these feral cats?

At my boyfriend’s house, one day last year, there appeared three little wild kittens. One of his roomates’ girlfriends fed and watered them, and my gentle suggestions to trap them and have them at least spayed or neutered were met with general hostility, and they weren’t “my” feral cats. Fine, whatever. Well, they moved out a little while ago and the cats are still there.

One of them (“Let’s name him Lord Greystoke, because he’s a civilized man who grew up in the jungle!” says Himself. Says I, “You know naming wild animals is stupid. He could get hit by a car or die of some disease. We could call him Stokey.”) is very sweet-natured. This past month he has gotten very friendly - today he demanded I pet him for at least thirty minutes. He drooled. IMHO he seems very adoptable.

The second one is black with turquoise eyes. It’s much more cautious but I think could be gentled. It won’t let you pet it, but I feel that given time it would. There’s something wrong with one of its eyes - it looks like that extra eyelid thing in the corner of the eye is inflamed.

The third one is white and truly feral. It won’t come near and doesn’t even like being seen.

I want to at least do something for Stokey. I mean, I have two cats already and don’t want to throw them into turmoil, but if he does well in a house I could be persuaded to keep him. Tomorrow I was going to call my vet and ask her for advice, but I wanted to hear from some Dopers who have done this - would they spay/neuter, deworm, and vaccinate a cat who isn’t my pet for cheaper than normal? Obviously I’d keep it isolated from my cats for a long time to make sure he isn’t carrying anything, but I’m not sure if I’d want to keep him at all, since that could throw the dynamics between Eddles and Dewey right into the shitter. I mean, we’re happy now with the two cats. I was thinking, though, that if I did lock him in the bathroom in the garage and fed him and such, the more time we spend with him the more adoptable he is even if we don’t keep him. I feel very torn about Stokey.

The one with the eye issue, I want to get him some help. (I mean, really I want to get all of them fixed, at any rate.) The thing is, is it even possible to, say, give a people-shy cat eye drops or whatever? That one would be difficult to catch, let alone medicate or whatever it needs. It has unusual and lovely eyes, but would not, I think, get adopted at the city shelter. I could take him to the no-kill but I believe there is a fairly high fee.

The white one would have to be trapped and I don’t know that that’s the best thing for it anyway. I’d like to get it fixed but I don’t think it would ever be a reasonable pet for anybody.

I don’t have a ton of extra money right now. If I do anything it would be for Stokey, but how much are we talking about here? A hundred bucks? Five hundred? For a wild cat? Is there a program or something that could help out?

Also, what’s likely to be the matter with cat 2’s eye, and will it clear up on its own?

I know some people will probably be all "Sell your house and save the cats!’ but frankly with the exception of 2’s eye they’re doing fine. I’d get them altered just so they don’t make a ton of little cats, but I don’t know that the shelter is such a great idea (although Stokey would probably get adopted) - I mean, the city shelter must put down a ton of feral cats. I’m getting kind of attached to little Shouldn’t-Have-Named-Him, but as far as I’m concerned the other two are basically large squirrels. So I’m looking for advice that’s realistic, as in a perfect world of course I’d trap 3 and give it an awesome job as a barn cat and we’d all live happily ever after.

One thing to be wary of, since you already have other cats, are diseases the ferals may already have, the two nastiest IMHO being feline leukemia and FIV (feline version of AIDS). Both of these diseases can be present but symptomless for enough time to infect other cats, so it’s a good idea you’re planning to have a vet look at any cat you have any slight intention of bringing indoors. It will make the kitty much more adoptable if you can say it’s free of disease, if you don’t decide to keep it.

The FIV is communicable among cats through bites, and other bodily fluid exchange. I’ve heard different tales about how easily feline leukemia is spread, but you are probably washing your hands very thoroughly after handling the feral cat before touching your own cats anyway. Don’t let them share food dishes.

We’ve taken in two abandoned kittens at different times, and both had some sort of eye issue. The first one was treated with antibiotics (boy, that was fun), but was left with a slight scarring of the cornea as a result. The current one also had an eye issue, which was diagnosed as a herpes infection. It will require us to continue medicating for the rest of its life with lysine to keep the situation under control. In neither case, according to our vet, would the problem have gone away on its own.

Are there any animal rescue groups in your area? We have some around here who will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid euthanizing an animal.

Oh, and a black cat with turquoise eyes sounds gorgeous.

Mr. Fattles himself has kitty herpes - he’s fine usually and then he has an outbreak and he needs his lysine. Cat 2 didn’t really look like Fattles does when he gets his herp on - the eye didn’t seem to be watering, for instance.

I think Stokey may have given me fleas. Asshole.

I do have some Revolution for the other cats, was wondering if it would be worthwhile to dose the ferals, or if they’d just re-parasite on up. Also, would it affect surgery?

If I do decide to trap them and get them fixed, do they have to not eat beforehand? It would be hard to set an appointment anywhere, since I don’t know if I can get ahold of the animals or how long it would take me. Stokey I feel confident I could get with a towel, some long sleeves, and my cat carrier that opens on top.

Right. This place sez no food or water after 8 p.m. the night before the surgery. So yeah, they must arrive “fasting”.

God, I just know this is going to be an expensive-ass project.

We spent enough getting our first foundling (found literally on the street, practically on the verge of death) healthy that we could have bought a pedigreed something. We enjoyed Oliver immensely, though and felt much better about it.

Sigh. Guess I’ll try and grab Stokey tonight and stick him in the bathroom until I can get him in to see the vet or whoever’s going to take a chunk out of my wallet. Now that Himself named him I’m sure he’s going to get hit by a car or in a fight or something.

For what it’s worth, here is our account of what we did when we trapped the feral cat in our yard last year. In addition to our own experience, there is plenty of advice and such from others in the thread as well.

He seems so sweet and gentle, but I do not know what the hell is going to happen when I try to pick him up and jam him into a carrier. I’m going to try wearing my motorcycle jacket and gloves, but I’m afraid he might not think it smells right.

On the other hand, I’d never come within ten feet of the cat and last night not only did he not run away from me, he wouldn’t let me leave and go eat because he wasn’t done with his scritchins.

ETA - I’ll take some pictures in the hopes that they’ll be good before-and-after pictures - I look at how sleek and glossy my indoor cats are and I think it’s not fair to Stokey and he ought to have a chance at it.

Zsofia - I’d contact your local humane society and see if there’s a low-cost spay/nueter clinic near you. It would probably be cheaper than going to your vet. Or possible a feral cal snip and release program. They might also lend you live traps to catch the wild pair.

Good for you for doing this. I’m sure Stokey will fit in wonderfully once he realizes that he has three squares a day in his new abode.

StG

Okay, I talked to the vet. Stokey has an appointment for Wednesday (I’m going to try and grab him tonight) to get snipped, poked, and wormed. The whole shebang is going to cost about two hundred goddamned bucks, assuming he’s a he. (He damned well better be.) The spay/neuter itself costs about the same as it does elsewhere in town ($65) and unfortunately I don’t live in one of the zip codes they’re sending certificates for reduced price spay-and-neuter to. She told me to call the Humane Society about catching and releasing the other two, however, for traps.

ETA - I believe this is cat lady territory.

Well, that’s odd - they told me the price would be about the same anywhere, but now I find the Humane Society’s website and it is indeed cheaper there.

I think I’ll take the pet-quality cat to my trusted cat vet, but I’ll take the other two to the Humane Society.

Have you considered eating them? There is a shortage of food going on after all. We should be responsible and make use of all available food, so that there is still some left over for people with less food available to them.

Ex-feral cat rescuer TNR’er. Are there any feral-specific groups in your area? They should be able to help trap & spay.

Would this link help you any? Feral Cats in South Carolina

Best of luck, and thanks for helping out.

I feel like a monster now. I went and catnapped the nice one and his brother sat there and miaowed at me/him like he knew what was happening. :frowning:

Stokie is not very happy about this bathroom thing. At all. He’s hiding behind the toilet and giving me dirty looks.

Check out this thread.

A friend called me yesterday, frantic because the night before she had found two black kittens under her trailer; she managed to coax them out and tried to feed them, but they wouldn’t eat. She had tried to call her vet but it being Sunday hadn’t gotten an answer. She ended up driving over to my place, picking me up, and we went to the local PetSmart that had a vet on duty. He said they were three to five weeks old, appeared to be in good health (no signs of dehydration or infestation of any sort) but probably hadn’t yet been weaned. They cuddled on my chest after being fed, and even followed me around once.

So now I have two new kittens. And my current cat doesn’t seem to mind them being here; he even jumped up on the couch, which he hardly ever does, to check them out a few times.

So we bought some kitten feeding supplies and took them back to my place. They finished off nearly four tablespoons of kitten formula yesterday, and that much so far today. We think that someone may have abandoned them because they are both completely black, which apparently some people are superstitious about, because they are definitely not feral.

:frowning: Some people have the same thing going on in their heads when it comes to dogs. Black isn’t a lucky color for animals, it seems.

I’m glad that you’re taking care of the little ones!

I’ve always wanted to have an all-black cat. The only problem with having two of them is that I can’t tell them apart; one is just a shade fluffier than the other, but it’s only apparent when they’re together.