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.