Feral cat loose in garage

I trapped a feral male this morning (have been trying to get this guy for a while) with plans to get him neutered and vaccinated tomorrow. Had him in the trap in my garage. Unfortunately, due to my carelessness he got out of the trap and is now loose. I tried netting him, but don't have a lot of experience with this (wore gloves, etc...), but ending up stressing both of us out. He's now out of reach literally "hanging" out on of the pulley's for our old garage door. There's no way out of the garage. I've got a couple of phone calls in to my local TNR contacts, but no response yet. I do have a kennel to download in to if someone can net him.

Any ideas? I figure my best bet for now is to just leave him alone and reset the traps. He should be hungry since I had the feeders pull the food at the site last night in anticipation of trapping.

If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know. If not, if you can spare some vibes and prayers that I can get a hold of this guy, that would be great. Thanks!

Hi Eilcon,

I don't have any ideas for you but know what you must be going through. I will send lots of vibes and prayers your way and hope you re-catch him soon.

Hi Elicon,

I am sending prayers and vibes that you catch him again soon.

A couple of years ago one of the male ferals that I trapped got out in the bathroom and wouldn't let us near him. He kept cowering behind the sink and would run up and down the walls. When we entered he would literally go crazy. We ended up leaving the bathroom door open and gave him a path straight to the front door. The bathroom is at the top of the stairs. He ran straight down those stairs and right out of there! It was the best thing for us to do as he refused to eat for almost 3 days while he was in there.

I'm wishing a speedy re-trapping of this feral. Good luck!

Good luck, Eileen!

I agree with your thought to reset the trap and let his hunger send him back in there, and wait it out. I am SO sorry this happened to you. It sounds like you had enough trouble to just trap him in the first place. I hope it goes well!

I also agree the net is a bad way to go unless you really know what you are doing. A friend of mine used one and the cat in question got its pads and nails pretty torn up.

Poor guy - he must be terrified! I would use KFC in the trap. I've heard it's irresistable. Good luck!

Thanks guys. No luck retrapping my feral friend overnight, though he did come down from his perch, which is encouraging. I didn't have access to KFC last night, but will try that tonight. I'm still hoping to find somebody with more experience at netting a cat than me to help if that becomes necessary. Poor guy is so stressed out. I hate putting him through this, but it has to be done. Please keep those vibes coming. Thanks!

Many vibes you have success trapping this poor guy.

Hey guys, still no luck with the feral guy. I've got KFC in one trap now and really smelly fish and shrimp Fancy Feast in the other, so am hoping that will do the trick overnight. The poor guy's got to be starving by now. Spoke to a friend of mine with tons of experience in TNR and rescue and she said just to be patient and give it a few days and she feels he'll eventually go into one of traps. If that doesn't work, she'll bring her net over and, between the two of us, we'll get him that way.

Meanwhile, it's killing me that there's a terrified, hungry cat in my garage. I feel terrible for the poor guy. Ultimately, this will be a good thing for him but, for now, it's still hard to think about how scared he must be. Please keep those vibes coming. Thanks!

Im thinking. What is the matter? Why the hurry?

He is isolated and de facto in quarantene. Thus there is no hurry against your homecats.
The time for vet appointment is apparently over. So this dont hurry either.

So let him settle down and land. You may even use Feliway if you wish.
When he understands there is nobody threatening him or wanting to catch him (as he understand is so now) - he will stress down rather quickly.

The drawback? If you want to TNR him, ie let him back into the wilderness, it may be a shame. As he perhaps will become half tame during the time.

But if you hope to foster him into a tame cat, perhaps even a indoor homecat -there is really no hurry. He isnt hurt or sick either as far you know?!
Although the vet IS a step to do.

Originally Posted by StefanZ

Im thinking. What is the matter? Why the hurry?

He is isolated and de facto in quarantene. Thus there is no hurry against your homecats.
The time for vet appointment is apparently over. So this dont hurry either.

So let him settle down and land. You may even use Feliway if you wish.
When he understands there is nobody threatening him or wanting to catch him (as he understand is so now) - he will stress down rather quickly.

The drawback? If you want to TNR him, ie let him back into the wilderness, it may be a shame. As he perhaps will become half tame during the time.

But if you hope to foster him into a tame cat, perhaps even a indoor homecat -there is really no hurry. He isnt hurt or sick either as far you know?!
Although the vet IS a step to do.

Click to expand...

Great news - got him overnight! The smelly wet food did the trick. He didn't go for the KFC. We have a new spay/neuter clinic that doesn't require appointments for ferals that have been trapped, so I'll drop him off on the way to work.

The hurry to get him was for his sake and for my downstairs neighbor, to some extent, since I share the garage with her. She's been very understanding of my cat activities, but I don't want to push my luck by telling her she has to stay out of the garage.

This guy needs to be a straight TNR, as much I might be tempted to try to socialize him. The neighborhood is his home. His littermate is there (she's was spayed last fall) and they're very closely bonded. He's actually somewhat tame around the feeders and will let them get close. They do a great job of caring for all the neighborhood cats.

It will be hard to release him. It's hard to release any of the ferals I trap, but at least he'll go back to the site fixed, vaccinated, deflead and dewormed and having any other vet attention he needs. He'll be a happier cat and unable to reproduce. That's what counts.

Thanks for the vibes, guys!

I'm glad you got him Eileen! I would've been sitting around going "duh" trying to figure out how to get him still!

Originally Posted by white cat lover

I'm glad you got him Eileen! I would've been sitting around going "duh" trying to figure out how to get him still!

Click to expand...

That was me at first.

Anyway, the kitty in question was fixed and vaccinated yesterday, came through it with no problems and will be released later this week. He'll be so relieved to get home.

Besides him being neutered, another positive thing that came out of this is that our garage is now the cleanest it's been in several years. Since I made a mess moving stuff to net him, then retrapping him, we decided to clean everything out and get reorganized. Everything happens for a reason, I guess.

Thanks for the vibes!

Congratulations of getting your feral cat! I am sure you were both stressed out! And hey, congratulations on your clean garage, too!