I have been caring for both stray and feral cats for years. One of my beloved house cats, a 10 year old neutered male accidentally got out 10 days ago and these cats are preventing him from returning. They block his path to the front door. What can i do?
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Please Help!!
- Thread starter giabella
- Start Date
I am so sorry.
Someone who knows what to do will be along.
Someone who knows what to do will be along.
If you see him in the yard go outside when you see him, mabye he will come to you and you can pick him up and bring him back inside.
Or if you see him open his favorite food or treats and mabye he will come running to you.
Or if you see him open his favorite food or treats and mabye he will come running to you.
You need to move where you feed the strays and ferals to another spot so your cat can get to the door. The strays and ferals will follow the food and whatever else you have provided for them. Just move that stuff and they will go where it goes.
Can you see your cat trying to get in? Can you better describe what exactly is happening? If he is out there, go out there with him. Shoo the others away. It will not keep them from coming back after you get your boy.
You are the alpha kitty over all the cats, so they will follow your lead. If you go outside and actively track him down, the other cats should not interfere.
Good luck and let us know more about your situation!
Can you see your cat trying to get in? Can you better describe what exactly is happening? If he is out there, go out there with him. Shoo the others away. It will not keep them from coming back after you get your boy.
You are the alpha kitty over all the cats, so they will follow your lead. If you go outside and actively track him down, the other cats should not interfere.
Good luck and let us know more about your situation!
You get good advices I think.
I suppose you could also try to set out a humane trap for your cat, the bait being something smelling himself. (perhaps not you, as that would also drawn the semiferals attached to you...).
The trap set near your house, but outside the circle "occupied" by the semiferals living at your place.
You will probably get catched also other cats, but that isnt no big problem.
Worse is the semiferal may pee and mark on the trap, as it will smell your cat...
Thus you must be prepared to clean it up / change the good smelling cloth...
Is your own cat shy? If not, it may perhaps be enough with a carrier, him staying in there where he feels his own smells - and waiting to be collected by you. Or perhaps even by some friendly neighbour.
- Ie, do talk with your neighbours, let them help to watch out... Useful especielly if he isnt shy and being people social.
I suppose you could also try to set out a humane trap for your cat, the bait being something smelling himself. (perhaps not you, as that would also drawn the semiferals attached to you...).
The trap set near your house, but outside the circle "occupied" by the semiferals living at your place.
You will probably get catched also other cats, but that isnt no big problem.
Worse is the semiferal may pee and mark on the trap, as it will smell your cat...
Thus you must be prepared to clean it up / change the good smelling cloth...
Is your own cat shy? If not, it may perhaps be enough with a carrier, him staying in there where he feels his own smells - and waiting to be collected by you. Or perhaps even by some friendly neighbour.
- Ie, do talk with your neighbours, let them help to watch out... Useful especielly if he isnt shy and being people social.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #6
Thanks everyone! We've tried everything. We have 2 Havahart traps set. We've caught other cats, but not Allister. We were able to catch what appears to be the leader of the feral cats a few nights ago and a worker from the shelter came to pick him up the next day and let him get away. He won't go near the traps now. Allister will not come to us. If we move toward him, he bolts. He has tried to come to the front door, but the feral cats attack him and chase him off. I'm afraid he's going to stop trying to come home. We've posted fliers, talked to neighbors and filed a card with the SPCA which is really not even necessary as he's obviously staying very close by and wants to come home.
I'm so afraid we won't be able to get him back in. Does anyone know how we can get these cats to stay away from our property long enough to allow Allister to return. If my kindness to these stray and feral cats cost me my Allister, I'll never forgive myself.
I'm so afraid we won't be able to get him back in. Does anyone know how we can get these cats to stay away from our property long enough to allow Allister to return. If my kindness to these stray and feral cats cost me my Allister, I'll never forgive myself.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #7
Barb,
I'm sorry. I missed your post. I'm such a wreck after staying up night after night trying to bring Allister home.
We will try moving the food and water to another area. It's very hard to approach Allister with those cats howling and hissing at him. He bolts every time. I'm so afraid he's going to give up.
Have you been able to get your boy back home? I hope all is well. Let us know!
Mega go home )))VIBES(((
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #10
Sadly, there has been so sign of Allister in 7 days ~ since his last attempt to get past the leader of the feral cats. Once again, Allister was within feet of the front door and this cat shot out of nowhere and chased him off. He's been gone for 16 days now and our hope of finding him is fading. He's such a shy, timid little cat and it's tearing our hearts out thinking of him being out there alone for so long.
giabella, do not give up. Your cat even though not as "street-wise" as the ferals, is capable of surviving on his own for quite some time. Do not worry because you think he is helpless or defenseless, because he's not (as long as he hasn't been declawed!). When an indoor cats get out, they are initially both extremely excited and scared at the same time. The "scared" part wears off rather quickly, but the "excited" part doesn't, especially if at some point in the cat's life he was a stray before. Your cat is likely nearby, even if you don't see him. It's possible he doesn't want to be "caught" yet. I know that's hard to accept because we "humans" know that it's in the cat's best interest for them to be safe in our care, but as far as the cat is concerned, he may be having the time of his life. :-) Don't give up though. Keep calling and trying to entice him back. If you do that and are patient, that's your best bet of getting him back. The feral cats won't have much to do with it in time.....
Giabella...I'm assuming these cats have all been spayed/neutered correct?? I think you should follow Barb's advice of moving the food. Then set up traps where you have seen Allister.
Katie
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #14
Thanks for giving me a bit of hope. After 18 days and 8 with no sighting of Allister, my hope is fading. My biggest fear is that he's not getting enough water. Allister has a problem with Struvite crystals forming in his bladder if he doesn't drink enough. He's been hospitalized with this condition twice. If he gets an attack now, it could kill him.
My daughter and I have been walking the neighborhood, passing out flyers and crawling under every porch and deck we can. We've been setting traps in our yard as well as some of the neighbor's who have been kind enough to allow us to do so. We've caught cats nearly every night ~ but no Allister. The feral cats cannot be trapped either.
We will keep trying to get our baby home safely. I could not stand the thought of never seeing his beautiful face again.
Thanks for your response.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #15
I forgot to add ~ moving the food did NOT help. They go to where the food is, eat it and then sleep in my driveway or on my porch. Sometimes we don't even see them and then a neighbor's cat will walk by and they pounce out of nowhere. The last time Allister was chased, we didn't see them until he was within a few feet of the door. So tragic to have him that close and now no sign of him.
Allister is neutered. The ferals are not. We were in the process of working with a rescue group to TNR when this happened. Now I can't even get these cats trapped.
I'm not sure why you now believe you are unable to trap these feral cats. I would continue to work towards trying to trap them and then getting as many as you can spayed/neutered. I would think that these cats do consider your home "their turf" and a lot of what is driving that is that they are not fixed and see Allister as a threat to their terrotory.
Below is a link to ideas on how to trap trap-savvy cats:
http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/info/hardtocatch.htm
Are you using different bait? (the smellier the bait, the more enticing it is). Are you trying catnip in the trap? One of the members on this board had great success trapping males using "used" litter under the trap. It encouraged the male to want to pee over the foreign smell and end up trapped.
I think you should also join this group:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/feral_cats/
As it is a community of individuals who have worked with small colonies and large colonies and I'm sure they will have some advice on 1. trapping the ferals and 2. finding Allister.
What it may take is a mass trapping effort where all the ferals (or at least the majority) are trapped in one setting....while they are off for their spaying/neutering appt. I would work on trying to locate Allister.
Katie
The idea is to get the ferals to become familiar with a "different" area and to set up their territory further away from her home. I've been involved in situations where colonies have had to be moved away from an area that is considered an issue...but it isn't something that can be done overnight....as they didn't congregate at the OPs home overnight.
After reading about the fact that these cats are still intact, I think they certainly need to focus the attention on a mass trapping effort to get these cats fixed.
Katie
I'm sending you my prayers that he comes home soon. This must be horrible for you. Loads of luck coming, too.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #19
Since we trapped the *leader* a couple weeks ago and the shelter worker allowed him to escape, none of the ferals will go near the traps.
I do realize that these cats view this as their home and are just protecting their territory. I just want Allister to be able to come back home.
The link you posted was the one I used to get some ideas. We've been using the camoflauge method. We put tuna in oil and cat treats inside. We've sprinkled catnip around the traps. In the attempts to catch Allister, we've put one of his small blankets and an article of our clothing in the trap.
We did get a sighting of Allister last night. He walked to the front of the house but would not approach. My daughter opened the front door and called to him and he ran off. We're so happy to see that he's alive and well, but heartbroken that he didn't run right in. There was no sign of the feral cats at this time. He had a clear shot of the door but wouldn't come close.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #20
Thanks so much. This IS one of the worst things we've ever been through. We feel so helpless. Allister was my daughter's constant companion. He followed her through the house like a puppy. The rest of our cats are aloof and keep to themselves. Allister wanted to be in our laps and sleeping right on top of us.
