I can't believe I was so stupid

I guess you can tell I'm not very experienced in this and apparently knowing the theory is not enough...

I took two cats to be neutered yesterday. One was the neighbors' tom cat (I coaxed him out of them promising he would also be vaccinated against rabies at a low cost - which he was) and the other one was a white and gray stray that wandered into our backyard a couple of weeks ago. He has already managed to get in a fight with our Romeo and give him a nasty abcess so once we saw he wasn't going away we decided it's our responsibility to neuter him. Anyway, both boys were neutered successfully and today I drove to the Cat Welfare Society of Israel clinic to get them back. Rivi, the head of the CWSI told me to keep the white and gray boy in a large cage or a room for a few hours so he can settle down and orient himself before we let him out into the yard again. So, I put him into our enclosure and shut the cat flap so our cats won't get in there and he won't be able to get inside. Then I had to go.

I came back half an hour later and he was gone! I don't know how he managed to get away! This is what our enclosure looks like:


In the picture you see our cat Gezer. He never got out of there (only back inside)... Apparently this stray squeezed himself through a very narrow gap between the enclosure and the wall

I'm so worried now. I so hope he didn't hurt himself coming out... I left out some food - maybe that will get him back here so I can have a look at him and see if he's alright... I feel so guilty

Anne,

He should be fine! I had the same thing happen awhile ago, and about a week later saw the now neutered tom and he was doing great! Had it been a female, it might not have been that way, but the males rebound quicker. Some ferals you just can't cage no matter what! You did a good thing getting him neutered, now I just hope another un neutered one doesn't show up.

Anne, the enclosure looks cat escape-proof to me, too. Please try not to fret. I agree with Hissy - good thing he was male and not female. I expect he'll be fine, and no matter how you feel, you did the right thing.

In the future, perhaps consider this for feral females. When having females spayed that have to be released, we leave them at the Vet's to recover from being spayed for 3 - 7 days, depending upon the weather and the Vet's opinion. And we have them use dissolving stitches.

Anne,

I would have been freaking out when I got home and found no cat in the enclosure! But...I have seen how quickly the males recover from the surgery, so I agree with the others that he is probably just fine!

Believe it or not, I have not yet caught a female feral! All of my ferals are male (so far). We did have a female, Isosceles, who we were trying to trap when I found her run over by a car. Perhaps in the latest batch of cats who have recently started to visit, there will be a female.

Renae

Gee Renae- then she may not only be female but pregnant too! Then you can change your board name to lotsolotsolotsocats!

Eeeeeeeeeek! No pregnant females allowed! :laughing: Maybe I'd better start trapping even though its snowing and wet outside!

He's back! And seems in perfect shape! Just filled up his belly with cat food on our porch!

Thanks for the encouragement everyone - I feel much better now.

I am glad he returned so quickly! He hardly made you suffer at all.

So glad to hear it, Anne! *Sigh of Relief*