Question of the Day - October 16th - Friday

JinJin was a very pregnant wall climbing, shower head swinging feral! A friend and I trapped her when a coworker told us about her. Now, four years later, she a fat, happy girl...too fat in fact. Considering how bad her teeth were, and the infection she had in them, I doubt she would have made it through the winter with those five babies she had (in my bathroom).

None of mine were, but Maggie would have been. Her mother was feral and was brought to the shelter the day before giving birth. Maggie was born at the shelter and handled from day one, but if it were not for the person who rescued Peaches, Maggie would have been feral. The really good news is that her mom Peaches became a friendly cat & has since been adopted.

Skinny is semi-feral and I seldom see him unless the weather is foul. He is tame enough to eat while I am nearby, and yells for his supper when I go do evening chores and sometimes rubs against me and allows a pat or two. Gimpy is truly feral - he won't eat until I am well away from the feeding station and if I get too close, he goes off until I am out of his idea of safe. The rest of the barn cats range from kinda tame and allow petting on their terms to PITA when I am out there and some live at the house when weather is fit. Of those that beg lots of attention, 2 ride in the tractor with me, and a third jumps in for attention once the motor is shut off.

penny's parents were feral from what i was told. she was a field kitten for at least 4 weeks. i was given no history on daisy, other than she was the shyest out of a litter of 8 (or was it 7?). i guess her mom was a stray

Cindy and Fawn are the orphans of a semi-feral Mom who was killed by a car, near my SILs place. They were rescued at about 5 weeks by someone who couldn't keep them, but M directed her to a friend of my MIL who does rescue, and V took them in, socialized them and when the time was right found them a furrever home -- us. They are wonderfully social with us, take lots of cuddling, etc, but are shy or absent when others are around, run for the basement when they hear the door, and still spook at unfamiliar sounds to a larger extent than previous kitties have.

Thank you for making this the question of the day!

As we had no intention of getting a pet of any kind, the only reason we have cats is that we ended up getting involved in rescuing them. They adopted us.

6 of ours are direct feral rescues, rescued from outside, by us.

Ming Loy? We don't know. She and her sister were found by a garbage man. They were tied up in a bag and thrown out in the trash. He rescued them, brought them to the county shelter. They were both cerebral hypoplasia kitties (scarred brain tissue resulting in pretty severe physical handicap). This is caused by a mom becoming very ill during pregnancy. We often took kitties on the euthanasia list out of their hands, either directly by Gary and me or into the no-kill shelter we co-founded. They called and gave us exactly two hours to get over there and get them. So we high-tailed it over there and got them. One of the vet techs that attended to their care adopted Ming Loy's sister.

Very good question for today.....

Sassy was never feral, his Mom was a much loved family pet that should have been spaded earlier and was shortly after her first accidental litter. I adopted him and one of his litter mates, Flip whom I lost to kidney failure a couple of years ago..

Linus spent the first year of his life in the Animal Shelter. He was one of a litter that was dropped off because they weren't wanted..

Pixie although not a feral was very badly abused by previous owner and ended up at the Shelter after being seized in a case of animal cruelty. At the time she was brought in she had a broken front leg and several other injuries. There was some debate at that point whether she should be put down or not but they decided to give her a chance because she is a sweet little cat.

Gals & Guys Love all your answers!... ...

All three Lucky I found on the lawn a few hours old
Gus I stole from his feral Momma
Momma is Gus's Mom

Every single cat in my household was born feral. You couldn't tell now that they were born that way. Sure, some of them are still shy with strangers, but that is no different than many cats born in "normal" environments.

Stumpy: found in a storm cellar with his tail half chopped off. Rescued at 5 weeks old.

Eightball: found in the rafters of my garage. Handled the kittens until they were weaned then brought them inside at 6 weeks (brother is OTB and sister was adopted).

Bob: found in a box in my garage at about 6 weeks old.

Pinky: feral mom wandered up to our house trailed by a couple of very wild kittens. Pinky's brother Ruby (OTB) got entangled in a clematis vine and bit me when I tried to untangle him. Both came inside as part of the rabies quarantine at about 4 months old.

Scarlett: was orphaned at 20 days old when her feral mom just disappeared one day. Her 2 siblings were adopted out once old enough. This was our first bottle feeding experience.

Muddy and Koko: were orphaned at 10 days old when their feral mom killed by a roaming dog. Their 2 brothers were adopted out at 5 weeks to a friend who wanted a stronger bond with them through bottle feeding.

Lucky Pierre: mom brought him and 3 siblings out of the woods a few hours before a tornado struck. His mom and siblings all had FeLV and Lucky was fortunate to live thru a tornado and FeLV at an early age.

Spanky and Oscar: they may not have been actually born feral, but I strongly suspect Oscar was. They were part of a trio of kittens (different ages) that were dumped on my doorstep one day. I suspect someone was cleaning out their barn. Spanky was about 8 weeks old and Oscar about 4 weeks old when I discovered them. The third kitten was about 12 weeks old and was adopted out.

Since there isn't a feral dog day that I'm aware of, I would like to add that 2 of my dogs, Sam and Spike, were born to a feral mom also. She was on the streets having puppies for at least 3 years when the local humane society was finally able to dart gun sedate her and rescue her and the 11 puppies from that litter.

Cleo and Maggie are both animal shelter rescues. Both were friendly and well socialized when I got them. Lola was found in a carrier, on the doorstep of my vet's office, when they opened one morning. She was also very friendly.

Spooky was my true feral. She was the only surviving kitten, of a litter of three, born to a gorgeous, feral momma cat that lived in the garage of a house I was renting. One snowy January afternoon, I went to feed the cats, and found her laying in a snowbank, unmoving. I picked her up to bring her into the house, and she bit me - right through my thumbnail! I immediately took her to my vet, because she was frostbitten and wheezing. He told me that judging by her teeth, she was about 6 months old, but she had the weight and development of an 8 week old kitten. She also had a very bad upper respiratory infection, as well as frost bitten ears and paw pads. He shook his head, and told me not to get my hopes up.

I kept her with me everywhere I went, keeping her warm, and feeding her with an eyedropper. We bonded so close. I've never felt as close to another animal or human, as I was to her. She was truely my soulmate.

Gotta go now...I'm crying too much to finish...

Freya was stray, but definately not feral.
Cotton was found living in a feral colony, but I don't know that I would have classified him as feral...maybe semi-feral at his most frightenned.

Sometimes I think Chester could have been born a feral. I adopted him from a shelter but he is not like any cats I have known.

He did grow up in a home. On the information sheet that came with him the person who left him there states that she adopted him he was 6 weeks old from "neighborhood kittens".

Chester is very shy, avoids people, is easily scared and does not like to be handled at all.

At first I thought he was just not socialized very well in his first home. But who knows? The "neighborhood kittens" could have been feral.

Originally Posted by Pookie-poo

Gotta go now...I'm crying too much to finish...

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I have some special kitties I miss, too. I know it hurts that they're gone, but our lives and theirs were so much richer for the time spent together.

Getting bit as a first greeting is a pretty good sign you might have a feral cat.

Maybe a good discussion sometime on what makes a feral, a semi-feral, stray, and just a spooked kitty would be a good thing?

I notice some confusing spooked and under socialized kitties as ferals.

I have one, Tomas, that I found as a 10week out kitten outside. Very cuddly and needed a momma. He's not well socialized, and that's mostly my fault. He's far from feral but he growls at strangers and bit a vet tech. Now whenever he has to go to the vet he turns into a growling, hissing, tense mess. He growls if strangers are outside my home, growls if company he doesn't know are inside the home. The difference with him is that given a few hours he can accept and actually shows interest in other people. If any of you were in my home visiting for a while he'd eventually wander out and inspect the scents on you from head to toe.

Love this thread!...