Cats surviving outdoors?

I'm not entirely sure how to word this. Hopefully it doesn't sound like a stupid thread!

As many of you know, I have outdoor farm cats. All S/N, receive vet care, etc. Many of my house cats are farm cats who just weren't cutting it - it was die or come inside. (Several of them are kitties I brought home from the shelter & weren't cut out to live outdoors) Two of them in particular, however, are cats who are in their senior years who have lived outdoors their entire lives. They were born outdoors on the farm - a mother (Slinky almost 13 y/o) & her daughter (Tabitha almost 10 y/o).

I'm curious other's thoughts on why they were no longer surviving outdoors? (In Slinky's case it was likely health issues - she probably had a stroke, at best has suffered from vision loss.) I guess I don't hear of many things like this happening in feral colonies, but I suppose that's because they hide from humans when ill & probably die.

It's not ideal that I have outdoor cats, but most of them have lived outdoors their entire lives, they were born outside here. They're also all 6+ years old, with most of them being well into their senior years. I guess I'm concerned that maybe as they age, they are no longer able to handle living outdoors? With more & more of them nearing/entering their senior years, this thought makes me very nervous.

Then I look at Fafeena, who turns 17 years old this spring/summer (!!!!!), and no matter how hard I try I cannot get her to accept life as a house cat. She's still happily living outdoors, w/ limited vision & hearing we do everything we can to safeguard her & keep her alive for many more years to come! She's in excellent health - fat, sassy, & attacking any leaves that dare enter her territory.

Fafeena sounds like my Indiana Joan (Indie for short), who finally crossed last year at age 18. I tried to bring her inside a number of times and she wouldn't adapt. She could have been classified more as a barn cat than feral cat, but she did show her feral side once inside the house.

Indie was the calmest of my feral colony, and honestly, I never had one want to come inside once they were beyond about 18 months old. Although I worried about them, and constantly did so once they were older, I never did try to acclimate them. The rest were truly feral, and my sense was that the stress of the change in lifestyle would have taken them quicker than any natural cause.

But I did try with Indie, and only because she was the friendliest of the bunch. If you can bring them inside and they adapt to the cushy lifestyle, then by all means do it. You know these cats and know how they will adapt.

My Peanut is a former barn kitten! I brought him inside when his disabilities became apparent.

As for why they don't want to/aren't able to live outside any longer, I couldn't say... none of my barn kitties ever did that. They had a lot of farm buildings to live in, as I'm sure yours do- the barn, the tractor shed, the tool shed, and so forth... lots of hay to make nests with, lots of fresh water (from the horse trough more often than not, silly kitties ), lots of places to make into their special hidey-holes.

I'd say if they decide it's time to come inside, then that's that and you now have some new house kitties. They make our decisions for us more often than not!

Here is a story relating to your thread. Chloe is her name. She is a barn feral. Was extremely true to type for many years, totally avoided me, I rarely saw her. Recent years, about two now, she would show herself to me at the barn when I would put her food down. She is about eleven years old now. Just over this past winter, she has come to the barn door and would come in to eat. As of this posting, she is now an indoor barn cat in the tack/lounge area. I think that when the ferals are reaching senior years and have been fed by the same people for years, they just give in and decide a life indoors is what they need now to survive. I have heard of this type of scenario before as well. Alot of healthy senior ferals decide when the time has come to just allow themselves to come closer to their human friends. It is like they know that their life outdoors will be too much for them to endure anymore as senior cats.

The problem w/ bringing more indoors is that I cannot. I don't own the house & I'm well over my 4 cat limit I was given awhile back.....like 8 cats over that limit! I get frequent reminders of that limit, but so long as I don't bring any more in I should be OK. *knock on wood* To the home owners, cats are dispensable creatures.

I have a few who I'd really really like to bring in, I'm concerned about - but I don't see a way to do it.

I feel your pain here . there seems to be a never-ending run on stray cats lately in my area too. It is soooooo easy to get "over-the-limit" so quickly. I have been lucky in that I have been able to find good homes for quite a few of ferals I have taken in and allows me to try to save more. But if you can't find those homes, yes, you just can't take them all in.

There are indoors or outdoors cats. Cats indoor are less likely to meet accident outside or get themselves into trouble. They say they are also more protected from contacting various cat viruses like, Feline Leukemia Virus and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, therefore have longer life than outdoor cats.

While, outdoor cats are more independent and are more prone from the hazards outside their home are believed to experience less stress-related issues. Outdoor cats get to interact more with other cats, so they are found to be more independent, and less bored. Lots of activity outside also fosters less obesity or weight problems to the cat, the kind of exercise they get outdoors, hunting, chasing, climbing, etc , are far more different from the physical activities they get staying inside the house. However, these cats have been found to have shorter life span, 5 years for an instance.

However, it is nice to hear that your cat lives for 17 years and still counting, that means that she has healthy body plus the fact that you give her and your other cats their needs. Let them wander around your place and time to play