New backyard stray

tjcarst said:

Catnip excites my cats.

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Mine too. I was advised not to use catnip when introducing my two males. It makes them too crazy. I only use it sparingly.

Good to know...my guys completely mellow out with catnip and lay around acting stoned before begging for food.

I plan on picking up some Feliway for my diffusers tonight (we caught him much quicker than expected). The room he's in currently has a few stacks of boxes that we've already packed for moving in the future as well as plenty of hidey-shelves. He seems to be doing okay with finding spots since I have no idea where he was this morning, just that he couldn't get out so had to be in there somewhere. 

Wendel's being adorable - he loves other cats and has been hanging around the door purring and making his happy little noises...which is better than him falling off the kitchen counter trying to be friends while Greycat was still outside. 

Make sure you keep the cats separated until checked by your vet for nasties.

tjcarst said:

Make sure you keep the cats separated until checked by your vet for nasties.

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No worries. Greycat's the 3rd stray we've brought in. No one is integrated without a clean bill of health and a spay/neuter...especially since we got Wendel, whos FIV+. Wendel is just very friedly and eager to meet new cats.

We're back from the vet. Greycat is de-wormed and de-flead and we have our fingers crossed that when his tests come back on Monday he'll be negative for the Bad Stuff. Once we know that, he'll be vaccinated and neutered. He is male, intact, approx 8-12 months old, weighs 8.5 lbs (doesn't look it) and has no chip. Overall, the vet said he's in pretty good shape for a stray. He figures Greycat was dumped.

He's also not feral, just very scared. We were able to get him in the carrier in less than 10 minutes and he put up zero fight at the vets. So now we just wait to see where this goes.

No sign of ScragglyTabby for 3 days now...although our trap caught the little tabico who lives 4 houses down. She was not amused.
 

Good news about Greycat.  Vibes he's negative on all the nasties.  Are your plans to keep him inside?

Hopefully, ScagglyTabby will be back soon.

Ondine said:

Good news about Greycat.  Vibes he's negative on all the nasties.  Are your plans to keep him inside?

Hopefully, ScagglyTabby will be back soon.

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to all of the above. Greycat not being feral will make things a lot easier.

Ondine said:

Good news about Greycat.  Vibes he's negative on all the nasties.  Are your plans to keep him inside?

Hopefully, ScagglyTabby will be back soon.

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I hope he comes back too. So many cats show up for a few days then vanish again. Freya, Sybil and now Greycat are the only ones to stay more than 3-4 days.

If he's clean and just scared, we'll keep him in. We can wait as long as he needs to settle in. Heck, Wendel still has his odd 'don't touch me' momrnts and he's been here almost 3 years. I'm just hoping he hasn't picked anything up outside. Greycat has those lovely orange gold eyes you see on grey cats in photos. Its not hard to picture someone picking him from a store or rescue as a kitten. We've checked all the missing cat ads for our area and theres nothing, so I doubt someones looking for him, but if we can, we'll keep him here

Greycat is certainly a young boy.

This was the second morning in a row I've woken up to his room looking like a tornado has gone through it. He's getting brave enough to come out and eat while we're awake and moving around, but just not when we're actually in there with him. I even got a little hiss when I startled him yesterday. I know that's a silly thing to be happy about, but it's the first sound he's made since we caught him and it says he's getting comfortable expressing an opinion with us instead of huddling in catatonic fear.

He's picked a cave for himself in the room and every day I try to bring him some treats, put them at the front of his cave and that sit in the room chatting to him. Hopefully one day he'll be brave enough to come out and eat while I'm in there. Mostly he sits at the back of his cave looking at us (but not huddled anymore). Small victories.

We should know today or tomorrow if his blood tests show anything or if we're good to go.

I hope the test news is good!  He sounds like he's coming along.

Tests are all negative! Greycat is actually fairly easy to get to the vet. He got his vaccines today as well and is booked in nesxt week for his neuter. Now to convince him that I'm not that scary.

Hurray!  Oh that is such good news.  Hang in there - pretty soon, you'll be wondering how to get him off your lap so you can get chores done!

So happy all tests are negative.  It will take time and patience, but he will come around.  So happy he will be neutered next week too! 
 

He's pretty adventurous in his room when we're not there. When we are, he's pretty hissy. Usually I try to hive him a treat, then lay on the floor reading or chatting quietly eith him a couple of times a day. Last night he crawled out enough to eat his treat within 2 feet of me while we talked. This morning he's hissy again. I'm trying not to take it personally. He's still pretty scared and that doesn't fix itself overnight, unfortunately. One of these days I'll have to get a good picture.

YAY for the good news!

Awww..... :heart2: What loves you are for doing this!

FYI, we always just take the cat in the trap directly to the vet. :lol3: I can't imagine trying to get a truly feral cat back into some kind of carrier. They knock them out when they are able to spay or neuter them, run the ELISA test in office for FIV/FeLV first - and if there are any hitches, call us to ask whether or not to proceed with the spay/neuter. For ScragglyTabby (if he/she comes back :cross: ) or any future cats, you may want to chat with your vet about a "direct drop off."

LDG said:

FYI, we always just take the cat in the trap directly to the vet.

I can't imagine trying to get a truly feral cat back into some kind of carrier.

They knock them out when they are able to spay or neuter them, run the ELISA test in office for FIV/FeLV first - and if there are any hitches, call us to ask whether or not to proceed with the spay/neuter. For ScragglyTabby (if he/she comes back

) or any future cats, you may want to chat with your vet about a "direct drop off."

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We thought about that after we let him out in the cat room. Luckily he's not the most difficult to put in the box.

I've taken to sitting and crocheting with him for an couple hours a day. I've been teasing him that we'll have to see what happen first: I stop being scary or I finish the afghan.

ScragglyTabby was actually back last night...and he's looking a fair bit less scraggly, so we're wondering if he vanished because someone else brought him in. The first time we saw him, he devoured food, but last night he took a token two bites and wandered off...clearly not hungry.

:lol3: I hope he finds you less scary before you finish the Afghan. :rub:

And whatever's happening with ScragglyTabby, I'm glad he's looking less scraggly and isn't hungry! :bigthumb:

We definitely think something's changed for ScragglyTabby. He was sitting in the driveway last night and looked for all the world like someone's taken the time to brush him. He looked so regal...still a bit skinny by my standards, but nothing like what we'd seen. We're really thinking he either found a home, or found his way back home.

Tonight Greycat came out of his cave for his treat and lay down watching me for 30 sec or so before retreating. I got 9 more pieces of the afghan done during our hangout hour. Its a bit of progress at least. Its been a few years since we added a cat, I forget how timid they can be.

Greycat has a tentative name - we've called him Random, partially because he's a bit of a random acquisition but mostly because his eye colour made us think of Zelazny's "Chronicles of Amber" and he reminds us of the character Random. He's a bit whiny.  If you disturb him you'll hear about it. He's starting to feel a bit lonely in there too...he yowls pretty mournfully until someone goes in to spend time with him. He's started tentatively coming out, but still likes to be in his cave if you're in there. One adorable thing he's started is laying on his side in his cave and peeking just his head around to look at you. Sometimes he comes out, sits really tall just out of reach and watches us for a minute or two. When I went to leave after our hangout time yesterday, he peeked out and stared at me with a look like "Hey, where are you going?" I hope once he's neutered he gets along with our guys.

I've finished the first set of pieces for the afghan and am starting the second.