Halloween and feral kitty

Looking for advice...

I have a little feral porch kitty who's been with me for about 7? years now. Over the last couple of years, she's begun to spend more & more time near the porch, instead of roaming like she used to. I've tried to get her to come in, but she's really frightened to come inside.

The question is, should I try to catch her to bring her in tonight? I know that she's terrified of coming inside, and I don't want to subject her to too much stress. She's very timid of strangers, and I don't think anyone will be able to catch her, but I'm still a little nervous about leaving her outside on Halloween, especially since she's begun staying on the porch so much now, and she's getting a little older.

Opinions?

Is she pure black? If she is pure black she will be safer in the house. If she isn't, she will hide when the first costume appears.

She's a brown & white tabby. We have bushes by the porch where she hides (if you could call it a porch - it's just an overhang above the front door), and her bed is under the overhang in the corner of the bushes, but is visible to people standing at the door.

My bet is that she will hide all evening. And...with all of the door knocking and bell-ringing that goes on on Holloween, she would probably freak out if inside. Halloweens are always a big stressor for my inside cats because of all of the knocking and ringing.

Thanks, Hissy & Lotsocats.

I'll feed her now, so she can go hide instead of waiting at the door for her supper when it gets dark, and also hide her bed under the bushes.

We've had about 32 kids so far and most of them were accompanied by parents. Lots of pet owners with dogs on our street and some cats.

I've got my outdoor tropical fruit lights (red and yellow) strung around the back porch (we keep them up all year!) The backporch light is on and outside flood lights. Black and white kitty is just looking at me from the wicker and seems very content resting there.

We have a back porch and the woods beyond the yard, so I guess that makes a difference and prevents pranksters. It's dark and scary in the backyard area. My kittens are in the house now.

Is any black and white cat a tuxedo cat? The porch cat has a black cap covering her head and ears and extends down to her eyes. She has a big black patch on her neck, back, and a black tail. The rest of her is white.

Sounds like she might be a tux...but I love all black & white kitties (actually all kitties!). Have you posted some pics?

to the pic I posted at another forum:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...2&pagenumber=5

You can scroll down until you see my message. This forum won't let me post the same pic twice.

Is she a tuxedo cat? I wouldn't call her a cow cat or moo cat because she doesn't have random black spots.

Punkin (Punky update)

She went to the vet for her second set of vaccinations and I was thrilled that she's doing so well. No worms and a present weight of 5 lbs. 5 oz. She was only 3 lbs. 8 oz. at her first vet visit on October 1st.

Punky has much more energy and plays more now. She enjoys chasing a pink catnip mouse and tonight, she licked my hand by the catnip mouse, telling me that she wanted to play fetch.

She does look like a tux to me...pretty! Good to know Punkin is doing better, too.

Tiger Lily (the porch kitty) did fine over Halloween - no one bothered her, and she returned to meow at the door at about 10:00 p.m. so we gave her a second meal.

The kids cleaned out our candy supply by 8:00 - I wasn't sure how many people would come by (never had many when I lived in an apartment) so I didn't buy a whole lot, and just got the good stuff (chocolate & Starburst) in case we had to eat the leftovers. But there were a lot of cute little ones in costumes this year, so they got it all. My waistline thanks them! One pre-teen girl had a really beautiful vampire outfit, and collected her candy in a little coffin! It was nice to see all the costumes.

A Dad and his kids had some type of plastic spooky-hand trick or treat bags that actually said, "thank you," after you dropped the candy inside the orange plastic skeleton hand!

We received a lot of compliments on our "disco ball" that was placed in the front room. With one plastic lit pumpkin in each window and the diso ball swirling colors around the room, the disco ball had the effect of lightning flashing inside the house or bats flying around the room. Who would have figured a revolving disco ball could be so effective at Halloween?

I've already switched from Halloween to Thanksgiving/fall decor on the outside of our house. (But I have to change the kittens' Halloween pic!)

Thanks for replying. My tuxedo cat is resting on that porch wicker settee yet again.