The cat that was trapped in our shed for several days

Well my mom rearranged the shed and somehow a cat got trapped in there. She didn't know and i was out of town. when i got back i heard meowing and called her over. She opened the shed and there was a cat poop on the ground. we dug through our shed and eventually found her all the way in the back. I grabbed a can of cat food (there's a stray of sorts around the neighborhood i named Sebastian, i feed him and so does my neighbor across the street. He has a major bond with my neighbor and has since "broken up" with me LOL). well anyways my mom managed to grab the cat in the shed and we wrapped her in a towel and put her in the bathroom with some water and food. You would get within a foot of her and she would hiss and spit and snarl. We estimated her age at around 5-6 months. I spent all day yesterday in the bathroom with the kitty, whom i named Max. I'm 18, and still live with my mom. She said i could keep Max, so long as i bought everything and took her when i eventually move out. But if she doesn't get along with our dog I won't be able to keep her. I'm hoping to be moved out by June. Anyways I spent all day in the bathroom with her, researching about what breed she might be and how to "tame" her etc. By the end of the day i could gently pet her with a finger or two, and she would even start quietly purring. When i brought in food for her this morning i sat with her and started petting her and next thing i knew all she wanted was pets!!! She came out of her hiding spot behind our toilet and would bump her head against my hand etc.

Anyways I'm just not sure if I'm going about this right, and all our other cats we owned growing up my mom and older sister took care of. I'm capable and responsible enough to take care of Max but i just feel like a new kitten mama and i'm very unsure and nervous haha. She used her litter box just fine, and im currently feeding her wet food and she only eats a couple bites. when i first would give her the food she would eat an entire can. im just figuring she's full since she had gone a couple days without eating and her stomach shrunk. I'm not sure if Max is a boy or girl but I'm going to call the local cat rescue to see about getting her fixed cause they do it for free. My mom also told me they will deworm her. I dunno, I guess I'm just wondering if I've gone about this right? And any tips or advice would be much appreciated! 

heres a picture of max

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First, thank you for rescuing this cat! Though I wonder if maybe she belongs to someone else?
Meanwhile, you it seems to me you're doing everything right.
Do make sure she keeps on eating.
I would take your cat to the vets as soon as possible to get neutered/spayed; he is about the right age to want to start to mate or get pregnant. At the same time you can get her dewormed, tested for FIV/FeLK and get a rabies vaccination.
It seems to me she may have at one time been owned or around humans (or, she is in Heat). While that may speed up the socialization process, I would urge patience and slowness especially when it comes to doggie introductions. Here is an article about introducing cats to dogs.
Alley Cat Allies and this site has some great articles about socializing ferals/strays. Good luck and keep us posted.

I thought that she may have belonged to someone prior to us but I haven't been able to find anyone who has lost a cat and is looking for them. And she only acts that way with me, she still hisses at my mom and won't go near her. Thanks so much for your advice and I will make sure to keep taking it slow! 

Ritz said:

I would take your cat to the vets as soon as possible to get neutered/spayed; he is about the right age to want to start to mate or get pregnant. At the same time you can get her dewormed, tested for FIV/FeLK and get a rabies vaccination.

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There's a local cat shelter that will fix him, and give him all his shots and deworm him for free I got lucky there, I just have to call them and see how to go about it. This kitty was a bit of an unexpected surprise, so I won't have the money for a full blood panel (around $150) or a check up (anywhere from $300-$500) for a couple more weeks. 

He is a very lucky kitty to have found you.  The program near you is wonderful.  Thank you for helping him!

He's a lovely looking boy!

So glad he found you.

Well while Max was eating dinner last night she crawled into my lap insisting i pet her. I happily obliged and realized she had flipped her tail over my knee. i stopped petting her to see if i could determine whether she was a boy or girl but she immediately moved and followed my hand and kept butting my hand for pets. I called my mom into the room (Max will tolerate other people touching her so long as I'm holding her and petting her) and while i was keeping max calm my mom checked and Voila! Max is a girl!!! but my mom also noticed that there was a scab on Max's tummy. My mom gently moved Max's leg to get a better look and there was a shaved area around what looked like an incision that's healing. It was in about the right spot for if she had been spayed. There are no notches on her ears and her ear isn't tipped. Our local pound and cat rescue do tnr so it could be that. On Saturdays our local pet supply store does (or so i've been told) microchip pings. where they will check for a microchip and as far as I know they will microchip your pet if they aren't already chipped. My mom has since told me I cannot keep her because its against the terms of our lease and we could be evicted. 

BUT (this is where it gets complicated) I can keep her. Confusing right? I can keep her, just not as a 100% indoor cat. So I'm going to get a cat carrier and set it up underneath our picnic table (you won't be able to see it unless you crawl under there to look specifically for it) for her, and my mom says she can come in whenever but has to spend most of her time outside. So I'm going to set that up for her and I'm also going to take the screen off my window and keep some food for her on my sill. My mom is going to let her stay in the bathroom until I get her spayed, microchipped etc. So hopefully that's long enough. We did the same with our last cat, he was a combo indoor outdoor cat. And I'm going to take her with me once i move out since I do consider her my cat lol.​

here are some more pictures of her

I'm not sure if anyone is interested in an update but turns out Max wasn't fixed!! So in June we had a litter of kittens running around. Max is still skittish around strangers but sleeps in bed with either me or my mom. We got all of the cats fixed and two of the four went to the same home together and we kept the other two. Snowflake Elsa (my 6 year old sister named her and is adamant that's it's HER cat lmao) and Gabe. Snowflake is a Siamese Lynx Point and Gabe is a Classic Tabby.



They both enjoy napping on my yarn while I'm knitting


They are all happy, healthy and loved

What a wonderful update!  The kittens must have come as a surprise, but how wonderful that they all have loving homes.

Thank you for letting us know - it's a fabulous story.

They are all soo adorable and lucky to have you and your family. Thank you for the update!

Certainly this IS a wonderful story with a very happy ending. What beautiful kittens Max had!!! And, such a surprise for you. How incredible that you were able to find loving homes for two of the kittens and kept two for yourself. Sounds like a very happy kitty family you have there now. Thanks for sharing this news and update.