Is it wrong to adopt an outdoor cat?

terestrife · Jan 9, 2015

My mom has been caring for an outdoor cat that belongs to a colony that my neighbor has been raising for years. She just lets cats breed and feeds them.

Anyways, this cat was so thin a few weeks ago that we thought she would not make it. Her bones were showing, and so my mom started feeding her. We eventually got her spayed and she stays in our yard, all day and night. lol

My mom brings her in when its cold or rainy and puts her in a cage.

Anyway, she saw a runover cat yesterday, and she is now afraid for Elsa (the outdoor cat) and she wants to bring in Elsa fulltime.

Elsa is constantly trying to come inside when she sees a door open. I warned her that there is a chance that she may miss the outdoors, but she says she wants to at least try.

Would it be wrong for us to bring her in?

UPDATE: She only puts her in a cage for her safety as we have 2 dogs and another cat. However, Elsa once got loose and the animals were fine around each other.

StefanZ · Jan 9, 2015

terestrife said:
My mom has been caring for an outdoor cat that belongs to a colony that my neighbor has been raising for years. She just lets cats breed and feeds them.

Anyways, this cat was so thin a few weeks ago that we thought she would not make it. Her bones were showing, and so my mom started feeding her. We eventually got her spayed and she stays in our yard, all day and night. lol

My mom brings her in when its cold or rainy and puts her in a cage.

Anyway, she saw a runover cat yesterday, and she is now afraid for Elsa (the outdoor cat) and she wants to bring in Elsa fulltime.

Elsa is constantly trying to come inside when she sees a door open. I warned her that there is a chance that she may miss the outdoors, but she says she wants to at least try.

Would it be wrong for us to bring her in?

Nay, quite the opposite: this seems to be the ideal situation and moment to bring in such an ex-semiferale. A model situation.

She knews the outside may be terrible, scary and hungry. So she will not be as keen to roam outside as a typical bough cat who is used to sometimes roam outside at his own free will.

Have you any possibility to get her an innetted balcony? such are very popular. But you will surely manage without.

Anyways, if it will be question of having her as your inside kitty who is allowed to sometimes be outside, for this question you can wait and see if it comes up at all, and take your stance then.

For now, its the advisable to do to take her in yes.

Do you have other residents who hadnt met her yet? If so, remember some quarantine is the proper. Also vet check up etc...

But if you dont have it, just check she is flea free, give her her secure corner / room, and let her be your inside kitty. An extra vet check up doenst harm. But not strictly necessary.

Good luck!

ps. This woman "managing" the colony. Its swell she tries to help them, but not doing TNR ie spaying / neutring isnt no good. Can you talk her over in some way??

terestrife · Jan 9, 2015

StefanZ said:
Nay, quite the opposite: this seems to be the ideal situation and moment to bring in such an ex-semiferale. A model situation.

She knews the outside may be terrible, scary and hungry. So she will not be as keen to roam outside as a typical bough cat who is used to sometimes roam outside at his own free will.

Have you any possibility to get her an innetted balcony? such are very popular. But you will surely manage without.

Anyways, if it will be question of having her as your inside kitty who is allowed to sometimes be outside, for this question you can wait and see if it comes up at all, and take your stance then.

For now, its the advisable to do to take her in yes.

Do you have other residents who hadnt met her yet? If so, remember some quarantine is the proper. Also vet check up etc...

But if you dont have it, just check she is flea free, give her her secure corner / room, and let her be your inside kitty. An extra vet check up doenst harm. But not strictly necessary.

Good luck!

ps. This woman "managing" the colony. Its swell she tries to help them, but not doing TNR ie spaying / neutring isnt no good. Can you talk her over in some way??

Thanks for the reply.

From what i know she has her Rabies, and FRCPC (feline booster shot). I was wondering if she needs any other vaccinations? i have an indoor cat that only has her first three months shots, as my vet didnt want to give her unnecessary shots.

I do intend to take her to a vet soon, just wanted to have an idea of what i need to do. I think it might be a good idea to worm her as well, just in case.

About my neighbor, i have been thinking about talking to her. I am worried she wont listen as shes very protective of her cats. But i will certainly try, its only now that i am really learning about cats since i adopted my own three years ago.

gammeldame · Jan 9, 2015

Sounds just like the male cat that I am in the process of transitioning inside. If she is running inside when you open the door, then I doubt she will have trouble becoming an indoor cat. My cat ran inside every time we opened the door, and never left the acreage after neutering. I tested him on a litter box by having him in a small room with a box after his surgery and he has never had an accident in thr house.

If he had his way, he would never leave my house but as my indoor cat is not accepting him 100% yet, he still goes out at when I'm not around to supervise. If you do the introductions correctly it sounds like the kitty will fit in quite nicely in your mom's home.

shadowsrescue · Jan 9, 2015

I brought a feral/stray into my home last year. It was quite a transition. He had been living outside on his own for 1 1/2-2 years. I had been caring for him for 6 months before I brought him inside. He had a room of his own (completely cat proofed with bed off the floor and hiding spots blocked) for quite awhile. I also had another cat and large dog. The two cats took quite awhile to get used to each other. This feral cat has never ever wanted to venture outside again. He knows he has it good inside. He is now quite a sweet and loving cat. At one time he must have been owned, but was left when someone moved and fended for himself for 1.5-2 years. He had turned very untrusting of humans.

Thank you for rescuing this cat. She will love you forever for bringing her inside. She will just need time to adjust and especially for the dogs to get used to her. Here is an article on introducing cats and dogs.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-dogs

terestrife · Jan 9, 2015

thanks everyone for all the support and advice. =)

ondine · Jan 9, 2015

I would say it is definitely the best thing to do. Your neighbor sounds well-meaning but by feeding and not fixing, she is actually making the problem worse.

She will undoubtedly become happy housecat. Thank you for helping her.

Good luck with you neighbor. You may want to gather some info on local rescues and low-cost spay neuter programs. It may help convince her to TNR the cats. If you could volunteer to transport for her, it would make the process go faster. She may feel overwhelmed and appreciate your help. Decide ahead of time on what you can do and take it from there.

catwoman707 · Jan 9, 2015

I just love what you are doing for this kitty!

Unusual to say the least, as the majority of people want to adopt indoor lap kitties, despite how many are out there alone, cold and uncared for.

Regarding vaccines, a kitten needs the series of 3 in a row then again at 1 year old, of FVRCP, and a rabies.

An adult should have an FVRCP and a rabies.

Most definitely deworm!

terestrife · Jan 9, 2015

catwoman707 said:
I just love what you are doing for this kitty!

Unusual to say the least, as the majority of people want to adopt indoor lap kitties, despite how many are out there alone, cold and uncared for.

Regarding vaccines, a kitten needs the series of 3 in a row then again at 1 year old, of FVRCP, and a rabies.

An adult should have an FVRCP and a rabies.

Most definitely deworm!

I have also realized this. I am constantly encouraging people to go to local animal shelters, and help whatever animals they can, especially the ones that are alone in the streets.

To be honest, i used to think very differently, i had no intention of ever having a cat, they are constantly in my yard and they drove us nuts destroying everything. But my brothers dog, killed a cat once, and i was the one that held this cat as it was dying, i remember that i wanted to pick up this kitten and take it outside our gated home, so it could be safe... But when i carried the cat, i realized its guts had been torn out.

i still cant forget how the cat stopped fighting me, as soon as i held him/her. Its been over 3 years and it still chokes me up, because i felt like maybe i could have done more for this cat. A few weeks after that i adopted my first cat, Kitty. Elsa is going to be my second cat.

God willing, when i manage to have a bigger home, i have the dream of building an outdoor area for cats in the neighborhood to be safe from the elements and other dangers. That will be expensive, but i know it will happen one day.

ondine · Jan 10, 2015

RIP kitty. She is now an angel watching over your actions. She did a wonderful thing, changing one human's mind about cats.

catwoman707 · Jan 10, 2015

Exactly as Ondine says

I have my own story about how I became such a cat person, just one little tiny baby kitten once brought to me, shoot I was a dog person, what did I know...........

Well that was my chubby bunny girl Krissy and nearly 13 years ago.

Founder of a non profit cat rescue group, cat advocate on the board of directors for the humane society, currently changing the city's procedures for feral cats to become community cats rather than 100% euthanized, have tnr'd countless cats in town and continue their care, teach tnr'ing to the public, have a story/advice column in a local bi monthly magazine and advisor here

All because of that little bunny baby brought to me one day and the love I have for her.

Amazing how one little thing can change your world.

Building an enclosure outdoors is not all that hard or costly.

Posts, 2x4's, chicken wire fencing, and some imagination is about all really

When you're ready.

terestrife · Jan 10, 2015

catwoman707 said:
Exactly as Ondine says

I have my own story about how I became such a cat person, just one little tiny baby kitten once brought to me, shoot I was a dog person, what did I know...........

Well that was my chubby bunny girl Krissy and nearly 13 years ago.

Founder of a non profit cat rescue group, cat advocate on the board of directors for the humane society, currently changing the city's procedures for feral cats to become community cats rather than 100% euthanized, have tnr'd countless cats in town and continue their care, teach tnr'ing to the public, have a story/advice column in a local bi monthly magazine and advisor here

All because of that little bunny baby brought to me one day and the love I have for her.

Amazing how one little thing can change your world.

Building an enclosure outdoors is not all that hard or costly.

Posts, 2x4's, chicken wire fencing, and some imagination is about all really

When you're ready.

Awesome story, very inspirational, it really encourages me that i can do so much more. thank you! =)

Also, i do want to do the enclosure soon, but right now i am staying at a family members house. As soon as i have my own home, i will start planning. ive been looking up ideas on pinterest, and you are right, its not so complicated.

catsoul · Jan 10, 2015

What a great idea about an enclosure! I have a big yard to do something like this, but I can't quite envision how it would work. How would there would be protection from the elements? (I live in a cold snowy area). Would all the feral cats be together, or separated? How would it be heated? Would this be an indefinite situation, or a temporary one?

I'd love to hear more of your vision, terestrife!

ondine · Jan 11, 2015

Catsoul: Here are a bunch of threads about enclosures. Lots of ideas here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/newsearch?search=enclosure&=Search

catsoul · Jan 11, 2015

Thank you Ondine!

Is it wrong to adopt an outdoor cat?

terestrife

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StefanZ

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terestrife

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gammeldame

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terestrife

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ondine

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terestrife

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