Too old to be adopted?

Thanks, JennyR. I just worry that they aren't going to get a chance to eat their breakfast, since I'm not home for most of the day (yet! that might change in June!!!), so some days I only see one of them, or, like this morning, I saw none.

I caught one! Had to quickly build a cage in the garage to hold him until this weekend. He meows a lot! Do ferals do that???

Almost caught the tuxedo, but he wanted to play too much, wasn't in the mood for pets.

Great job, and great question!

No, ferals do NOT do that.

Just a bit of advice. 

  I volunteer at a cat shelter.   Two feral kittens about 16 weeks old were trapped for TNR,  but because they suffered from lung worm and then a terrible case of herpes, their release was delayed.   At  6 months, they still had lingering problems with herpes and were unsocialized.  The male was extremely protective of his sister and would attack anyone who came too close to her or him.  I offered to foster them with hopes of socializing them so they would be adoptable or at least successful barn cats.  After 5 months in my home I could pet them and they would come to me when called. What I didn't realize was that they were bonding only to me. (Research this, it's common)   Next month, (yes I adopted them) they will be 2 years old.  If you saw them with me, you would never know they were feral, but with anyone else they revert to semiferal at best.  

So please,  unless you plan to keep them yourself, make sure the person who socialzes them, will give them their forever home.   Otherwise, it's best if you become their caregiver as ferals.

Agree with @Catwoman707. True ferals do not meow. So, perhaps they are at least somewhat accustom to people. You'll be able to tell in time. Their skittishness may just be out of fear.

Just read your new post.   I agree.   Ferals are usually not vocal.   Nor do they want to play.   Perhaps they are strays?

I'm thinking stray of some sort, but three from what looks to be the same litter? They all three are same size, body shape, face structure, etc. Only difference is level of bravery. Who would release three young cats out like this though? I will never understand people I think. Anyway, if they do end up getting used to people during this period of catching and neutering, I will try to find them good homes to move on to. I don't want to send them to the shelter, since I used to volunteer for one and know that they get full up and start the euthanasia when that happens.

oh, here's a pic of Grayson, and the makeshift cage I built last night out of old rabbit cage stuff that I had lying around:



(sorry it's super blurry)

I'm taking him to the local vet tomorrow to check for microchip, then after that, if no chip, will schedule the neuter and shots. I did post signs around saying that there were some lost kitties, and to contact me with description and gender to see if we had a match, but no one has stepped up as of yet.

Grayson has a veritable palace there! Multi-level, all ammenities - great job all around - feeding, planning, catching, building and on into the future. Well done!

Omg we caught another! This time it's the black tuxedo. I put no dry food our this morning, just some can tuna on a plastic plate in the trap. It worked! Even though he totally saw his brother in the trap yesterday!!! Going to the vet tomorrow to check for microchips, if none, I may already have a family lined up for tuxedo, as soon as he gets the big snip.

Woohoo!! Nice job!

I swear by tuna, the only thing I will use, why bother when it works so great!

Awesome     

Two down and one to go.  Great job.

So I caught another cat today. Only it's not the grey twin but some caramel tabby female! I think I'm starting to get in one my head here there are so many.. I saw another new one by the trap, a small pure black one now.

Wow!    It's great that you're successful, but this might get overwhelming for you.  Have you thought about contacting your local no-kill organization for help?   They could probably help with vet costs and getting some adopted or TNR as needed. 

The closest no kill that I'm aware of, that doesn't transfer cats to kill shelters to do their dirty work is all the way up in Seattle, called Kitty Harbor. I can see if they have room though for a few extremely lovey cats, if I can catch all of them and just make one trip up there.

It's not so much the cost as it is the surprise that there are so many! I swore it was just the three, and now it's five. I did find a home for the tuxedo, since no one has reported him missing to any vet or shelter and he had been there for over a month. The very clinic said that if anyone was looking it would have been reported by now. They said they would keep an eye out for anyone wanting to adopt the gray one though.

The tuxedo is settling in with his new family and they will be paying for his neuter and shots, so the only thing I bought was some flea medication.

The situation is very different here in MA.    I can think of at least 6 no kill cat organizations that are less than 20 miles from my house!  

 Very happy for the tuxedo and it is a wonderful sign that he settling in so quickly.

I think it's wonderful what you are doing for these kitties.   Please keep posting as am very interested in their story.

Update:

I think I'm calm enough to write this now, since it's been a day since the whole thing had settled. Turns out the status I've been seeing for the past month being to my neighbor that lives on the other side of a barbed wire fence. So of course my notices of found cats were ignored, until I started catching them, since they weren't lost yet.

Had to get the tuxedo back from the friend that took him in, which was a horrible feeling for me. The proper owners have them as outdoor cats, none spayed or neutered, covered in fleas, with no identification! No collars, no microchip. I have two cats myself, strictly indoor, with both identification tags and their microchips. It's so frustrating!

The neighbors mentioned that there might be a hole in the fence, and that they couldn't afford microchip right now, but that the 6 month old male kitties that I've been seeing around will get neutered next week. We will see, since not an hour later of them getting back to their home, they're running across my front yard again! I told my husband that I didn't want to give the tuxedo back to these outrun irresponsible people, but he said I had to since it is their cat... I'm going to try to find the hole in the fence and just repair it myself since they won't.

Well that's crummy news........

So nobody got fixed who was trapped, going right back to their old way of living, unneutered, wandering, fighting, spraying, and making lots of babies...............

They won't retrap either with the standard trap, now they will have to be trapped with a drop trap.

Bet those neighbors don't do it. Ugh.......

yeah, we'll see what happens. either way, it's stupid. i hate irresponsible people....

You must be feeling awful. Maybe it will be a wake-up call to he owners - at least they are thinking about neutering now.