New here and New mommy to a stray/feral cat

ladybellac17

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
May 9, 2015
Messages
40
Purraise
16
Location
New York
Hello everyone!! i am new here. Found this site by looking info for my new cat.  I'll share my kitty story with you all. Last may i moved into my first apt/cottage  and a few days later i noticed a cat hanging around in the yard. I asked landlord what was with the cat. She said it was a stray and never got close  and always ran away when u tried to approach. Landlord's son has spent  31/2 yrs feeding it and trying to catch it to no avail. I loving animals decided to pitch in the feeding and hoping it would come close to me. No chance.! I could see cat let only landlords son pet it on the head a bit and then ran. The day before thankgiving landlords son suddenly past away and we all felt sad and even for cat since it would only let him pet it. i continued feeding cat and everytime i cooked i left chicken out for. Jan 19  we had a very mild day for being winter and i as i went to dispose of my garbage i walked by cat did not noticed it ,until it hissed at me. So i said hello and and proceeded to feed the cat. it did NOT run away from me ,i took pics and  i sat and spoke to the cat to please let me help it. i reached out to pet it and it let me and i was so exited. It meowd at me like it wanted help and love.

as cat ate i noticed bloody front paws on both front legs and i know i had to take this cat in my house. Im not allowed pets in my house. Cat just could not walk anymore.Poor thing i could not let this go anymore and i went to reach for cat  and it let me pet it and i ran in house got a blanket and stood in front of cat  while softly talking and petting it i grabbed it  and wrapped in blanket. It did not  fight me  at all not even a hiss. Brought in house let it calm a a bit called my friend and asked what to do?as you can see from pic above this cat was FILTHY with all that hair in clumps. Cats front paws all bloody and raw skin. my friend said bathe her! I proceeded to bathe  this cat and it did not fight once  and laid in a tub of warm water while i used human shampoo and cleaned this cat. Dirt by the lbs came off this cat. It was sooo sad it just laid there  while i bathed and blew dry it  it was cold  and i tried to bush to no avail. Found out it was a she. one paw looked like it got wet and froze and skin was ripped off and other one had an infection on toe and it was oozing and  nasty. i put meds best i could and laid cat in a box with towels. I spoke with landlord and told her the situation and i told her i can keep her if u let me  but if not she has to spend the night  and ill take her to a shelter in the am. She said i could keep her since she knew the cat for years. so now i had to take cat to vet. this cat for being dirty not one flea or ticks. Cat was soooo tired it slept for 4 days  and didn't barely move. i made a little box for her and i would put her on it so she knew it was for her. took her to vet with a very small budget  and  and they did tests and gave her meds.she needed more care i could not pay for and they had a charity program and clients would donate $ for cases like this. Turns out cat had massive infection on one toe and no bone left on toe and it needed to be remove or it would have become septic and she would die.  Dr shaved her from neck down and kept her tai to remove all that clumped hair. so i had to keep her wrapped up since it was winter in Ny. Aside from that she was amazingly healthy not worms ,never had a litter,believed to be 7 or 8 yrs. With donations she had surgery  and  is doing well. got a clean bill of health. She's still  very scared at times and skittish i let her be. She uses littler box great,one one mishap. She has a spot by my bed and couch  thats hers. She's happy. By playing with her i discovered she can't see much out of left eye.She is well and doing so well but still is afraid  and i want to help her not be so afraid. i know after so long out alone shes used to it. shes slowly  being social with me. She cries and seems to want to go out but vet said keep her indoors ,better for her,so the window is her connection to outside. Loves her milk morning and eve and only eats dry food,wont eat my chicken or anything else . She gain 3 lbs she was 6 lbs and a bag of bones and now is filling out and healthy and beautiful. I named her MISHU 'D LION her mane reminds me of a lion  and i love her so. any advise is greatly apreciated on her being afraid still. i know time will tell.Thank you 

    
before                                                            after
 

roxycat

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Feb 4, 2015
Messages
14
Purraise
2
Hi! You have been so kind to this little cat despite the expense so kudos to you!

I took in a kitten found abandoned at about 2 weeks old from a man who bottle fed her until she was 4-5 weeks & then I took over. She has grown up to be a lovely cat but she had many health problems early on that cost me a lot of money I didn't have & had to put on credit card. She is now 3 1/2 and seems to be doing fine. 

Please don't feed the cat milk - their body can't handle it.  The cat should be fine with food/water but you might want to get some KMR which is what you use to feed kittens by a bottle. You can get it at most Pet supply places. i get mine at Petsmart in powder form. I mixed this with water and then added it to my kitties food for a few months until I felt she was drinking water properly and was healthy.  The vet can advise you better but definitely no milk!

The kitty looks so great in the photo and is obviously thriving under your care. My cat is skittish in some situations and since I don't know what trauma she endured as a kitten, I just just speak to her in a soothing voice and make sure she has a safe space where she can hide if necessary. In my house its in the bathtub or under the covers in my bed (i don't make the bed up properly for this reason so she can gain access if necessary).  Every cat is different but I would say just speak in a soothing voice & provide love when you can and see if you an get kitty to play. I have found that some cats who come from bad situations don't even know what it's like to chase a feather from a string or chase a ball. No need to invest a lot of money. Most cats love shoe boxes & my cat prefers to play with a ball of aluminum foil crumpled very tightly so she can bat it around on the floor. When I buy her toys, she rarely plays with them. 

You should keep kitty inside for sure. If you really want to take kitty outside, invest in a pop up cat tent or enclosure where you can watch her. Never leave them unsupervised. My friend has a cat who just loves to be outside watching the birds & nature & it reduces his anxiety levels a lot so he doesn't whine. She uses a large dog crate and she partially covers one side with a sheet for shade if its really sunny so he can still see out the other side and overhead. You need to provide water & litter if staying out very long. 

I am not sure any of this has helped you but these are just things I have learned along the way. Thanks for investing your time and love in this beautiful little lion :)  Please let us know how it goes.
 

StefanZ

Advisor
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
25,999
Purraise
10,646
Location
Sweden
 
Hello everyone!! i am new here. Found this site by looking info for my new cat.  I'll share my kitty story with you all. Last may i moved into my first apt/cottage  and a few days later i noticed a cat hanging around in the yard. I asked landlord what was with the cat. She said it was a stray and never got close  and always ran away when u tried to approach. Landlord's son has spent  31/2 yrs feeding it and trying to catch it to no avail. I loving animals decided to pitch in the feeding and hoping it would come close to me. No chance.! I could see cat let only landlords son pet it on the head a bit and then ran. The day before thankgiving landlords son suddenly past away and we all felt sad and even for cat since it would only let him pet it. i continued feeding cat and everytime i cooked i left chicken out for. Jan 19  we had a very mild day for being winter and i as i went to dispose of my garbage i walked by cat did not noticed it ,until it hissed at me. So i said hello and and proceeded to feed the cat. it did NOT run away from me ,i took pics and  i sat and spoke to the cat to please let me help it. i reached out to pet it and it let me and i was so exited. It meowd at me like it wanted help and love.

as cat ate i noticed bloody front paws on both front legs and i know i had to take this cat in my house. Im not allowed pets in my house. Cat just could not walk anymore.Poor thing i could not let this go anymore and i went to reach for cat  and it let me pet it and i ran in house got a blanket and stood in front of cat  while softly talking and petting it i grabbed it  and wrapped in blanket. It did not  fight me  at all not even a hiss. Brought in house let it calm a a bit called my friend and asked what to do?as you can see from pic above this cat was FILTHY with all that hair in clumps. Cats front paws all bloody and raw skin. my friend said bathe her! I proceeded to bathe  this cat and it did not fight once  and laid in a tub of warm water while i used human shampoo and cleaned this cat. Dirt by the lbs came off this cat. It was sooo sad it just laid there  while i bathed and blew dry it  it was cold  and i tried to bush to no avail. Found out it was a she. one paw looked like it got wet and froze and skin was ripped off and other one had an infection on toe and it was oozing and  nasty. i put meds best i could and laid cat in a box with towels. I spoke with landlord and told her the situation and i told her i can keep her if u let me  but if not she has to spend the night  and ill take her to a shelter in the am. She said i could keep her since she knew the cat for years. so now i had to take cat to vet. this cat for being dirty not one flea or ticks. Cat was soooo tired it slept for 4 days  and didn't barely move. i made a little box for her and i would put her on it so she knew it was for her. took her to vet with a very small budget  and  and they did tests and gave her meds.she needed more care i could not pay for and they had a charity program and clients would donate $ for cases like this. Turns out cat had massive infection on one toe and no bone left on toe and it needed to be remove or it would have become septic and she would die.  Dr shaved her from neck down and kept her tai to remove all that clumped hair. so i had to keep her wrapped up since it was winter in Ny. Aside from that she was amazingly healthy not worms ,never had a litter,believed to be 7 or 8 yrs. With donations she had surgery  and  is doing well. got a clean bill of health. She's still  very scared at times and skittish i let her be. She uses littler box great,one one mishap. She has a spot by my bed and couch  thats hers. She's happy. By playing with her i discovered she can't see much out of left eye.She is well and doing so well but still is afraid  and i want to help her not be so afraid. i know after so long out alone shes used to it. shes slowly  being social with me. She cries and seems to want to go out but vet said keep her indoors ,better for her,so the window is her connection to outside. Loves her milk morning and eve and only eats dry food,wont eat my chicken or anything else . She gain 3 lbs she was 6 lbs and a bag of bones and now is filling out and healthy and beautiful. I named her MISHU 'D LION her mane reminds me of a lion  and i love her so. any advise is greatly apreciated on her being afraid still. i know time will tell.Thank you 

before                                                            after
Wow!  How lucky for both of you!   Her becoming socialzied in hours was because she was very sick, with those poor damaged paws.   I suspect she perhaps fell in water, and did her outmost to draw her up up on the ice... barely succeeding, at the costs of damaging the paws.   Or something like that...

Anyways, when a shy semi-ferale is very sick, and gets help from someone friendly to it, SEEKS out the help and accept it, the Window of easy socialization open wide again.  It let you fetch her, it let you even bathe her, And even - dry her off with a dry blower...   Talk about survival instincts, to copy with the situation to this grade...

Anyways, the victory is yours and hers, the Lionesses.  She will probably remain a little shy rest of her life, but it doesnt matter much.  For example, my oldest resident whom is a home breed boy, is too shy to strangers.  It doenst matter for us.

Some other will come with time.  You are hers loved Ma.

She seems to be spayed?  Or sterile, because you arent telling about any litters during these almost four years??

She is btw a look alike of a Maine Coon - quite possible she is the real thing too, or at least, one of the natural population from which the MCO were purebred from.

Good luck!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

ladybellac17

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
May 9, 2015
Messages
40
Purraise
16
Location
New York
Thank you Stefanz and Roxycat for all the great advice. i think she did step on something frozen and it peeled her skin but it healed quickly. her right paw had to have surgery to remove the infected toe and  you would never know  she's minus one toe. :). The vet said i ca give her milk since she gets like a tablespoon in the am and pm. Its her comfort food and i wont take it away. Spefanz i was looking to see what her breed might be and its  either a american long hair cat or a maine coon. she has the white belly and fifty shades of grey  hehehe all over .she has so much layers of hair its incredible. She's never had a litter so i think she might have been spayed when young,vet could not find insition on her tho. She's sweet and not aggressive at all.  She does not play much with toys but likes strings so i play with her like that. She meows a lot when i get home from work and i give her her milk and dinner  and for another 10 more mins she's meowing and loud too. She's dying to go back outside now that the weather is nice but i wont let her.Dr said keep her in which i do. She was sleeping next to me by my bed but now has been in her bed on the couch for the past two weeks. I think i scared her when i turned the fan on. So far i'm loving this forum,its nice to talk to cat people :)  and get advise. She came into my life when i need her and she needed me. I love her soo.

Thank you guys 

Ladybellac17
 

mani

Moderator and fervent feline fan
Staff Member
Moderator
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
46,566
Purraise
23,328
Location
Australia
I don't have any advice to offer, @ladybellac17   Just wanted to say thank you for sharing your story. 

How wonderful you could help her, and how wonderful you were allowed to keep her! 

I look forward to hearing more about Mishu 'd Lion. 
 
Top