Can we take our neighborhood stray/feral cat with us when we move?

My wife and I "adopted" a neighborhood stray cat about 2 years ago after our downstairs neighbors moved away.  They had been feeding "Speedy" for about 10 years and even trapped her when she was young and had her spayed and when they moved away we took over feeding her and looking out for her.

She was born in a vacant lot in our neighborhood and has spent her entire life living outdoors on her own in an approx. 4 square block radius.   She is afraid of most people but is very friendly to my wife and I and will usually let us pet her.  She loves to follow me and my dog around the block when I take him for walks and is always on our back porch for breakfast and dinner.

We are moving to a new house about 5 miles aways in a totally different neighborhood and are wondering if it would be possible to take her with us?  Of course it's "possible" to trap her and bring her with us but we don't want to traumatize her and are concerned that she is so territorial she would just immediately run away and try to get back to our old neighborhood as soon as we let her out.  

Any advice on moving a stray/feral cat in this kind of situation?  We have heard that strays are super territorial and her bond to her surroundings is much stronger than her bond to us and wouldn't be able to acclimate to a new neighborhood.  We can try to enlist a nearby neighbor to take over her care the way we did when our neighbors moved away but would prefer to take her with us to our new neighborhood if she could acclimate and get used to it.  But obviously we want to do what is best for her.

Thanks for any advice/comments the community can share to help us decide what to do.

It is possible to move them but they need to be kept confined for a minimum of three weeks at the new place.  Do you have a facility where this may be an option?  A garage or basement?  A shed that can be kept closed with no chance of her escape?  Love her name "Speedy", it made me chuckle.

We do have a large shed out back where she could be kept with food/water...

Would you consider making her an indoor cat when you moved? I do agree with @Dandila  about confining her after the move but once she has adjusted to that, you might find that she likes it inside. A lot of outdoor cats become inside cats with little to no issue. They get used to "the good life". Outdoor cats have to sleep with "one eye open" for their own safety. Seeing a former outdoor kitty take a nap in a place where he or she knows they are safe is a sight to behold. They can finally really relax and stretch out and make themselves at home. If it was me and I was going to move this cat with me (I totally would), I'd make the attempt to bring her inside for good. Since she likes going for walks, once she got adjusted, I'd see about getting her used to wearing a harness and leash for walks. it seems like she already has a good relationship with your dog but you could do the inside introduction just to be safe. 

Thank you so much for taking care of her for so long and for caring about this lucky girl. I love the name Speedy too. 

We already have an indoor cat so I'm not sure if Speedy and Bear could co-exist inside but we might give it a shot...they hang out on opposite sides of a screen door on our back porch and meow at each other but no hissing or aggression...but Bear has never lived with another cat and is about 10 years old himself.

jrod123 said:

 
We already have an indoor cat so I'm not sure if Speedy and Bear could co-exist inside but we might give it a shot...they hang out on opposite sides of a screen door on our back porch and meow at each other but no hissing or aggression...but Bear has never lived with another cat and is about 10 years old himself.

Click to expand...

You might be surprised. If you do the introductions slowly, they could end up getting along very well

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-successfully-introduce-cats-the-ultimate-guide

You're already at an advantage since they have "met" through the screen door. A very nice friendship could come out of this 

I fed a group of feral cats on my back porch for many months back in 2004.  The neighbors had the property manager call Animal Control to trap and kill them so I brought them all inside.  So at that time I had Sammy and 6 feral kitties who were tame only to me.  Thankfully, they were very respectful to Sammy and regarded him as the old man of the house and never bothered him.  He never interacted with them either.  

For a long time I looked into rehoming the 6 at a local farm where I could still come see them.  Dandila said correctly, from what I had read also, that the rehoming process must take at least 3 weeks in a wire cage so they can adjust to their new surroundings, slowly.  

Caution: even IF the rehoming process is done correctly and for a sufficient amount of time, it is no guarantee that the cat won't run off anyway in search of his old territory.  

With that in mind, I decided to keep all 6, and I still have 5 of them today, just had Gracie PTS in July after a brief illness.  I had spent too much time and money on them way back in 2004 to just let them go to a farm where the farmer may not know or care how to rehome them.  As said before, even if it was done right, they might have still run off.  I couldn't stand the thought of it after caring for them for so many months.  They are like family to me now.  Hope this helps!

It is my understanding that spayed females or neutered males have a much smaller chance of trying to find there old territory.  They will establish a new one given small amounts of freedom at a time once they are out of total confinement.  The only way they leave once they are fixed is to be chased away by a dog or another cat who considers the new place his territory.

I had the same concerns as the OP about bringing in another cat with a 19 year old resident.  They, too, regard her as a respected senior and she still rules the roost.  My old resident now has full time company with another female and part time company with a male and female brother and sister.  She seems totally okay with it all.