A Compromising Situation?

Let me start out be saying that me and my girlfriend recently adopted two 'feral' kittens from a town nearby, and they're doing fantastic. Tigg and Amara, both around 10 weeks old now.

On the other side of the cat world, we have our three outside cats, all feral, who appeared to have been either abandoned, or orphaned at some point, and they began living under one of our car. We've been feeding them Blu Wilderness cat food we had left over after we started Tigg and Amara on their science diet. We didn't make too much effort to socialize them because they were already 3-4 months old, and seemed too skitish to be broken. We just gave them plenty of room and made sure they were fed/watered. But here's where things took a turn. We lost contact with one of the ferals (there's one calico, and two solid black males) for almost two days. While making the rounds watering the gardens, the calico and one black male were being extremely vocal at the tree line, wouldn't eat, and wouldn't move their place. I poked my head around and found the missing male stuck at the base of a tree that had 4 inch thick branches at the base, his leg being jammed between two of them. The amount of force on his leg was insane, it took all of my strength to separate the branches and free him, and he took off limping. To put it into perspective, I'm a large fellow, and I was able to catch him in the woods, barefoot, before he could get away. I immediately took him to the vet, was told he had a possible dislocated hip, potential nerve damage, the only way they would take him in is if I shelled out roughly $400 on a visit charge, x-ray, sedation, etc before we even found the root cause to be fixed.. Being in the financial situation we are, I had to go the alternative route.

They told me to take him home, isolate him from Tigg and Amara, make sure he's fed/watered (obvsly) and to perform a hydro therapy session with a sink sprayer twice daily over the weekend (in this case, 4 days), For all intents and purposes, we named him James. They gave him an anti-inflammation+pain killer on the house to hold him over for a couple of days, and told me to bring him back in if nothing changes or he gets worse. But what I'm curious about, is granted everything goes well, even if we have to take him into get surgery performed, how well would he socialize with Tigg and Amara? Could he potentially become an indoor cat? I'm afraid of letting him back outside, even if he does heal, because he'll undoubtedly suffer from a limp for the remainder of his life. He's a sweet cat, it's just imaginable he's going through a rough time both physically and psychologically. His littermates outside are still being cared for, but I don't want to cause any long lasting trust issues of "That's the creature that took our family, let's avoid at all costs."

Tl:dr: feral cat named James found his way into our home after hurting himself, will it cause mayhem if we keep him inside after he heals?

 

Welcome to TCS and thank you for helping these kitties.

We have two inside cats who came in after living as ferals until they were six months old.  They are not lap cats but they know they're in a good situation.  They run the other way when any outside door is opened.  Not taking any chances.

So, yes, James can become a happy inside kitty.  Keep his days as routine as possible and he will adjust.  Once he is healed, you can introduce him to the other two slowly.  It may take awhile for them to get used to one another but it is very do-able.  At the home page here, do a search for "introducing cats" and you'll find lots of info.

If it hasn't been done already, trapping and spaying r neutering the others outside will ensure you have no more outside cats.

I socialized a 7 month old feral kitten.  He continues to live outside, but I can pet him and he will even sit in my lap.  I also brought in a 3 year old feral cat.  It took him a solid year to get used to indoor living, but now he is a very sweet loving cat. I had to give him a room of his own for one solid year.  He loved his own space and allowed him to feel secure.  Introductions happened slowly and took a good long tiem.   He has never ever tried to get outside.  I introduced him to my other resident cat.  It took time and lots of patience, but it was definitely doable.

It is best to try and spay/neuter all of the cats that are coming to your property.  It will stop some of the fighting as well as put an end to the females getting pregnant.  If not, the population will explode before your eyes.

Once James is well enough be sure to get him neutered.  I would do the neuter before introducing the others.

I appreciate the input. He seems to be a lot more mild mannered just after a half day in his inclosure. When I step inside to check on him, he'll purr, and limp around me. He's drinking/eating some, but not enough to be considered a daily average, which could very well be because of the medication the vet slipped him off the bill. I'll try to keep updates on this thread for those interested.

In recompense, I offer forth a cat tax, redeemable for three young kittens.

James, the black one, cozy with his fox Jeremiah. Tigg (male, orange+white) and Amara (female, grey/white)