Taming a feral cat

There's a young white pointed cat that I've seen for some time around the neighborhood.  Every now and then I'd be gardening and he'd sit a distance away and watch me.  I always thought it was kinda odd because talking to others in the neighborhood I know he's from a feral mother.  I also thought for a while some other people in the neighborhood was feeding him and a few others but then a couple weeks ago I saw him come by again and he just looked really thin.  So I gave him some food.  

Now I see him every morning and evening and more during other parts of the day, too.  I'll give him food twice a day and I'll sit nearby and talk in a low calm voice.  He  waits patiently for me in the same spot usually.  He'll hiss sometimes as I approach.  He used to move back a few feet but now he'll stay in his spot waiting for me to put the food in the bowl.  I also make sure I don't stare directly at him and I don't try to pet him.  I'm surprised that he's getting braver so quickly.    Today, he finished his food and walked a bit towards me and just laid there looking really relaxed.  He'll also sometimes go under this palmetto while I'm sitting close to it.  He'll only be maybe a couple feet from me when he does this but he'll be hidden a good bit by the leaves.  He's always really quiet aside from when he hisses a bit when I put the food in the bowl except yesterday I think I heard him make a bit of a squealing meow-like sound.

Anyway, still trying to decide what to do.  He's getting TNR'd at the very least when I can afford it.  I've read that the best way to tame a feral is to bring them indoors into a small room prepared for them.  But I don't have a room that I can spare at this time.  Would it be possible to tame him outdoors?  And would it be possible for him to be adopted if he could be tamed?  He's probably around 6-8 months old I'm guessing.  I'd love to keep him myself but I'm thinking it's most likely not possible for me to give him an indoor life which I think would be much safer for him.  However, the idea of an eventual possible playmate for our younger 10 month old cat is really appealing.  

Graywing said:

 
There's a young white pointed cat that I've seen for some time around the neighborhood.  Every now and then I'd be gardening and he'd sit a distance away and watch me.  I always thought it was kinda odd because talking to others in the neighborhood I know he's from a feral mother.  I also thought for a while some other people in the neighborhood was feeding him and a few others but then a couple weeks ago I saw him come by again and he just looked really thin.  So I gave him some food.  

Now I see him every morning and evening and more during other parts of the day, too.  I'll give him food twice a day and I'll sit nearby and talk in a low calm voice.  He  waits patiently for me in the same spot usually.  He'll hiss sometimes as I approach.  He used to move back a few feet but now he'll stay in his spot waiting for me to put the food in the bowl.  I also make sure I don't stare directly at him and I don't try to pet him.  I'm surprised that he's getting braver so quickly.    Today, he finished his food and walked a bit towards me and just laid there looking really relaxed.  He'll also sometimes go under this palmetto while I'm sitting close to it.  He'll only be maybe a couple feet from me when he does this but he'll be hidden a good bit by the leaves.  He's always really quiet aside from when he hisses a bit when I put the food in the bowl except yesterday I think I heard him make a bit of a squealing meow-like sound.

Anyway, still trying to decide what to do.  He's getting TNR'd at the very least when I can afford it.  I've read that the best way to tame a feral is to bring them indoors into a small room prepared for them.  But I don't have a room that I can spare at this time.  Would it be possible to tame him outdoors?  And would it be possible for him to be adopted if he could be tamed?  He's probably around 6-8 months old I'm guessing.  I'd love to keep him myself but I'm thinking it's most likely not possible for me to give him an indoor life which I think would be much safer for him.  However, the idea of an eventual possible playmate for our younger 10 month old cat is really appealing.  

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Thank you for wanting to help this little one.  Socializing outside can be done, but it will be much much harder as he can run away from you whenever he feels threatened. 

Since you don't have a spare room, you could just a large dog crate.  Yet you would still need a place to keep the cats separated.  Many people have also used a small bathroom.  It's not ideal, but it can be done there. 

I have socialized my 3 feral cats to the point where I can pet all of them.  One I can pick up.  They are socialized to me, but no way could they be adopted out.  They all still carry the natural instinct to run when they get scared. 

TNR is a must and should be the first step.  When you do trap him, you could start by trying to bring him inside and see how it goes.  Yet be prepared for it not to be a quick thing.  It could take awhile for him to get used to the house and then you would need to start introductions between the cats. 

I brought a feral cat into my home when he was 3 years old.  He was most likely a stray cat that had lived on his own for almost 2 years.  He had become quite feral.  He did have a room of his own and used the room for a solid year.  Introductions between my indoor only cat took a long long time.  Yet now they are buddies and enjoy each others company.  You just have to be prepared for it to not be a quick thing.  If you have patience and time, it would be a most rewarding experience.

My Magic Stick might help you.  I found it allows me to interact without getting too close.  And it gets them used to my hands and arms moving.  I have started indoors and outdoors and always find the cat likes to hide behind something first.  As said above it might take some time but if this one is already sitting and looking at you I bet it won't take as long as the four years one of our outside cats took.  Good luck.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/321538/the-magic-stick

There's been some necessary but unexpected expenses lately so I'm not sure when I'll be able to take him in for the TNR.  I plan to do so when I can though.  And regarding taking him inside, as much as I'd love to, it would depend on other family members as well.   I did buy though a cheap storage bin to make a shelter out of.  Hopefully the cheapness isn't a problem with materials it's made out of.  Also, when I can afford it, I was wondering about cushions meant for outdoors being nice for cats to lay on out in the garden.  I've not used outdoor furniture so I've never had any before.  Obviously that's less of a priority than TNR though.

Now that the little cat has started meowing, he's meowing at me quite a bit!  And he's continuing to let me get closer.  When he's done eating he continues to want to lay in the garden bed not too close but not very far either.   This evening after I went in he laid just outside the window that overlooks where I feed him.  Gizmo saw him and started pawing excitedly at the window while the little outdoor cat looked up at him.  Tux just watched them both from the table.  Eventually, Gizmo wandered off perhaps after realizing he couldn't dig his way through the glass.

I've also been thinking of a couple things.  It's been a long time ago now but we saw a white kitten outside bathroom window before seeming to keep Gizmo company.   And the other thing, I talked to a neighbor a while back who mentioned that a while back they had caught a white feral kitten and kept it on their back porch for a few hours one day.  But in the end they decided to let it back loose to it's mother and siblings.  So now I'm wondering if this is the same cat from both of those times. 

There's something else though.  Now there's two young kittens, probably about two months old, that have also started popping up looking for food in the evening.  I'm just not sure what to do.  If I start feeding them daily, too, I'm worried about affording feeding them.

I have a 4 yr old feraL cat named , Molly. She was a kitten from neighbors who moved off and left the mamma cat and 4 kittens. The new family that moved in fed them but never had human touch(the kittens were very wild).3 years ago the new neighbors moved and left the cats(3 left). Ac picked up 2 and "Old Blackie" with 1 ear who out smarted AC, started coming to my yard(15 houses up). She was horrible lookING with 1 ear, crooked jaw and a lazy eye. We would feed her but she would run or hiss at u for 6 months. Winter came and I was really starting to geT concerned for her safety. I borrowed a live trap from AC and caught her. Which, about broke my heart because the look in her eyes was absolute fear. I took her to a vet, got her fixed and vaccinated. I brought her into my laundry room which is where she lived for an entire year(the door was always open). She would hide behind my washer when we would fed her or change the litter box.
Last summer she came running out of the laundry room and jumped on the couch to nap. We've had her 2 years now and she loves going into the back yard to chase the dog(never leaves the yard). We can pet her and brush her. She still won't allow us to pick her up. It was a trying year but she deserved a good life.
You just have to have a lot of patience. And I broke Molly's trust when I captured her in the live animal trap (even though I did it for good reasons).

It's been a bit crazy the last few days.  It's amazing how things can change so quickly.  The white pointed one we're now calling Winter.  The two little ones that showed up we started calling Wolf and Raven.  The little ones are probably around 3 1/2 months old.

We had a terrible lightning storm some days back and Winter disappeared for two days.  I was so worried.  I was giving Wolf a little extra food at night when he poked his head around a corner at me.  He's seeming a bit more skittish after what's happened.  And it's been raining here pretty constantly.  But his behavior is becoming a bit more like how he was right before he disappeared.

Raven has come and gone pretty randomly but I haven't seen her for the last few days.

What I'm worried about is there's a hawk that's made it's nest in the neighborhood.  I finally got so scared for Wolf that I got her in a dog carrier and took her in today.  It's a bit cramped but I was very scared she was going to be eaten.  During the couple days that Winter was gone, she had gotten suddenly a lot braver.  I ended up getting some Orijen treats and I was finally able to pet her for the first time.  She loves being petted so much.  At first she was a bit shy still when she saw my hand.  Now both me and my husband can pet her.  We were starting to plan on seeing if we could get her at least on the back porch soon if nothing else and start seeing about some vet visits.  But that hawk was circling around today and she wasn't hiding in the bushes like she used to.  There's someone from a local animal group who'll loan me a crate on Sunday when I attend a TNR session.

When I first brought her in she cried and hissed.  I hadn't heard her hiss in a while.  But when I got her set up ready I was able to pet her and she went back to her usual sweet self.  I have in the dog carrier an aluminum cake pan with non-clumping litter, a towel for bedding, a water dish, and a food dish.  I'll be glad when I can move her to something that gives her some more space.  I'm hoping she'll figure out how to use the litter but if nothing else the carrier is one of the hard types and can be cleaned.  I just couldn't see her outside in the rain with a hawk around any more. 

Winter was present when I got Wolf into the crate.  He seemed rather horrified.  I had to go in for a brief moment after I got her in the carrier.  When I went to fetch her, Winter seemed to anxiously be checking on her.  Hopefully he won't hold it against me taking his friend.  I am wondering though if taming him will be easier for the time being with the two being separated.  They seem to take a lot of cues from each other.  When one is brave, the other can be brave.  But when one is scared, the other would easily become more scared.

I just have no idea how things will go at this point.

I have a 12 year old tamed feral. She's indoor/outdoor now. When I did TNR with her when she was about 4-5 months old my biggest mistake was calling rescue groups to ask for assistance. They all told me don't waste my time if she isn't friendly right away. So I let her back out. Then it took several months. She kept coming to the porch for food and I kept moving the bowl closer and closer to the door. Propped it open one night so she had to stick her head in the house to eat. She was letting me touch her by then. Finally I just sorta pulled her in for a few minutes. Then the next day pulled her in and closed the door. I had baby gates stacked up to block off the kitchen where she was from my other cats. It took a long while. Eventually they all started tolerating each other enough that there were no more gates. She however did not like staying in all the time and would just scream at the back door. If we didn't let her out she would get angry and by day 3 wouldn't let us touch her anymore so I gave in. She comes in every night and sits on our lap watching TV, she trusts us totally but insists on going out during the day. If I had kept her inside as a kitten and not listened to what I thought were the "experts" she would probably be an indoor cat. But who knows, whatever is meant to be is meant to be.

Something I've noticed for some time is that, while everyone who works as a vet or with rescue obviously love cats and want the best for their welfare, the information of how to care for cats can be different depending on who you talk to.  There's a lack of consistency.  I've noticed this from what type of food is best for a cat to how to deal with ringworm to when the cut-off to tame a feral for adoption is and more.  Maybe it's just the way I think that's the problem.  I'm wanting clear answers to things that aren't necessarily clear.  But I do wonder how information can be so different seeming depending on who I talk to or the articles I read when trying to make an informed decision.  It can be very confusing at times as to what the right course of action is.  Anyway, this has just been something on my mind for a while now and I don't mean to become so off-topic but that's what I started thinking about again reading MrsTY's post. 

Regarding Wolf, she's much more relaxed today!  Very affectionate with both me and Mikey and she's discovered she loves chin rubs.  She also thankfully discovered that her towel is much more comfortable than laying in the litter.  I gave her some more food this morning and I'll go check on her litter box in a bit.  (As I typed that last sentence I realized I forgot to buy a new scoop.  O_O  Oops!  I'd like to say I can't believe I forgot that but that wouldn't be true.  I'll go get one right away.)  I'm a bit worried I'm going to scare her a bit every time I have to pull the pan out to check her box but hopefully she'll be okay until her upgrade. 

Graywing said:

 
Something I've noticed for some time is that, while everyone who works as a vet or with rescue obviously love cats and want the best for their welfare, the information of how to care for cats can be different depending on who you talk to.  There's a lack of consistency.  I've noticed this from what type of food is best for a cat to how to deal with ringworm to when the cut-off to tame a feral for adoption is and more.  Maybe it's just the way I think that's the problem.  I'm wanting clear answers to things that aren't necessarily clear.  But I do wonder how information can be so different seeming depending on who I talk to or the articles I read when trying to make an informed decision.  It can be very confusing at times as to what the right course of action is.  Anyway, this has just been something on my mind for a while now and I don't mean to become so off-topic but that's what I started thinking about again reading MrsTY's post. 

Regarding Wolf, she's much more relaxed today!  Very affectionate with both me and Mikey and she's discovered she loves chin rubs.  She also thankfully discovered that her towel is much more comfortable than laying in the litter.  I gave her some more food this morning and I'll go check on her litter box in a bit.  (As I typed that last sentence I realized I forgot to buy a new scoop.  O_O  Oops!  I'd like to say I can't believe I forgot that but that wouldn't be true.  I'll go get one right away.)  I'm a bit worried I'm going to scare her a bit every time I have to pull the pan out to check her box but hopefully she'll be okay until her upgrade. 

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I find this to be so very true.  I had so many organizations and vets too that suggested I never try to socialize or tame my feral cats.  There is such a lack of consistency.  There are many vets in my area that do not support TNR and instead want to euthanize.  I would love to find a vet close by that would support my efforts to care for feral cats. 

Thank you for taking care of her and giving her a loving place to call home.

I finally did find one small rescue group that gave me some assistance with 2 TNRs. She called a vet that she worked with and had me bring the cats in to his office and they gave a $ break using her group name. When I look up online (nowadays several years later) this vet has very low scores and comments from people. But it is absolutely true that vets do not want to help you out with care of ferals. I've had to pay hundreds of dollars for vets to come out to my house to just literally look at my feral, cause they can't get near her, see what I'm obviously seeing, then they will give me some liquid Clavamox for her. Once in a while a vet that has seen her will allow me to email them a photo of the injury, but then next time it's the big money again. Once they told me "by law we have to examine the cat"....well, they've never really examined my feral. Since I have had several cats I brought to my regular vet, she would give me dewormer, but never antibiotics. Maybe rescues and vets just realize there are so many truly adoptable pets sitting in shelters and being destroyed that they don't want to encourage people trying to tame wild animals. I just think it is awful that everywhere you go, everywhere....once you start to notice them strays and ferals are everywhere!