Feral cat pooped her bed

I have a feral female at least 13 years old that pooped in her basked on the porch last night for the very first time. I saw her sleeping in it when I closed the door to go to bed. The poop was in the basket on the towel in the morning. I've been feeding her for 12 years. Obviously we've left before for vacation and have had petsitters always come to feed her at regular times. The night before we had been away for only one night and a neighbor came and fed her and told me she ate very well. I'm going to take the sample to the vet for testing, but it looks perfectly normal to me. Any ideas why she would have suddenly done this? I'm wondering if she could be getting feline dementia.

MrsTY said:

I have a feral female at least 13 years old that pooped in her basked on the porch last night for the very first time. I saw her sleeping in it when I closed the door to go to bed. The poop was in the basket on the towel in the morning. I've been feeding her for 12 years. Obviously we've left before for vacation and have had petsitters always come to feed her at regular times. The night before we had been away for only one night and a neighbor came and fed her and told me she ate very well. I'm going to take the sample to the vet for testing, but it looks perfectly normal to me. Any ideas why she would have suddenly done this? I'm wondering if she could be getting feline dementia.

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Are you certain it was her stool and not another cat?  Since it was just the one time, I wouldn't be too worried about it.  It's great to have it checked by the vet.

Often it can be stress related.  Maybe something frightened her during the night. 

No, not absolutely certain it was her, but there haven't been any other cats around recently. There have been plenty from time to time, but she never did that before. I think you are right, hopefully it was a one time thing.

MrsTY said:

No, not absolutely certain it was her, but there haven't been any other cats around recently. There have been plenty from time to time, but she never did that before. I think you are right, hopefully it was a one time thing.

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If it happens again I would start to get concerned.  You never know what happens during the night when you aren't watching!  It's amazing what comes around my property at night.  I have several surveillance cameras that I use to keep track of my feral cats.  I see more than I often wish!

Haha, yes! I often thought about doing that and then pictured myself sitting around all day watching surveillance videos...decided against it. We do know there is a fox in the area, but the cats don't seem afraid of him, they sit right on the porch and watch him trott down the street. Guess he has lots else to eat that won't give him as hard a time as a cat would.

BTW, her stool sample came back negative, no sign of worms or anything.

The other thing I do is sleep with my window open which is right over the porch where she is. There have been plenty of times I hear a male cat calling as he comes down the street and into my yard and I jump out of bed and yell out the window "GET OUT OF HERE". It's so funny that my cat knows I'm not yelling at her...and they usually run off. If not I've been known to come down and open the door and run down my driveway in my nightgown and robe chasing off anything that bothers my cats. And my husband does call me the crazy cat lady.

I only look at the emails in the morning to see what happened at night.  It has helped to find cats that are causing problems.  It doesn't take long to go through the emails.  I use it more often when I travel. 

So glad the stool sample is negative!

We have fox here too, but they are not at all after my cats.  I see them in the yard and have even had them on and under my deck.  It's the coyotes I worry about here.  I have seen them on my surveillance cameras and it makes me want to cry.  Usually they are chasing a bunny and take no notice of my cats.  I also think they are afraid to come too close to the house. 

Most of us here are Crazy Cat People!!  I wouldn't have it any other way!!

There is something called Nite Guard you can get from Amazon. It's a solar powered flashing red light. There are different styles, I got one of each. One has 2 flashing lights that look more like eyes than the single one. Supposed to keep things like fox and coyotes at a distance, depending on the height they are placed. And you have to keep moving them around or they will eventually check them out then they won't work. Not very expensive, might be worth a try on your coyotes. I think it helps keep the fox at a distance.