extra friendly feral

Hi I have 4 almost 1 year old happy healthy TNRed cats at work that I take very good care of.  I also have one inside cat at home she is 5.  One of my ferals is extremely affectionate toward me.  The others tolerate me but this little girl never leaves me alone.  She is more interested in my attention then eating.  She seems very happy outside being free.  Something inside me wants to bring her home in the worst way.  I am not sure if my cat at home will even get along with another feline.  She hates dogs but I don't think she has ever even seen another cat.  She is very interested in smelling my clothes that my friendly feral rubs all over.   Not sure on so many levels if I should bring this little girl home to my other female.  And if it ends in disaster can I put her back out with her clan and she will be okay?  I am not sure why this little female being born fully feral is so loving and affectionate. I have read online that they can be extremely attached to their caretaker.  Am I misconstruing  that with my own feelings?  Will my inside cat be a bully once I properly introduce them or will my feral beat up on my house cat?  Will this screw her up being taken away from her siblings which are a very tight foursome. Thoughts and opinions please.  Thank you!

You would need to do the safe room or crate the work cat and slowly introduce them. When I got Zoe from the humane society I kept her in a room and slowly introduced her to the house and my cat Taz. I had Taz tested for communicable diseases before I brought Zoe home and Zoe had already been tested by the humane society. You should make sure both cats are tested before taking the work cat home. It takes a lot of time and patience to socialize a cat to living as a typical house cat and in the end the cats might not get along. It could take several months to socialize a cat but as you say she is already affectionate towards you so sounds like you have her trust which should help make it easier.

Cats are not 100% predictable and I don't think anyone can tell you for sure if it will work out well. If you socialize the work kitty and the cats won't live together I think you would be best to try and find a different house for work kitty to live in. It would be a huge waste of your time to socialize her and put her back outside. Outdoor kitties should be shy of people because some people will do them harm and when you socialize her she may lose that shyness and leave her at a disadvantage if you put her back outside.

First you would need to socialize the work kitty and get it used to living indoors then you would take your time introducing the cats to each other. My belief is that cats are living creatures with personalities so nobody can predict how long it will take or if it will be successful.

Thank you very much for the advice.  I have had my at home kitty up to date on all of her shots.  My work kitty went through the TNR spa back in August of 2016.  They worm them and give them all of their shots.  Its a great clinic.  But if I decide to do this I will plan my capture with a immediate visit to the vet who does the spa neuter clinic and have little miss feral checked out again.  And I definitely have a spare bedroom with plenty of windows and privacy for my feral to ease into transition with out being disturbed  Thanks again for your time and advice.  It definitely helps

Cover the Windows at first. My two cats I brought in jumped straight at the window not knowing what glass is. I thought they were going to break their necks not to mention the glass and get cut up by it.

Make sure you have them tested for FIV and other communicable diseases not just shots and deworming. It would be incredibly sad if one kitty got a disease from the other kitty. You are doing a great thing and wouldn't want to spoil it by spreading disease.

As for the room, empty it if you can you don't want to give her places to hide that you can't get her out of easy. And if she has places to hide it will make it difficult to monitor her and work on socializing her. You put in litter, food, blankets, some things to play with, and maybe some small boxes. If she doesn't use litter right away put her poop in the litter and move the litter to the spot she used.

WOW... all very helpful hints.  I never even thought about the windows.  Thank you so much for all of the advice.  I really appreciate it  

If you ever need advice no matter how big or small the issue be sure to post it to this site. There are lots of knowledgeable people that frequent this site and I found people on here to be extremely helpful and knowledgeable when I started out. All the best to you and the cats.

Like Shane said, no one can really tell you how it would work out since cats have different personalities just like people.

My new feral spent one week in the bathroom and the last four weeks in my bedroom.  Tangent, my 12 year old, comes in the room for short supervised visits several times a day.  Right now, the feral is 5 1/2 months so she wants to leap on him non-stop and rough house.  He's pretty cool with it, but it would get quite tiring for him I let them be together unsupervised all the time.  On the other hand, he is helping teach her some "cat manners" so a mature domestic cat can make the socializing process easier.

Your feral might be a little calmer with your indoor cat since she isn't a young kitten (or maybe she won't be...lol).

It's certainly worth a try if you really want to offer her an inside life.  You have the right plan to make sure she is healthy, and have some good advice here.

I do agree that if you decide to go forward and socialize her indoors, then also commit to finding her a permanent adoptive home if it doesn't work out with your other cat.  My original plan was to socialize my feral kitten then find her a home...but she is coming along fast.  I love her now and can tell that she and my senior will be able to live together well in the long run.  She's a keeper.