We rescued a feral cat 3 months ago (trapped). We live in a rural area so he has had to protect himself from many predators. He has been resident in downstairs bathroom. Read somewhere to make many trips with small amounts of food to get trust. (Best advice ever). His safe place has been in the tub and under blanket. We've made huge progress where I can pet him in tub but circumstances have to be perfect. I drop corner of blanket over side of tub and he slides under against the tub and cannot see my hand lowering onto his head. When I get my hand onto his head and start scratching he's fine. He relaxes and lets me pet.......but if he rolls onto his side and sees my hand sometimes spooks him and he swats.
Have made huge progress and 2 months in he started playing with toys hanging from strings. (This is how we discovered he was boy........when he rolled onto his back playing).
Has been using the litter box no problem from day one. A few weeks ago we decided to leave the door open into a hallway/foyer (restricted area) where he can't go to any other area of the house. Over these two weeks he ventures a little farther into the hallway and has just begun to come into the foyer where there are windows. We usually monitor him and encourage him to come out. Last night we left his door open so he could explore this limited area on his own. This morning we found that he peed on a mat by the door leading to the outside instead of using litter box in bathroom he has been using for the past 3 months.
We wondered if the mat had outside smells on it and he thought this was a form of litter box? Also, we are considering keeping this fellow (you form quite a bond when working this closely with an animal day after day)......however, we have a male cat who was also a stray that we took in. When the feral cat was outside our cat and him had some nasty encounters. We are worried that there could be problems trying to get these two to live together.
We will certainly get the feral neutured whether we keep him or not. Any suggestions on the litter problem and getting two cats to get along.....under our circumstances?
Have made huge progress and 2 months in he started playing with toys hanging from strings. (This is how we discovered he was boy........when he rolled onto his back playing).
Has been using the litter box no problem from day one. A few weeks ago we decided to leave the door open into a hallway/foyer (restricted area) where he can't go to any other area of the house. Over these two weeks he ventures a little farther into the hallway and has just begun to come into the foyer where there are windows. We usually monitor him and encourage him to come out. Last night we left his door open so he could explore this limited area on his own. This morning we found that he peed on a mat by the door leading to the outside instead of using litter box in bathroom he has been using for the past 3 months.
We wondered if the mat had outside smells on it and he thought this was a form of litter box? Also, we are considering keeping this fellow (you form quite a bond when working this closely with an animal day after day)......however, we have a male cat who was also a stray that we took in. When the feral cat was outside our cat and him had some nasty encounters. We are worried that there could be problems trying to get these two to live together.
We will certainly get the feral neutured whether we keep him or not. Any suggestions on the litter problem and getting two cats to get along.....under our circumstances?