Stray cat bullies!

Hmm. . . . I've been closing off the door inbetween the kitchen and the living room to save our heat. Then I open the door from the kitchen onto the porch for her.

Dusty is eating inside now! I'm very proud! The first couple of times were tough, but when I see her, I open the door and she comes right inside to eat! She doesn't spend a lot of time inside. After a meal she'll snoop around for a bit and get skittery after five minutes and run outside again. She's not afraid to come back in when she's hungry, though. Eventually she'll understand that it's warmer and comfier inside and maybe she'll stay the night. This is great because Boston is only going to get colder until April or so. I bribe her with treats and pettings to let her know how happy I am.

Maskie, I agree you're doing a super job! I don't know if she was hurt, but sometimes it really is just that you need to take a step back and not take any of it personally. Cats certainly operate on their own schedule.

Re: Tim adopting her. The only thing I'd be concerned with is that everyone in his home be prepared for having a feral kitty. They have very special needs, and though it's great that someone would be there all the time for her, it's important that everyone understand her need for space and time to "learn" how to be an indoor kitty. Although all of our rescues are now indoor-only cats, we have rescued kitties that just aren't happy unless they're indoor/outdoor cats. This is rare, and that opportunity certainly depends upon the place, I believe. But cats are territorial roamers and hunters, and they need proper stimulation and space when they move in with us.

Maybe print out some of the articles on feral behavior, bringing a new cat home, and some of the threads where people socialize ferals for Tim?

My thoughts are with you and Dusty, and I'm sending "good luck" vibes to you all!!!!!!!

Dusty is a funny cat!

Today I was changing her blanket and I had the door open, so she went inside and waited for me. I could see the gears turning in her head. . .

"Since whenever I go inside I get food. . . . . .I can get food whenever I go inside! I'm a genius!"

What a goof! I *did* end up feeding her, too. . . .hmmm. . . .maybe she's right!

Tim told me he has no misconceptions about how Dusty's going to behave. He doesn't expect her to be chummy with him for a while. He expects to just make sure she's fed and change her box until she feels like coming around. Tim did come by and gave her treats and pettings so she could get used to him. He has two roommates. One of them is a kind of eldely artist lady and another dude he barely sees. I'll make sure to pass the word that they need to be briefed on their new roommate too.
I'll definitely print out those pages and email him the links too.

Thanks again, you guys!
If I have more Feline Adventures, I'll keep you posted! : )

so pleased to hear that everything is working out with Dusty - thats such wonderful news!! She really is such a beautiful cat and she deserves to be loved and pampered

Things were a little rough over the weekend.

I let Dusty in Friday night and we had a great time.

She loves her catnip mouse and I even got to use the fishing rod a little bit. There were pettings and headbutts and purrs. I even got to see her fuzzy belly.
She wanted to go outside to do her business, so I let her. Around ten pm I opened the door and in she came.

About an hour later, my boyfriend Mike came home and she got scared and hid under a chair.

He wasn't even in the room with me, she just knew she wasn't alone in the house and it was too much for her. She came out from under the chair and started sniffing under the door like the door was connected to her nose, so I let her go. Mike was the first one who discovered Dusty and her kittens and he feels kind of sad that sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s afraid of him.



Saturday and Sunday were all about me trying to get her to eat inside for a second/third time. She was gone for most of the day and I only saw her at night. So there I was, in the wintertime, on my kitchen floor, flat on my belly, petting her as she ate on my threshold with the kitchen door open to the elements.

Yesterday morning Mike told me it was going to be super cold so I should try to bring her in again. She was gone all day like last time. I ran errands, I did laundry. I came home around seven and she wasn't around. I refilled the bowls with dry food and changed the frozen water bowls for fresh. I was changing the snugglesafe when Dusty showed up.



I was so happy! I did my usual, "put some food inside and see if she takes it" routine, and she wouldn't. I tried to bring it in a little closer to the door. She waited outside in clear line of sight, but didn't move like she was ever going to go in to eat.



I decided it would be too cold tonight to play the usual "I accept you have free will" kind of games. I pushed the food dish inside the house past the swing of the door. I found where Dusty was on the porch and picked her up like a little baby. I hadn't done that since she'd been caught for spaying.

She squirmed a little. I took her inside and set her down in front of her food and went to close the door. She ran right out again. I came back out, but she didn't leave the porch. I petted her and soothed her and then picked her up a second time. I took her inside successfully and closed the door with my foot and leaned against it. Then I set her down and made sure the door was sealed from the cold.

She went nutty for a little bit, tossed her food around, but then calmed down enough to remember she was hungry. I had my boyfriend go around the back with the snuggle safe to put the disk in the bed for the other stray cats and to close the screen door that I couldn't close with arms full of cat.



Dusty didn't cry, but she did occasionally sniff at the door. She didn't seem to be mad at me. She was really lovey and headbutty. We have a "disposable litter box" which I showed her. I wasn't going to let her out in the middle of the night to make a "download" this time. If she made a mess in the house I'd just clean it up and put it in the box. I put a pillow out for her, but she decided to make her home base the carboard box for our air conditioner under the kitchen table. I put one of her felt blankets over it to make her more comfortable.

I woke up at sixish this morning and fed her. There were no signs of any droppings or puddles.

Her blanket was dry and clean. She was a little more insistent about going outside. I'm at work all day. I didn't want to leave her alone in my kitchen for that long if she didn't want to/know how to use the litter box. I didn't want her to hurt herself if she absolutely refused to poop inside. So I let my baby go out into the world. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s supposed to be just as cold, if not colder tonight. I only hope that she'll be outside my door when I come home. She should be getting the message that she doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get bothered by the other cats inside and itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s warm and comfy and nothing to be afraid of. If she doesn't want to come inside, I'm going to pick her up and bring her inside again! Sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll get the message sooner or later!

I always leave dry food out for Dusty and the other two(sometimes 3) strays I've seen near my porch. Yesterday when I was about to refill a dish, I noticed there was some dried bird poop on the dish. The dish might be over the roof, so maybe pigeons or local birds or whatever made a download after the cats had finished eating.

No, that's not weird. But this is. . . .
This morning I went out to restock the cats' dry food and I found bird droppings all over one section of the wooden railing spattered like machine gun fire. I'm no forensics specialist, but the poo was the exact color of the cat food. I get the multicolor food like Deli Cat that has different flavors as different colors and shapes.
Can this be true? Are birds eating my cat's food? I sure hope it never happens again, because that was a whole lot of. . . bird weirdness. I may need to get a paint scraper out there.

I'm very happy as my lanlord has agreed to let me keep Dusty!
He is super duper nervous about the cat smell, though.

Her bed and litter box and food station are in the kitchen, but far enough apart so she's okay about using all three and they're not messy.

Her litter box is very clean. I clean it every night and every morning.

There's still a stinky cat smell (kind of like pee, but not as strong.Still smelly though) from the blanket on her bed.

Its the only thing that's stinky but I'm worried it might be Too Stinky and our landlord will get a whiff and tell us she has to go back outside.

Is there something I can do to clean the air, but not her bedclothes? Should I be cleaning her bedclothes? I know cats provide their own musk to mark their territory. I honestly don't know if she's spraying or not.

what wonderful news to hear that your landlord will let you keep Dusty!!! how marvellous!! YAY!! YAY!!

is she still inside? how is that going?

I cant answer your question unfortunatly but I am sure someone will be along shortly that can provide some advise...

what wonderful news

She was meowing pretty loud last night, so I collared her up and let her outside. She didn't come home last night, but it's been pretty warm outside (mid 30's to 40) lately. I know my little juvenile delinquent will come home when she's hungry. I am very nervous for her and wish she'd come home and stay inside. I don't think I have enough things to keep her busy while she's inside, though.

I have a scratching post, some catnip toys, some plastic milk bottle rings and a rolling toy that jingles. I don't think this is enough to keep her active while we're at work.

its probably not that you dont have enough to keep her active while your at work - its probably more that she wants to be outside?

I wish she would just come and stay inside as well, at least she has a collar though..... did you end up cleaning her blanket?

I cant remember if she has been to the vet at all?

Well, the last time she wanted to be let out and I let her out, she was gone for two days.

Mike and I decided that we're not letting her outside again. We honestly don't know when she'll come back again.

Lately she's been pretty good about letting me go outside to feed the other cats and heat up the snugglesafe pad When it's cold outside I never have trouble with her.

When I go out to feed them and its nice, sometimes I'll turn around to open the porch door to see her sneaky face through the screen, ready to make a break for it. That's when I go around and enter the house from the front. Whenever I go outside to feed, I make sure I have my keys with me.


When she was taken away by the Allycat Advocats for her spaying, I paid for a physical exam and shots and FIV testing. At the beginning of this month, because we were trying to get Dusty into a new home, Jenny from Alleycat Advocats came by and checked her for ear mites and worms and fleas. She was clean on all counts. She even looked at her eyes and checked her teeth for tartar.

I don't think it's a physical thing. I think it's a tiny cat brain thing. Her habitat has changed but she still wants the same territory.

Hi!

What kind of luck do you all have with harnesses? Is it tough to get them on the kitty? Are they cool with the leash? I've been trying to reach a happy medium with my cat, and harness and a leash are my last resort, sort of.

This February I adopted Dusty who had kittens on my porch. I am continuing to care for the other strays in the neighborhood by feeding them on that very same porch.

My kitty still wants to go outside. For a while, if the weather was good, every other weekend we'd let her out. I made sure she had a collar on with our phone number on it. Last weekend I made sure she had a flea collar too.

Back in the olden days when I was training her to come inside for adoption opportunities. I would feed her in the morning, let her out and she would be waiting when I came home at six to come inside for dinner.

But these other cats on the back porch are making trouble. It's a constant battle for territory out back there, and at first I just thought she went out and didn't feel like coming back for a day or two. Saturday blurred into Sunday and I got more and more worried. I called shelters, I made flyers.

Wednesday night I cased the neighborhood, calling her name.The larger problem I found out last Wednesday night was that those other cats won't let her come home. Its even worse now on the porch because while I was looking for Dusty I discovered two of the female strays had had babies. I didn't have any indication they'd even gone into heat.
The strays never got spayed because all of my stray cat antics happened in the winter time where the NoKill Shelter folks I've been in contact with won't spay cats in the winter because their bellies have to be shaved and they could freeze.

Despite this awful state of affairs happening last week, it's spring and Dusty smells everything outside and we've nicknamed her Steve McQueen because she's plotting The Great Escape. After everything, she still wants to go outside. I want to be a good cat mommy and make her happy, but I get nervous whenever she goes outside. I'm hoping a harness and a leash(and leaving from the front door)will be the happy medium we both need. I want her to be able to go outside and bake in the sun like she used to. I would like us to be able to barbecue and eat on the back porch together.
Is this a good idea or should I just put my foot down and make her inside only for life?

i've had cats that like harnesses and do great going for walks on a leash, and i've had cats that hate them...you'll know as soon as you put it on, the cat i had that hated it would lay down as soon as i put it on, and you couldn't do anything but drag him along, so i gave up...but other cats i've had love them...it's worth trying, the best thing i've found is to put the harness on and let them wear it for awhile and get used to it before trying to leash them...good luck

Well, she really wants to go outside, like they're giving out catnip and fishy treats and she's missing all of it. I sort of expect she'll be dragging me. I'm also hoping this doesn't have to be a permanent arrangement. Maybe once the porch cats have all been spayed they won't be as territorial. Also, taking her out on the leash as part of a routine a few times a week, through the front door, might change her behavior that she can come and go through the front door without having to deal at all with the back porch cats.
I dunno, its tough. I want us both to be happy. If all my attempts fail, Dusty will have to stay inside all of the time.

So I came across this thread while doing a key word seach for "Boston" and I wanna know what has happened!!!!
What happened to Dusty? We're you able to reach an agreement and have her go out on the harness? What happened to her babies? What about all the other stray cats???? This Boston gal wants to know!!!!!

Well, It's kind of sad. We never got to try the harness.
Mike and I went away on vacation two weeks ago.
We got back this Wednesday night.

While we were away, our landlord replaced our front door and wouldn't you know it, Dusty ran away while he was working on it.

Dusty had at least two people coming by every day to keep her fed and entertained, but she ran outside anyway.


When we came home we saw her in the neighborhood. We barely recognized her. She didn't have her collar on anymore. When I called to her, she didn't respond. When I would move towards her, she'd run away. I'm afraid of what has happened. She's only been out in the world for five days or so. It's like she doesn't know me, but the cat's face is identical to Dusty's.The patches the nose, the nubbly chin. The only thing I couldn't check on her is the little black spot on her fuzzy bum. Could she have forgotten about us? It seems like she doesn't want to be my kitty anymore. Does that happen with strays a lot?

I don't know what she's thinking. Maybe she only wants to be an indoor cat in the wintertime? It's like she's totally gone stray all over again. We've let her out before, and she's been gone about as long and been happy to see us. It's not like we threw her out. It absolutely breaks our hearts because we were so looking forward to our sweet puff welcoming us home again. But now it's like she's a completely different cat.

I didn't see her at all last night, and I'm worried. Worried that someone else has adopted her while we were gone and thrown her collar away. Worried that she doesn't want a home or our love. How can she not remember the good times? The catnip? Playing ball with us? Two squares a day and a soft pillow to sleep on?

We don't know what to do. We want our baby to come home.

Dusty first showed on our porch last September in a bag of charcoal. She gave birth in the charcoal bag to four chubby puffs who were adopted by good families. One of them is Maskie whose name I took for the message boards.

Three cats used to mooch Dusty's food on a regular basis when she was living outside. Those cats are Cheeseball, Milkball and Grayball. These new freeloaders showed up in the winter time so the cat shelter that helped me with Dusty told me that they wouldn't fix these new cats until the spring because they might get frostbite on their bellies.

The last time Dusty ran off and I was calling to bring her in I discovered that two of the freeloaders gave birth to kittens. Truly all three of my outdoor females were knocked up by another freeloader, Tuxedo ball.

Cheeseball and Tuxedo ball have been trapped and snipped. Cheeseballs kittens are little angels now.

Cheeseball is in a shelter awaiting adoption, but she's very shy and the shelter wants to send her back to my porch if she doesn't want to be adopted.

Tuxedo never let me get near enough to pet him so he got tipped and re-released into the wild. I've seen Dusty walking around with Tuxedo. Do cats talk about us to each other? Dusty was spayed quite a while ago, but still retains that strong territorial urge.

This weekend, Milkball and Grayball will be trapped and spayed. Gray is sort of friendly so she might get some foster care or a shelter. Milkball might have to be tipped as I've never been able to pet her either, she runs away.

That's all the cat update I have for now.

Oh I am ssoo sorry your Dusty got out and has not yet returned home.

If it has only been 5 days I am not sure why she might not remember you, but there are many people on here that have experience with strays that might be able to provide advice. Maybe when your landlord came in to replace out the door s/he made a lot of noise which could have been scary and unsafe in the cat's opinion and so she ran out - and maybe she thinks that's what home now is??? I could be very wrong.

My only advice is to be patient and try to coax her back into the house like you did so many months ago and hopefully you can bring her back in with treats, food, toys, etc.

I will keep good kitty vibes for you!!!!

Well, I haven't seen Dusty around. When we first got back, she came up to eat dinner on the porch once, but my boyfriend got excited that she showed up so soon and when he came around the back way to bring her in, but she got scared and ran off.

The next day, we saw her in the afternoon in someone else's yard. I was afraid I'd get arrested, but I went in there, with a plate of food, calling her name and asking her to come home. The closer I got to her, the farther away she'd go, until she was in a thicket of tall unruly stalky plants and all I could see was her eyes. I couldn't even bribe her with food.
Maybe she wanted me to go in after her, but all I could do was take her retreat personally.

Next Wednesday it will have been a week since we've seen her. I put up flyers over the weekend, but I'm afraid the rain has done a job on them. I won't be able to reflyer the area until the rain has stopped and we might have rain all week long.

I'm starting to feel what parents of a missing child must go through. I just need to know she's okay. If someone else has decided she's their kitty instead, I guess that's alright. I just want whoever has Dusty to love and care for her as much as we do.

Does anybody know how long a cat stays in the same neighborhood before it moves on? I haven't seen Dusty in almost a week and I'm very worried that she might have moved on to another neighborhood somewhere else, or one of my neighbors took her in and decided to keep her. How long can a poor kitty go on without food?