What do you call them????

The technical term for homeless cats is feral but most of us use a different word to describe them.
I have always used stray.
What word do you use to describe feral cats?

I have always used stray too

I call the ones round here my 'visiting' cats!

I also always use the term stray, but I guess all strays are not feral (being lost house cats) and not all ferals are strays (born feral, never strayed from a home).

I voted for feral, cause I consider feral cats to be well, feral, as in not socialized, but stray cats to me are just cats that are lost or were once house cats and got booted by irresponsible owners. I don't call them wild either, cause that brings to mind for me tigers and lions

To me a friendly outside cat who apparently has no owner is a stray or barn cat. A feral is a wild animal who happens to be a cat. They look at you like a fox or rabbit would look at you, as if you are a threat to their life.

Most outside cats are not feral...just abandoned pets who are either friendly to humans, or at least not terrified of them. A feral is one who probably never had contact with people, and if they did it wasn't positive. Or it happened too late in their life to tame them.

I call feral cats wild things. If they hang around, I name them and trap them so they can be speutered and released! But in discussing them on the board, or with other cat people, I call them feral, because to me that tells so much about the kitty!

I call them all strays. But then there are strays you can get close to and strays you can't.

I always said "Stray" because "feral" sounds a little aggressive to me.

I checked feral, but I should have checked other. To me there are 2 distinct categories. Feral are cats that were born outside & have had little to no human interation. Strays are cats that once belonged to someone but either ran away or were abandoned.

I call them all strays. But like Traci says there are some you can get close to and some you can't.

Until i came here i always called them strays

If they are friendly -stray
If they are wild acting -feral


To me a stray is an animal that was obviously someone's pet once, while a feral was born into homelessness.

Most members of TCS are more educated about cats, than the general population.

Do you think that the average person is familiar with the difference between stray and feral?

Would they use the word feral, when describing a "stray" in your neighborhood?

What word do you think that they would they use?

Thanks for your feedback.

Um, it depends on the cat. Really wild ones that are unapproachable and have to be trapped are feral to me. Cats wandering around outside that can be coaxed to come to you or just run up to you I call stray.

I call other peoples ferals,ferals

I call my own colony the furry ferals

If i am going to feed them ,i say i'm going to feed 'The Tribe'

I think the average person, which I consider myself to be, especially before I came to TCS, always called the scared outside cats, "Wild" cats. I had never heard the term "Feral", in reference to cats, until I came here. In fact once I learned that feral, was the proper term for a wild cat, I had to "show off" my knowledge to everyone I knew.

No one I have known before TCS, has ever used the term Feral.

When I first saw the termonology here on TCS, I thought they were talking about vicious, dangerous non domestic cats. Now, I know what a feral is, but I don't think the average person on the streets is familiar with that term. I think most people think of them as strays, or wild cats.

I've encountered quite a few people who have never heard the term "feral," even people who have cats of their own. It's like it never occurred to them that cats can be born into homelessness and never have human contact.

Truth be told, I never really knew the term feral before coming to TCS! So I've always called all of them strays. But yes, elicon- I've always known that cats can be born into homelessness
I just always called ferals wild cats 'till I found TCS and learned that term....

I call them all feral, DH says stray.