Temporary Digs for Ferrel & Family?

We have three house cats and a ferrel cat that also lives in our house. The ferrel has been with us for over seven years. She lets us come with a foot or so but will not let us pick her up. She runs away if we come closer but is affectionate with the other cats. It took us several months to trap her to finally her her neutered!

We have to have our house tented for termites and be out of it with our cats for three days. Does anyone have any ideas on the least tramatic and most effective way of definitely catching the ferrel? We plan to put her in a temporary playpen or carrier and have her with us and our other cats in a motor home for the days we have to be out of our home but want to make sure we can get her out the morning they are coming to gas the house.

Is there something OTC we can give her to calm her down? Our vet won't prescribe anything without seeing her, and if we could catch her to take her to the vet this wouldn't be a problem!

We only have a couple of weeks. Any suggestions would be welcome, including the best kind of temporary carrier/cage to use.

Thanks!

I'll move this to Caring for Strays & Ferals, so that our feral experts will be sure to see your thread.

If you contact your local animal shelter/humane society, or look for nonprofit organizations (nonprofits are always better, in my opinion) you can ask if they have a trapping cage you could borrow. There are certain types of cages that trap cats in a safe and friendly way. The cat is lured by food, and since your feral goes for food, it sounds like it would work. It can take sometime with some cats.

If you can't find a trapping cage (they are a certain type of cage), I'd try a towel. Cover the cat with a towel and try to put it in a carrier. You can get a dog sized carrier so the feral would have more space (friendlier since it isn't domesticated.) You'd have to be quick: towel, grab, relocate. Using rubber gloves might help incase a paw gets away from the towel.

Good luck.

Thanks catnipwhiskers!

The humane trap is prob. the best. You could buy some Feliway spray to spritz the trap with, although she'll prob. be so freaked. Bless you for taking care of this girl! I am so glad that you were able to get her neutered!! I hope that all goes well with the rest of your crew - I am so glad that we don't have termites nor fleas in our area. BTW, maybe you could PM Hissy or TNR1 for their input - they have so much experience & knowledge in the area of cat rescue