Exercise Caution When Dealing With Ferals

[jancat15]

Most of my ferals were the very wild, rip your face off if given a chance, type of ferals. They were all around a year old give or take a few months or so when they were trapped. Are all of them friendly, cuddly, lap cats? Not even! But they can be touched by me at the time and place of their chooseing and wouldn't leave my house even when someone left the gate open. The oldest ones are now 11 years old and I love all of them very much, even the ones I can't cuddle. But if they had been trapped and taken to any shelter they would all have been killed as too wild and aggressive. As long as you can live with the knowledge that the feral may never be a cuddle cat and may not even let you pet it much, you can live peacefully and comfortably with a feral or ferals in the house. Some of my ferals will sit a foot from me and do the slow eye close with me but most of the time won't let me touch them. OK, I can live with that.

 

[msgoody2shoes]

I hate to sound like I'm discrediting your attack but does anybody else think the mental sight of someone slowly leaning over to feed some wild cat a piece of hot dog hilarious?

 

[carolpetunia]

No, not hilarious -- maybe a little naive, is all. Can't laugh at someone whose intentions are so good.

And I admire her for trying to caution others on the basis of her experience. I'm about to have to attempt my first feral capture -- with no trap -- and I appreciate her warning! YIKES! I'll take even more precautions than I had already planned...

 

[furryferals]

All credit to you for trying to help the kitties

But lets not forget there is a very big difference between feral and stray

But that only becomes an 'issue' when 'people' that don't know what they are doing
try to do everything by themselves without doing any research.
That costs lives...

The first rule to remember is....assess ....assess....assess

 

[furryferals]

Originally Posted by msgoody2shoes

I hate to sound like I'm discrediting your attack but does anybody else think the mental sight of someone slowly leaning over to feed some wild cat a piece of hot dog hilarious?

BTW Yeah I thought it sounded funny

Hilarious infact.....

 

[happy cat]

well, I never claimed to be a genius,
I had thought the cat could have been a stray. In our rural farming area, we are prime "dumping grounds" for unwanted animals.
Didn't really dawn on me that this one was feral til it hurt me.
Now I don't chance it at all.
I leave it to the professionals.

 

[ipw533]

On one hand it initially seems odd that you could get close enough to a feral to try to feed it a piece of hot dog, but then again there is a feral who has come to my feeding station in the last three months who won't run away if I try to touch him at the food bowl. But he does give me a look that says, "Don't even TRY it!", and I haven't.

I've found the most dangerous time is when transferring a captured feral to either a cage or a carrier--the cat will escape given the smallest opportunity and will fight like the devil when you try to recapture it. The first few times this happened we had to catch them by hand wearing fireplace gauntlets. Not very fun or safe for anyone concerned!!

Since then I've invested in Kevlar-lined gauntlets, nets, and an isolator. I've also invested in dog crates and carriers with rotating side flaps. The isolator can be used to move the cat from the trap to the crate and to block it's escape while closing the door. Most ferals will back away until cornered, and the carrier inside the crate is a convenient hidey-hole. Once he's inside the side flap can be closed and the cat will be ready for transportation--just remove the carrier from the crate. Hard to feed them that way, but you really don't want them eating immediately before or after surgery anyway. The same arrangement makes releasing them relatively easy and safe.

IMO Tomahawk makes the best carriers for such a use....

 

[marine]

Where I work we have a parking garage that is frequented by several cats. I have no idea if they are stray or feral. Last year, one had two kittens (we caught them at about 6 weeks) and one of our employees took them home. 3days later we trapped mom and she stayed in her cage in my office for a few hours. During that time I would reach in and pet her a little (hoping to make her feel comfortable)which she didn't mind. Of course now I realize that I shouldn't have been so trusting. She went to the home with her kittens and stayed there for about a week, but one day just took off when the door opened. Isn't that odd? The people left food out for her and a towel that had been in the kitten's bed hoping the scent of her babies would draw her back. She never came back.
Was I making a point here? Oh, yes that I was also foolish and pet this very sweet looking mama.

 

[hissy]

If there is a stray cat outside, regardless if you do not know the cat, always approach with caution. Never make direct eye contact. Food on the ground (use cookie trays) don't pet, don't interact unless you are going to trap neuter and work with the cat or release it. The biggest mistake I see people making (and they are all well-intentioned people) is they believe the cat is going to be grateful for the food and the "rescue." But cats are first and foremost predators. You are not a friend, you are a bigger predator. They have seen those who look like you- chase off their friends, shove them into traps, then the cats are carted off never to be seen again. They live in a completely different world than the one your domesticated cat enjoys. Many of these cats are not "feral" they are strays with strong feral tendencies (survival skills). The longer they find themselves out in the world, the stronger their tendencies are. They cannot ever be "tamed" not without a lot of extensive work. They can be socialized, but you need to work with them on their time schedule not yours. I get so many emails from people wanting to know how long before they can "pet" these cats, interact with them, have them on thier lap for a cuddle. It is all inducive to the cat's wishes. Many of the cats here that share our indoor life, will never be lap cats. Some that are lap cats leave deep scratch marks when they leap off our laps because something they hear startles them.

In my manuscript I am working on, I talk about this very subject. The book will hopefully give people such as yourself a guide as to how to work with these creatures REGARDLESS of their age or degree of feralness. I am always sad to hear that cats have been put down because they are "deemed dangerous." Usually, they are just special cases that have been subjected to torment and dangers we could never imagine, and all at the hands of humans. Is it any wonder, they can't instantly trust us?

Currently, I have five cats that were dumped on me about two weeks ago. Four tomcats, one female (pregnant of course). When I first approached them in the field, they were spitting hissing monsters. The boys are now neutered and I have been working with them. They are sociable now, I had to work quickly because they all needed to be fixed and most of my traps were on loan, so I had to put them in a carrier. One who was the worst tom and nailed me pretty good, now when I approach his enclosure. He is in a two-story walk in cage because he hates other cats. He rolls over and wants a tummy rub, headbumps me and loves on me. He loves dogs, and other people. But show him another cat, and he goes through the roof. I call him Wyatt after Wyatt Earp because he was as wild as the wild west when he arrived.

My point is a lot of these cats are simply misunderstood and some people don't understand their world or what they have to endure. You have to sort of consider them along the lines of a child brought up with anger and stress. It takes time to work that out, to show them that parts of the world are safe, and humans are good. Unfortunately, out there in the world, they are exposed to the darker side of humanity and become easy targets for true cat haters.