Feral help

[Accuratesound]

My wife and I have a big problem. Years ago she took in three feral kittens. One domesticated nicely, the other two after ten plus YEARS still are not really approachable. Now my wife and I are both disabled and cannot easily care for the two wild cats. After being fed and housed for so many years we don’t feel like we can “set them free” nor can we ask to have someone rehome them when we know they will never be pets. Anyone run into this problem before?

 

[bella.cat]

Hi.
I'm not sure what to do but you could try to contact a cat rescue shelter eg RSPCA, and talk to them about it and explain the situation.
They might be able to suggest what to do.

 

[fionasmom]

This has happened to me and no, I don't have a solution for you, but certainly can empathize. Same situation...took in feral kittens and one became a lap cat and the other two remained entirely feral. I still have one of them in the house and, if she makes it until September 17, she will be 15 years old. I have not touched her in 14 years and she has retained all her vigilant feral behavior to this day. Some ferals do not "cross over" even when adopted at the "right" age...that is a huge myth in the cat world.

I agree that they cannot be set free because your house is their house and there is no guarantee that they will adjust to any sort of outdoor life, even with food and shelter. My guess is that they would just leave in fear or sit right next to the house wondering what just happened.

This might depend on how unapproachable they are. You said "not really" but is there any interaction with them at all which is vaguely normal? If they stay with you, could you limit care to putting food down and cleaning a box if you are able? Can anyone help with any part of that for you? Eve, my feral, has food, water, and a litter box available and does sit with the other cats and move around the house, but I make no attempt to do anything else for her. It sounds mean, but she is at least living as good a life as an outdoor TNRed feral but with 24 hour safety. I believe that she has kidney disease and watch for signs of weakness that might allow me to bring her to the vet for evaluation but it has not happened yet. To be honest, if I got her there and she had anything close to a bad prognosis, I would let her go right then and there.

Her brother Addison was worse. They lived as rescued kittens in a large bathroom with their brother Billy who ended up being a lap cat baby. Go figure. The day that I was to take them to be fixed Addison bolted out of the room. No matter what we did, he was even less domesticated than Eve. His preferred place to sit was on top of a drapery rod on an 8 foot window where he knew we would never be insane enough to try to grab him. One day he seemed ill, I suspected what it was and we did everything possible to catch him...traps in house, carriers all over, special food, drop traps, sheets, blankets, chasing him into small rooms and cornering him. He died one night from what I knew was wrong....a blocked bladder and it was terrible and we felt awful.

I just want you to know that you aren't the only ones this happens to. I do agree that calling various cat rescues for advice is a start. There are cat sanctuaries which might take ferals. It might also be that someone might be able to take one of them and allow them to live out their life in a new home. As I said, it might depend on the degree of feralness that you are dealing with. Some cat people have no problem with an unfriendly cat so it might depend on if you mean that, or if there is danger to these cats being around someone because of real aggressiveness. This is going to take legwork in terms of phone calls and asking for advice and I hope that someone can be of some help.