Hi everyone,
Hoping someone else here has experience with my situation. Sorry in advance for the novel...
One of my two resident indoor cats went missing last month. Since then I've been setting a trap in front of my house hoping to catch him. Instead, I'm inadvertently trapping neighbourhood ferals. I've been working with a local rescue that deals with TNR to help get these fellas neutered.
Currently, I have two of them in my spare bedroom. They've both had their neuter surgeries. One is loose in the room, the other is hiding in a carrier within a large dog crate. Tuck, the one that is loose, doesn't appear to have an aggressive bone in his body. Apart from the occasional hiss, he tolerates us quite well. We can pet him no problem. We've been operating under the assumption that he could eventually become a pet so we're working on rehabilitation rather than TNR. He is FIV+
The one in the crate, Archer, is more of a mystery. When he was first trapped a couple weeks back his trap was placed next to Tuck's carrier (both closed) and neither reacted at all to the other's presence. At the time neither was neutered. I thought maybe they knew each other? He's now hidden away in the carrier within the crate so we can't touch him, but he isn't reactive at all when I've got my hands inside the crate. I place his wet food right in front of him in the carrier and he has never even hissed.
Now we come to what I need advice on... letting Archer out of the crate to be loose with Tuck.
While neither Tuck or Archer dare to come out of their hiding places when either myself or more boyfriend enter the room, I haven't heard any obvious confrontations between them. I would think as male ferals if they weren't part of the same colony they'd make it known, right? Would I hear them growl/hiss/swat at each other even through a closed door?
Archer makes an absolute mess of the crate every night, I think he's trying desperately to escape. I hear him in the middle of the night making a lot of noise and I wake up daily to his litter, water and food completely trashed. We want to open up the crate and allow the two of them to be free together. Since neither seems stressed by the other's presence, we are assuming that they are part of the same colony. But is this a safe assumption? Sure we trapped them both in the same location, but does this necessarily mean they are acquainted? How do I know? I'm afraid of letting Archer loose and then not being present if they fight. I know that as long as I'm still in the room neither of them will come out of hiding, so how will I see them interact in order to decide if they're friendly? Do I just open the crate and hope for the best?
Any advice would be helpful! I'm completely new to feral cats and I want to do the right thing here. Even if the right thing is releasing them. I just feel in my heart that these two boys could potentially live long, happy lives indoors. Anything I can do to help them get to that point I will try!
Thank you!!
Hoping someone else here has experience with my situation. Sorry in advance for the novel...
One of my two resident indoor cats went missing last month. Since then I've been setting a trap in front of my house hoping to catch him. Instead, I'm inadvertently trapping neighbourhood ferals. I've been working with a local rescue that deals with TNR to help get these fellas neutered.
Currently, I have two of them in my spare bedroom. They've both had their neuter surgeries. One is loose in the room, the other is hiding in a carrier within a large dog crate. Tuck, the one that is loose, doesn't appear to have an aggressive bone in his body. Apart from the occasional hiss, he tolerates us quite well. We can pet him no problem. We've been operating under the assumption that he could eventually become a pet so we're working on rehabilitation rather than TNR. He is FIV+
The one in the crate, Archer, is more of a mystery. When he was first trapped a couple weeks back his trap was placed next to Tuck's carrier (both closed) and neither reacted at all to the other's presence. At the time neither was neutered. I thought maybe they knew each other? He's now hidden away in the carrier within the crate so we can't touch him, but he isn't reactive at all when I've got my hands inside the crate. I place his wet food right in front of him in the carrier and he has never even hissed.
Now we come to what I need advice on... letting Archer out of the crate to be loose with Tuck.
While neither Tuck or Archer dare to come out of their hiding places when either myself or more boyfriend enter the room, I haven't heard any obvious confrontations between them. I would think as male ferals if they weren't part of the same colony they'd make it known, right? Would I hear them growl/hiss/swat at each other even through a closed door?
Archer makes an absolute mess of the crate every night, I think he's trying desperately to escape. I hear him in the middle of the night making a lot of noise and I wake up daily to his litter, water and food completely trashed. We want to open up the crate and allow the two of them to be free together. Since neither seems stressed by the other's presence, we are assuming that they are part of the same colony. But is this a safe assumption? Sure we trapped them both in the same location, but does this necessarily mean they are acquainted? How do I know? I'm afraid of letting Archer loose and then not being present if they fight. I know that as long as I'm still in the room neither of them will come out of hiding, so how will I see them interact in order to decide if they're friendly? Do I just open the crate and hope for the best?
Any advice would be helpful! I'm completely new to feral cats and I want to do the right thing here. Even if the right thing is releasing them. I just feel in my heart that these two boys could potentially live long, happy lives indoors. Anything I can do to help them get to that point I will try!
Thank you!!
