It's impossible to adopt a feral cat

[cat spirit]

I agree with the members here. Feral cats Can Be Trained!!! All you need is love, time & patience! The 6 kitties, my family presently has, were ferals. Even though they were trapped as kittens, their ages, we guessed to be about 5 to 7 months old at the time. They are all happy indoor cats. Little Heart, Smokey Bear & Cheyenne are 7-1/2 yrs, Cheyenne was skittish of loud noises till about 1-1/2 yrs ago. She now lets us pick her up, brush her, etc. So even though she took longer to train, we never gave up on her. Charlie & Tiger are 3-1/2 yrs & the oldest Romeo, will be 10 yrs next month.

Plus, I have trapped many other adult feral cats over the years, I had them spayed & neutered, socialized them & found them super indoor homes! One of the ferals I trapped & had neutered, an orange male, that I had named Mr Sunshine, because he had the sweetest disposition. He just did not like being in the house. So I bought a dog igloo, with a door, put cushy pet pillows inside, placed it on our back porch, with food, water & a litter box. I cleaned everything every day, just like the indoor kitties. Mr. Sunshine even had an AVID chip & a collar with tags. He was very happy living outside & rewarding us with little "presents"

on the back porch. So, I always thanked him for the presents, & disposed of them by going thru the house to the trash can, on the other side. I went around the house once, & he followed me. So had to cut thru the house, from then on. Sadly, Mr. Sunshine got hit by a car in December. We all miss him, but he lived a happy three years!!

So, Please do not give up on this cat. He or she adopted you as their human angel! Once you trap him or her, get the kitty neutered/spayed. Meanwhile, you can start preparing your house until he is trapped. What I had done, is bought the little safety caps for the outlets, you can buy them in the infant section of stores. If you have house plants, find out which plants are toxic to cats, those I gave to friends without pets. You can buy various cat toys, a cat bed, kitty condo, etc from a Petco or PetsMart or other Pet Store. As for food, I have fed all my cats, even the ferals I placed in homes, a combination of: Dental Diet, Hairball Formula, Urinary Tract Formula & Indoor Cat Formula. And anything I could not think of to help with your new cat, the other members will. Please keep us informed on your new cat!! What are you going to name him or her?

 

[lotsocats]

Originally posted by OrangezMama
Man..i really wanted this cat, he seemed like he could be tamed and it's a male cat too just like how i wanted it.

I don't understand why you didn't keep him. Cats who are leukemia positive make just as wonderful a pet as those without leukemia. You just have to make sure he stays an only cat because feline leukemia is contageous (humans can't catch it). Chances are very good that if you were to adopt him, he would live a very long and healthy life!

Don't give up on this poor kitty. Please do try to adopt him.

 

[carolina6131952]

I had several feral cats, some that I trapped as kittens
and others were adults. While it is true that once a
feral reaches what I have found to be over 8 weeks that
they are hard to tame, mine adjusted just fine, however
they would never be lap cats. They slept on my bed with
me however, and seemed to love me, they just wouldn't
allow me to touch them. One would let me pet it only if
I approached it from behind and acted like it didn't know
I was doing it. They did very well with the dogs and
loved cuddling with them. One of my dogs liked to
"flea" them, nibbliing on them and they loved it. You
just have to accept the fact that they were born in the
wild and love them for what they are.

They would love for me to talk baby talk and would stare
into my eyes and that was enough for me. I was just
happy to have them and know they were not cold or
hungry.

Anita

 

[hissy]

Letting an infected cat outside when you know he is infected is putting other ferals and stray cats at great risk. Even though he has been neutered, if he encounters an intact male they will fight and the possibility of the disease passing will spread.But not only cat bites spread this, but mutual grooming can, and encounters with his feces. Extremely contagious and with no known cure- I would hope you would try and retrap this boy and find him a home where he can be by himself with someone who understands his ways....

 

[systemxpert]

Ok,

I'm going to chime in and state what I believe. Please retract your claws before you spit hairballs in my direction. I believe that TRULY feral cats can be tamed but only if the cat is caught early enough. I think many people mis-classify some cats as being feral just because they live outside.

A TRULY feral cat is the offspring of a domestic cat that is raised totally in the wild without any Human contact. Lost and stray cats that once had human contact are not truly feral in my opinion. They may act wild and may not trust humans, but they are not truly feral. These are the cats that CAN be tamed if someone spends time working with them.

On the other hand, TRULY feral cats that are several years old I don't think can be tamed. The problem is being able to figure out which cats are truly feral versus ones that only act wild. I would venture to say most of the success stories are cases where the cat was not truly feral OR was still quite young and could be re-trained to trust humans. The problem is homeless cats don't carry ID, so how can anyone be sure?

I think all we can do is try help all of them. If we succeed we should consider ourselves lucky. If we fail, we can at least say we tried to do the right thing.

Just me 2 cents

 

[momofmany]

Originally posted by OrangezMama
I have bad news..i took the cat to the vet after I trapped it and he was tested positive for leukemia. I decided to just let him out there again in the streets and have him live life to the fullest instead of euthanizing him (cuz i kno some cats w/ leukemia can live up to 2 years).

Man..i really wanted this cat, he seemed like he could be tamed and it's a male cat too just like how i wanted it.

This issue is a real struggle for anyone doing feral TNR. Releasing a FeLV+ cat back into the wild can perpetuate illness in the cat colony, regardless of whether they are neutered or not. It is a highly contagious disease, and if other cats are not vaccinated, the rate for contracting the disease is about 25-33% (depending on the source that you read). Even vaccinated cats will contract it about 10% of the time.

Add to this the risk of a positive diagnosis from a single Elisa stick test. Without a confirming ISA test, or a second Elisa run 30-90 days later, you can't really confirm FeLV exposure or actual disease. Putting a cat down after one Elisa test is not the best course of action.

Yes, cats with FeLV can live 2 years or more. But, an outdoor feral with limited food and shelter, no vet care and a lot of stress is not going to live that long. Even with a feral caretaker there is a lot of stress in their environment. If they become ill, they can suffer a long and painful death. Your typical feral with FeLV will more likely live a few months to a year. A feral kitten with the disease rarely lives past its first year.

An optimal approach would be to neuter and find a home where they can live out their days in a stress free, healthy environment. If an adult cat is truly feral, just introducing them to an indoor environment where their health can be monitored can cause sufficient stress for the disease to take its toll.

So the emotional struggle becomes one of "individual cat" versus "cat nation". Do you humanely euthenize the single infected cat to prevent the spread of disease potentially to a lot of other cats? This is not an easy issue to address and each case needs to be examined individually.

 

[linda_of_pgff]

OrangezMom,

You are the answer to many a feral cat rescuer's prayers. Alley Cat Allies' guidelines are ONLY guidelines, and as Katie says, they are meant to help overworked rescuers to not feel they must take in EVERY feral cat that they see. (Some rescuers have huge hearts, y'know.) It is very easy for people who see cats outside to play on a rescuer's feelings of responsibility and caring, and rescuers can get overwhelmed trying to find homes for cats while other cats remain behind, breeding! But when there are one or two folks like you in a community, we all are happy to help you in any way we can to tame and care for a former feral cat. I personally have seen some pretty "unfriendly" adult cats become very loving, so the age guideline is very flexible. What matters most is probably that you are willing to devote time and effort to one cat in particular, and you can take time to be consistent with him and to make it a kind of project. Folks who are doing TNR, have to sort of focus on the "many cats" perspective, and we need folks like you to keep your attention on one or two of them. The more we BOTH do our things, the more it helps the cats.

Bless you for taking an interest in this cat!!
Linda