Looking for Advice to Help Me with my Feral Cat

[rumelysgal]

I read on another site about feral cats that this is a great forum to find a “support group” when you’ve taken in a feral cat, so here I am!

To try to make a long story short, last June I found a five week old kitten crying under my lawn mower.  I ran into the house and cracked a can of cat food and he came right out eating his little heart out.  He loved to be held and would just give the out the biggest purr you’ve ever heard.  Rumely would even lick my nose, but he was supercharged.  He would play full blast and never stop. One night I decided to let him play out all his energy and wear himself out, but after 4 hours I had to put him in his cage just to get him to rest.  He loved to bite and use his claws.  Because of this we had to keep him separated from our Himalayan and Persian.  We worked with our vet and now almost a year later I have a question I hoped someone would know the answer to.

Rumely is completely bonded to me and only me, but he will tolerate my parents.  If one of them is holding him, his eyes follow me wherever I go.  He has to stay separated from our other two cats because he will not lose the desire to “hunt” them.  They are very afraid of him because they sense the feral, but they will be in the same room with him if he is on his leash (he leash trained perfectly although I wish he could always be free).  If he is free, he can only be in one room at a time because he literally bounces off the walls.  I give him tons of interesting toys and play with him constantly because he bores easily and gets into mischief.  He has his own big room when I’m not with him and at night he sleeps right on top of me.   I also use a Thundershirt on him when we let him play free in other areas of the house and it does help a lot.

He can show me such unbelievable love.  He looks at me with the sweetest eyes and the affection he shows me is so wonderful, but then when you least expect it he can turn.  If I’m reading a book, he will come over and bite me almost like a tantrum.  He will bite my parents and the bites are hard.  If he bites me it’s not as hard and he doesn’t leave a mark, but he will draw blood on others.  He will show them love, but he has a limit with them (and they are totally cat people and love him).  When he gets in these moods his eyes change like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  My sweet little boy suddenly looks like a panther ready to kill its prey.  His eyes just go dark.  After about a few seconds or a few minutes he will snap out of it depending on the amount of time it takes him to accomplish what he wants to do while he is in that mode.  After he is done, you can tell he is sorry for what he did—he immediately acts sorry and wants stroked or petted.  If he bites me, I say a firm “NO” and turn my back on him.  He will make all kinds of “cute” noises and begs for my attention.  His personality is so complicated.

Will he eventually grow out of his feral trait or is it permanent? 

Thank you for your time!

 

[StefanZ]

 
I read on another site about feral cats that this is a great forum to find a “support group” when you’ve taken in a feral cat, so here I am!

To try to make a long story short, last June I found a five week old kitten crying under my lawn mower.  I ran into the house and cracked a can of cat food and he came right out eating his little heart out.  He loved to be held and would just give the out the biggest purr you’ve ever heard.  Rumely would even lick my nose, but he was supercharged.  He would play full blast and never stop. One night I decided to let him play out all his energy and wear himself out, but after 4 hours I had to put him in his cage just to get him to rest.  He loved to bite and use his claws.  Because of this we had to keep him separated from our Himalayan and Persian.  We worked with our vet and now almost a year later I have a question I hoped someone would know the answer to.

Rumely is completely bonded to me and only me, but he will tolerate my parents.  If one of them is holding him, his eyes follow me wherever I go.  He has to stay separated from our other two cats because he will not lose the desire to “hunt” them.  They are very afraid of him because they sense the feral, but they will be in the same room with him if he is on his leash (he leash trained perfectly although I wish he could always be free).  If he is free, he can only be in one room at a time because he literally bounces off the walls.  I give him tons of interesting toys and play with him constantly because he bores easily and gets into mischief.  He has his own big room when I’m not with him and at night he sleeps right on top of me.   I also use a Thundershirt on him when we let him play free in other areas of the house and it does help a lot.

He can show me such unbelievable love.  He looks at me with the sweetest eyes and the affection he shows me is so wonderful, but then when you least expect it he can turn.  If I’m reading a book, he will come over and bite me almost like a tantrum.  He will bite my parents and the bites are hard.  If he bites me it’s not as hard and he doesn’t leave a mark, but he will draw blood on others.  He will show them love, but he has a limit with them (and they are totally cat people and love him).  When he gets in these moods his eyes change like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  My sweet little boy suddenly looks like a panther ready to kill its prey.  His eyes just go dark.  After about a few seconds or a few minutes he will snap out of it depending on the amount of time it takes him to accomplish what he wants to do while he is in that mode.  After he is done, you can tell he is sorry for what he did—he immediately acts sorry and wants stroked or petted.  If he bites me, I say a firm “NO” and turn my back on him.   He will make all kinds of “cute” noises and begs for my attention.  His personality is so complicated.

Will he eventually grow out of his feral trait or is it permanent? 

Thank you for your time!

Tx for this praise, and also telling us our TCS is in high estime of other cat people and in other forums.

You adopted him at 5-6 weeks as a small kitten.  Thus, I dont think you shall really count him as a ferale.  Unless he is born from a real wildcat.  These, although near akin to our cats, home cats or ferale,  is really another specie and  are difficult to socialize in full.  Even if adopted as young.

Im sorry to be blunt, but I must be honest.  I think you overdid his socialization.  Having them in a cage is nice to let them land, to find security and safety.  To have the cage as their safe corner.  Occasionally to lock in, if you want for sure he doesnt make trouble or get into trouble.

Also, as a quarantine till you are entirely sure he is healthy, all deworming done, and he is no longer any health treat to your residents.

What you describe, is essentially fully normal kitten behavior.  Chasing grown up cats, trying to play, wrestling.  Running around if full galloppe through the house, sometimes a full hour.  Sometimes being a pest to them adult cats.  And if they are men for their hats (women for their skirts), they would of course put him in place, by swatting and or hissing.  Especielly if he happened to bite them.

You didnt took help from your residents - which was the easy way to foster him, to teach him manners.  So now you must do it the hard way, by yourself teaching him manners.  Like I see you are doing, I marked it in bold letters.  Just do it more consequently.  Its more difficult now when he is fully adult.

Btw, is he neutered?   Its no solution for everything, but will make things easier.

His wild "ferale"  mode?  I think it may be entirely normal.  My oldest resident, who is a homebred boy, but qute shy - he taught me a lot of how fostered shy´s do behave!

I recognize his behavior in lotsa of adopted ex semiferales...  Almost to the dot and cross over t.

Ok, he sometimes get into a playing mode when he is "wild looking"  He isnt scratching people, as he is very kind and friendly.  But he scratches things.

He jumps up on the sofa´s highest point, ears aside, crouched down, tensed in the whole body, wild stirring around, scratching on the sofa more violently then usual...

A copy of your boy`s behavior no?  

I hope others will fill in.

Good luck!

ps.  Tx a lot for caring, and saving this little brother of ours!

But,

 

[rumelysgal]

Thank you so much for the reply and kind words!

I'm sorry I should have been more clear about the cage.  He only had it for a couple of weeks and then he was moved into a big room all his own in the house.  My Vet was the one that told me he was feral, but he said not by many generations (one of his parents might have been a house cat at one time).  He told me to let the other two girls knock him around and show him who is boss.  He even said to let them fight it out and after one good battle Rumely will learn his place.  I let  all three of them together and Rumely just attacked them full blast---taking them down by the neck with a tearing down bite and wouldn't stop.  My two sweet girls would scream and lay on the floor in terror.  Now those two gals beat up on each other all the time playfully, but they will not engage him at all and I've tried it several different times through the months in case they finally get the nerve up.  I'm really shocked they have no fight in them.  I really thought they would "fight for their lives."  Needless to say they are and will always be indoor girls because Rumely proved they would last about five minutes outside (I guess we really spoiled them).

He was neutered as soon as the Vet said he was old enough and it didn't seem to phase him one bit.

Even with his complicated personality I could never imagine life without him now.  He is so much a part of me and he knows it!

Thank you again

 

[kittychick]

As always, @StefanZ  had great thoughts.

I agree - bad news (sort of) if you've had him indoors, away from mom, since 5 weeks, he's definitely not "feral" anymore, he's officially a "house cat". Good news is, he's still very young and his personality/play habits/etc will most likely continue to evolve. You're obviously not a stranger to cats, since you came into Rumely's (what a fun name - curious what it's from?!?!) life and saved him with two cats already on board. We've socialized multiple young feral kittens - and generally, if you get them from that young of an age, you can completely "socialize the feral" out of them. That said - I'm sure it comes as no shock to hear ---- every cat, like every person, has their own personality.

My big "you never know" story comes from a foster kitten we took in last year. No one knew his background - he was found literally frozen to the sidewalk, starving, almost dead, only 3 months old. Long story relatively short - sweetest thing ever as a little thing - and ended up having to have a really rough eye surgery (he was missing part of his eyelids - which wasn't noticable to just look at him) where they grafted part of the corners of his mouth to make eyelids. Rough going. We fostered Olaf for months - and lots of medicating, eye drops, etc - and he was a trooper. We got HUGELY attached - and decided we wanted to keep him. Here I'll fault myself - I rushed introducing him to our other 5 guys. And he became a beast with them - I couldn't control his aggression with our guys. He actually tried to kill our two old ones (19 and 20). So we had to have the shelter we were fostering for help us find a home (I swear this is where it comes back to what you're going through!). He ended up finding a home with a woman with two existing cats - something I fought against. I liked her a lot - but knew how he'd behaved at our house with every single one of our cats. The adoptive mom is sweet enough to let us still visit Olaf - and  she had to keep them separated when she wasn't there - he would really terrorize her existing guys. His mom could stop fights eventually with a loud "NO OLAF" but she had to be with the three of them at all times. Then suddenly - we went over a few weeks ago for our periodic Olaf visit. And....big reveal....he had settled in all of the sudden. When we got there, he was sleeping with one of the cats he'd terrorized for months. I think a huge part of it was that he'd finally outgrown the "kid/teenage" years. He's almost 2. And she said it was like a switch went off - suddenly he loved his family!!! He'd always been wonderful with mom - rode around on her shoulders and everything - but hated his kitty roommates. But now - at least 2 are buds!

So I guess my lesson is - - don't give up. Some cats will never get along - like some people. But for some it's a VERY gradual thing. Particularly depending on how rushed the intro was (I've gone back to being much more slow and vigilant in introducing fosters to our group - and I mean taking WEEEKS to introduce them). Patterns established on introduction can take ages to break - if ever. But the big thing to keep in mind is Rumely is still a teenager. He may never be tight buddies with the other guys -  but my guess is he's going to eventually get to at least being able to tolerate. Much of his energy is because he's young. Being attached to you...well, that's just love for mom

 

[di and bob]

He's still awfully young, they don't calm down and lose their aggression until about two or so. I really think he will eventually outgrow a lot of these behaviors. I'll keep you both in my prayers,all the luck!

 

[rumelysgal]

Everyone has been so very helpful and your insight is just what I needed!  I'm very glad I joined such a nice community of caring cat owners.

P.S.  Kittychick--you wondered where "Rumely" came from.....His full name is Rumely Ray.  My Grandfather's name was Ray and he had built a real working replica of a Rumely OilPull Tractor which was his pride and joy, so I named him after Grandpa and his Rumely.   Our other two cats (Charlie Girl and Dusty Rose) are named after my Mother's parents (Charlie and Rose).

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• rumelysgal
• Apr 28, 2015

This is my Grandfather's Rumely