Hello everyone. I often read on this site but have never joined and posted. But I wanted to share my success story (so far!) with my feral guy Sky.
Sky started hanging out in my backyard back in December. He was very shy and would run into the bushes whenever he saw us outside. I thought he might belong to a new neighbor and go in and out. Where I live there are only a few days below freezing each year, so when a very cold snap came through and I saw him run out of my detached garage, I knew that he was homeless. I made him a cozy bed in the garage and began feeding him nightly.
At first he waited a long while before venturing into the garage. Then the interval got shorter and shorter and by May he was waiting in the driveway for me to come home and put out his food. He still wouldn't let me near enough to touch him or come up to me at all, but would eat (very cautiously) with us about 10 feet away. I was trying to get him tame enough to catch him and get him fixed.
In June, I noticed that he was getting thinner and thinner and saw that he had a bloody spot behind his ear. I assumed he had been in a fight and was afraid it was getting infected. I knew then that I couldn't wait any longer, so I borrowed a trap from the vet. I set it out in the garage one night and caught him without much trouble.
The next morning he went to the vet to be neutered, get his shots, and get some tests run. Turns out his bloody ears were from mites. The poor baby had scratched himself bloody
. He was given medications and antibiotics and the vet advised that we keep inside for a few weeks to avoid infection. The FIV and FeLV tests were negative. Vet estimated that he is about 3 years old. Only 8.8 lbs.
It turns out that he also has parasites (Giardia and Coccidia). The Vet prescribed these very expensive "treats" that he absolutely refused to eat. Now he is taking liquid Albon, but I don't think it will treat the Giardia. More about all that on another post perhaps.
He's been living in the utility room for about 3 weeks now. When I trapped him I fully expected to be releasing him back into the backyard again since I had made such little progress at socializing him. I had previously wondered if he was a stray turned feral or feral born, but when he didn't know how to use the litterbox, I knew that he wasn't just someone's lost pet. I began the process of training him to use a litterbox by putting some dirt on a puppy pee pad and gradually reducing the amount of dirt and increasing the amount of cat litter each day. When he was using only litter, I moved the pee pad into a litterbox and finally was able to remove the pee pad altogether. YAY!
Here is Sky, a few days after he came inside to live. He was hiding behind the closet curtain and I moved it for a photo. Immediately after I snapped this I got a lovely hiss from him. The scratches on his nose are from hitting it on the cage when he was trapped. They are healed now.
In the last 3 weeks, he's gone from hissing and hiding to rubbing against my leg when I prepare his food. I watched the "tough love" youtube videos and have used many of those techniques modified for an adult feral. The real turning point was when I brought out the Gerber baby food chicken. As most of you experienced feral mamas know, it truly is Kitty Crack! Soon he was eagerly licking it off a spoon. I started with my fingers but he was a little too grabby so I switched to a spoon. On the first day we brought it out, he overcame his fear to climb into my lap to lick it up.
The first day I brought the Baby Food Chicken (BFC!) out. He was so focused on getting it that he didn't even notice he was IN the lap of the scary monster (me).
Every day I see progress as he becomes a bit braver and willing to let me be around him. At first I could only get near him or touch him when I had food or treats, but now he will cautiously allow me to touch him without food! Last night we hit a new milestone - a PURR! After his tummy was full, he cautiously came up to me for some head scratches and as I rubbed his head and cheek, he leaned into it and started purring. He does spin and swipe at me if I go to fast with the progression, but there's not any anger behind it. Just nervousness and fear.
The goal for this week is to keep building trust and rewarding his bravery with treats. Next Friday is his followup vet appointment and so I'm working on getting him comfortable with entering the carrier for treats with me sitting next to it.
Now I hope to socialize him to be an indoor family member. I have 2 other cats that he will have to be introduced to, but that will be after the parasites are gone. The utility room door has a clear cat door and he spends most of his waking hours watching and talking to me, my 19 yr old son, and the other cats. I don't know how he'll get along with my Senior girl (who is newly diagnosed with kidney problems) but I think he could be good friends eventually with my scaredy cat boy Sheldon who is also 3. Sheldon's been lonely since his kitten buddy passed away about 6 months ago from a freak illness.
Anyway.. I know this is long, but I really enjoy reading all the feral stories here and thought Sky's progress so far might be encouraging to someone down the line and I look forward to any advice offered by the experienced feral tamers
Sky started hanging out in my backyard back in December. He was very shy and would run into the bushes whenever he saw us outside. I thought he might belong to a new neighbor and go in and out. Where I live there are only a few days below freezing each year, so when a very cold snap came through and I saw him run out of my detached garage, I knew that he was homeless. I made him a cozy bed in the garage and began feeding him nightly.
At first he waited a long while before venturing into the garage. Then the interval got shorter and shorter and by May he was waiting in the driveway for me to come home and put out his food. He still wouldn't let me near enough to touch him or come up to me at all, but would eat (very cautiously) with us about 10 feet away. I was trying to get him tame enough to catch him and get him fixed.
In June, I noticed that he was getting thinner and thinner and saw that he had a bloody spot behind his ear. I assumed he had been in a fight and was afraid it was getting infected. I knew then that I couldn't wait any longer, so I borrowed a trap from the vet. I set it out in the garage one night and caught him without much trouble.
The next morning he went to the vet to be neutered, get his shots, and get some tests run. Turns out his bloody ears were from mites. The poor baby had scratched himself bloody
. He was given medications and antibiotics and the vet advised that we keep inside for a few weeks to avoid infection. The FIV and FeLV tests were negative. Vet estimated that he is about 3 years old. Only 8.8 lbs.It turns out that he also has parasites (Giardia and Coccidia). The Vet prescribed these very expensive "treats" that he absolutely refused to eat. Now he is taking liquid Albon, but I don't think it will treat the Giardia. More about all that on another post perhaps.
He's been living in the utility room for about 3 weeks now. When I trapped him I fully expected to be releasing him back into the backyard again since I had made such little progress at socializing him. I had previously wondered if he was a stray turned feral or feral born, but when he didn't know how to use the litterbox, I knew that he wasn't just someone's lost pet. I began the process of training him to use a litterbox by putting some dirt on a puppy pee pad and gradually reducing the amount of dirt and increasing the amount of cat litter each day. When he was using only litter, I moved the pee pad into a litterbox and finally was able to remove the pee pad altogether. YAY!
Here is Sky, a few days after he came inside to live. He was hiding behind the closet curtain and I moved it for a photo. Immediately after I snapped this I got a lovely hiss from him. The scratches on his nose are from hitting it on the cage when he was trapped. They are healed now.
In the last 3 weeks, he's gone from hissing and hiding to rubbing against my leg when I prepare his food. I watched the "tough love" youtube videos and have used many of those techniques modified for an adult feral. The real turning point was when I brought out the Gerber baby food chicken. As most of you experienced feral mamas know, it truly is Kitty Crack! Soon he was eagerly licking it off a spoon. I started with my fingers but he was a little too grabby so I switched to a spoon. On the first day we brought it out, he overcame his fear to climb into my lap to lick it up.
The first day I brought the Baby Food Chicken (BFC!) out. He was so focused on getting it that he didn't even notice he was IN the lap of the scary monster (me).
Every day I see progress as he becomes a bit braver and willing to let me be around him. At first I could only get near him or touch him when I had food or treats, but now he will cautiously allow me to touch him without food! Last night we hit a new milestone - a PURR! After his tummy was full, he cautiously came up to me for some head scratches and as I rubbed his head and cheek, he leaned into it and started purring. He does spin and swipe at me if I go to fast with the progression, but there's not any anger behind it. Just nervousness and fear.
The goal for this week is to keep building trust and rewarding his bravery with treats. Next Friday is his followup vet appointment and so I'm working on getting him comfortable with entering the carrier for treats with me sitting next to it.
Now I hope to socialize him to be an indoor family member. I have 2 other cats that he will have to be introduced to, but that will be after the parasites are gone. The utility room door has a clear cat door and he spends most of his waking hours watching and talking to me, my 19 yr old son, and the other cats. I don't know how he'll get along with my Senior girl (who is newly diagnosed with kidney problems) but I think he could be good friends eventually with my scaredy cat boy Sheldon who is also 3. Sheldon's been lonely since his kitten buddy passed away about 6 months ago from a freak illness.
Anyway.. I know this is long, but I really enjoy reading all the feral stories here and thought Sky's progress so far might be encouraging to someone down the line and I look forward to any advice offered by the experienced feral tamers
