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I wasn't sure I wanted to post this, because I feel horrible about it.
As some of you may remember, we adopted Pants and Mona (Mona is a complete feral and Pants is a stray) and kept them in a safe, outdoor enclosure for over a month. We opened the door to the enclosure about a week and a half ago, planning on them hanging around and letting Pants be an indoor/outdoor cat. (Mona was opposed to us completely; I don't think she ever would have come into the house. I think she would have been/will be much more happy hunting mice and roaming freely outdoors.)
However, things didn't exactly go according to plan.
They took off that night, and we have seen the food and water disappear occasionally, but we aren't sure if that's the cats eating the food or rodents, especially since their litter box has yet to be used since they have been released. We want to somehow set up a camera to see if it's the cats eating, but we, unfortunately, do not have one to set up.
I feel absolutely horrible and wish we would have gone about this a different way. There are so many things I wish we could have done differently with these cats to prevent this from happening.
We do not have any predators in our area, and Pants has a collar on, but we have no idea where they went or if they are hanging around our yard.
If there's anybody who has had experience with a situation like this, did your strays/ferals return? How long did it take?
We suspect that Mona (the dominant cat) may have influenced Pants into wandering off, seeing as she was not attached to us in the slightest.
I'm trying to hold out hope, but I'm not sure if they'll ever come back. I really thought they would hang around- Even Mona seemed like maybe she would stick around for the food- And Pants was letting us pet him and enjoying us.
For now, we're just trying to replenish their food and water, call for them, and hold out hope.
As some of you may remember, we adopted Pants and Mona (Mona is a complete feral and Pants is a stray) and kept them in a safe, outdoor enclosure for over a month. We opened the door to the enclosure about a week and a half ago, planning on them hanging around and letting Pants be an indoor/outdoor cat. (Mona was opposed to us completely; I don't think she ever would have come into the house. I think she would have been/will be much more happy hunting mice and roaming freely outdoors.)
However, things didn't exactly go according to plan.
They took off that night, and we have seen the food and water disappear occasionally, but we aren't sure if that's the cats eating the food or rodents, especially since their litter box has yet to be used since they have been released. We want to somehow set up a camera to see if it's the cats eating, but we, unfortunately, do not have one to set up.
I feel absolutely horrible and wish we would have gone about this a different way. There are so many things I wish we could have done differently with these cats to prevent this from happening.
We do not have any predators in our area, and Pants has a collar on, but we have no idea where they went or if they are hanging around our yard.
If there's anybody who has had experience with a situation like this, did your strays/ferals return? How long did it take?
We suspect that Mona (the dominant cat) may have influenced Pants into wandering off, seeing as she was not attached to us in the slightest.
I'm trying to hold out hope, but I'm not sure if they'll ever come back. I really thought they would hang around- Even Mona seemed like maybe she would stick around for the food- And Pants was letting us pet him and enjoying us.
For now, we're just trying to replenish their food and water, call for them, and hold out hope.