feral cat !!

McKneff

We have a cat Tinker, and she has Feral in her, she is terrified of poeple, but if a cat comes into our garden, she is ferocious.
When our daughter brought her to us when she moved in with us she (the cat) was terrified of us and it took 6 months of her living upstairs
inbetween two matresses on one of those guest bed things one under the other (!!!!!!) she eventually came round to accepting us, and trusting that we werent a threat to her,
but when we got a new bathroom fitted (and we were away) she lived (hid) behind the freezer for a week. (Daughter came to feed her regularly lol)

If you think he will be put to sleep, persevere, he will end up trusting you but dont make any sharp moves or he will run.

She is also so intelligent, when she first started to get up on the windowsill, she was ruining the blinds climbing through them, we perservered holding the end of the blind back, she now goes around the end of the blind. She is also such a greedy cat, she will 'sit' for food.
you can stroke her and she will enjoy it, then she will tell you to stop, wowl, you better stop then because Ive had many a 'swipe' because Im doing something she doesn't want me to do. She will never be a pet, she just tolerates us because we feed her, lol

Griizelda

If you do decide to trap the cat, make sure you have a blanket or similar to cover the cage with when the cat has been caught. Less stressful for you and the cat (and I can personally vouch for this!)

Gingham_R

McKneff wrote: »

We have a cat Tinker, and she has Feral in her, she is terrified of poeple, but if a cat comes into our garden, she is ferocious. l

We were lucky with our feral girl because she wouldn't lash out. The down side was that we'd sometimes see her fear so great that she'd flatten herself to look invisible instead, which was so sad.

Her litter were completely feral and I got her at 12 weeks, having never had any human contact until trapped and rescued at 11 weeks. It took me years to get her to come to me but she wouldn't go near the rest of the family, or anyone else right up till she died. She lived under the bath and on the yard wall, where she could see everything and dive away at the first noise. I sometimes wondered if i did the right thing, giving her a home, as she was a scared little thing most of her life. But one of my other cats looked after her, even getting under the piano and staying there with her until she was ready to come out, in the weeks after I got her. She had that at least.

*onlyme*

I adopted several feral and semi-feral cats from a few local rescues, including the RSPCA. They live at our horse yard, have access to our straw/hay room, tack room, all the stables, several sheds and many acres of land and woods.

Most rescues don't take them in, but some will if they have places to release them. They will neuter them and some microchip them.

So it might be worth checking with local rescues if they have places for release...we have our name put down with about 10 rescues. We feed them 2 x a day and they keep the mice and rat population down.

After a year some of them will come to us now and we can just about stroke them...they are very very aware and they will never be lap cats but to see them running round in the fields and woods, and run to you when called, it is very rewarding. One of the ones we have was at the RSPCA for 16 months, locked away on his own as he was so wild and they weren't going to put him to sleep but weren't sure what to do with him....

So anyone with feral cats, some rescues will come and put a special safe cat trap down if they have somewhere to release them afterwards.

billy_1

Thanks for some quite diverse replies, our vet has said once they are feral they will never be true pets as some of you have allready posted.
we are only worried because of the supposed bad winter coming, i think we will persevere a little longer seeing as still quite mild weather and ring around as some have said for a better enviroment for him !!! Unless someone knows in the Preston lancs area ?????

laurz

i rehab feral kittens and at the rescue centre we advise not neutering feral males because all that happens is another one moves into it's territory, we only spey females (to keep control of the population).