Tl;dr: I'm on the cusp of trying to get this cat in to a vet to be checked for a chip + neutered. Happy to go the TNR at a minimum but I would *like* to give him the chance to come indoors... I'm just not sure if it's feesible. Please LMK if you've had a similar experience & advice to share

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I’d seen this cat around for 2+ months and he was very skittish at first. I assumed he was a neighbors cat because my own (neutered male) indoor/outdoor cat would just... hang out with him like a BFF outside and I saw him around so frequently.

Recently this guy became friendly after I offered him treats - and once I got close I realized he's a stray of some degree (he has lots of scars from presumed cat-fights and is very intact).

I started giving him treats, then feeding him regularly, and now he's barely left my yard in almost two weeks.

This guy approaches my fiancé and I for pets (rubs up against us and seeks us out) and has brief stints inside our home on a daily basis to eat and sniff around providing I leave the door propped open behind him for comfort (which my own cat originally seemed to encourage but now simply tolerates). He will only stay inside for like, 2-5 mins max.

All of this being said, he is still very easily spooked and has some problematic defensive behaviors:

He's swatted at me twice (both petting related) and tried to bite me twice (once petting related, once food/mealtime related) in a ~2 week span. I can chalk this up to "overstimulation" but he gave no outward warning signs in any of these cases before reacting and I really don't want to incur a deep cat bite.

Because of this, I've made no attempt to "handle" (i.e. pick up or hold down) him as a precaution.

My own cat seemed very supportive of this guy for a long time, but his vibe is following a bell curve and now seems more wary/agitated by the stray's presence - though they don't fight.

• What risk do I pose to myself, fiancé, cat, or future house guests by taking this guy indoors longterm?
• Will the risk of biting stop once he's neutered?

I have a spare room I can keep this cat in for some time, but it is also my office and our spare room for guests (i.e. my parents are coming for xmas) so I can't keep him locked in there forever.

Greetings other cat lovers, I'm at the end of my rope so I had to make this post to hopefully receive some help.

A cat I've been taking care of for 2 years now scratched me 2 days ago. Now that is something that happens every now and then. The thing is today the cat was acting extremely weak. I took her to the clinic, they did xray, ultrasound and blood tests and the cat was severely anemic. They asked to test for Felv and it came back positive. I paid out of my pocket to transfuse blood and I'll try to find a home for it to live the rest of its days, since they said stress is a big no-no in its condition.

I'm also a bit crazy when it comes to rabies, is there a chance the cat also has rabies and it infected me? For what it's worth I live in Athens, Greece. The cat wasn't aggressive at all on any of the previous days and there's no drooling, but it has trouble breathing as you can see and it looks super tired.

In my country it's really hard to get the approval to use rabies vaccine, since there was no human infection for a long time now. What should I do? I'm losing my mind over this.

Found this kitten roaming our apartment parking lot about two weeks ago. Took him to the vet two days after and they said he looked healthy, though they did of course test for worms. They estimate he is now around six weeks old. We are adopting him.

Well, found out he actually did have fleas. And then found out the poor thing has lungworms and round worms, too, so extra meds. AND THEN I noticed his cheek bleeding last night. Took him to the vet this morning and turns out he had botfly larvae under his skin! They pulled it out and everything but my goodness. These feral kittens are no joke! Makes me amazed that any feral cats survive with a what they experience from the parasites alone.

Hello! I've been feeding a colony of cats for about 8 years and winter here is pretty brutal. The food often gets covered in snow. I have a pretty large doghouse I put food and water in during the winter, but it's not big enough for all the cats and snow gets inside it even facing a wall. Anyone have any suggestions on something else to use that might work better? I'm certainly not great with building with wood and such and my tools are limited, but I'm handy enough overall. (Included photos of a couple of my colony cats and their usual winter shelter set up!)

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I care for 10 cats in my backyard, and Margot was one of them. She was a very shy, feral cat who trusted me enough to come for food. Then she brought her kittens to me.

I couldn’t leave the babies outside, so I brought them inside. They’ve since been vaccinated, and I’m doing everything I can to socialize them and give them a chance at a safe life.

But Margot struggled terribly with being brought inside.

She was frightened, stressed and completely overwhelmed. Then she injured her mouth, and seeing her suffering absolutely crushed me.

The worst part was looking at her and thinking: “Did I make her life worse?”

I brought her inside because I wanted to protect her and her babies. But she didn’t know that. She couldn’t understand that I was trying to help. She just knew that her entire world had changed and that she was scared and hurting.

I’ve taken her to the vet and spent money on her care, on top of everything I’ve already spent on the kittens. Meanwhile, I’m still feeding and caring for the other 10 cats outside.

I don’t regret helping them. But I’d be lying if I said I haven’t questioned myself.

Maybe that’s the hardest part of rescue: sometimes you do what you believe is right, and then you have to watch an animal suffer while wondering if you made the wrong decision.

I just wish I could explain to Margot that I never meant to hurt her.

I only wanted her and her babies to be safe. ❤️

Here is my semi-feral "Gray Grays" drinking water from the bird bath. This was after I refilled both his water bowls on the patio.

Some kitties are so picky about where to drink their water ...

(Reposting from r/CATHELP)
Hi all, I (25, USA) recently moved into a apartment complex and there's this old black cat (M, neutered) who lives on the grounds. No one knows exactly how old he is, but he is clearly very old, has bad hip problems, and occasionally gets seizures. He also is covered in the biggest fattest fleas I've ever seen, and if you pet him your hand will literally come away covered in flea dirt. When I first moved in a month ago, he had a flea collar on, but it clearly wasn't doing anything and it disappeared a few days later (I'm not sure if he got it off or if someone took it off). I've had to stop petting him because I quickly ended up giving my cats fleas from spending time with him.

He mostly stays outside during the day, but he does sleep in one of the units at night (I live in a mansion that was converted into apartments, and he stays with the groundskeeper who lives in the unit by the front door). However, he doesn't technically belong to this man or to anyone in the complex, and everyone has a different name for him. One of my other neighbors puts out food for him.

I'm not sure if he's ever been to the vet, and I wouldn't be surprised if no one in the complex (including myself) could afford a vet visit for him, especially considering he clearly has some issues that would likely require expensive treatment. I've considered putting a jar out to pool money for a vet trip, but I don't know if my neighbors would be okay with this (when I first met him I mentioned he needed a vet visit, and the neighbor I was talking to seemed put off by that) or if the old man whom he stays with would allow it (the other day he saw me combing fleas off him and came outside to tell me to be careful because of his seizures--the man didn't seem to like me touching him so much).

However, I'm making this post specifically about his fleas. One of my cats is very allergic to fleas, and following a bad infestation we had a few years ago, I got some itch-soothing cat shampoo and conditioner for her. I still have the almost-full bottles and am considering giving this guy a bath... However, I don't know how he would react to water, I don't want to stress him out to the point of triggering a seizure, and we live in a cool climate, so he would be very cold after the bath. I'm considering just giving him flea treatment and hoping for the best, but I can't really afford to use my cats' flea stuff on him (I just went back to college, did not receive any financial aid, and as such am very strapped for cash). I'm also worried flea treatment could trigger a seizure or cause other issues, and I don't want to give it to him without knowing if someone else has already done so.

What should I do in this situation? I feel so bad for him, but I don't want to do him more harm in trying to help.

Hello everyone! There is a community cat that has been living around my apartment complex for at least a couple of years. I believe she (?) has been TNR'd before because her left ear is clipped. I normally wouldn't try to coax a community cat indoors, but I live in Arizona and this is a beautiful long-haired black cat. Every summer she really struggles and suffers outside and gets really skinny, and I just don't think it's humane to leave a domesticated non-native animal outside in the 120F heat like that. Also, I usually leave during the summers and I don't know of anyone else who feeds her or gives her water, so she's on her own for the two most brutal months of the year.

She has been doing so much better since I've been giving her regular food and water and will even eat from my hand and enter the house to explore. Today I closed the door while she was inside for the first time to see how she would react. She spent about a half hour yowling and walking around the apartment trying to find an escape route, but when I opened the door, she just kind of sat there and kept yowling?

Since she didn't leave, I closed the door again and started working on my laptop. She then settled on the counter right in front of my face and kept meowing softly (see attached pic). She was like this for maybe 15 minutes before she started pawing at the door again, and this time she did leave when I opened it.

What do you guys think? She seemed stressed but not totally terrified. Should I try to acclimate her to indoor life so she doesn't have a brush with death every summer? I've never owned a cat either, so any tips on where to go from here would be helpful.

He cannot be longer than a pencil! So so tiny

first she started out just watching me while i worked on stuff and then after awhile she started to follow me. me and the misses started feeding her and well now .. yea hahah

also if anyone has any advice on how to get her to stay in her cat hoist that i put in my garage for her but she insists on following me an sleeping in the tree under my window. i’m trying to get here used to the garage as winter is coming and i wanna makes sure knows she cal live in my work shop

We have a cat colony in our neighborhood which we feed and try to TNR but it's been a bad year for babies. I was giving some wet food to the cats and this lil guy stole the can and ran off while growling. His back legs were wet from constant diarrhea and he looked underweight . My son caught him for me, so we brought him in, we took him to the vet,he had a bad case of worms and was a little malnourished but he's already doing so much better! He was very spicy when he came in but all hiss no bite. He got a bath because he was full of dried poop. His diarrhea is almost gone and so are his worms.

Topic. Taking care of outdoor cats and out of nowhere one goes missing. I don't have any reason to think it's roaming, but the morning of the disappearance i found siblings up trees and even with splayed tails. But i find no evidence of struggle. I live with neighbors around me, so there is the possibility a neighbor might've taken it in. I don't really want to go knocking but should I be concerned? My biggest worry, besides their safety, is whether they will get spayed.

I brought in a visibly pregnant queen this morning, probably fairly close to delivering. Just wondering how long I should keep her inside for. She's truly feral so being inside definitely stresses her out a lot, I do have a kennel I can put her in though.

This was mimsey, or shark. I met her only a few short weeks ago when she started visiting my job in the mornings for chicken. She was tiny, and based on the nightshift workers, she had been visiting for a few weeks and had recently given birth. I fell in love immediately and she would come by every morning to be fed and get love. She wasn't fully feral but she was jumpy around people.

She loved chicken, butt scratches, warm sun, attention. She loved to circle around people and ask for love which is how she got the name shark. She was skin and bones but full of joy.

Me and my gf have been going through a very unstable housing situation but we were planning to take her in as soon as we could. She would have made a great house cat. Today was the first day i could have seriously considered trapping her. Today was the day my coworkers found her on the side of the road.

They took her to a nice spot and buried her with flowers to mark her grave. But I never got to say goodbye. I never got to teach her the comfort of a soft bed or a warm lap. I never got to show her what life could be if she didn't have to fight to live. I only knew her such a short time but it's really hitting me hard. I have 2 other cats and 2 more in my life but I miss her.

edit - i wanted to add there's no evidence her kittens survived. she was tiny and young and malnourished. we looked for the kittens but no one ever saw them. they would be running around where she hangs out by now and they never were.

Since everything is so overwhelmed, mama's TNR appointment isnt until the end of September. This has resulted in 3 new tiny faces in my yard 🥰 We are guessing they are about 3 weeks old.

I have 8 kittens total now! 5 are on a wait list for the shelter. These 3 will be going on their own wait list, and until then i get the gruesome task of socializing.

I was attempting to walk my cat on a leash. He has been Feral all his life. He is 2 (24 in Cat years). But a Baby at time. i had him since July 25th. I know its a short time. But he was much well loved and i cherished his spirit much. To the point he would sleep between my legs at night or next to me. Im not new to cats. but Feral cats. i am. I know he missed the outside life cause he always wanted my window up or to breathe fresh air. I made sure this harness and vest was FITTED and not too tight but good enough. He came off it and his collar. I was calling his name as he ran and it was as if he heard nothing. Ive been trapping and dont want to Lose hope. but People around me are insisting on a Kitten or that he will come back if he wants. Also he is in a new area. New territory with other cats. He HAS BEEN NEUTERED and his Ear snipped. I put a trap out and caught 2 cats but it wasnt him. Should i keep waiting and trying?! or is it too late?!

This is Ed, one of the feral cats I feed. First saw him about a year ago and slowly he has been coming closer and closer. He has now started rubbing against my legs but I am still not allowed to pet him (which is so hard) but I respect his wishes. He is the last feral I am working to get fixed and has been too smart for my traps.

Just wanted to sure this handsome man and my happiness with how far he has come.

Hi, I am guessing my wife and I have the bat logo shining from our house, yelling at the cat distribution gods that we are always open and ready. We have 4 indoor cats that were all, in some way, just handed to us at around a few weeks old. We moved to Alabama, and things have been quiet for the past 2 years, but during that time we have seen a few, 4-5, random cats hanging out in our yard, passing through, or at our windows calling for our indoor cats. It hasn't been a big deal since we do not let our indoor cats outside, but about a month ago a young male orange decided he was just going to walk up to my wife and hang out with her in the garden while she worked. We have seen him before and he had a flee collar, so he must of had some interaction with humans, because he does NOT act feral in anyway. He begs for attention and to be held like a baby.

His health condition is rough, so I know that even if he has some ties to a human, he has been completely abandoned. We are pretty used to the routine, so he is going to the vet asap for shots, neutering, flea treatment, and deworming. He lives under our cars and in our garden and doesn't leave. This brings up my actual issue, though. Because our indoor cats have enough drama (3 girls and 1 boy), there is no way we could bring him inside. This is fine; I was going to make him an outdoor living space right up against our wall so he can be right there with us. Last night at around 2 AM, my wife woke to all hell breaking loose outside. She ran out, and this other large male cat that we have seen before was beating the hell out of "Rudy". Yes, we have already named him. Rudy is extremely scrawny and absolutely needs meds and some recovery time. My wife got the hose and did her best to get the large cat to go away. She was eventually able to get it broken up, but by the time she did, Rudy was next door under a porch, scared for his life. How do we prevent this? My wife and I cannot think of a humane way of keeping these other Random Cats out of our yard. My main concern is him getting hurt. Any advice is very welcome.

UPDATE: got lucky and successfully trapped all 3! shout out to East End Kitties in Houston for loaning me the traps and storing the babies in an air conditioned garage until wednesday morning!

my local animal shelter is doing a TNR event, $20/cat up to 3. I reserved 3 spots and plan to hopefully trap 3 newbies to my colony. The appointment is for 9/2 but we’re supposed to have a tropical depression tonight or tomorrow, so I’m thinking it would be better odds to try trapping now. I’m not sure if that’s too long for them to be in the trap though?

So there is a kitten, about 5 months old, living in my front yard. I have been feeding him for a few weeks.

He seems to want to come in. I bought a trap. I can not pet him, he wont come that close. He eats about 2 feet away from me, we are getting closer every day. If I trap him, what's next? I have to get him to a vet. I don't want to bring him inside with the fleas, ticks, etc. But I can't treat him because I can't touch him. His first human touch is me or the vet manhandling him with flea treatment? How do I safely bring him in without spreading fleas etc to my other animals?

I need some help! We adopted a feral female cat about one year ago. (Trapped her, spayed, and vaccinated.) Although she has been spayed and is now an indoor-only cat, she is still spicy and does not like to be touched, but does come out regularly for mealtime! (She has gotten a little better with me, particularly, slowly but surely) She used to be fine using the litterbox like normal. Recently, we moved across the country, and I know it was stressful for the family and our furry family members. We are settled, but soon after we got into our new house, she started peeing outside the litter box. At first, it was bathmats. We now keep all the doors to all bathrooms and bedrooms shut. Now it is constantly peeing on the living room carpet when no one is around. There are three litter boxes in the house. The vet couldn't physically examine her because she is still so aggressive if handled, but they gave her a round of antibiotics in case it was an infection, and she is on a prescription urinary food. Months after the move and 4 weeks after her vet visit, she is still peeing on the carpet. What do we do? I have tried everything, calming plug-ins, antibiotics, urinary food, and all different types of litter. The house stinks, and I don't know what else to do for this poor thing. I don't want to re-home her; no one is going to take a cat that doesn't like people. I am at my wits' end, help!

So I’m in kind of a weird situation and would love some advice from people who have more TNR experience than I do.

I’m a student, and every 6 weeks I move somewhere new for a clinical rotation. My current rotation brought me to a house with a small colony of 5 adult cats and 2 kittens. None were fixed when I arrived, and one of the adult females was pregnant.

I decided to trap and TNVR the colony. So far, 2 of the 5 adults have been fixed, including the pregnant female, and I was able to get both kittens into a rescue. One of the kittens was actually adopted today! I’m planning to finish trapping the remaining 3 adults over the next 1–2 weeks.

The part I’m struggling with is feeding them. I obviously had to start putting food out in order to trap them, but I’ll be leaving in a few weeks and I have no idea if anyone regularly feeds this colony. I know TNVR works best when there is a consistent caretaker, and unfortunately I simply can’t be that person long-term. I’m not from this area, I’m driving half a day away to the next one and I have zero plans to return to this area.

I’ve tried to keep my feeding pretty limited for that reason. I feed once a day and mostly just enough to keep them coming around so I can trap them. I don’t want them becoming dependent on a food source that is suddenly going to disappear when I leave.

I guess my main question is: would you still have chosen to TNVR this colony knowing you couldn’t continue caring for them afterward? Am I ultimately helping them, or could temporarily feeding them and then leaving actually do them a disservice?

My thought was that stopping the reproductive cycle was still worth doing. There are already only 5 cats left outside instead of 7, and fixing the pregnant female also prevented another litter from being born into the colony. None of the adults appeared terribly underweight or sick when I arrived, so I assume they were finding food somewhere before I showed up, whether through hunting, another feeder, or some other source.

Once I’ve finished TNVRing the remaining adults, I’m going to try to find someone local who might be willing to take over as a caretaker, but I’m keeping my expectations pretty low. The area is in the deep south and overwhelmed with feral cat colonies.

If I can’t find anyone, is there a good way to transition them away from viewing me/my house as a reliable food source before I leave? I have a few weeks to do it, so I’d much rather taper things appropriately than feed them until the day I move and suddenly disappear.

I’ve helped individual strays before, but I’ve never accidentally found myself managing an entire little colony, so this is new territory for me. Any advice from experienced colony caretakers would be really appreciated!