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.

I have a feral cat that I’ve been taking care of over 3 years. He’s been staying in our garage but not we don’t have dogs and he’s been inside during the day! He’s very sweet to me. I will always have him inside during bad weather and day time but he does still want to go outside when the sun sets. Do your cats do this?

What is up with a litter box situation for feral cats? Do they learn to use them?

Do your ferals still spend tons of time outside?

So my formal feral will let me pet her (I can only really pet her if I come in her room and sit on the floor, then I let her come to me) She has her own room which she loves. Will come out to nap under our bed. But she won’t really come out to common areas. Will this get better with time? (it’s been 2 months, and we have 2 other resident cats)

Fostering this little guy for my neighbor. I am helping him with TNR (Frankie will be neutered in 2 weeks). Someone dumped him at a salvage yard, and my neighbor brought him home. He has a flea infestation at his house, so I am holding Frankie until Wednesday. He is now feral no more!!

UPDATE: This is the colony where Ellie lives, and the colony where we lost a kitten to fly strike.

I am hopeful Frankie will show Ellie the ropes, and she will come inside!

There are several more kitties to fix, but we are getting the colony healthy and fixed. Shout out of thanks to the Humane Society and another local rescue that has been so helpful with this massive project!

I adopted two barn cats from the humane society that they told me would be happier outside living in the barn but I was surprised that these cats were only 6 and 8 months old. And especially because we have to keep them in this big dog crate in the barn for like 2 weeks and some people even say more than that before they associate it with their home and don't try to go back to wherever they got these cats from. I was thinking maybe we could keep them in the house for those two weeks at least and try to see if we could get them a little friendly with us and maybe become more of inside cats.

What would be the protocol for this? So far they don't hiss at me but they did not accept any treat when offered and they spend all their time huddled up inside the box shelter I gave them in the cage looking at me with their big eyes.

Yes, feral cats can purr, but don’t assume a cat that isn’t purring is unhappy with you. A feral cat may need a long time before it feels safe enough to relax around a person.

The best approach is to let the cat control the pace. Sit quietly nearby, avoid staring directly at them, speak softly, and establish a predictable feeding routine. Over time, you can use slow blinking, sit with your body turned slightly sideways, and offer your hand for them to investigate.

I wouldn’t start petting just because the cat is staying close. **Let the cat initiate physical contact.** Look for them choosing to approach you, sniffing your hand, rubbing against you, or otherwise asking for interaction.

Some feral cats eventually become affectionate and purr when they’re around you. Others never become comfortable with being touched. That isn’t a failure. With a truly feral cat, building trust is more important than getting them to purr or accept petting.

Curious...

Have you ever taken the time to befriend a feral cat?

Hi All. Poly the poly pictured here. My mom had been caring for two polydactyl semi-feral kittens for a couple of years when she died last November in a neighboring state and I inherited them. Her neighbor had trapped the mom and kittens and gotten them spayed, but couldn't put the time into acclimating the kittens and let them go a couple of weeks after their vet appointment. They moved under my mom's deck and she started leaving the door open for them and feeding them just inside and after a couple of years they came and went through a basement window and slept and ate inside. After she died, I worked with the same neighbor to trap them both (now adults) and bring them more than an hour to my home. They were the most terrified cats I have ever seen! The first, Poly, I installed in my upstairs bedroom but she got out and lived in the cold air return in the walls for 2 MONTHS. I finally installed a one-way pet door at her exit and got her corralled into the bedroom again. Her sister Shadow was trapped in March and since then I've been working with them daily. They've come along wonderfully - Poly loves to be petted and while Shadow her sister won't allow me to pet her yet, she will accept treats from my hand and both will play with string and ribbon toys with me. I put in one of those netting doors so they could meet my two resident cats, Millie and Jiji. So far so good. But now I'm stuck. I can't pick either of them up, so I can't bring them to a vet - although they seem very healthy and weirdly flea-free. And Millie believes she owns me, is completely dominant in the household, is very swatty even in the best of times, and will sit outside the netting growling and hissing while I'm in there. She attacks Jiji if she just feels the vibe is off or he is looking at her too much - not seriously, but enough that he tends to let her have her way. I have let Jiji (male) in to sniff and become acquainted and he's a very calm and gentle cat and he did ok, but Millie will absolutely rip those other girls a new one in short order if I let her in. Yes, I am using Feliway and feeding Millie treats through the netting while I interact with the other cats so she gets positive associations with them. Millie is very human-oriented (she has the talking buttons for example) and wakes up every morning and chooses violence (she loves to bite and scratch when she plays, to the point where I wear gloves). My question is, What now? Poly and Shadow have come so far in trusting me and are super bored confined to one room. But I hesitate to let them out of their safe room only to run straight into Millie, the cat manifestation of possessive violence. And I also hesitate to let them run free in my house without at least a vet visit. Maybe a chip-coded pet door in the room so Poly and Shadow can get out but only they can get back in and be safe there? Do I just introduce Millie and keep my fingers crossed? Do I try to take them to the vet by trapping them in a carrier? They have only just come to trust me. I would appreciate some advice from people who have more experience than I do! I adore all 4 of them and want the best for them - and no, I cannot re-home any of these cats. The two recent adoptees are straight-up terrified of anyone but me after months of daily interaction, and while I am trying to teach Millie to be more peaceful and rewarding her when she behaves well, she is the Queen and sees these other girls as interlopers. Thanks in advance for your advice!

We’ve had our (formerly) feral girl for 6 months now. We keep her in my bedroom, but have the door open with a baby gate so she and our resident cat can interact and get familiar.

When they’re on either side of the gate, they’re great! Playing, eating treats, all the things you want to see. I’ll share a video in the comments of that.

However, our resident cat has started getting on top of her when the gate is open. He used to just move around and watch her as well, but now it seems he’s only interested in pinning her down and asserting dominance. At first she seemed not to mind it, but now she’ll walk to her play pen when she hears the gate opening with him outside of it. She’ll meow at him and twist a bit (seemingly trying to get away), but she won’t really hiss or cry.

Is this something I should continue intervening with, or should I let it go and let them work it out? I don’t want her to be scared of him, but I also don’t want to keep them separated.

Important side note: our feral girl is FIV+ and our resident cat is not. She hasn’t shown any signs of aggression or tried to bite me or him outside of play, but I also try to keep an eye on them to make sure it doesn’t get to that point.

I took in a feral mom and her kitten back in June. Considering everything, the mom has adapted well to allow us petting her, she loafs around the house and hops up on our beds.

That being said, the girl just wants outside alllllll of the time that she is not sleeping! She is very relentless and follows us from room to room, she paces between the doors, etc.

We have Feliway, calming treats and she was spayed last week. We love her, but it gets a little draining when she follows us and meow when we know what she wants. She will even paw at our leg when we don't go toward the door. Most concerning is that she will take her frustration out on her kitten at times. I've gotten use to their play fighting and her hissing at the kitten to set boundaries, but I get upset when her kitten is just laying there and she pounces on him unprovoked (and seemingly from door frustration). We have toys that she is barely interested in as she sadly prefers chasing real animals outside.

How long did it take some of you before your formerly feral cats stopped wanting outside so badly? Any advice is also appreciated. We did also let her out a few times after she pounced on her kitten, because we didn't want him to get hurt... however, it's now resetting the clock of keeping her in.

About a month ago, we took in a potentially pregnant feral female and were able to get a spay/abort done with the help of a local trapper. I’m estimating 6 months to a year because I’m pretty sure she’s imprinted on given how she follows me pretty much everywhere.

Roxie’s amazing except for that she’s having trouble getting along with other cats and I’m not sure what all factors are contributing. The last month has been kinda hectic so I might as well give a quick summary.

The week after we took Roxie in, my roommate had to put down her 13-year old male (Sora) due to an inoperable tumor around his intestines. I had known him as a kitten and my 10 year old female (Riley) had known him for as long as I had her. We wanted to try the slow integration by keeping her isolated for a few days but that went out the window after Sora started refusing food and huddling in my bathroom.

Over the next two weeks Riley stayed in my roommates bedroom (we believe grieving) while Roxie had the run of the rest of the house. At first we didn’t shut off any rooms because they stayed away from each other for the most part. Until in the second week, Roxie bit Riley on the tail hard enough to go to the vet when neither of us were home. Nothing major just a shaved patch and some antibiotics. Now we’re at the both can sometimes sit with me on the couch phase but still hiss at each other once they make eye contact.

And to make everything more complicated, my roommate adopted an 8 week old kitten (Nimbus) to help alleviate the pain from loss of Sora and the kitten had only been at the shelter for a few weeks so he’s a step away from the streets himself. We have been doing the slow integration between Roxie and Nimbus over the past week but Roxie is frequently hissing, growling, and sometimes even snarling during supervised playtime.

Does anyone have any advice of how to tell between actual aggression and overexcited play? Or just general advice for integrating a household where there’s such a wide age range? For so long it has only been the two of us humans with our two cats so we’re feeling out of our depth.

We already have Feliway diffusers and calming collars and we do plan on getting more cat trees.

This is StarDog Champion or Champ

We found homes for his 4 siblings and mom. He was so scared I had to keep him. I was 7 years old when my sister took me with her to PAWS, where she worked for a while. I was always happy to go under the house and befriend an animal in need. Champ was 6 weeks when we saved him, or he saved us. It took 3 weeks to get them all at once. He’s 9 years old now and a healthy 24lbs. We later found out (tiny momma) his daddy escaped his home and impregnated his stray mom. Dad was 100% papered mainecoon.

At least I think he enjoys them? He sticks his neck out and closes his eyes, which seems to suggest so, but since he does it EVERY time I’m still trying to figure out whether it’s a reflex 🤔

I figure that if he disliked it he would bite or swat at me. And he does look up at me with “warm” eyes at the end, for lack of a better word.

What do you think?

Btw he’s so funny bc the SECOND it’s over he’s like “I’m vulnerable!! Who’s there!? Checking the perimeter!” as if coming out of a trance 😂🩷

This is Chip! He showed up at my house 2 years ago, with my other community cats. He was very weary of people, after feed him twice daily for a year, providing him with shelter he finally let me pet him. Then I was able to TNR. When the winters were bad I tried to get him to come inside but he refused. In June he went missing and returned 5 weeks later, very skinny and dusty. He saw me in my garden and ran up to me crying. Two weeks ago I found him on my porch weak, refusing to eat. The neighbor down the street had their grass sprayed, and a bug company was out for several hours. Not sure if this caused his illness, but vet suspected it played a role. I brought him in the house, he was secluded in my kitchen for a full week, then decided indoor life is not so bad! He is reunited with two other former feral frens, Dottie and Captain Frederick Wentworth. He spends his days chilling with my senior cat Prince Finn (19), Fred and dot!

It has been three years and multiple litters, but we finally got the elusive mama cat. Our neighbor took the two kittens and we are keeping her. She is decompressing and coming along nicely. She will be able to enjoy the same comforts that Phoebe and Oliver, two of her kittens from previous litters that we brought in, are enjoying. After years of dining and dashing she showed up on our back patio two weeks ago. I think she was desperate because one of her kittens was injured. We were able to get the kittens first and then her. The kitten had puncture wounds and some swelling on her leg. Thankfully a vet visit provided great news, the wounds were superficial and she is healing well. OG Mom will be going to the vet on Thursday to be spayed and receive any care that she needs.

Almost 3 months ago we took in a couple of feral cats on death row at the local shelter. They were labeled by locsl feral cat rescue and the shelter as "working cats" and we were told they would always have to live outside. We did the 60 day acclimation phase out on our screened porch in large crates. One cat socialized himself and is now indoors. We leave food in the screened porch for the other cat, Boomie, and he's been showing himself at night (and dawn) more frequently (and he comes up to the windows to see our indoor cats, gets one of them really riled up!). Boomie still backs away if we try to go outside while he's on the deck. For the first time last night I was able to open the sliding door a little and he didn't tun away. He is sooooo affectionate. He also has the cutest squeak of a meow, and he purred while rubbing his head, ears and face against my hand. He also finally accepted a churu. We can't bring him inside until he's tested for FIV (3 cats inside), and we would like to get him on a flea Rx. Since he only comes out at night and is still pretty skittish, it would be hard to trap him to get him to the vet. Any thoughts on how we get him to come closer or trust us more, how we can get him out during the day? We're happy to be patient, but i would love to get him indoors before winter. Or at least get him to see the screened porch as his catio. We have a heated cat house and can get an outdoor space heater if we need to. Thanks for your advice!

I was asked to help with a feral colony at a preschool. At first I had no clue what I was doing but have since trapped spayed and neutered 12 of the adults and relocated them to the property of a wealthy cat lover. We also caught and spayed and adopted out 10 babies. There are 2 elusive ones left that have been spayed and I feed daily but we are getting a drop trap to get them and relocate to the wealthy cat lover property. Anyway one day when I went to set the trap I found these 3 babies who were sickly, covered in fleas, and had eye infections. They were running in and out of the bottom of a building that was flooded with nasty “water” so needless to say I scooped them up and got them fixed and they joined my other cats at my home where we have a large catio attached to my home toys climbing opportunities and lots of love.

Mama Orange is one of my rescued orange cats and has been under my care for quite some time. I believe she was spayed more than a year ago.

You may follow my rescue journey: instagram.com/catsofmagdalena

Hey everyone! Figured I’d give an update!

Callie had her follow up appointment yesterday, and the vet was so happy with her progress. She weighs 6.5 pounds now, we did another fecal test and she does have tape worms now… I’m guessing from flea larvae that were still present when she had the initial treatment. So we’ve got Drontyl for her, and that’s being handled. He also said that her face (where the abscess was) is completely healed and looks fantastic - the only hint she had it is the shorter fur where she had been shaved.

She also got her full set of vaccines, as well as her microchip, so Miss Thang is now a completely vaccinated and microchipped house cat!!

She definitely was not happy about the car ride, but once at the vet did great.

The vet felt some stiff spots in her intestines, and was concerned about possible intestinal lymphoma, however my absolute angel of a vet did an abdominal ultrasound for free and ruled that out. He said she does have some thickening of the intestines, but he strongly suspects it’s due to the extreme parasite infestation she had, as well as now the tapes. He is very hopeful that he guts will bounce back, and has asked me to keep doing the Proviable in the meantime.

We’ve gotten her a litter mat, and scratcher for behind the couch, and from here forward, we’re just gonna let her do things on her terms. I also got a Feliway ultimate plug-in for her corner as well.

Thank you again for all of your support - Callie and I would have been lost without all of you. Once I got her into the bathroom Thursday night, I went in and picked her up and got so many snuggles and rubs and purrs. It’s genuinely great to know that she does love me, despite being very fearful. I have lots of hope for her going forward

We adopted Plumpernickel from the local feral cat rescue/shelter. Both the rescue and shelter labeled him a "working cat". We were told to keep him crated out on our screened porch to acclimate him to our location and regular food. He was scared of us the first 2 weeks but after that he started to socialize himself. He wanted affection, but at first was a little too grabby with his murder mittens. Over the last couple of months he's learned how to use his soft paws. We got him checked out and chipped at the vet and had his vaccines boosted, now he's an indoor kitty we are working to acclimated to our existing 2 indoor kitties. He's a lap cat. A cuddlebug. I don't know how this kid was feral, but he has decided to change his life. He has.gained weight, his hair has grown in thick and soft, and he is learning how to be kind, gentle, and how to treat friends. All credit goes to Plumpie! He's a good boy and he wants to be good.

March 2025 - I saw Darrell for the first time. The second time I saw him, I took out my trap and got him in for TNR. I never saw him again.

End of July 2025 - I see Darrell for the first time since his release. I found his new "territory" and started looking for him every day. He started off very cautious. Once he was brave enough to try churu - it was game over.

Mid August 2025 - I saw a coyote in his spot. My heart sank. I decided I needed to bring him inside. He was following me and my dogs on our nightly walks and truly warmed up to all of us and I couldn't stand to see him end up as the coyotes dinner.

1 year ago today - I was able to use a carrier and lure him in with sardines. I brought him inside and he climbed my shower curtain and stood on top. He was a wild boy. After a few hours he got comfy in my lap.

Day 2 inside - he escape the quarantine bathroom and snuggled right up with both of my dogs. My resident cat, Oscar also immediately loved him. They cuddle and groom each other all the time. I know its best to keep them quarantined due to infectious diseases but Darrell said "theres no way i am being kept away from the dogs and cat".

Thereafter - he stayed with the rest of the animals and I scheduled a vet appointment. Unfortunately Darrell has FIV. My intent all along was to rehome him and I had an appointment scheduled for surrender. I got too attached to him and had to keep him. He socialized himself and fit in so well with my crew so I had to keep him.

Thanks to Darrell, r/formerlyferal was born. After Darrell, I have since socialized 2 other adult ferals. The one who gave him FIV (another easy socialization procees) and Oscar's momma Mandy who many of you probably know.

Now Oscar, Mandy, and Darrell live happily inside as the troublesome orange trio along with my 2 dogs and I wouldnt have it any other way.

This guy has become so comfortable inside and just an absolute baby. Crazy to think it took us 8 months to even let us pet him when he was outside.

So there is a youngish cat (I believe a year or less)that has been around my neighborhood for the past few months and my neighbor has begun to feed it so we see him/her often. I would like to trap and take it in but I’m unsure what my expectations should be as far as being feral and coming around to living indoors. It lets me get within 10 feet but then runs away. I have saved an outdoor cat before and he is the best but he was very friendly and asked for attention so likely had a home prior. (Don’t worry we took to the vet and he was held a week before we were able to get him just in case someone had lost him.) just wondering if I’m doing the right thing by bringing it in.. would it be happier outside? Will it come around as far as being scared of humans? Any advise is appreciated!

Hi, i just wanted to share a story about a stray we named monty. a couple of months ago this cat started appearing around the house, but he was terrified of humans. We would feed him and have to walk away for him to eat. Gradually, he would eat closer and closer to us but touch would absolutely a no-no, he’d swipe and hiss.

The other day he came inside because the back door was left open with some cat food in sight. Someone strategically closed the door behind him (we wanted to trap neuter release initially.)

So the first evening/night being inside , almost paralysed in fear, and growls. That’s ok, he’s just scared, so we left him in peace and quiet with litter tray and food until the next morning.

The cat that came out of his cage (cage big enough to fit our german shepherd, covered with a blanket) and he was a totally different cat. Bit by bit he allowed human touch and learned what it’s like to be affectionate towards us.

we decided to postpone the neuter 2 days and see how much he gets comfortable with us, kind of thinking that taking him to the vets will bring him back to square one “don’t touch me”

But no! he’s the most loving little guy. It’s like he was supposed to be a house cat. I am just shocked how much he changed so quickly