Who says ferals and strays are not happy indoors

[CheeseGertiDocs Dad]

Oh thank god kitties stayed in dawn! apart from one certain monkey lol

We werent sure how doc and gerti would react to being not allowed out as we werent sure if they had been out in the past.

Cheese has never gone out and barely shows any interest in being outside.

Doc tends to go for an accidentally left open door mostly cos he thinks its a 'game' that mum and dad are chasing him from under the cars and he meows his head off as if hes saying 'hehe you cant catch me' and wonders why we're panicing so much lol.

We opened the kitchen door in our old house into a concrete walled garden and only cheese had a sniff,gerti sits in doorway watching the world and doc just gets ver nervous of every noise lol. And when it started to rain you should of seen them all run back in!  it was cat scrambling over cat! hehe

[Bazsmum]

My ex-feral Blackie.....

From this.....


Having a tickle....


To this....

[Hippykitty]

Thanks Dawn. I'm having a final blast at trying to home Fred and Victoria, but if this fails I'll see how P and S react to them. I'll put Fred and Vic in a kittening pen and see how it goes. I suspect that Polly will be fine with them, but don't think Samantha will be very accepting.

[Dawn (DiddyDawn)]

It does depend on the cats Hippy.  Most ferals because they live in large colonies, tend to thrive in the company of others.  Most of mine are extremely loving towards each other and they always cuddle up.  I have a couple of my own that are total ratbags but these aren't feral ones, some cats will accept others and you'll get others that will just tolerate.  When mine come in initially they are kept separate from the others and then after a few weeks, I introduce them to the others but using a dog cage.  They are kept in this for a few days until I know there is no hissing and spitting and then I slowly integrate.  I may have been lucky with mine but I think it's mainly to do with the feral temperament.  If your two ladies are pretty laid back, I would give it a go.  You may have the hissing/spitting for a couple of days but as long as they aren't jumping on each other, they should be okay.

[Hippykitty]

Off-topic a bit, sorry.

Dawn, how do you get all those cats to accept each other? I have two long established cats, Polly and Sam, and I'm thinking of keeping two of the (almost) tame ferals I rescued because they are proving hard to home, and I'm fond of them. I'm concerned about how my old ladies would react to this, or whether I should try this at all. P and S are around 21 and 19 approx. The ferals are about nine months. Sam is a very dominant cat and so is Fred, one of the ferals. Any advice would be appreciated.

Move this to another thread if appropriate, don't want to hi jack this one.

[moiramassey]

None of my cats were feral, although one was the kitten of a feral cat who had settled into a home.

All four of my cats love the indoors. Mini has always been an indoor/outside cat. If you try to keep her indoors she makes a great fuss. Blackie is an indoor/outdoor cat who likes the back garden but would adapt to living only indoors.

My two kittens (5 months) have always been kept indoors. One is fine with that. The other does a banzai run for the outside every time the front or back door are opened. He has made it three or four times. Most times we have managed to capture him and bring him home within a few minutes, but he did manage to stay outside once for a while (he had pushed a window open and got out) and was running about the back garden and climbing trees by the time we realised.

My point is that cats vary.

My solution is to make the garden cat safe with catproofing - a big project as we have a large garden, inappropriate fencing and a lot of large trees.

[Liz]

Ferals do adapt we have Miss Gracie queen of her former colony trapped at 15 at has been living with the Clan cats for nealry 3 years as indoor only - she does use the bath instead of the litter tray but easily cleaned and has never looked to go out since and also has moved house and gained her very own chair in our bedroom and loves to interact with us and is an old slobber chops totally indoors and safe - our choice but she never looks to go out the door or window and has discovered the delights of food on tap, catnip sacks, and her favourite in the winter electric blankets in 2 locations!


we also have the rest of the colony we trapped and some had never seen humans but all now interact with the laser pen and morning breakfast and evening scatter of nice food.

Our ferals still seem to prefer the dogs to us but they did train Sky the pup with full extended claws and now can be found in his crate in the evening so they do adapt and we keep them busy with loads of interaction and they have all 38 of the Clan to play with and the 2 dogs so they are safe with us forever.

After 3 years Ace still distrusts us but does love his treats so he now sits about 3 feet from me in the evening to get his special bit - can't touch him but 3 feet is great progress for him as he was 3 when trapped and had never seen humans, he is Miss gracies son and she still rules him and will cuff him and the youngsters if they get out of line, she also knows that Sweetie our longest owned domestic is the Top cat and treats her with respect and they are both my oldies as Sweetie is 16 but I'm not saying oldies out loud as both ladies still play and love catnip!

[lucky and jj mum]

I use to feed two strays outside and made them a shelter when weather was bad.
One of the cat's was the mother to JJ, she had been in but had decided the outside life was for her. As she grew older she became ill and decided that she wanted to come in again. Sadly i had to take her to the vets and say goodbye to her.
The remaining cat was the mother of my other cat Lucky. She had never been in though I had tried often, she also as she got older and frailer decided to come in. She had never used a dirt tray but as soon as she was in she used one, she was good as gold and one day crept into our front room and died peacefully behind a chair. I had never been able to touch her and still hadn't when she came in.

[Ela]

 

For anyone who says a cat that has been living outdoors will not settle, mine prove they do

I would agree with you 100%, they can adapt as well as any cat and lead a perfectly happy life.

[ccmacey]

As proved with Blackie, a cat that had been a stray from a kitten. He will be homed 2 years this year and he's loving it. I even plucked up the courage to stroke him, after all this time, a very quick one, well do you blame me lol.

[MBll]

207 of ours

   are you kiddin here?

[MBll]

Dawn ...it was moi that said it lol........ok so your cats are cool with it but it dont work for cats

[berties mum]

Absolutely agree after my experience with my Minnie.  She used to be nextdoor's cat but was kept entirely outside, as they had got her from the RSPCA to keep their other cat company and they didn't hit it off, so they decided to keep Minnie outside    The owners seemed to resent her for upsetting their other cat and paid very little attention to her, just putting food out once a day.  I always felt terribly sorry for her - she'd be sleeping outdoors in all weathers and always seemed hungry and was in awful condition, but if you tried to go near, she'd attack.

They moved away last June and left Minnie behind.  All the neighbours were concerned but no one wanted a cat, so I offered to feed her.  Going on her eight years of living outdoors, and the fact that I'd never been able to touch her, I put food outside and never thought for a moment that she'd ever come inside or turn into much of a pet.

After about a fortnight, I was sitting talking to her while she ate her dinner outside, and she purred and rubbed around my legs, and I managed to stroke her.  Within two months, she was coming into the hallway to eat, and within three months she had investigated the rest of the house, met Bertie and Bella, and sat on my knee for the first time.

After four months, my OH let her inside one night for her dinner and I was upstairs and began crying as I had had some bad news about a friend that day.  When my OH came up to comfort me, Minnie followed, got into bed with me and licked my face like she'd always been doing it.  She hasn't left my side at night since then 

She is now in great condition and has gained 5lb, and spends around 23 hours a day inside.  She has just taught herself to use a litter tray so that keeps her indoors even more, and she's very picky about what weather she'll venture out of the house in!  She loves visitors and is a real affectionate lap cat.  And 10 months ago now, she was still living outdoors! 

[feebee]

This is so true!!

When my grandparents first moved to the farm, the previous owners asked if they could leave Stanley, the farm cat, behind as he "is semi feral and never comes inside, he's really an outdoor cat"

From that day forward "Stanley The Outdoor Cat" never set one paw outside the door.

Even if you threw him out he had an ability to turn in mid air and be back through the door before you could shut it, I think he knew he was onto a good thing being curled up cosy next to the Rayburn. 

[Liz]

Sorry that should be 27!!!!

[Rosella moggy]

In the snow this morning all 207 of ours were queing up to go out and a lot of backward reversing soon changed their minds yet me and the dogs went for a walk in the blizzard whilst they were in the warm!

Errr how many?!!!!!

[Liz]

Totally agree with you on that one Dawn they do adapt and usually are most greatful for good food, nice dry place to be and in our case the electric blankets we provide for when the heating isn't on through the day, and the fact they are loved and wanted even the ones who don't like us much after several years but get out the laser pen and I have severl new best friends!

We also have ferals who are indoor/outdoor but on a cold wet day all can be found in the conservatory lying on the couches as it is alway warm whatever the weather!

In the snow this morning all 207 of ours were queing up to go out and a lot of backward reversing soon changed their minds yet me and the dogs went for a walk in the blizzard whilst they were in the warm!

[furballmom]

when we got gimlee and phoenix there previous owners had the cats outside 20 hours a day and since we got them not once have they shown an intrest in going outside.

[Christie]

Over the years I've had quite a few rescue cats (from shelters, or strays I've just found and taken in), and I've never had one that seemed unhappy to be in indoor cat. My beloved Lucia, who passed away on 1 Jan, was a stray with her mother, and once I brought her home, she was always happy to be indoors, with supervised time on balcony or back garden (depending on where we were living). She was the queen of the house and loved sleeping on windowsills (all windowsills have had carpet or towels on them since she moved in with me!) to keep an eye on the local bird population, but even if she ran out the front door, she scooted right back in!

Some folks running shelters (at least in my area) are very emphatic that cats belong outside, wandering at will, and some have "road sense" and can handle urban areas. (I've never seen a cat win a battle with an automobile, unfortunately) I've been refused adoption because we live in a fairly urban area, so we keep our cat family indoors, with supervised excursions into the back garden. In fact, my husband built a conservatory at the back of our house for the cats, with a cat tree and platforms fastened to the wall for the cats! If a cat is a barn or farm cat, I can see they might have trouble adjusting, but I think it's a shame that people who want to love and care for a cat are refused on the grounds that cats don't belong as indoors-only. I've been told point-blank (at several shelters) that I can only adopt a cat that was an indoor-only cat before, no other cat.

But everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course! 

[Bazsmum]

This is my belief also....I have an ex feral and a stray cat who would not thank you for their freedom! It does make me wonder how they coped so long on the streets?

I love to see these types of cats in a home situation.....my daughter is actually amazed at the change in the feral....it took him over a year to feel comfortable and now he actually purrs! 

[Dawn (DiddyDawn)]

My youngster came down this morning to the back door being wide open, that bloody dog again    Panic started to set in as I was thinking of various ones of my cats who is likely to do a runner    Anyway, come down and every one was indoors apart from Jasper who had decided to go for a wander    Not sure how long the door had been open so anyone of them could have gone out at any time, Jasper stayed out for the day with me on pins but sauntered in a couple of hours ago meowing      For anyone who says a cat that has been living outdoors will not settle, mine prove they do    The tortie mum I picked up a while ago along with her kitten, is now happily living on our bed, she snuggles up in the night and has decided that's her domain regardless of the others thinking otherwise.  This little girl had lived outside for god knows how long and is now as happy as a pig in muck giving constant headbutts and nuzzling my face, so even though they aren't used to being confined, most if not all will settle