Recent Content by astrael

I've dealt with troublesome neighbors on a number of issues. (Thankfully, here the cats are very welcome. Most are animal lovers in general, or at least of the live and let live variety) How bad is the language barrier? If they can read English, a fact sheet describing them as working cats can...

I'm on the other side of the country, but I have heard of Working Cats over in California. They rescue ferals from shelters, fix them, and place them at farms and such as natural pest control. The businesses feed and make shelters for them. Might not hurt to contact them, they might be able to...

Yes, human chicken baby food (any brand. Gerber is what I've used) is often helpful when they don't eat well and are losing weight. It's not complete nutrition, but works in a pinch. It also makes a tasty snack. Very easy for them to eat and digest if they don't feel well. Scutch still love the...

First, thank you for saving that sweet kitty! I'm sure you both will be much happier this way! It happened with the wet food, right? Could it be an allergy or intolerance? When Scutch came in from our colony, I very quickly discovered the friskies did not agree with him. (All I can afford for...

Are you sure it was stool, and not vomit? Goodness knows what she was eating outside, and some of those things irritate their tummies. She isn't showing any clear "sick" signs, so I'd just wait and see for now. Especially since nothing stood out to the vet. I'd go with the posters and keeping...

Scutch understood the litter box immediately. In the 9 months he's been in, there was one accident. And that was cause the box we had in the beginning was too small for him. It was half in, half out. (It was an in case thing, intended for the much smaller Judy who refuses to use a litter box...

Sounds like a stray. Either way, the kitty sounds quite adoptable. My current indoor kitty came in from my feral colony. He was 6-8 months outside in the colony before we decided to give in and let him stay inside. After 6 months, he's very pet like and well adjusted. First piece of advise is...

A good weight booster in a pinch is kitten milk. I've offered it to new, clearly starved, ferals. Full of nutrients, and usually is appealing. Another thing you could do is try mixing low sodium chicken stock/broth in with the wet food. Or use the water from cans of tuna (dilute it first, cause...

Scutch is crazy in love with being brushed. He sees one of us touch it, and he runs over. He's shorthair, but gloriously silky. (When he was still a kitten in the colony, we would ask him what shampoo he used. lol) I think he'd have us brush him all day long if he thought he could get us to...

I wanna give some background before giving my advice. Growing up, my family took in any cat that showed up at our door. Almost all the cats were indoor/outdoor. Some were mostly feral, but would shelter from really bad weather for a little bit inside. (We made shelters under our second story...

Socializing ferals is always a waiting game. Sounds like she's making fantastic progress, actually. Scutch came in back in fall, and it took a few months for him to fully adjust and become indoor only. (And he was determined to be in our house, his choice there.) You seem to be doing everything...

I've been checking out updates here and there, and something occurred to me. You said he avoids the places Millie was, and he needs to be an only cat? He's probably feeling very defensive/aggressive because of her smell on stuff. I agree about removing her scent. My family took in a cat that was...

Put it in a box? :dunno: lol Honestly, I have all sorts of comfy beds and stuff for Scutch. But it's a human bed or the couch for him. Once in a while he'll sleep on the bottom of his cat tower. Judy (friendly feral) likes a blanket folded on the floor/couch when she's decides to come in for a...

One of my friendly ferals, Rufus, his tail goes nuts when I pet him. It really, really is like a dog's. It threw me off at first too. I thought he was antsy or getting overstimulated. But nope. He just loves wagging his tail when I pet him. He's quite adorable overall. (He has a bad habit of...

Well, technically, it's the same chemical reaction in the brain/body. The endorphins, oxytocin, serotonin, etc. So the physical reaction is the same whether the cause is animal or human (or whatever). Many people get that feeling even more from animals than humans, because animal interactions...