Semiferal Cat Brought Indoors, And There Are Some Issues

I love the catio you provided for him! I also have a cat who ALWAYS, immediately goes wild if he goes out. Many times I had him scoot out only to have a violent reaction. He would settle back down after being brought back in but I did have some marks on me! I finally realized it was fear of the outdoors. It may have been related to all the sensory input but bottom line was fear. He never even tries to go out anymore.
If he is inside his carrier, he feels secure and does not react that way. Taking him to the vet or even other indoor places is never a problem. I suspect your kitty is having the same issues. The world outside was a hard place to survive. Indoors feels and smells safer. The catio might help to overcome the fear but I would be very cautious about going outside the walls again.
I hope you are okay. Kitty wounds really hurt!

Jcatbird said:

I love the catio you provided for him! I also have a cat who ALWAYS, immediately goes wild if he goes out. Many times I had him scoot out only to have a violent reaction.

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I'm curious. If he is skooting out, one would think he wants to be out. So you think the violence is fear?Why would he willingly go somewhere that scares him?
I wish I could read my boys mind. It would make this whole process so much easier on us both.

I'm so used to cat wounds from dealing with aggressive ferals and cats since I was a kid. It really doesnt bother me anymore. Gotta do what you gotta do.

With this cat, it is mostly that he was going through a “forbidden” door. He wanted to do ,what he wanted to do. Lol He is always trying to run things. He has changed his mind about going out that door now that he knows all that is beyond the portal. Cats are curious about everything until they are scared.
I know what you mean about building up a tolerance for cat wounds. Me too. Lol Cat autographs.

I used to walk my cat (now he is an indoor-only cat). After 2 going-outs or so, he was happy with the harness.

I must stress however, that I had to get customized with walking a cat. Unlike a dog who follows his/her owner (more or less :-)) my cat wants to go wherever he likes. He never followed me, except the dangerous situations for him, when I had to pull 2-3 times to stop him.

Usually, he walked long time (20-30 minutes, which is a lot for a cat), to the point he starts to breath heavily - at that point I had to stop and rest him.

He loved tall plants, where the soil configuration is hidden, so i had to carefully choose the places to walk not to brake my legs. :-)

So I guess walking a cat is something to learn and owning a dog does not help much :-).

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Once habituated to walk, my cat waited this "mission" every single day. When I stopped to walk him, for at least three months he meowed at the front door every single evening.

He even attempted to turn the keys to open the door! I think that he will be able to turn the keys if I let him try few months more.

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Cats are problem -solving animals and do have the same memory structure as a human. Some even say that their affection(love)-related brain is also similar to the human one. It comes to the well-known idea that cats have individual strong personality (one other words their relation to the environment is a deliberate long-term construction, not a solely instinct-based and mother-to-offspring knowledge transfer).

I dare to say (my opinion!) that humans display a much narrower wishes-space and a more fixed individual learning space than a cat, as a result of strong social norms that makes human a product of the society. That is, comparing to the cats who do not build "social spaces" and do not mirror any social construct in their individual advance of Weltanschauung (world view).

In this sense, in my opinion, cats feral colonies are an expression of individual preference, preference that is totally opposed to value an opportunity. Value and benefit from an opportunity does not involve a preference or a wish, but is just a result of a trial-and-error action, in my view.

Given similarities in brain structure and cognitive behavior and the large brain resources required by hunting and defending in the same time (cats are among few species that are both predators and prey, in their original areal), in my opinion, there is no surprise that walking a cat is not a simple physical exercise, but a learning exercise for both "animals" :-).

One should also note that cat language is mostly positional, while humans communicate by sounds. In my humble opinion, in the highly diverse outdoor "outerspace", human-cat communication has to overcome this barrier to allow an effective reciprocal learning, while indoor communication seems to be more receipt-based (like a computer language, which is based on the simple concept one word = one strict meaning).

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The above are just my personal observations (not based on studies), that could be valid or not in other circumstances or for a particular cat or human. This is only (my personal view) argument in favor to the statement that taking a cat outdoor under a strong relation human-cat, is a very complex reciprocal cognitive exercise and may not lead to expected or planned behavior.

My Stray Joey got out once, he stayed by the Front door and didn't fight when we brought him back in, I thought that was strange, but I'm pretty sure he had a pretty tough life before we brought him in.
We have been trying to socialize him with our Feral, very slow going, so hang in there, you are doing great things!!!

If Shaman and Treasure ever become indoor cats, I doubt they'd need a harness outside. Right now no matter where I walk I have the 2 of them following me; even if I walk 4 houses up the street to talk to a neighbor they're walking right behind me.

Update: Skooma finally figured out life.
He has been curled up in bed with me every night, and it's the first week without constant howling. Sometimes, when he gets started and it's not bedtime, I usher him out the catio door. But I havent had to use my earplugs in a week, and he is sleeping with me longer and longer each night. I'm still not 100% on what his deal is, but it seems he is getting more happy with his life now. Hes even playing with toys, which is kind of a big deal since he used to be terrified of them.

Oh wow! that is amazing!!

Nice!
From my experience with my tomcat- he still howls time to time, when he feels alone. Seriously.