Feral (stray) Eating Inside the House

[hummys]

Hi again everyone! We've been trying to trap a feral (stray?) for a while now, with plans on keeping her with us indoors after her vet visit/surgery. We've tried 3 times so far - trap ready (and she eats out of it), appointment at the shelter, toys and scratchy posts ready, but each time she disappeared for a few days. The last time we tried was right before the holiday. We plan on trying again in a few weeks when I can take off from work. Last week it was raining and she doesn't usually show when it's wet out, but this day she did. It was raining so hard that I set-up a towel and food on the inside of the house so she could stay dry. She was scared at first, running in and out, but eventually stayed and ate. Long story short, she's been eating her two meals a day, inside the house. When's she's done eating, she sits by the door (inside the house) and preens and then turns around to check out the inside of the kitchen. Last few days, she turns and starts to walk into the house - sometimes towards the family room, sometimes into the kitchen. When I ask her where she's going, she gets scared and stops. But, she seems somewhat comfortable inside. To be honest, I’m probably more scared than she is. Husband is all for her coming inside, but is getting annoyed because when she eats inside, we have to leave the door open for her... and it's cold outside.

So here's my question: if we are planning on bringing her in, are we doing a bad thing by letting her think that it’s alright to come in and out of the house? Since that won’t happen after she’s been to the vet, does it send her a mixed message and will it confuse her later on?

Any advice is greatly welcome. Thanks.

 

[whaler]

i have never had a situation like that, but i personally don't think so. hopefully she is starting to get the idea that your home is safe (as well as warm and dry). either way, i doubt that doing what you are is going to be likely to make it an any more likely that she would miss going outside.

 

[ldg]

I agree with Whaler.

Though I'd add... when you do get her to the vet, and release her in your home, it's best to release her into just one room at first. She'll feel MUCH safer without all that space to make "hers" at first. It's really best to give them a safe space to make their own for at least a few days, if not a few weeks (or in some cases, a few months or more). But she sounds like she won't need long... so given you'd (ideally) be releasing her into a room she's never been in before, the "going out" behavior would be "broken" right from the start of her new life... :rub: :heart2:

Aww.......... what a sweet thing you're doing!

 

[hummys]

Thank you both for the reply. Really helpful.She'll be going into a spare bedroom, so hopefully that will do the trick. Appreciate the help.
 

 

[kitsey]

That is how I got my feral Mitten to be an indoor kitty. Shortly after she let me touch her for the first time I started leaving my door open for her to come in and explore (while my cats were locking in my bedroom.) It was about 30-40 degrees out at the time of year we started this. I would leave my front door open for hours at a time for her. First she would come in one step. Then she'd worked her way to checking out the kitchen, I had to sit perfectly still and face away from her or she would run. Soon she would come into the room with me-again, as long as I didn't move. When I introduced her to my cats through a baby gate things went a bit faster. She would come in if she saw my boy Sneezer and I could sneak the door shut. She would stay for 15 minutes before crying to go out, then a an hour, then she started taking naps inside. I would let her out every night when she meowed. Before too long she was waiting for me to come home and going in the door before me. Then she started sleeping inside all night and waking me up to go out between 6-10am. During the day if I asked her to come in she usually would, then one morning she just never asked to go outside anymore. She's been inside a year and a half now.

So, Mitty was 2 1/2 years old when I first got to pet her Feb 7th 2011, and she was fully indoors by May 24th, 2011.

 

[hummys]

Thanks, Kitsey. Gives me hope. She won't let me touch her (closest I can get is a foot away), but she's still happy to eat inside. A couple of times, she finished eating and walked into the family room under the couch. So cute. But, both times when I started to talk to her or she noticed that I knew where she was, she ran back outside. She seems to be more relaxed when she thinks I'm not looking. Hard not to look to see what she's doing, right? Did you have any worries about Mitty bringing fleas into the house?

 

[ritz]

Oh how nice of you to rescue this kitty.

I don't think you have to worry about fleas given it's cold outside.  Though when you get kitty spayed, do have her tested for FIV/FeLK.  Perhaps, wormed.

Somes ignorance is bliss:  next time kitty comes in and walks into the family room or more inside than she usually comes, kind of ignore her.   Sometimes cats gets scared when you look at them.You can figure out where she is headed and go to the other side of the room and maybe quietly read. 

 

[revenwyn]

Yep! Our Binky was in and out in and out for six months before she came in with a month old kitten and stayed for good. They have now been with us for almost eight months.

 

[kitsey]

I never worried about fleas with Mitty coming in, it was so cold when I started and I tried to get Frontline on her the months leading up to her moving in. I got the Frontline in a dropper and tried to squirt it in her general direction-lol I am not sure how much actually got on her but when she felt the first drop she would take off like a shot-lol