- Joined
- Aug 19, 2021
- Messages
- 52
- Purraise
- 81
I am posting here as the local feral cat association and and animal sanctuary have proved unhelpful to my predicament and I at a loss as to what to do.
I adopted a bicolour entire tom 10 years ago. For the first four years he was completely wild and eventually he allowed me to pet him. Five years later another large ginger tom showed up. For several years there were standoffs and cat fights between them. I'll admit the truth here - I did not want to trap and neuter them as i wanted both of them to have a full life. I dislike the idea that a neutered tom loses all his territory and status in the cat world and I don't feel that we have the rights as humans to interfere with that cats quality of life. I still feel that way and I realise I should have left the cats alone and not fed them as there was plenty of wildlife where I live and they were hunting and feeding well on birds and small pygmy shrews. I am a loner myself - don't like people based on childhood and life experience and admire the self sufficiency of cats
However eventually I was swayed by the continued pressure to neuter the cats - that it was better for their long term health etc. Last year I invested in a cat trap and tried to trap both of them for neutering and vaccination. I was unable to trap the bicolour and instead the large ginger cat was trapped and neutered. Since then things have gradually quietened and the ginger tom has had a personality change and become very dependent on the elderly bicolor - something I am not happy about. I regret neutering him and ruining his wanderings. He has also become very dependent on me and incredibly affectionate and demanding. He rubs off my legs and vocalises to me constantly (something he never did before being neutered) but I still cannot pet him; he flinches and runs away. He has also scratched me on numerous occasions when I am putting down food so I have had to resort to using a water spray can when putting down food.
I did not expect to get attached to these animals but have done so. Now I am facing the unavoidable decision for personal and housing reasons that I have to move away from the countryside to a small bedsit in a block of apartments in the city which has a small high walled garden in the back. The bicolor is now very elderly and arthritic; he refuses to go into a cat trap. Once he was very sick with an eye infection and I was told to leave him go hungry and he would eventually go into the trap. Well I waited and waited for a day and a half and he would not go in and then I read that leaving a cat without food for 48 hours can be fatal so I just got antibiotics which fixed him. I cannot handle the ginger cat who is now huge; he weighed nearly 7kg before neutering and he is now more like 8.5kg.
I want to bring these cats with me as they are now both totally dependent on me for food and care thanks to my interference but the closest I have gotten to advice is an episode of 'My Cat from Hell' where two indoor ferals were encouraged gradually go to into cat carriers that had nice blankets inside and food and gradually the owner closed the door a little more each time. Before I invest in these (as I am on a very limited income) has anyone else got an other ideas. I live in Europe not the US and just to remind you again the various cat organisations have proved completely unhelpful when I asked them for help in the past nor will you get a vet to call out where I am from.
I adopted a bicolour entire tom 10 years ago. For the first four years he was completely wild and eventually he allowed me to pet him. Five years later another large ginger tom showed up. For several years there were standoffs and cat fights between them. I'll admit the truth here - I did not want to trap and neuter them as i wanted both of them to have a full life. I dislike the idea that a neutered tom loses all his territory and status in the cat world and I don't feel that we have the rights as humans to interfere with that cats quality of life. I still feel that way and I realise I should have left the cats alone and not fed them as there was plenty of wildlife where I live and they were hunting and feeding well on birds and small pygmy shrews. I am a loner myself - don't like people based on childhood and life experience and admire the self sufficiency of cats
However eventually I was swayed by the continued pressure to neuter the cats - that it was better for their long term health etc. Last year I invested in a cat trap and tried to trap both of them for neutering and vaccination. I was unable to trap the bicolour and instead the large ginger cat was trapped and neutered. Since then things have gradually quietened and the ginger tom has had a personality change and become very dependent on the elderly bicolor - something I am not happy about. I regret neutering him and ruining his wanderings. He has also become very dependent on me and incredibly affectionate and demanding. He rubs off my legs and vocalises to me constantly (something he never did before being neutered) but I still cannot pet him; he flinches and runs away. He has also scratched me on numerous occasions when I am putting down food so I have had to resort to using a water spray can when putting down food.
I did not expect to get attached to these animals but have done so. Now I am facing the unavoidable decision for personal and housing reasons that I have to move away from the countryside to a small bedsit in a block of apartments in the city which has a small high walled garden in the back. The bicolor is now very elderly and arthritic; he refuses to go into a cat trap. Once he was very sick with an eye infection and I was told to leave him go hungry and he would eventually go into the trap. Well I waited and waited for a day and a half and he would not go in and then I read that leaving a cat without food for 48 hours can be fatal so I just got antibiotics which fixed him. I cannot handle the ginger cat who is now huge; he weighed nearly 7kg before neutering and he is now more like 8.5kg.
I want to bring these cats with me as they are now both totally dependent on me for food and care thanks to my interference but the closest I have gotten to advice is an episode of 'My Cat from Hell' where two indoor ferals were encouraged gradually go to into cat carriers that had nice blankets inside and food and gradually the owner closed the door a little more each time. Before I invest in these (as I am on a very limited income) has anyone else got an other ideas. I live in Europe not the US and just to remind you again the various cat organisations have proved completely unhelpful when I asked them for help in the past nor will you get a vet to call out where I am from.