Hello Everyone: I'm a new member, and very happy to find a place where I can talk to other cat lovers. We just "adopted" two semi-feral females, Bean and Mouse. I've never had ferals or semi-ferals before, so I have lots of questions.
It's been a very intense experience so far. At one point, I thought both of them were going to die. I had managed to trap Mouse to take to a TNR program at the Toronto Humane Society. She came down with a very severe upper respiratory infection immediately after she got out of the shelter. Of course, she passed it on to her sister, Bean. Both became gravely ill, and it took a military exercise to catch them both and get them medical care (and also a ton of cash, not so nice). I wish the Toronto Humane Society had warned me of the risks of Upper Respiratory Infections after visits to their shelter. My cats could easily have infected the entire neighbourhood. It would have been much cheaper, and less dangerous, for me to take them to an ordinary veterinarian.
Now both are recovering at my house. They aren't the wildest of semi-ferals, as they already let me rub their bellies (I've never even had a house cat that lets me do that)! They are very jumpy though, of course, and they are dying to go outside. Bean is quite depressed, and I posted on the feral cat forum to get some advice. I think she started to pull out of it today, as she responded to my efforts to play for the first time.
Anyway, I'm very happy to have a place to chat with other cat people.
Cheers everybody!
It's been a very intense experience so far. At one point, I thought both of them were going to die. I had managed to trap Mouse to take to a TNR program at the Toronto Humane Society. She came down with a very severe upper respiratory infection immediately after she got out of the shelter. Of course, she passed it on to her sister, Bean. Both became gravely ill, and it took a military exercise to catch them both and get them medical care (and also a ton of cash, not so nice). I wish the Toronto Humane Society had warned me of the risks of Upper Respiratory Infections after visits to their shelter. My cats could easily have infected the entire neighbourhood. It would have been much cheaper, and less dangerous, for me to take them to an ordinary veterinarian.
Now both are recovering at my house. They aren't the wildest of semi-ferals, as they already let me rub their bellies (I've never even had a house cat that lets me do that)! They are very jumpy though, of course, and they are dying to go outside. Bean is quite depressed, and I posted on the feral cat forum to get some advice. I think she started to pull out of it today, as she responded to my efforts to play for the first time.
Anyway, I'm very happy to have a place to chat with other cat people.
Cheers everybody!