A friend of mine from another state recently sent me this e-mail. I am not real experienced with ferals, although we do have a few roaming about our farm, but I know that some of you would have much better advice to give her on this, so I am going to copy and paste her e-mail here, and then give her the link to this thread so she can come and check to see what advice you all have given. Thanks! I really appreciate this!!! Here is the letter:
Hi Deb,
Well, I know you're the cat expert and I also have a 17 year old stray cat that we rescued (she chose us by walking into my inlaws home on Halloween 17 years ago, while my father-in-law was fixing the door) and she's very happy here with us. She was about 5 months old when she found us. We had posted signs and put an ad in the newspaper to make sure no one had lost her - but seeing as she was infested with fleas, made us believe she most likely was out for quite a while.
Anyhow, some kittens had been born behind our garage under my husbands old fishing boat. It's a fairly large solid 8 foot fenced in area (ie - "Safe"). Anyhow, that was earlier this year. Now, one of the kittens (approx. 4-5 months old? maybe) is still living back there and has an opening in the bottom corner of the fence to get through back and forth. I've been putting cat food out for her/him and water (just because we're animal lovers and we want her to be healthy and not starving). My question is - how in the world am I to gain her/his trust before it gets too darn cold outside? Everytime I get too close (about 5 feet away), it runs. It doesn't ever go too far, but it's obviously a survivor and doesn't trust anyone at this point (smart kitty). Give me your thoughts and feedback on this. I actually bought some cat food today for it. (See our present kitty being 17 and all is on that special K/D food for kidney health). I know we've all been told not to feed animals, but isn't that because people end up stopping feeding them after a while. We intend to keep feeding this kitten until we hopefully gain enough trust and see if it will want to become an inside cat.
Gosh, I really get long winded. I was going to just give you a call, but I know you're really busy with the new baby and all. Just when you get some free time, give me some of your ideas on what we could do to speed along the process. We'd hate to use a live trap as I don't want to freak the poor little thing out, but I don't want it to freeze to death as winter approaches either.
Thanks for any help,
Sandi
Hi Deb,
Well, I know you're the cat expert and I also have a 17 year old stray cat that we rescued (she chose us by walking into my inlaws home on Halloween 17 years ago, while my father-in-law was fixing the door) and she's very happy here with us. She was about 5 months old when she found us. We had posted signs and put an ad in the newspaper to make sure no one had lost her - but seeing as she was infested with fleas, made us believe she most likely was out for quite a while.
Anyhow, some kittens had been born behind our garage under my husbands old fishing boat. It's a fairly large solid 8 foot fenced in area (ie - "Safe"). Anyhow, that was earlier this year. Now, one of the kittens (approx. 4-5 months old? maybe) is still living back there and has an opening in the bottom corner of the fence to get through back and forth. I've been putting cat food out for her/him and water (just because we're animal lovers and we want her to be healthy and not starving). My question is - how in the world am I to gain her/his trust before it gets too darn cold outside? Everytime I get too close (about 5 feet away), it runs. It doesn't ever go too far, but it's obviously a survivor and doesn't trust anyone at this point (smart kitty). Give me your thoughts and feedback on this. I actually bought some cat food today for it. (See our present kitty being 17 and all is on that special K/D food for kidney health). I know we've all been told not to feed animals, but isn't that because people end up stopping feeding them after a while. We intend to keep feeding this kitten until we hopefully gain enough trust and see if it will want to become an inside cat.
Gosh, I really get long winded. I was going to just give you a call, but I know you're really busy with the new baby and all. Just when you get some free time, give me some of your ideas on what we could do to speed along the process. We'd hate to use a live trap as I don't want to freak the poor little thing out, but I don't want it to freeze to death as winter approaches either.
Thanks for any help,
Sandi