Took In A Stray Cat Recently, Feeling Stressed, Possible Depression, Having Adopter's Remorse

[kurocatlady]

I just remembered I had this thread and I don't know if anyone still watches it but I just wanted to share that I re-adopted her last year and it's been a year and a month that she's living in my house. She's not fond of her other feline companion, but they don't fight and she seems happy for the most part!

I want to thank everyone again for responding, especially tabbytom. I read through my old posts and realised what a wreck I sounded like when I have anxiety I still get anxiety / depression time to time but my cats Crooktail and Fuzzy have truly helped me through the emotional turmoil, and we all did eventually adapt to our routines! Crooktail mellowed a lot and I can now trim all her nails in less than a minute. Now brushing their teeth remains a challenge but I know it is for many cat owners. I'll just take things one step at a time!

 

[sweetblackpaws]

She is a beauty! But black kitties are my favorite! I am so glad everything worked out!

Do continue to update us! Good luck with the teeth brushing!

 

[tabbytom]

I want to thank everyone again for responding, especially tabbytom.

Glad to hear from you and good to hear that things are going well with you and the cats. Yes, one step at a time will give you a clearer head to do things. Do continue to update us of your progress with the cats.

 

[Meowmeowz]

I just remembered I had this thread and I don't know if anyone still watches it but I just wanted to share that I re-adopted her last year and it's been a year and a month that she's living in my house. She's not fond of her other feline companion, but they don't fight and she seems happy for the most part!

I want to thank everyone again for responding, especially tabbytom. I read through my old posts and realised what a wreck I sounded like when I have anxiety I still get anxiety / depression time to time but my cats Crooktail and Fuzzy have truly helped me through the emotional turmoil, and we all did eventually adapt to our routines! Crooktail mellowed a lot and I can now trim all her nails in less than a minute. Now brushing their teeth remains a challenge but I know it is for many cat owners. I'll just take things one step at a time!

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Hello, I’d love to know how you helped her to acclimate to the home environment the second time round. I’m from Singapore too and there’re two bonded community cats that I was thinking of rehoming, especially since one of them was very attached to humans (same as what you described- running after people, meowing loudly and cuddling up to ppl at times), but I’ve been having pretty much the same doubts as you had regarding how they’d take to the loss of freedom, boredom and just resistance to handling since they’re adult cats and have grown up on the streets. The two of them have plenty of human “friends” and space to run around and chase each other, and their life is enriching in the sense that they’d fight with other cats to protect their territory lol (nothing bloody, just a lot of stare downs and running the cat off), so I’m wondering if it’s really good for them to bring them into a house.

 

[tabbytom]

Hello, I’d love to know how you helped her to acclimate to the home environment the second time round. I’m from Singapore too and there’re two bonded community cats that I was thinking of rehoming, especially since one of them was very attached to humans (same as what you described- running after people, meowing loudly and cuddling up to ppl at times), but I’ve been having pretty much the same doubts as you had regarding how they’d take to the loss of freedom, boredom and just resistance to handling since they’re adult cats and have grown up on the streets. The two of them have plenty of human “friends” and space to run around and chase each other, and their life is enriching in the sense that they’d fight with other cats to protect their territory lol (nothing bloody, just a lot of stare downs and running the cat off), so I’m wondering if it’s really good for them to bring them into a house.

Meowmeowz, welcome to TCS!

Glad that you are you are considering 'homing' these two cats. Well, some cats dwell better outdoors wen there are no predators or cat haters around and they can live a peaceful happy life with friendly people around feeding them and playing with them and no other enemies like other cats and end up fighting.

But, a safer place will be a loving hone where the cats will be attended to personally and getting unconditioned love and care and not to mention safety in a hone then on the streets where anything can happen to them.

I would suggest that you start a new thread regarding your queries as this is an existing thread with a different thread title and some may miss your post as this thread is not about what you are asking ad your post is buried deeper in the pages.

You may start one here caring-for-strays-and-ferals.9 so that it's a new thread title and members may help answer your questions without having your questions lost in someone else's thread.

Feel free to ask question and hang on in there as your questions may not have a reply immediately but I'm sure it'll get replied as we have members all over the world and they all come in from different time zones.

Enjoy your stay

 

[kurocatlady]

Hello, I’d love to know how you helped her to acclimate to the home environment the second time round. I’m from Singapore too and there’re two bonded community cats that I was thinking of rehoming, especially since one of them was very attached to humans (same as what you described- running after people, meowing loudly and cuddling up to ppl at times), but I’ve been having pretty much the same doubts as you had regarding how they’d take to the loss of freedom, boredom and just resistance to handling since they’re adult cats and have grown up on the streets. The two of them have plenty of human “friends” and space to run around and chase each other, and their life is enriching in the sense that they’d fight with other cats to protect their territory lol (nothing bloody, just a lot of stare downs and running the cat off), so I’m wondering if it’s really good for them to bring them into a house.

Hi! Looking back, I don't think Crooktail ever had difficulties acclimatising. (The problem mostly laid with me). I follow the standard advice of keeping her in a small confined space (in my case, the toilet) with her litterbox, bed, food, water. She would hide but that's normal for cats when they move to new environments. As long as she eats, poops and pees every day, I'd just let her be to slowly get accustomed to the environment on her own. In fact, the second time round I had another cat Fuzzy whom I also adopted from outdoors. That actually complicated things a bit. She didn't like Fuzzy, and still doesn't, but they don't fight. In the case of Fuzzy, she lived in a boarding house for a month before I brought her home. She acclimatised well to the boarding house environment, got along with the resident cat and the staff loved her, so I knew she'd be fine indoors. And in her case, it was really better for her to be rehomed because she was constantly getting injured outside. She did spent the first month or so being terrified of electronics like the fan and the TV, but I just refrained from panicking with her and let her be (again, as long as they're eating, pooping, peeing, they're doing good) and she got over her fear eventually. Just gotta stay calm and patient!

I think every cat has different "personalities" and experiences that would shape their ability to acclimatise to a different environment. It's hard to be sure unless you actually try it. When you say rehoming, do you mean that you plan to adopt them yourself, or to others? If it's the latter, I think you would at least have to verify that the cats are definitely all right with living indoors before you try adopting them out. Maybe you could take them in first and observe how they behave?

There are various pros and cons for cats to be living indoors or outdoors. Living indoors, they are safe from abuse, illness and the weather elements. But they also become more sedentary (that's lots of advice on how to get them moving indoors but you know cats being cats, you constantly have to keep changing things up or they lose interest easily) which can lead to related health problems if not managed well. But when I see my cats being all cuddly with us, and when I see torrential rains raging outside, I know I did the right thing to bring them in. I'd love to rehome some of the other community cats in my estate, but I don't personally know anyone who would adopt them, and I'm not about to send them off to someone I don't know without having the time to go and do background checks, post-adoption checks and all, so I'd rather let them be. That said, I always post about their antics on my social media in hopes that people will realise that community cats can be very affectionate and make potentially good house pets.