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Hi everyone, I've just signed up to get some advice! Basically the best way to explain my questions is to first tell you the full story!
So 2 years ago when we moved in to our new house we noticed a lovely cat in our garden all the time, we started giving him morsels of food and some water, long story short he was terrified of us and was not social at all so eventually after 16 months of feeding him we realised he must be feral, over the last two years he has grown to trust us more and more to the point where he will come in the kitchen (with the door left open) for food and will allow me (only me, not my husband or son even though they feed him too) to stroke his head slightly, and has got way more used to touch although he does still bolt at any loud noises or fast movements! We've called him Keith!
Fast forward to now, we now know he's very feral (compared to other feral cats we meet later on!) So we feed him 2 or 3 times a day and he's still really timid... Anyways during this time we have seen other cats around that we thought were feral (Nigel a long haired cheeky male cat who Keith hates! Marylin a beautiful short haired Calico female, Jim, a huge ginger male very outgoing and dominant, Paul a black and white male who seems friendly-ish with Keith!) they occasionally got Keith's left overs when he'd gone!
Anyway one day we saw this beautiful little black and white scruffy kitten bouncing about hunting crickets in our garden so we quickly named her Hunter, anyway a couple of days later we see her again.. with Keith!! Keith is protecting her and looking after her and he meows at her (we'd never heard him make a peep in the whole 2 years we've known him!) So everything we thought we knew about Keith was in question! He was a very timid male feral looking after a female kitten!? Anyway so we approach them and at first Keith is very protective of Hunter, doesn't want us near her and even seems to direct her to hide when we're around! But after time he starts bringing her to eat with him at his normal times.
Then about a month later Hunter turns up on her own, she's very friendly and runs straight in our house and runs around! We think this is so weird as Keith has never let her out of his sight! So we feed her and then keep her in while we wait for Keith to come for her thinking she might have just ran off from him or something, well hours pass and Keith doesn't show up and we're worried and don't wanna let her out on her own as she's very vulnerable without him. It goes the whole night and Keith doesn't show, Hunter is a bit jittery but we manage to settle her for the night. Keith comes in the morning for his feed but doesn't seem worried as we thought he would be, we try to give Hunter back to him but he just meows at her and they play a bit but he didn't try to get her to go with him at the end he just goes (when before he would spend ten mins just meowing at her to go with him! ) So you may think we're mad but we get the feeling he wants her to stay with us, like he left her with us (we have always been in the mindset that we would take Keith in if he wanted but he's well away from that he's still very untamable!) So we decide to keep Hunter if she turns out to not have a microchip and if nobody claims her ( we were thinking she might not be feral cos she was so friendly and settled in really well, although I think it helped that she saw that Keith trusts us) so we take her to the vet and she doesn't have a chip and we find out she's a healthy (if quite underweight) 6 month old kitten! So anyway fast forward 2 months later and Hunter has grown so much and has really really thrived in her new home (put on weight, her coat is shiny and healthy and she's much happier etc)
Anyway since then the other ferals have started to come more and more and I fed them, one after another over time, first Marylin and Nigel and my husband fed Marylin late at night and I said no because they would make Keith nervous (this was before Hunter) then more recently we noticed Jim was in a bad way and more vulnerable than we thought, his jaw seems out of place, when his mouth is settled his lip is up on one side revealing his gum and his lower jaw hangs down at the same point revealing that he's missing all his small bottom teeth (pointy ones still there) also his back end is very slender compared to his front end which is very muscular and big and his tail looks thin and scrawny and he holds it in a strange position he also walks more like a bulldog than a cat poor thing so I started to feed him too. Then Paul started coming more and we actually think he may be Hunter's father as they look very alike and have similar mannerisms although this may just be breed thing! He is also not doing great, he has large scabs all over his body under his fur, like he has excema or something! So I fed him too :/ well I bet you can guess where this is going now I'm feeding Nigel, Jim, Paul and of course Keith at least 2 times a day in the garden!
Keith used to love our garden and he was left alone there, he could chill out and know he was safe and had peace and quiet well it's just totally ran away with me and Jim is now very clingy he hates me stroking or giving any of the others attention and has started to bully the other cats out of the garden, Paul and Keith are terrified of him! Jim has become very fond of attention and affection and he follows me around the garden bless him, I love them all so much and I genuinely just wanted to help them all but now I just worry that I'm in way too far over my head and after reading up on ferals I'm worried I'm doing them more harm than good by feeding them but I can't just ignore them, they all seem to need me and I just want to look after them and help them all! I would love to adopt them all but we live in a very small 2 bed flat (big garden tho) and we both are disabled and survive on very little.
Please know it all happened over time and one cat lead to another and before I knew it I was regularly feeding 4 ferals never mind my own cat Hunter, and I really do love them and want what's best for them!
What should I do for the best? How can I at least stop Jim from bullying the other cats?! Should I get them neutered? I don't think I could get them all to come with me and I definitely couldn't afford four big vets bills! (Also a couple of them seem to have pretty awful eye infections too) Any advice would be very appreciated!
Pics included: The Ginger cat is Jim, the little black and white kitten is Hunter and the tabby with Hunter and food bowls is Keith when he was coming to eat with Hunter!
Thank you!
So 2 years ago when we moved in to our new house we noticed a lovely cat in our garden all the time, we started giving him morsels of food and some water, long story short he was terrified of us and was not social at all so eventually after 16 months of feeding him we realised he must be feral, over the last two years he has grown to trust us more and more to the point where he will come in the kitchen (with the door left open) for food and will allow me (only me, not my husband or son even though they feed him too) to stroke his head slightly, and has got way more used to touch although he does still bolt at any loud noises or fast movements! We've called him Keith!
Fast forward to now, we now know he's very feral (compared to other feral cats we meet later on!) So we feed him 2 or 3 times a day and he's still really timid... Anyways during this time we have seen other cats around that we thought were feral (Nigel a long haired cheeky male cat who Keith hates! Marylin a beautiful short haired Calico female, Jim, a huge ginger male very outgoing and dominant, Paul a black and white male who seems friendly-ish with Keith!) they occasionally got Keith's left overs when he'd gone!
Anyway one day we saw this beautiful little black and white scruffy kitten bouncing about hunting crickets in our garden so we quickly named her Hunter, anyway a couple of days later we see her again.. with Keith!! Keith is protecting her and looking after her and he meows at her (we'd never heard him make a peep in the whole 2 years we've known him!) So everything we thought we knew about Keith was in question! He was a very timid male feral looking after a female kitten!? Anyway so we approach them and at first Keith is very protective of Hunter, doesn't want us near her and even seems to direct her to hide when we're around! But after time he starts bringing her to eat with him at his normal times.
Then about a month later Hunter turns up on her own, she's very friendly and runs straight in our house and runs around! We think this is so weird as Keith has never let her out of his sight! So we feed her and then keep her in while we wait for Keith to come for her thinking she might have just ran off from him or something, well hours pass and Keith doesn't show up and we're worried and don't wanna let her out on her own as she's very vulnerable without him. It goes the whole night and Keith doesn't show, Hunter is a bit jittery but we manage to settle her for the night. Keith comes in the morning for his feed but doesn't seem worried as we thought he would be, we try to give Hunter back to him but he just meows at her and they play a bit but he didn't try to get her to go with him at the end he just goes (when before he would spend ten mins just meowing at her to go with him! ) So you may think we're mad but we get the feeling he wants her to stay with us, like he left her with us (we have always been in the mindset that we would take Keith in if he wanted but he's well away from that he's still very untamable!) So we decide to keep Hunter if she turns out to not have a microchip and if nobody claims her ( we were thinking she might not be feral cos she was so friendly and settled in really well, although I think it helped that she saw that Keith trusts us) so we take her to the vet and she doesn't have a chip and we find out she's a healthy (if quite underweight) 6 month old kitten! So anyway fast forward 2 months later and Hunter has grown so much and has really really thrived in her new home (put on weight, her coat is shiny and healthy and she's much happier etc)
Anyway since then the other ferals have started to come more and more and I fed them, one after another over time, first Marylin and Nigel and my husband fed Marylin late at night and I said no because they would make Keith nervous (this was before Hunter) then more recently we noticed Jim was in a bad way and more vulnerable than we thought, his jaw seems out of place, when his mouth is settled his lip is up on one side revealing his gum and his lower jaw hangs down at the same point revealing that he's missing all his small bottom teeth (pointy ones still there) also his back end is very slender compared to his front end which is very muscular and big and his tail looks thin and scrawny and he holds it in a strange position he also walks more like a bulldog than a cat poor thing so I started to feed him too. Then Paul started coming more and we actually think he may be Hunter's father as they look very alike and have similar mannerisms although this may just be breed thing! He is also not doing great, he has large scabs all over his body under his fur, like he has excema or something! So I fed him too :/ well I bet you can guess where this is going now I'm feeding Nigel, Jim, Paul and of course Keith at least 2 times a day in the garden!
Keith used to love our garden and he was left alone there, he could chill out and know he was safe and had peace and quiet well it's just totally ran away with me and Jim is now very clingy he hates me stroking or giving any of the others attention and has started to bully the other cats out of the garden, Paul and Keith are terrified of him! Jim has become very fond of attention and affection and he follows me around the garden bless him, I love them all so much and I genuinely just wanted to help them all but now I just worry that I'm in way too far over my head and after reading up on ferals I'm worried I'm doing them more harm than good by feeding them but I can't just ignore them, they all seem to need me and I just want to look after them and help them all! I would love to adopt them all but we live in a very small 2 bed flat (big garden tho) and we both are disabled and survive on very little.
Please know it all happened over time and one cat lead to another and before I knew it I was regularly feeding 4 ferals never mind my own cat Hunter, and I really do love them and want what's best for them!
What should I do for the best? How can I at least stop Jim from bullying the other cats?! Should I get them neutered? I don't think I could get them all to come with me and I definitely couldn't afford four big vets bills! (Also a couple of them seem to have pretty awful eye infections too) Any advice would be very appreciated!
Pics included: The Ginger cat is Jim, the little black and white kitten is Hunter and the tabby with Hunter and food bowls is Keith when he was coming to eat with Hunter!
Thank you!
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