Cats!!!

[Starfire669]

These are our two cats. Both found asWoodlore Road six week kittens. One walked into our house, and never left: Snoebel. The second was found eating scraps at a Subway sub shop: Subway. They're terrified of our chickens.

Subway, Snoebel

Snoebel

Subway

Gorgeous cats!

 

[Bean789]

Gorgeous cats!

I love rescue type stories for cats. So many people just do not like cats and yet, they are usually the sweetest and most loving family members. Your cats are beautiful and look how healthy they are! I rescued 2 cats in 1997 that had been abandoned in a hotel room, full of fleas and one of them barely breathing. After numerous vet visits, they both survived and thrived. My little girl, Sarah, passed 2 years ago. Old age and intestinal tumors got the best of her. My little man, Tyler, was never a totally inside cat and only came inside for food and loves, at HIS leisure. He passed a year ago. Yes, they lived long lives and used up a few along their journey in life. They were the best companions.

 

[Starfire669]

I love rescue type stories for cats.  So many people just do not like cats and yet, they are usually the sweetest and most loving family members.  Your cats are beautiful and look how healthy they are!  I rescued 2 cats in 1997 that had been abandoned in a hotel room, full of fleas and one of them barely breathing.  After numerous vet visits, they both survived and thrived.  My little girl, Sarah, passed 2 years ago.  Old age and intestinal tumors got the best of her.  My little man, Tyler, was never a totally inside cat and only came inside for food and loves, at HIS leisure.    He passed a year ago.  Yes, they lived long lives and used up a few along their journey in life.  They were the best companions.

I have never had anything but rescue cats, never bought one or was given one. Abandoned cats seem to find me, and I end up falling in love. I have had Pebbles, BamBam, Bandit, Gringo, Slayer, and ShadowKat, all past on. I currently have Kagura, Midnight, KiKi, Lestile, Kairi, Gordo (also known as Fat Jackson), and Patches. I found a cat who had been thrown out of a moving truck, nursed her back to health, but she started losing teeth and weight. I called a cat rescue group for help, she was terrified of my dogs so until that point she was an outside/garage cat. With her new issues being outside was not an option for her anymore, the cat rescue took her and one of their member adopted her, her name is Mittens. She is very spoiled and loved. I also found homes for 9 kittens I rescued. I think I am a cat magnet, lol.

 

[Bean789]

I have never had anything but rescue cats, never bought one or was given one. Abandoned cats seem to find me, and I end up falling in love. I have had Pebbles, BamBam, Bandit, Gringo, Slayer, and ShadowKat, all past on. I currently have Kagura, Midnight, KiKi, Lestile, Kairi, Gordo (also known as Fat Jackson), and Patches. I found a cat who had been thrown out of a moving truck, nursed her back to health, but she started losing teeth and weight. I called a cat rescue group for help, she was terrified of my dogs so until that point she was an outside/garage cat. With her new issues being outside was not an option for her anymore, the cat rescue took her and one of their member adopted her, her name is Mittens. She is very spoiled and loved. I also found homes for 9 kittens I rescued. I think I am a cat magnet, lol.

My hat is off to you for the ability to save and rescue so many cats. I currently have a cat, Dexter, who was feral and was captured by my daughter and given to me. He was about 9-10 weeks old at the time. He has come a long way from his wild life and it has been a slow process in taming him these last 9 months. He will come to me and get loves and petted, he will sleep on my bed, he will play with the other cat, he will most times go to my daughter, but the grandkids can't get close to him as yet. He comes out of his hiding places and lies around on the floor but bolts for safety when the little ones get close. I think he knows he 'has it good' now and appreciates his new family. To this day, months later, Dexter still has that ready alertness about him as if he were still out fending for himself. His 'wild eyed' look as my daughter refers to him.

I think the secret to taming a feral cat as a pet is to confine them to an area and let that be their safe haven as they become more tame and always, always, at their pace.

If you continue to allow them to be feral outdoor cats and you watch over them and care for them, you may not ever be able to pet them and show them what 'loves' are all about but I am sure they appreciate what you do for them. Just show up every day and they will too.

 

[Starfire669]

My hat is off to you for the ability to save and rescue so many cats.  I currently have a cat, Dexter, who was feral and was captured by my daughter and given to me.  He was about 9-10 weeks old at the time.  He has come a long way from his wild life and it has been a slow process in taming him these last 9 months.  He will come to me and get loves and petted, he will sleep on my bed, he will play with the other cat, he will most times go to my daughter, but the grandkids can't get close to him as yet.  He comes out of his hiding places and lies around on the floor but bolts for safety when the little ones get close.  I think he knows he 'has it good' now and appreciates his new family.  To this day, months later, Dexter still has that ready alertness about him as if he were still out fending for himself.  His 'wild eyed' look as my daughter refers to him.  

I think the secret to taming a feral cat as a pet is to confine them to an area and let that be their safe haven as they become more tame and always, always, at their pace.  

If you continue to allow them to be feral outdoor cats and you watch over them and care for them, you may not ever be able to pet them and show them what 'loves' are all about but I am sure they appreciate what you do for them.  Just show up every day and they will too.  

I think that depends on the feral cat. I do have a bunch of strays I am feeding and trapping to get spay/neutered then released. They are too old and wild to ever make house pets. But Patches and ShadowKat were both ferals, and both tamed down. Patches now allows anyone to pet her and rubs up against our legs for loves and food. Patches was raped a year ago, a month after her spay, and she waiting on the front porch, bleeding out her her female parts, asking for help. We rushed her to the vet and they patched her up. ShadowKat never got as friendly as Patches, I was the only one allowed near her, and even then only on her terms. But when she got sick, she came to me meowing for help. Unfortunately, she could not be saved, the vet could only find 1 kidney and that had a large cancerous mass on it. I had her euthanized to end her suffering a couple weeks ago. I still miss our morning breakfast calls, I'd sit and feed her and she would rub against me for loves. I buried her in my rose garden, this was her home before it became mine and it seemed fitting that she be buried here.

Anyway, I didn't trap them in a small room. The only time I confined them was when I had both spayed. I simply sat at their feed bowls, talked to them and showed them that I was no threat. They both decided I could be trusted enough that they came to me for help when they needed it. When we get storm warnings, we lock Patches in the garage for her safety, she is always waiting on the porch when storms are coming. That cat is smarter than most people give them credit for being.

My 2 biggest issues with taming feral/stray cats has been dogs and litter box. I have had success with young cats learning to live with dogs, but a cat that s a couple years old won't do it. Maybe they were chased by dogs or it's instinct, but they are terrified of dogs. Since I have 4 Siberian Huskies, a rottwieller, and a Belgain malinois, that makes things difficult. ShadowKat, and Mittens were older cats who simply could not tolerate dogs. And if the cats hisses, my dogs would start barking and making the cat even more frightened, which leads to bad things. The other is some feral cats pee where ever they want. I have tried and tried to teach Patches to use a box, but she pees on furniture and carpet, anything she can. It's a shame realy, she actually can get along with my Belgain malinois, they have some strange understanding between them. But if she won't use her litter then she has to stay outside. I have tried every litter available and it's a no go with her, but as she pretty much stays in our property we are able to monitor her. I keep having to medicate her for tape worms as she is an excellent mouser (but she won't even look at the chickens, ducks, and geese). And as I previously stated we lock her up in the garage for bad weather and she is always waiting for us to do so. We even made her a little bed in the corner of our patio, it's a dog crate with a pillow, in winter we cover it with blankets, so she is as well care for as we can manage. People just don't believe me that she is feral, they didn't believe that of ShadowKat either.

 

[Raech]

I have 2 indoor cats, brother and sister, they are 4 years old now. We got them at 5 weeks old, they were from a litter of 12-14, 2 had passed away, and mom was killed by the neighbor's German Shepard that got loose. We brought 3 home to "foster," rehomed one within a week to 2 weeks because a lady had a litter of kittens pass from seizures, mom tested negative, and was overloaded with milk to the point of pain, we gave her Shadow. Shadow was solid black with white tips on random spots of fur, it is hard to explain but she was beautiful. We kept "the twins" because the smallest one was having a hard time eating, and the larger one was keeping her company. Looking back I probably should have gave the little one to the lactating mom, but I was scared she wouldn't make it. So now the littlest one, Trixie, is 13 pounds, declawed and strictly indoors, she is not very social except towards us, she goes to bed with my oldest son when he calls, and kills all the poof balls and baby socks she can find in a night then cries to let us know until we wake up and tell her good job. The larger kitten(Tracie) is now Trace, and 17 pounds. He is the definition of a halo, he protects his sister from everything, and loves to be cuddled, and tends to sleep on my head. He does sleep in the baby's crib some nights, but lands at the baby's feet and never wakes him up, normally he waits until the baby is in bed with us before he dives in the crib. I had them litter trained within 2 weeks of getting them, the only time they have had a big fight was when they got back from the vet. I will not get anymore cats after these two, according to my vet friends they are more like dogs then cats because of when we got them and the bottle feeding, they sit too, and I just can't imagine adding another cat to the dynamic duo. When a storm hits I open the back door so they can really enjoy it, keeping the screen door shut as well. Only time they have ever been outside was the day we got them, I let them play in the grass as the car was being washed, and when Trace fell out the window(first story) the screen didn't hold up to his weight as he stood up on it. He went crying to the sliding glass door immediately wanting back in, and has never shown an interest in going back out again. We used to get a couple of stray dogs that came through here, they never stay more than the night, but we found out that the are dog aggressive due to never being exposed to them on a daily basis. So getting a puppy should be interesting, luckily the dog we are getting is small and used to cats so it shouldn't be as bad, and I stay home everyday so I can watch them interact. As of right now the cats can't get the idea of jumping over the baby gate, which is more for the kids then them. The dog won't happen until we get a bigger place, this apartment is too small for 4 people and 2 big cats. Hoping to maybe add in a walk out area for the cats to our next place, something like a screen room with lots of under window shelves, they love to watch the birds on the flowers out front and the leaves blowing by out the back door.

 

[CityFarmer202]

We have 3 cats, a grey and white cat that's 4 years old named penny (girl), who is my little sisters cat, a 8 year old tortoiseshell cat named cocoa (girl, also a family outdoor cat cause she would refuse to use the litter box), and my precious smokey, who i'm guessing is 1 or 2 years old, who i found starving in our yard a couple months ago. He is grey with a white nose and paws. He is the most stubborn, fearless cat ever, but is always ready to cuddle like a dog.

 

[chickenboy190]

another one of my cats got hit 2 days ago. R.I.P fudge nugget.

 

[CityFarmer202]

Deepest regards

 

[Outdoorkls]

I have two cats named Milo and Joey. They are outdoor cats, though Milo would enjoy being an inside cat for a little while. Milo has actually gotten his wish for at least three hours. We had left the house and came home to find Milo on top of the bed. Not only that, we have come home to find him on our carpet in front of the porch door, which the cats have claimed "their" carpet, and on our couch. Joey, on the other hand, is a neighborhood wanderer. He often comes home with some kind of wound, all the way from a small scrape to a visit to the vet. He is pretty much always coming home smelling like perfume! (Proof that he is loved other than here.)

We recieved them when they were four to five weeks old from a lady whose cat had had kittens. Milo is orange and Joey is black with a white spot under his chin.