We have a lot of stray cats come and go. Some are drop offs--they will like to live in the country. Some are just chased off of farms etc. If they look like house rejects that people just got tired of, I take them to the humane society. I have to pay a fee because I am outside of the city limits. But some cats just don't belong in the 'country'. Some get fed by default because Bonneroo does not always clean his plate. But Bonneroo does NOT want permanent barn guests.
I’ve named ‘em. Skinny, Fat cat, Scar and Cali. Why? Cause Skinny is skinny, Fat cat is fat, Scar has some missing hair on his butt and Cali is a calico. I think Yvonne has already reported that Skinny is a female with 3 kittens and all have recently adopted the front porch as their night time abode. (so much so that they were using one of Yvonne’s flower trays as their loo) Last night they started making a statement about what time I need to vacate the porch because around 9 PM, the kittens would dart in, see me and then scamper off the porch. Until… I grabbed the last fried chicken leg out of the fridge last night and after consuming what I wanted, I put the bone with the cartilage on the deck thinking Skinny or one of the other adults would cart it off. Nope. No more than a couple of minutes after I put the bone down, one of the kittens came up to see if I was still here, saw the bone and attacked it which brought up another yellow kitten who took it’s position on the other side of the bone never minding if I was here or not. One kitten, a more aggressive one, decided it was his and grabbed the bone in the middle and took it under a chair leaving the other kitten to take its position under another chair presumably to wait until it’s brother / sister was finished. Long story shorted, I guess they are all getting used to me. After a couple of months of feeding them, the only one that is completely receptive of me is Skinny but at a distance that she determines. If the cat dish is empty, she’ll approach me and let me know that i need to get up and go get her some food but that’s about as friendly as she’s gotten so far. Cali is a little different though. She’s skittish and will make a bee-line off the porch if I stand up and will not approach the cat food unless it’s a couple of feet from me when I am sitting down but yet, if I am eating something she’ll walk clear of the distanced cat food, come up to me and wait until I present a portion to her and she’ll take it from my fingers. No petting though, just feeding. Me thinks my hand will come back as a nub if I attempt to pet her.
Feral actually means and animal that was once domesticated and has become "wild". My wife worked for a vet once who told her, "Feral cats and dogs are a problem, but the biggest problem is feral women."
Feral cats are indeed domestic cats that have reverted to a wild state. They were either born in the wild or have lived there for an extended period. Feral cats are generally fearful of people and will avoid close contact. They have never been or are no longer socialized to human interaction. There is a big difference between a domesticated cat that has reverted to a feral state and one that has never been domesticated, however. Stray cats are domesticated cats that have become lost or abandoned. They were once socialized to people and may approach people for food or attention. They are more comfortable around people than feral cats. They still exhibit some domestic behaviors, such as seeking shelter or interacting with people. The reason that I use stray/feral to describe these cats is that they did not approach me for help. Rather, my cameras recorded them digging through my compost pile for food, along with raccoons and skunks, so I quit putting meat in the compost pile and started leaving food out for the cats. Over a period of years, they began associating me with the food that I left on the back porch, and, last winter, they began coming into our porch after I left the sliding door open just enough for them to enter, and I began feeding them there instead. From the start, though, they would stop when I called to them using the commonly used word "Kitty," and that's why I have concluded that they were once someone's cat or kitten. Now, they have come to know when I am telling them that I am going to get them some food. When I inadvertenly open the door while either the black or the gray cat are eating from the bowl in our porch, the cat will run, but if I say, "That's okay, kitty. You can eat, it will come back and eat as long as I am no longer on its side of the door. Although it is applied to abandoned cats, the term "stray" suggests that they walked away from their home and got lost, and I doubt that's the case with either the black or the gray cat. The others, who appear on camera eating from the bowls of food that I leave out, I have had no interaction with, and don't even see except on camera, so I will assume they are more feral than the other two.
We have started a new program with the feral cats. They were coming up on the porch all night, and the kittens play and toss everything around, and eat their kitty food. We want them out hunting at night now that they are old enough to do this; so now, @Bobby Cole feeds them in the daytime, and nothing at night. They have to come up on the porch and eat when there are people on the porch now, so they have been getting used to being out there and having Bobby on the porch with them. I am fine to come out as long as Poodle does not follow me….. they do NOT like Poodle ! Momma Kitty has claimed my porch chair now, too and looks perfectly happy being out on the porch. She is looking at me and wondering if I am going to bring some bologna treats for her and the kittens.
Today, I actually touched Mommy Kitty ! She was lying in my chair, and the kittens were scattered around behind things on the porch. She saw me come out, and looked at me, like “Good morning, Bologna Lady”. So, i brought her out a small bite of bologna, and when I put it down by her face, I touched her on the tail. She hissed at me, but only a tiny hiss, and then she ate her bologna reward. . She had no problem with me walking right up to where she was lying on my chair, either. Progress….
Awhile back, I mentioned somewhere that the black cat that I've been feeding let me pet him once, but it was like he was so happy to be there for the fresh food that he forgot, for a moment, that he was supposed to be afraid of me.
One thing I've noticed with every cat who is frightened of people: Whatever you try to do, do it from down at their level. They feel safer around you that way. It's the way I "made friends" with both of my skittish abandoned cats. Sitting on the ground. Of course at my age, that's not so easy anymore. lol
About a week ago, a new cat began showing up on my porch for food. She is a young tabby who I first saw on camera. A few days ago, when I was putting food out on the porch, she was walking up on the sidewalk. "Are you hungry? I've got some food for you here." She began trotting up, then stopped just before the door, realizing she didn't know me. It was clear then, that she was not feral. I'm just a stranger to her so she is being cautious. A couple of days ago, she was in the porch at a time when there was no food there. I told her to wait, and I'd get some food for her. She did, and she even let me pet her, although at arm's length, where grabbing her might have been difficult. Yesterday, I carried Bubba out to the backyard, as I do with both of them a couple of times a day, to give them some extra stimulation and so that they can maintain some affinity for the yard in the event that they should escape one day. My neighbors were on their porch, which faces my driveway. I don't usually talk to them because they're kind of standoffish, but one of them commented on Bubba's size. During the conversation, they told me that they had lost one of their cats (I hadn't known they had any) about a week ago, and then described the new arrival to my feeding station. She has never been outdoors before, they said. So, now I am trying to notice when she comes to the porch so that I can see if she will let me pick her up and return her to her home. She is cautious, but inclined to be friendly, so I think I can do that. However, my porch is really little more than a place to stomp the snow off your boots before coming into the house, so there's no place to comfortably sit and wait there, so it's a matter of my noticing when she comes. My neighbors should have a better chance of retrieving her because a week later, she's still hanging around near the house. If it were my cat, I'd spend most of my time outdoors watching for her.
Or at least put up flyers. And if they had been out calling for it, you (a) would have known that they had a cat, and (b) realized that it was lost. But apparently they're relying on telepathy. Perhaps being taken home is not what kitty wants.
Someone once asked me what I would do if my sheep got out. I told them I would say, I don't know whose sheep those are. If it was a house pet and I was worried, I would be more active in looking for it, watching for it and putting up flyers etc.
I caught her a few moments ago, but the neighbors weren't home, so I had to let her go again. Trying to dig out one of my carriers would have involved infuriating two other cats who would have probably exacerbated the tension. As it was, I held her until she calmed down, and then let her go. She came right back in and ate the food that I left so she'll be back, I'm sure. Bubba hissed at me for the first time in his life, so it was clear that he did not appreciate smelling another cat on me. Once I changed clothes and washed, he was okay with me. Ella is in the library but I have a pretty good idea what her opinion would be.
Yesterday, i actually petted mommy kitty ! I brought out the bologna treats, and sat down in the chair on the porch and then I showed her the treat. When she came over, I put it down right in front of me, and when she reached down to eat the bologna, I gently petted her along her back. She gave me a kind of shocked look, but she didn’t his and she went back to eating the bologna, so I petted her gently again. It is a start. I always pet Poodle and talk to him when we are all outside together, and the cats have been watching, so they see that Poodle enjoys having me pet him and comes right up to me for affection. I think that is helping them change the fear of humans.
The mother cat disappeared late this summer. She just stopped coming up on the porch, and the kittens meowed and missed her for about a week, and then they seemed to settle in to life without a Mommy. Now, they spend a lot of time on the porch, and look forward to being fed. The only one that really is okay with being petted it the girl kitten, Fluffers. She purrs when i hold her, but sometimes, she is purring because she wants her food. Both of the boy cats are more standoffish, but I can sneak in a pet when they are beside me and eating. We have put out mice when Bobby catches them in the live trap in the house, and they are learning about catching food. One of them actually jumped and caught (and ate) a small bird that flew onto the porch. This morning, another small kitten came up on the porch from somewhere, no idea if there are more, or who the mother might be, but it was scared and hungry, and stayed on the porch and ate for quite a while. We are going to try and catch it while it is small and see if we can tame it better then the last ones. I would post a picture if the forum was working right, but it is a small pale yellow one, so I think it is a girl.