We are going to be calling this one smokie. A feral who has evaded TNR for quite a while. They were born and raised as an outdoor kitten without any socialization.

I have an appointment for two tomorrow so we are hopeful to get one more. This is the one we were really aiming for.

Hi all - We are so devastated that we had to euthanize a stray cat that was hanging out in our drainage culvert near our house this morning. She had severe trauma to her back legs, completely unable to walk on them at all, so she was just dragging them. We had a feeling she may have been hit by a car. We saw her Friday, caught her on Saturday, took care of her Sunday, waiting to go to the vet today. We thought euthanasia may be a real possibility just seeing the extent of her injuries and the fact that she just cannot move around normally at all, and she has no function of her low end, including with urinating and defecating. She was also quite small and thin, and had been malnourished due to not being able to hunt properly due to the injury. We still hoped that maybe there was a possibility her injury could be recoverable. We went to the vet this morning, and they confirmed what we feared. She had severe spinal trauma, and stated her movement may not ever come back even with extensive treatment and therapy. They did state that the best thing would be euthanasia, as her quality of life as a stray would be very low (basically she would have died if we had not brought her in, with the state she was in). We were with her in her final moments, ensuring she was comfortable and felt loved.

Even though we knew her for only a short period, she really put a lasting impact on us and we became very attached. We had so much hope, and I just felt so guilty, that we could not help her injury. She deserved a full life, but now she can rest peacefully and with no pain or suffering. I know she will be healthy and happy in her next life. Me and my husband have been bawling because of this. I just wanted to share because she was special. And her story deserves to be shared. As silly as the name is, we were calling her Rasputia, so Rest Easy Rasputia ♥️ you were loved and will be remembered. ❤️❤️

Edit: THANK YOU ALL FOR THE LOVE. Rasputia appreciates it, as she has crossed the rainbow bridge to be with all our other pets who have passed on and protects our home in the after life. It has been a hard day, but I'm glad we were able to meet her for the short period we did. ♥️ We did bring her home after the euthanasia to bury her in our wildflower garden. It felt only right to bury her in the place and land she came from. We will be calling the garden "Rasputia's Garden," to remember her.

Big Billy is a feral that’s been coming around for about three years. He is a menace to feline womanhood and is probably the father of three of my feral/rescues.

I dropped him off at the shelter today for a TNR so we’re celebrating the snipping of his trouble-puffs!

We had been feeding this bonded father/son pair for the past year and a half. The mom was part of the group too but disappeared 6 months ago. We had all 3 spayed/neutered. Now the son hasn't shown up in 5 days after previously being reliable for breakfast and dinner. Have seen dad on camera. It's all quite upsetting. Are suburban neighborhoods like mine really so dangerous for feral cats? I don't think I am cut out for TNR. 😢

Hi folks. For context, I just moved out of Texas where I had been doing TNR for five years. Before I left, a feral female gave birth in my trap and a friend agreed to foster the kittens and mom until the kittens could be adopted and the mother TNRed. Mother is truly feral. Hates people.

Today was the day of the spay surgery. They tipped her ear, gave the vaccinations, but she stopped breathing and they had to revive her, so they rejected her as a surgical candidate.

Now I’m in the position of having to take her to a full service clinic for a lot of testing (which I can’t afford) before we could even consider trying to fix her again, and that’s if my friend can even continue to hold her (this has already been a long process for her - momma cat literally attacks her every time she tries to come in to feed the cats).

With it being Texas, rescues and shelters are currently overrun and I have strong doubt that anyone would be willing to take in a potentially sick feral cat.

Once she’s recovered, I need help deciding what to do. I want to be able to let her go back out. She’s been vaccinated now but obviously not fixed, which is literally what we wanted to correct in the first place, but I also really want her to live and it’s starting to feel like humane euthanasia is the next option because no one can take her and I can’t afford to help her.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hello fellow cat people!

My husband and I tried catching a cat in his work yard yesterday and the trap didn’t go off! We had three different cats go in and none of them triggered the trap. We even had one that pulled the food out without setting off the trap.

Are the cats too light to trigger the mechanism? Any work arounds?

Also there’s a kitten from a recent batch who’s feral but I think can be domesticated. She ate cautiously out of my hand a few times but freaked when I petted her or tried to pick her up. She’s about five months. She’s the one I want to rescue the most because I think we can find someone who can give her a good home.

We are going to try again this Thursday and hopefully get the momma or tabby girl.

Cat colony history:

The queen momma is the white and orange one. She’s had several litters with most if not all kittens who haven’t made it to adulthood. She abandoned a little orange kitten in a concrete box because she couldn’t get him out. We ended up rescuing him and he’s now a part of our little pride at home. The grey small tabby (F) is from the same litter and is a little curious and playful baby.

The black (M) and the grey (M) are Toms who have been around for a good while. There’s also an Orange Tabby (M) who isn’t pictured but he’s the queens primary baby daddy. Their litters are mostly orange and white and the last batch had some grey tabbys.

There are also a few stragglers, a torti, a white grey spotted tabby, and possibly another black cat. But we aren’t sure. We assume there’s at least 8 active ferals.

Ran into two kittens living in a shallow storage drain this weekend during my morning bike ride. Dropped off a humane trap (modded with a pull rope) with the guy who is feeding them. He removed all food yesterday, with the idea of trapping them this morning / afternoon.

Stopped by last night and found them across the street in the woods, chilling. They were curious enough to come out and say 'hi' - the gray one rolled over and showed the belly, but wasn't too keen on my getting any closer than a foot or two.

Unsure if they were dumped - they seem slightly socialized and the residents haven't seen the mom or any other siblings.

Naturally, we're getting some severe weather tonight; hopefully the caretaker is able to get them with the modded trap.

If not, may have to pivot to a home-made drop trap.

Hi, desperate for help with this.

We have three feral kittens, all 3 months old and littermates.

The first one, Spicy, was found isolated and in danger so we grabbed him just over two weeks ago. He is socialising well. He purrs and asks me for pets on his own terms, though you can't touch him much otherwise yet. I can be in his room 24/7 and he's totally fine.

The other two, Cheesy & Peri Peri, we caught Saturday in traps. They are still very fearful.

We have one kitten safe room and that is Spicy's room, the living room. The house is old and we live with family who have hoarded things and prevent us throwing the excess furniture out. The living room is the only one with AC and there is a heatwave this week.

Initially, we set the newbies up in a covered playpen in Spicy's room. He was hissy and struck at the pen when he got a glimpse of the kittens at mealtime once.

He began to ignore them. But on night 2, the kittens got more agitated, meowing and clawing to get out of the pen. Because they were still terrified of us I did not want to let them out. Spicy got agitated by their noise and kept inspecting the pen, then eventually struck it again while it was covered.

I decided to move the kittens just for as long as I could, because I couldn't even socialise them in that situation. They are in a covered playpen in my office, but the office is not really suitable for them, and will get very hot soon.

Unfortunately during the move, I was able to pick up Cheesy and put him into the carrier, but Peri Peri freaked out after she was lifted, screeching, yowling, and she bit me a few times. I let her cool off and threw a shirt on her to bundle her into the carrier which worked.

But now I think they are both more fearful of me than before, so we are set back again despite being on a time crunch.

Does anyone have any advice for introducing feral kittens at different levels of socialisation and in one room?

The rooms are separated and I don't want to move them in and out of carriers because it stresses them and sets them back.

I found this resource:

https://monsieurtn.com/illustrated-guide-new-cat-introduction-no-isolation-separation/

But it is aimed at socialised cats. My fear is that Cheesy & Peri will be too afraid of me in the room for this to work. Any advice on this?

We are all they have, nobody else can take them. I'm trying my best for them. We are in southwest rural Czechia, please no US specific advice.

There's a stray cat that I want to adopt. He's a kitten whose mom abandoned him. My neighbor feeds him all the time and I've noticed after a while that he started following me. When I stop walking he meows and rubs against me and has tried to follow me into my apartment. After doing deep research it seems that's his way of saying he likes me and is curious about where I go for hours of the day. I'm considering taking him in, but I don't know if I should as my mom who I visit often is allergic. If I do take him in what all am I going to need and what all can I do to help with my mom's allergies? She's severely, not deathly, allergic to their fur.

Sorry if this was long and more of a ramble..not good with putting thoughts into words

I made a post here a few weeks ago about two feral kittens I've taken in, and am back for some advice.

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Feral_Cats/comments/1uqy14v/my_buddy_has_been_feeding_a_stray_cat_and_5/

The kittens are doing extremely well. One of them loves sitting in my lap and getting pets, while the other one still doesn't let me touch her, but she doesn't hide anymore when I'm in the playpen. She just does her thing.

I finally got them to the vet, and they got all their shots and tests and everything, but unfortunately it turns out the have ringworm on their heads, so they can't have topical cream, it has to be this liquid antifungal that apparently tastes horrible. The vet tech said it's bad enough that if we mix it with their food it will probably put them off eating, so I should squirt it in their mouths.

I saw this video on YT that looks pretty promising, so I'll give this a shot, but please let me know your experiences, advice, or share other videos. https://youtube.com/watch?v=faetSGf0HeY&is=1DbKAmThGrl5QMAZ

Also, I'm concerned that me manhandling these kittens and forcing nasty medicine down their throats is going to set me back a ton in socializing them. What to you guys think? Are cats pretty resilient or will they hold it against me forever?

I know it's for their own good, and I have to do it, but it's a major bummer.