Mr JimInks frequently references his feral cats that visit the house and eat, and I have a related story that may be of use to folks if they have a similar situation.
We live in a tiny, 200+ year old town that is surrounded by dense woods and farm/ranch land, so lots of opportunities for various animals to wander through the yard, from deer to mountain lions (my kids say they found a mountain lion print in the mud once.) A few years ago, we started having this really cute looking feral kitty coming by, looking for food. She was literally still a kitten, so we figured she was abandoned.
Very skittish little thing, and wouldn't let us get near her. We already had one outdoor cat getting fed on the porch (we brought her with us from our previous house, but she was un-able/-willing to use the litter box), so it was no big deal to keep the new one fed. My daughter decided one day that we needed to trap her and make her a house cat. Lofty goal, but as long as she was doing the work, I didn't mind. So she took our large dog carrier and put it at the edge of the woods with the door open and a dish of food inside, and waited.
I can't remember how many times she had to repeat the operation, but eventually she showed up, and went in. Daughter ran over while kitty was distracted with the yum-yums, and shut the door!
Now came the hard part. We put the carrier on the back porch, and then spent a couple of weeks watching the 'show'! This little thing was yowling All. The. Time. Any time you would get near the carrier, she would climb all over the insides of it, adhering to the walls in various places she could get a claw-hold. If she could, she would have hung from the ceiling, lol. She got the name Banshee while in the crate, and it stuck with her.
Anyway, the two weeks in the crate consisted of swapping out little cardboard litter boxes we made for her, plus putting food and water in, changing the towel she slept on, etc. Each time we'd make the incursion into the carrier, she'd freak out, but little by little she freaked less. Eventually, my wife succeeded in putting a finger inside the carrier and scratching her under her chin. She discovered she liked that a lot, and so that was the key to becoming friends.
Once the theatrics were over, again I think it was around two weeks, we let her out, and she didn't run away. Tried to put her in the house right away, but like our other porch cat, she didn't understand the litter box thing (except when she was in the carrier, but her choices were severely limited in there.) Took her to the vet and got her all shot/wormed/flea'd, etc. Eventually we had her fixed. She lived outdoors for at least two winters, maybe three. She didn't want to, because every chance she got, she'd dash in the house and hide somewhere. We knew she was in there because we'd find her calling card in the basement, and then we'd have to find her and boot her out again.
Early last year, when we had a negative temp night, we let her come in the house instead of sleeping in one of the little porch-hotels we have outside, and discovered that we weren't finding any 'presents.'
Been a loving, adorable house cat since then, but she still goes outside at least once a day to lie on the walkway and see if she can make anyone trip over her, lol.
We live in a tiny, 200+ year old town that is surrounded by dense woods and farm/ranch land, so lots of opportunities for various animals to wander through the yard, from deer to mountain lions (my kids say they found a mountain lion print in the mud once.) A few years ago, we started having this really cute looking feral kitty coming by, looking for food. She was literally still a kitten, so we figured she was abandoned.
Very skittish little thing, and wouldn't let us get near her. We already had one outdoor cat getting fed on the porch (we brought her with us from our previous house, but she was un-able/-willing to use the litter box), so it was no big deal to keep the new one fed. My daughter decided one day that we needed to trap her and make her a house cat. Lofty goal, but as long as she was doing the work, I didn't mind. So she took our large dog carrier and put it at the edge of the woods with the door open and a dish of food inside, and waited.
I can't remember how many times she had to repeat the operation, but eventually she showed up, and went in. Daughter ran over while kitty was distracted with the yum-yums, and shut the door!
Now came the hard part. We put the carrier on the back porch, and then spent a couple of weeks watching the 'show'! This little thing was yowling All. The. Time. Any time you would get near the carrier, she would climb all over the insides of it, adhering to the walls in various places she could get a claw-hold. If she could, she would have hung from the ceiling, lol. She got the name Banshee while in the crate, and it stuck with her.
Anyway, the two weeks in the crate consisted of swapping out little cardboard litter boxes we made for her, plus putting food and water in, changing the towel she slept on, etc. Each time we'd make the incursion into the carrier, she'd freak out, but little by little she freaked less. Eventually, my wife succeeded in putting a finger inside the carrier and scratching her under her chin. She discovered she liked that a lot, and so that was the key to becoming friends.
Once the theatrics were over, again I think it was around two weeks, we let her out, and she didn't run away. Tried to put her in the house right away, but like our other porch cat, she didn't understand the litter box thing (except when she was in the carrier, but her choices were severely limited in there.) Took her to the vet and got her all shot/wormed/flea'd, etc. Eventually we had her fixed. She lived outdoors for at least two winters, maybe three. She didn't want to, because every chance she got, she'd dash in the house and hide somewhere. We knew she was in there because we'd find her calling card in the basement, and then we'd have to find her and boot her out again.
Early last year, when we had a negative temp night, we let her come in the house instead of sleeping in one of the little porch-hotels we have outside, and discovered that we weren't finding any 'presents.'
Been a loving, adorable house cat since then, but she still goes outside at least once a day to lie on the walkway and see if she can make anyone trip over her, lol.
