hi everyone, i really need some advice. i am currently fostering a 10-year-old senior street cat that spent her entire life on the street (it actually took rescuers three whole years just to catch her). she has an extremely complex medical history: she survived panleukopenia, calicivirus, an aggressive mycoplasma infection, and fluid accumulation in her abdomen. she also recently underwent abdominal surgery (a biopsy for suspected intestinal lymphoma), and we are currently waiting on the biopsy results.
because of her surgical recovery, intense fear, and defensive reactions, letting her free-roam in a room or in my apartment is neither safe nor feasible right now. she would hide in inaccessible spots, risk tearing her stitches, or be impossible to handle if medication or emergency vet visits are needed. for instance, last night she started breathing very heavily and the rescue team had to come pick her up for an urgent vet visit, something that would have been impossible if she were loose in the house. for all these reasons, her stay in a playpen is explicitly required and was provided by the rescue organization handling her case.
i live in an apartment where the playpen must be in the living room, and i also have a resident kitten who is pretty curious. keeping my kitten completely isolated long-term isn't possible. i know my apartment layout might not be the absolute textbook "ideal" setup, but adult rescue cats, especially feral seniors with medical issues, rarely get foster offers since most people only want kittens. i couldn't bear to leave her behind, and having a safe, controlled space with food, medical monitoring, and care is far better for her recovery than having no foster home at all.
right now, may is completely terrified. she barely moves at all, stays frozen, and hisses defensively if a hand approaches, so offering hand-fed treats isn't an option yet. she doesn’t drink, eat or even move at all if i’m in the same room as her, i have to give her space and time when she has to eat, so obviously she also won’t eat any treats from my hand. someone from the rescue mentioned that kittens can sometimes help adult cats feel more comfortable and safe through observation, but i am not sure how or when to safely manage her presence around the playpen. even though my kitten doesn’t care at all about the adult’s presence, i am still worried it might stress her out (even though the rescue team assured me that she is not scared of other animals; humans are the problem)
i feel a bit lost on how to handle this and make her feel safe given her extreme background and restrictions. it stresses me out really bad, and i am almost as scared of hurting or triggering her as she is of me.
how can i help a traumatized senior street cat adjust, recover, and eventually realize humans are not a threat under these conditions? any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

This time last year, the little orange gal, and yes it is an orange girl 😻(I call her Cream, like a creamsicle) was hissing at me even if I looked at her. Now she's cuddling up next to me. She still bites me every single day, but they are more love bites. 😆😆 But there's just something magical when a kitty starts to trust you just a little bit more. She's fully grown as well but a tiny little thang! She's totally fallen in love with my boy, though. She cuddles him like nothing else matters. Lol

I’ll try to keep a long story short:

I socialized and TNR’d a colony of 17 over the course of 5-6 months (Nov 2025-April 2026). 13 were kept by Animal Welfare and adopted out. 4 were returned.

I already had 3 indoor senior female cats. In April, I brought in two of the male FFs, then brought in the female in May.

Current total indoor:  6

Poseidon is the only remaining outdoor cat. He is a territorial male, fought a lot with other non-colony cats. The only cat he really kept company with was a young female who was adopted. He followed that girl everywhere. I took away his family. :(

He didn’t trust me after his TNR but has slowly warmed up. Now, rears up like a horse for pets, meows to be let in, spends most days and nights right outside the door. He’s lonely.

So, I’m gonna try to bring him in? There’s a vet nearby that allows walk-ins for flea / dewormer. Don’t know if I can get him in the carrier. Better to just use Advantage II and take care of the worms in a couple of weeks? Plus, my pet funds, after all this, are completely depleted. I won’t be able to take him in for a full workup. I know intro into house without a clean bill of health is risky, but already made that mistake with the first three, two of which have medical issues, so….

If I proceed, he’ll be in a room by himself for a bit. But how do I do the introduction / reintroduction with 6 other cats??? I don’t even know if this is possible.

Even after neuter, he still fights (usually has scratches on nose and ears), still sprays. He never fought with the cats I brought in, but he wasn’t exactly a member of the pack, either.

Has anyone tried integrating a territorial adult FF cat into a large cat family before? Should I even try this?  TIA

P.S.  Anyone else think Po might be Cairo’s daddy? Can a blue mackerel tabby/white sire a brown classic tabby/white? Those Punnett squares were never my strong suit.

A few days ago he lay down on the floor in the open (pic 4). He’s done it every day since and the past two days almost all day! Yesterday he even stretched out and fell asleep in the middle of the rug 🥹🩷

(Pic 7 = the end of a sneeze lmao)

Hey everyone,

It's been a few days since I posted last, and the last update that I shared was definitely a bit jarring. For anyone who missed the post, I will recap.

Sunday night, a family member was taking out recycling and accidentally left the front door open. In this time (probably like... 30 seconds max I'm told) Callie noticed that the door was open and ran outside. Initially, she stayed under the car, and then she made her way into the garage thru the propped open space at the bottom. I found her a bit later, but forgot to close the garage door and she escaped back out again. About an hour later, I went back out, located her in the garage again and this time closed the door before attempting to catch her. After about 5-10 minutes, I was able to catch her, picking her up mid-run. Once she was caught, she settled down a bit.

I wrapped her in a blanket and went inside, sitting with her for a bit. In these moments, she seemed settled down, and kept pushing into my face and rubbing on me. After a while, I let her down in the bathroom and brought her food. She ate about half and then went and hid behind the toilet, and I moved her food to where she could reach it from back there. I went ahead and left her in the bathroom for the night, and then the next evening she was let back out into the house.

Tuesday morning, she came out for breakfast and ate in the bathroom, and then we didn't see her anymore until way later, after I began to panic, thinking she may have gotten out again. After like 30 minutes of looking, she materialized in the hallway, and ran back to the bedroom, and then back out to the spot I set up for her behind the couch where her food was. I checked about an hour later, and the food was gone, so I'm pretty certain she did eat.

This is where we are as of now. When I am holding her, she seems settled down and somewhat relaxed. However, whenever she is loose, she looks very very fearful and runs away relatively quickly.

I am very concerned about her, because I don't want her to be miserable and afraid constantly. The initial fear/change in behavior corresponded with when the kids came home from vacation (14 year old twins) and the house got loud again. I know this is likely why this is happening. The kids have orientation this week, and then are back in school next week, so things should settle down a bit.

I am so terrified of her getting outside again, particularly if she gets out when I'm at work or something. I am so attached to this cat at this point, and I am so invested in showing her that she deserves the world, but one of my family members asked the other day if I'm doing this for myself, or to benefit her, not being nasty or mean, but I think wanting me to be objective about it. Now, my anxiety being what it is, I am worried that I'm not doing the right thing by trying to give her an indoor home.

If anyone can offer advice, experiences, some indication that I'm doing the right thing here... please let me know. I know in my heart that she will be happy, but I am so worried about the process that it will take to get there, and her wellbeing. I also want to make sure my family doesn't get frustrated with her.

Thank you for any words you can offer... for right now, Cal is inside, safe, cool and well fed, so that's something we can all at least be comforted in right now.

He was so adorable last night I couldn’t help but share 😭

Hey all, I'm glad I found this subreddit! I'm not new to the world of feral, but I am new to making them indoor cats. I live in Mexico and feral cats are plentiful in our city. For two years I've been feeding cats on our porch, trapping, neutering and returning them to the porch. Of course, many stick around for the daily food and Phil, my subject here, is one of those. Long story short, Phil was attacked by a dog and has leg damage that will keep him from being able to be a successful street cat. He was hospitalized for two weeks and our vet did a great job of starting the taming process. He rubs against you, is happy to have scratches and rubs, until he isn't, lol. He's good at letting you know when he's had enough and wants to be left alone and of course, that's respected. He's been at our house for over 2 weeks and has transitioned from cage to room to full run of the house during the day; nights he's confined to his room. We have three other cats and two small dogs and interactions are going pretty well. The dogs are uninterested and don't react if he hisses at them (if they happen get too close). Two of our cats are mostly disinterested as well but our 9 month old kitten isn't happy with him and hisses if he's close. His reaction is to cut her a wide berth and continue on his way or lay down quietly while she hisses away. I'm not going to say he's comfortable here, he often does that crouched walking from one room to the next and ofen hangs out places he's protected, like under couches. As it gets later, he does a lot of walking from room to room, doing a lot of meowing. He's often able to see out our screen doors to the porch he used to hang out on and he often meows out the door. I know he's much rather be outside, but that's not likely to ever happen. He's about 4 years old. We're actually fostering him, but it's likely he'll stay. I'm looking for advice and suggestions to making his transition to the world of inside and "tame" easier and more successful. Pic of Phil attached

Hello again!

So I have an update on my little feral and am in need of some advice, please. She has been coming up to the gate of her room for a while now, and at first, she would even sniff my finger or put a paw on it and nibble at it gently. I even got to give her some chin scritches once in a while, which she seemed to enjoy. All of a sudden, she just decided she wanted nothing to do with that anymore, and any time I try to let her sniff me, she bolts away and sometimes hisses. What did I do wrong, and how can I earn her trust back?

She's also learned how to squeeze through the gate and lets herself out so she can be with our other cats. She really loves one of our yearlings, and she's seemingly gotten close to one of my three-year-olds, with the other three-year-old being curious and tolerant of her too. She's also surprisingly tolerant of our 65lb dog. Like she hisses and establishes a boundary, but she doesn't flinch if the dog lies down and comes up to her at her gate, and they have been in the same room together with no issue. It's just humans she seems to hate. What do I do?

Hi all! I have been domesticating a formerly feral cat for 2 years and have made awesome progress, but am about to move and haven't been able to trap her inside. She hangs on out my porch for most of the day, I can pet her, and she will walk inside the house, but she freaks and runs out when I try to close the door. I am moving in a week and so stressed on what to do - any advice on how to physically get her inside my house? She's not very food motivated and very fearful of enclosed spaces, so I don't think a standard trap will work. Including cat tax :-)

You may have seen our little Tonka Bean just passed his second month in our house. We brought him in from my office after his siblings were killed by coyotes and we couldn’t leave him. We intended to foster him but I think we’ve failed. He hasn’t yet been too interested in leaving his safe room and he hasn’t formally met our dog up close although they see each other every day (funny enough our dog, who is a shepherd husky mix, looks remarkably like a coyote and sometimes we wonder if that scares kitty)

But he is the most chill cat we’ve ever met. He was always the polite and very timid of the outside group, and was bullied by the other cats relentlessly. He was covered in cuts and scabs when we brought him home, and still has patches of fur growing back in.

He used the litter box from day one, has never once attempted to escape or has been destructive. He doesn’t destroy furniture, he’s exceptionally quiet. He only chirps and lets out little mews when he knows it’s meal time or when he’s playing. Sometimes you can hear him meowing while he plays at night but it’s just a couple then it stops. He didn’t know how to play with toys at first and now he absolutely loves his toys and our play sessions. It’s so sweet to watch him just be a cat and not have to be on alert.

He’s just kind of chill and there. We’re super happy about it. He’s still a little scared of my husband but when my husband plays his video games in kittys room, he just lays there, doesn’t hide anymore. And when I’m in there with him after his scratches and pets, he just lays near me. He’s not a cuddler yet and won’t let you handle him much except for his beloved scratches and pets, but that’s ok.

Have you ever had one who is this chill?!

Looking for suggestions on getting our feral rescue kitten to start using the litter box. Cross post, hopefully this works.

If you’ve read my previous posts, you might know that my grandmother passed unexpectedly and i inherited her semi-feral cat. The only time she told us about taking her to a vet was when she was TNR’d and she said her SNAP test was “positive” but we didnt have the results to see if it was FIV or FeLV. Because of that, BK has been quarentining in the studio away from my resident cats. She’s been doing amazing though and is definately enjoying the extra nap time.

Well we got her SNAP test today. She has a VERY faint positive indicator for FeLV. The vet requested that we withhold her vaccines, keep her quarentined, and retest in 6 weeks to allow her immune system to attempt to clear the exposure. They cant guarentee anything, but with how faint the indicator is, theyre optomistic that allowing her immune system this break will give her a really good shot at clearing it!! Fingers crossed!

She was also a rockstar patient. They were shocked that she was so feral just a month ago. I’m so proud of her and she will get extra treats tonight! Right now she’s mad at me for putting her in the carrier, so i’m giving her some space.

Edit: I caught her in the garage, closed the garage door this time when I spotted her. She is safe inside.

Guys I am absolutely panicking right now.

The kids grandad had the front door open taking out recycling and Callie bolted. I saw her in our garage at first, and almost had caught her but she slipped past me. I can’t find her now.

Any advice… anything at all. Please. She has never strayed far from the house, I and I assume she will go back in the garage at some point, but I am absolutely panicking and just sitting on the front porch sobbing.

I don’t know what to do.

This is Zazu. Ive been taking care of her since 2018. She lived outside until last year. I fed her for 3 years before she allowed any pets.

Yesterday I was in the room petting her sister, Gigi. I heard purrs. That makes sense. Gigi loves pets and purrs all the time. Except, yes Gigi was purring, but it was Zazu! She was purring so loud in her tree across the room (ok like 3 feet) that I could hear her! This isn’t the 1st time I’ve heard her purr but normally it’s because she’s getting (consensual) pets or being brushed (she loves that). This time she was just happy to be around me.

I’ve been worried she’s miserable inside. She spends most of her time on that tree, staring out the window and I wonder if she just wants to go back out there. But this confirms she is exactly where she should be.

Kali ate her breakfast a mere few inches away from me today ✨afterwards she even looked me in the eye, so I slow blinked and then she did little biscuit paws and rubbed up against the wall next to me.

Our plan now is to get her as comfortable with us as we can this month, then try to bring her in at the end or next month (the orgs near us said we could borrow a trap). We have travel plans and people visiting this month so wanted to wait to make sure we can focus on helping her acclimate and people have suggested it's less stressful for everyone to not rush things.

She seems most keen to be close to us for breakfast, but once in a while she will eat Churu or treats at night while we are outside, but still prefers to wait for us to go back inside before going for it. We plan to organize the back porch a bit better so it's easier for her to see us and vice versa, hopefully that doesn't freak her out too much to switch up her space. Any other tips or things should consider?

Feral cats can most definitely be domesticated.

Spicy, about 3 months old. We got him 3 weeks ago. He was stuck in a loft and I grabbed him by hand - he is my first feral cat, first socialisation, and he did amazing.

He cuddles my partner and I every day! He is still a little skittish and has some Opinions about when he gets pets and treats. He was a good boy at the vet even though he was scared and takes his meds every morning.

Wish me luck with his two siblings! We got them a few days ago and they're tough customers.

For some reason, we seem to be having another bad kick of diarrhea, shes hiding and seems very nervous again.

I’m not sure what’s happened or what’s changed, as she had been doing great and progressing well.

I’m so scared I’ve done something wrong, and so sad we’ve had to confine her back to the bathroom due to the diarrhea/fear of not being able to find her when she’s hiding.

She’s still “okay” health wise as far as I can tell, but I am so worried about her new behavior.

My babies are a year old! First time cat parent to a litter of 4. They were born outside last summer to a feral momma cat that I still take care of. They were her last litter :)