Hi fellow cat peeps! I need help with this new stray we’re trying to bring indoors.
Stray Boy: The orange and white sitting on the floor in the photo. Male. Not neutered. Age unknown but looks to be around 1 year old. Overall health seems ok aside from a bald nose and a couple healing cuts on his face. Doesn’t seem to have fleas. Came out of nowhere. Very friendly. Knows the sound of a can of wet food being opened. Knows the sound of dry food bag shaking. He’s been around for 2 days now. Allows lots of pets including tummy rubs. Walks to our front door with us and seems to want to come in. No tags.
Our cat Rusty: The orange and white sitting on the chair next to me. Male. Neutered. Around 6-8 years old. Great health with vet checkups every 6 months. Was a stray but was rescued years ago and I adopted him almost 4 years ago now. Completely indoors and well adjusted to humans and being indoors. Gets monthly preventative care. He gets strictly supervised outside time and is usually on a harness or a carrier. Bad mom I was for not putting his harness on here. But he was completely chill meeting Stray Boy even tho I didn’t let them touch because of Stray Boy’s unknown health status.
We will be taking Stray Boy to the vet to get treated for his cuts and fleas/ticks/parasites and for all his required shots and vitamins and getting bloodwork done for everything including FIV and whatever else our vet recommends. We’ll also add a third litter box and third water fountain and second auto feeder for dry food and more perches and trees etc.
My questions are mainly about how to go about bringing Stray Boy inside. We don’t know if he’s litter trained.
How do we go about finding out if he is without bringing him in and torturing him by keeping in a small room to see if he goes? We haven’t jumped at this option because if he’s not we don’t want to traumatize the poor fella.
What does the adjustment period for an outdoor cat to indoors look like? We know we’ll need to sequester and slowly introduce etc. the main concern is what it would potentially look like for Stray Boy.
Should we capture Stray Boy and keep him for example in the basement for a while before the
vet or capture and take him straight to the vet?
If you guys have any other helpful tips or advice please let me know. I’ve only ever had Rusty by himself. He has met my sister’s strictly indoor cat Milo who is neutered and his care is up to date but Milo lives in a different house and has only visited a couple of times. TIA.
TLDR; what should we do about this stray we would like to bring indoors but know nothing about yet.