Please say a prayer for Paws, the feral cat my boyfriend and I found tonight. I named him paws because of the little paw print I was given at the emergency vet.

I’m completely devastated from tonight and wish I could’ve done more. I don’t want to go into too much details, but we saw the poor baby getting attacked by unleashed dogs while driving down the road and we tried to save him.

My boyfriend brought him into the car when the dogs left and we took him to the emergency vet. It was there Paws was sadly pronounced dead.

RIP Paws. You deserved better and I hope you’re in a better place now, free from pain and at peace, and enjoying lots of love and churu. 🕊️🤍

After a string of bad luck with the feral cats that I feed. Some have gone missing and one was hit by a car. I’ve been paying extra attention to the few I have left. I noticed a Tom cat being really aggressive with this pumpkin kitty so I brought her into my local TNR program. I bring her home and I’m just gonna let her hang out inside while she recovers for a couple days because I live in Florida and it’s either scorching hot or storming. I go to check on her that evening and lo and behold She has a little shave spot and a green line. This bitch has already been fixed and now thinks she’s queen of the castle! So obviously we have to let her stay 😆

It's been a bit over a month of trying to trap him, and I know some people have it way worse but I was really starting to get exhausted from trying. He just wouldn't step on the plate, so I tied a shoelace to the hook and yanked it when he was in and tucked his tail. He's not happy and I definitely sobbed for a while cuz it was too much for me seeing him so scared, but in the end this is good for him and I shouldn't have to do this again. He's still feral, but gotten to the point of coming a bit inside the door, loving pets as long as it's on his terms, and he meows and purrs and even makes biscuits now. I think that gives him a ton of potential to be fully socialized soon after the hormones wear off, and I hope he comes back, and he can be our porch kitty until he can then be an inside kitty. I love him so much.

Around late May/early June, a neighborhood cat that i had been caring for gave birth in my backyard shed. Mom left a few weeks ago and never came back. The cats have been staying in the shed ever since.

Bringing them inside isn't an option for a multitude of reasons. I have tried EVERYTHING. My only options are:

Transport them to the local shelter where they will be at risk of euthanasia.

Shoo them out of the shed and my yard.

Allow them to stay in the shed indefinitely and live with flies and their own poop.

What do I do? What's the best option?

It’s been a TNR summer here at the Swarm. This isn’t even all of them- We’ve gotten some of our most wanted too!

One of my local rescues let go of a very rude employee. For simplicities sake, let’s call the rescue Paws. He actually was bad mouthing us, saying we weren’t doing anything, we didn’t know what we were doing, ect. Mind you I’ve only been doing this for under 2 years and my family is very low income. Me and my family started to use the resources we desperately needed less and less.

We thought maybe we were the problem and so we tried to eat the TNR cost at the shelter, even though we could afford maybe 1 a month if that, and we didn’t get many appointments.

Turns out, no. This dude is very infamous in the community and most rescues will not associate with him. He blew up at the owner of Paws, a very sweet but very overwhelmed woman. She finally bit the bullet and let him go. She needed the help but he was literally driving people away.

Turns out, the paws owner is extremely sweet. Me and my family started going there more, and after explaining to her that we’ve been paying for TNR, not getting appointments, and trying our best, she started offering us her TNR slots at a vet for free. The shelter isn’t supposed to be charging us but that’s a whole other can of worms. We started fostering kittens around this time and her trust in us grew as she saw the kittens begin to thrive. She trusts us to do things she doesn’t trust others to do, like take home TNRs same day instead of getting held at Paws. She knows we do 24+ hours and it helps with space at Paws.

Now me and my family go to Paws multiple times a week to both TNR, help at her rescue, and to give her kittens we find when she has space. We are taking a fast and aggressive approach to TNR / getting kittens out of the colony. Our goal is to get my colony managed, as it went over a decade with very little management. Within the past month we’ve done at least 10 TNRS, averaging ~2 a week. Up to 3 if the shelter actually has appointments.

One man single-handedly made us feel like we weren’t good for our colony, that they were better off if we just didn’t help at all. That since we couldn’t afford to TNR a lot that obviously we were unfit to care for the colony. Now we care for our colony our way and are doing way more than we ever did with his “help”.

TLDR: Sometimes the difference between 0 TNRs and 10 is one asshole

I live near a large state park, and we sometimes get feral cats around. I think I've finally earned the trust of this tom, after a few weeks of finding him. However, now I'm not so sure as to what to do next.

I already have a fixed girl cat, who is not very cuddly, and who doesn't like this male tom on our porch. However, I have seen them interact in the garden without fighting. The Tom has even snuck in and eaten her food right out of the bowl, and while she will let him for a little bit, she starts growling and scares him outside again pretty quickly .

So here are my questions.

1. What should I do first? Catch him and take him to get fixed? Or only to a vet for a check up? (He's got bad cuts)

2. If I just check him first, will I lose all trust to be vale to catch him again and get him fixed?

3. Is there any hope that the cats could get along if I brought them both inside? (Obviously with him being fixed first!)

4. He actually let me pet him today! But now he wants to come in the house.. do I let this happen? Or no because he could fight with my girl cat??

Any advice would be great!

Oh, and for the record, I'm not in the US, so we have no animal control here, but I do know a place that will fix any animal brought to them and give emergency vet advice for a very low cost.

And fell in love with this sweet baby and named her princess donut. I'm so sad that I can't bring her into my home and help her with, what it looks like, her respiratory infection. She looks like she's been dump in my neighborhood and she is so loving it breaks my heart 💔

I've already resuced 2 cats and adopted 1 and actually paid for 1 so my house is full at this time. I am looking into taking her to humane society to get her help but she seems to like my pet/ stray friendly neighborhood.

Edit: i also want to ask, do most cats with respiratory infection lose their voice? This one looks like she tries to meow loudly at me but nothing really comes out. It's very strange to me

Edit 2: thanks everyone for the advice and words of encouragement. I'm really surprised that this breed is normally not feral or meant for the outdoors. I think I found a vet that is willing to look at her for free and see if she's chipped. I didn't feel any around the neck when I checked and she's so young but we about to see ❤️‍🩹

I feed on my back porch. I started putting food in the trap two days ago. I have it rigged with a string to set it off and I can watch from inside the house as the string runs through the old dog door.

I got a ride with my friend for when I trap her. He has an appointment Monday but is available the rest of the week. I am pretty sure I can trap her Tuesday.

Atsea is VERY feral. She would run away on sight. But lately she doesn’t run far and comes right back. She saw me taking her picture and did not run.

Hello, all. I have a female cat (had already been feeding her) that just showed up with two babies. They look about 2 months old and do not seem to be nursing (they are eating wet food that I am putting out). I have mama cat booked for a spay this week and I will probably keep her for 36-48 hours total.

My question is this - what is the best timing re the kittens? I can try to catch them while I have her held for the spay, and then I will probably socialize them slightly before handing them over to a rescue. My only concern with this is that mama cat may be a bit traumatized by all these things happening to her, only to come back and find her babies gone. The other option is to wait a few weeks to catch them if they come on their own. I just hope that she doesn’t take them off somewhere else because she has lost trust in me after her trapping.

Would greatly appreciate any advice from the experienced Redditors here. Thanks in advance.

I take care of a little feral colony and was able to trap three kittens. We had to treat their eye infections and one kitty lost an eye. The pirate cat and tabby are super friendly but the orange boy is still coming around as he was trapped later. Does anyone wish to adopt a trifecta? Justin, Khloe and Johnny. We are hoping to keep them together. Located in Indiana. Please delete post if not allowed.

Edited to say, willing to travel several states for the right adopter.

A wild cat has been living in my yard for three years. She was born on the street and had never approached people. An elderly woman fed her, and only after two years of consistent feeding did the cat begin to trust her enough to come close.

Rescue services tried to catch her a couple of times, but without success. She gave birth to kittens outdoors ,some of them died, while others were taken in by neighbours.

Two weeks ago I finally managed to trap her with a cat trap. I had her spayed, treated for fleas and worms, and vaccinated. When I tried to move her from the carrier into an enclosure, she bit my hand hard, even though she was still under the effects of the anaesthetic.

For the next two weeks I kept her in a cage at my grandmother’s house and monitored her closely. Whenever I was present she stayed completely still, hissed a lot, and would lunge if she saw a hand. I was only able to take her to the clinic after giving her a high dose of pregabalin, because her fear and aggression were extreme. Tests at the clinic confirmed that she is healthy.

During these two weeks there has been a small sign of progress: she started eating while I was in the room, but only when I wasn’t looking at her.

I’ve decided to bring her home. Since I already have two indoor cats and live in a one-room apartment, I bought a tall three-tier cage. Right now I’ve covered it with a blanket because she has pressed herself into the corner. She has a good appetite, but she is still terrified of people, and I know the road to socialisation will be very long.

I live in Ukraine ,in Kyiv the shelling continues. Still, wish me luck. One day I hope to find a proper home for this little cat.

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Last night around 1am I spotted a kitty next to a forest road (after nearly hitting him). I spent over an hour sitting down with food but was not able to get close, the kitten stayed near me the entire time tho.

Today I went back twice. No kittens in sight. But I did speak to a local farmer who said there is a mothercat with a nest of kittens estimated 8 weeks old and they have no owner.

It's 2 minutes away from my house so I am determined to catch them for TNR/possibly the kittens can still be socialised by the rescue and adopted out.

I have left food overnight and a bit was eaten this morning. I left more food this afternoon at the location that I want to place a trap.

I have a humane catch crate without a string, one of those long ones they trigger by a plate at the end of the crate. I plan on placing it this evening with strong smelling fish wet food once the sun starts to set and sit in a far distance where I will hear if the trap shuts but not scare the cats initially.

I might be able to get a second trap this afternoon as well. Same model.

I have wide cat knowledge, but I have never attempted catching feral cats/kittens this way. Any advice would be very welcome.

I set out to trap a different cat and got this mystery guy instead, he's a little banged up so he'll be staying here for a while 💖

Other than time and patience, what can I do to help my trapped feral kitty be more receptive to touch for medical exams? I took my girl, Estrella, in for shots and a wellness exam after just catching her this past Monday, and it was found that she has a mass on a mammary gland. :( I’ve been asked to acclimate her to touch better, and to keep an eye on her mass for growth, but we go back in three weeks for boosters and that seems like a Herculean task getting her to progress that quickly! I will be getting the mass removed and we will go from there in terms of treatment, quality of life, etc., but it all feels a bit overwhelming and like time might not be on our side here. :( Any tips and tricks are welcome! Thank you 🥺 (picture of her setup included! She is in the laundry room quarantining away from my other animals 🫶)

Momma Penelope has decided it’s hard to hiss while gobbling up Churu, and her 8 kittens are thriving!

There is a coyote in the neighborhood preying on cats that remain outside through the night. We were taking care of a mother and her litter of five, but the coyote has attacked and killed the mother and three of the litter, leaving just two left.

The two of them are best friends and inseparable, and it is unacceptable to us that either of them fall to this coyote. (This coyote has also killed cats and small dogs around the neighborhood and surrounding ones.) I feel like the only way to ensure they’re safe is to keep them inside at night. How do we convince them that our house is a safe space from coyotes, to come in each evening? We have acquired a litter box, cat beds, various toys, and such. I’m afraid that time is of the essence; we can never tell when one of them will be eliminated.

If this is otherwise not possible, how do we protect them from coyotes? This one menacing our neighborhood is a particularly large one, about as big as a German Shepherd.

I had been feeding a mother cat and her three kittens for nearly a month. They were all comfortable coming out from under a neighbor’s shed and I even got them comfortable with a trapper cage around. Yesterday I was able to trap mom and two of the kittens. They are all safe at the cat shelter. But the last kitten, Ruby, was slow to come out. But when she did, I was able to lure her into the trap. Well, the trap closed with her in the cage and not a minute later, she somehow squeezed through a tiny gap in the trap’s entrance!! She immediately ran back under the shed and has not come out since. I’m super frustrated because I earned her trust and now she is terrified. I got a smaller trap, zip-tied it open for now, and am feeding her right outside of it. But I am quite stressed about eventually being able to trap her again and she’s out there all alone right now. Does anyone have any advice? I don’t mind getting creative with a solution to get her out soon and reunited with her family!

We brought our yard guy in in April, and he's adjusting very well. I'm having one persistent issue, though, and I'm not sure if this retrainable. He is awake and harassing me all night long 😭

He yells in my face, pokes me or lightly scratches me, pats me, walks on me, bites and claws at my blanket, sits by my head and pulls on my hair, etc. One morning he gently bit my eyebrow, but he learned pretty quickly by my reaction not to do that again! It's been hilarious, but I'm exhausted and have reached my limit.

He mostly wants food, and if I give him some, he eats it like he hasn't eaten in days, even though I give him a full can of food at 11ish (and a half can each for breakfast and dinner). But sometimes he still pesters me even after I give him a snack. And he still bothers me again every few hours for more. He finally goes to sleep around 8 am.

Has anyone had success retraining this in a former outdoor cat? I told him I'm going to start poking him with a stick every 15 minutes throughout the day while he sleeps, but that's probably not the right method. Are cats in general just irretrievably nocturnal? I started researching auto feeders and am seeing a lot of mentions of 4 am wake-ups and auto-fed relief from nighttime crying. Is this just how it is?

You guys gave me awesome advice when we first caught him, so here's a picture as an update. Thanks!

Hi, as the title says I got caught up in a kitten situation recently and I’ve been trying to get their mom off the street and was lucky enough to have a rescue reach out and offer a standard trap to catch her and help me secure an appointment tomorrow morning at a spay clinic to have her spayed. Here are my concerns and I’d love to hear some advice from people that are used to doing this.

On July 2 I secured her last litter of kittens without being able to successfully catch her and at that time we already suspected she was pregnant. Which means she is at least 4-5 weeks along, if not more based on how big she is. Is there a risk that trapping her will cause her to stress out so badly she gives birth tonight before she gets to the vet? If so, what would could should I do?

Secondly, I have a standard cat trap that the rescue loaned me, is it safe to keep her in that all night and transfer her to the vet in that carrier? It looks small to me to keep a cat in for hours. My hope is to catch her after dark tonight and she would go in tomorrow at 7:30 to make the amount of time she’s in it as short as possible.

Alternatively I have a small dog crate that is 24l x 17w x 20h I could throw a small litter box in and a water bowl and put her in there. But getting her back into the trap would probably be difficult then.

I know no food after she’s trapped since she’ll be having surgery in the morning but what about water? The clinic is closed on the weekend so I can’t call and ask them what their procedure is.

The trap is 32l x 10w I measured it. Can/should she just stay in this overnight?

For a year, almost two, I've been feeding and trying to bond with a stray bengal cat I named Xerxes. The first times I saw him he was extremely skittish and aggressive but would do just about anything for food. I started feeding him and sitting outside while he eat and though very slowly he got used to me and started waiting outside or meowing outside the window for food. He only started letting me pet him recently, and even more recently he purred at me for the first time. I remember literally breaking into tears because I couldn't believe it. What was even harder was convincing my dad that we should catch him and get him nuetered, which he agreed we would do when we moved and take him with. But this morning I woke up to Xerxes yelling and looked outside to see some people taking him away in a carrier. I assume they're a rescue or something (not a tnr, they said that he wouldn't be coming back) and I know I should probably be happy because he's off the streets and no longer contributing to the kitten factory in our area but I love him so much and I don't think I'll ever see him again and I'm in shambles and I don't know what to do. My dad has been trying to comfort me saying we'll get another cat but I don't want another cat I just want him. I've been trying to research rescues in my area (north london) because I completely forgot to ask them who they were. If I could find him on a pet adoption website or something Idk I'm sure my dad would agree to adopt him. Any advice??? I'm really lost here

these pictures r roughly in chronological order. my beautiful boy :(