Catpost: Wendy the feral
The story of Wendy
(Or how to trap and care for a feral cat)
I received a phone call saying someone had dumped a cat and kittens out of a car near a nearby highway onramp. Upon arriving at the scene I could not locate any cats, but a bystander had seen a cat and pointed me in the right direction.
Walking along the side of the highway in that direction I noticed an open drainage pipe. Perfect place for a scared kitty to hide. I crossed the highway and found the other end of the pipe - a sewer grate. Looking down I saw a very freaked out cat performing some seriously impressive parkour, bouncing off the walls of the cistern without falling in the water below.
It was really nice of the cat to trap itself in this drain. I covered the end of the pipe and retrieved my live trap. I set the trap up so it was the only way “out” of the pipe and waited a few hours.
Upon returning I found a very small, very scared, very wet and bedraggled tortie!
We took her home, applied topical flea treatment, and placed her in the rescue crate. This is a large dog crate elevated on a table and mostly covered with blankets. It contains a small litterbox, a small cat carrier, and some food/water. Keeping a small cat carrier in the crate gives the cat a much-needed place to hide. It also makes cleaning the crate much easier, you can just shoo the cat into the carrier and close the door.
Her first days here went pretty badly. This cat is fully feral. I have no idea how someone might’ve gotten her in to a car. She’s so afraid of humans that she was soiling herself when I approached too closely. Lots of hissing and spitting as well. She obviously sees humans as a threat.
Taming feral cats is DIFFICULT and that’s not what we’re trying to do here. We just want to get her used to being in the general area of humans without being completely terrified.
After a few weeks in the crate awaiting her vet visit she’s doing a bit better. The crate is in a central location of our home so she can see us walking around doing normal human things. We avoid staring at her or making eye contact and move expecially slowly when around the crate. She’s still afraid of us but only when we look at her for too long.
The biggest sign of progress is that she YELLS when it’s time for food. She’s also been spending more and more time outside of the carrier, watching us.
A few days ago we had her spayed at our own expense. She was also tested for FIV(feline AIDS) and FELV(feline leukemia - very contagious), given a rabies shot, microchipped, and eartipped to mark her as a spayed feral. She’s recovering well in the crate.
We’re going to keep her a bit longer on the off chance that she decides she wants to be a housecat. She’s warming up fast enough where there is a small amount of hope she’ll decide humans are OK. We’ll either adopt her out or work with our cat rescue contacts to find her a nice barn where she’ll be fed regularly.
Please spay and neuter your pets. If you would like to support a local animal rescue, consider using Amazon Smile to donate every time you place an Amazon order. Shortly after posting this, Amazon cancelled their Smile program. Shame on them.
Find your local rescue’s website or Facebook(Cat ladies are not technical) to see how you can help! Assistance goes the furthest at smaller independent rescues that are 100% voulenteer operated.