It’s not “one size fits all…”

Recently, I witnessed an interesting exchange between a rescue worker and a lady caring for a feral colony in her area. The rescue worker queried why the cats couldn’t be rescued and rehomed. While in an ideal world, every cat would live in a warm house with a loving family, if a cat is born and has existed outside for some time it’s actually potentially more damaging to them from a psychological perspective trying to integrate them into a home.
Cats, like humans, have their comfort zones. And cats that were born and have lived outside for a long duration are likely at points in their life to have had both positive and negative experiences with humans. Unfortunately given certain behaviours exhibited by entire cats in order to survive (fighting for resources, mates and territory, for example ) it’s likely they’re viewed by a number of people as troublesome which means a lot of the interactions have a higher likelihood of being negative. The behaviours mentioned can often be reduced by trapping, neutering and release. Obviously when this action takes place, there has to be adequate shelter and food provided by an individual prepared to oversee the cats and ensure if any veterinary care is needed, the cats will receive it.

Feral kittens have had less potential for negative exposure to human interaction and if swift action is taken, kittens born outside have a much higher success rate of socialisation than their older colony members.

The distinction between a feral and stray, as stated in a previous blog, is that the latter has usually had a home they no longer have access to. Depending on the duration of time they have lived outdoors can actually make a difference in how you approach assisting them. Obviously if a cat is entire they very much need neutering to reduce the rise in feral colonies. But they may also need time to adapt to human interaction. If this is the case, you can allow them their own space while simultaneously building trust which means the relationship can establish more organically and at their own pace.

One thing that’s absolutely definite is while human assistance is always needed to ensure a cats well-being, not all cats adapt to what we consider domestication. That doesn’t mean we can’t help those cats to have a better quality of life, simply that the relationship between cat and carer will differ from expectancy.