u/Difficult_North_272

So, I've been making amazing progress with my feral and recently got him TNR'd, and had planned to bring him inside once I moved out because of my dad's allergies. He also generally doesn't care much about cats and all that, but last night he suddenly hit me with "You can try to bring him inside if you want." He told me he had previously misunderstood what feral meant, and had thought it would be impossible to ever take him in, but has changed his mind after seeing what I've done, and doing more research.

Genuinely never thought this day would come and I'm very happy, HOWEVER, he said at least in the beginning, the cat will be limited to just my room, my bathroom, the laundry room, maybe the hallway closet if we organize it, and the little tiny hallway that connects it all. I can do my best to accommodate the lack of space, but is that too small of an area for a cat, especially one that's used to free roaming? He said if things go well and his allergies are okay, he may extend it to letting the cat have the whole bottom floor and just not be allowed upstairs, but I can't count on that cuz it'll depend. I'll keep everything very well cleaned and we can try allergy options, but would it be like abusive to keep him fully indoors if he does end up having to be limited to the hallway? I plan to give him plenty of things like a big cat tower, I have a door under my bed that i can turn into a little hiding spot, and I'm looking into those small window boxes that they can sit in to see outside (i can't fit a full catio outside my bedroom window.) And obviously I'll play with him daily.

I really don't like outdoor or indoor/outdoor cats (if you can help it, ferals are different) and if anyone else were to ask this question, I would probably tell them "a small space is better than being outside and dying" but suddenly I understand the feeling of thinking you're being cruel. I know it's not cruel to keep him where he's safe, I just worry that he'll be unhappy and that that much restriction of space is too unreasonable when he's used to wandering freely.

I think he'll adjust well to indoors in general, he's become mostly very friendly and only a little skittish, he's especially brave with me, and once hormones wear off from his recent neuter, I'm sure he'll want nothing other than to be by me. That's another thing though, currently the only job I've managed to get is pet sitting, where I'm often booked to house sit for a good portion of the month, and he would be all by himself in there except when my family wants to pop in and say hi. I'm sure he won't mind it too much since he's not a fan of people, but I don't want him to be both confined AND lonely. Even now, I stop by daily to feed and check on him while I'm pet sitting, but I don't know if he would miss me too much and get depressed by himself in his little hallway.

I just don't know how to manage any of this, I've waited so long for the day he could come inside, and now I'm feeling so conflicted about everything. Any advice helps, what would be the best path forward here?

ETA: Just opened Nextdoor to see 3 different people post that their ferals have been attacked by loose dogs and coyotes. Seeing dismembered cat paw on my phone is definitely reminding me why I want to make him indoor only. Apparently there are 2 dogs on the loose around here going around and killing cats too, and they haven't been caught yet. Not super close to my house, but a good reminder we could always be next

Edit 2: Oh yeah, I have a gecko tank in my room. Maybe a gecko group would be a better place to ask but I'll have to figure out how to keep him off of it

(Comments first, questions after. Last 2 pics are how his balls look, with and without flash lol. Just so other people can see if he looks okay cuz I can't tell.)

Just got my baby back from TNR, he still seems really good considering how I imagined this would go. He's happy to rub against my fingers and didn't scream on the way home, even let me open the trap a bit and put a collar on him. Now I have a long string of questions about what the next move is.

First off, I do unfortunately have to put him back out for a few more months, but he'll be indoors soon. When I first lifted the blanket to look at him today, he stood up just a little and I saw that his balls and the underneath of his tail have some blood, also seems to be bruising as well. How much of that is normal? I assume they clean them up before putting them back in the trap, so it has to be from after he was stitched up. They had him 3 days, they wouldn't send him back bloody without checking, right? And the shelter employee looked him up and down before handing him back too. Is a bit of bleeding normal as long as it seems to have stopped? I wanna keep him at least overnight to make sure it's stopped and that he's not acting funny because i feel it'll be hard to trap him again if this is bad.

Is it bad to hold onto him a bit longer? He doesn't seem super stressed, I'm sure it's not the most comfortable but he's just been sleepy and cuddly since getting back and I'm pretty sure the anesthesia has worn off enough that this is just how he is, it's not unusual for him since he's been socialized for months and allowed petting prior to this.

What are bad signs that I should look for, does he look okay now? How do I know when I'm good to let him go again? I can hold onto him a few more days at least if necessary, I'm just not sure what's normal because this is my first TNR. I'm happy to have it done and over with now and I think this will be very good for him considering how good he was doing at socialization already, so I'm hoping he's all good and that this is it. Just point me in the right direction of how long to watch over him and what to look for, thanks!

I have emailed the TNR place to ask as well, it's an animal shelter that runs the program, and they're partnered with a certain vet to do the procedure.

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.

(A bit long, so if you want to just get to the point, skip down to where the paragraph breaks and start at the second chunk. To avoid even more rambling after that, skip the third piece at the end.)

This darn cat has been giving me so much trouble trying to trap him, but today I had an idea that may help. However, in practice it did not work cuz I backed out, out of worry of the trap door hitting him and/or crushing his tail. So my idea was, I have an automatic trap with the pressure plate (i can't get my hands on a drop trap, out of the question, I've tried) and he'll go in some of the time but I'm running into 2 main issues. He either won't go far enough back to hit the plate, or steps too lightly. You know, there's the hook that holds the door and goes down when the plate does so i tied a shoelace to it, ran it through a few bars so it doesn't go slack, and when i pull the lace, the hook will come loose without him needing to step on the plate. I tested, it works, I can even do it with the front door shut cuz the lace is thin enough so it's very sneaky. Should be foolproof, so I tried it tonight. I put the food just in front of the plate, cuz he sometimes won't go any further and he hasn't eaten from the trap in a few days ago i wanted him to be confident going in.

He went in and i was all ready to pull it, but his full tail, and a tiny bit of his butt, were sticking over the edge of the trap entrance. I couldn't see well but it probably would've hit his butt, and definitely his tail. Tomorrow morning I'll put the plate a bit further back to make sure his whole main body is in, but is it still bad to set it off if his tail is hanging out? Will the door just sweep his tail toward him and he'll be fine, or is it very likely to catch under the door, and get stuck and break?

I don't want to break his tail, that's my main concern and I can't bring myself to shut it without knowing he'll be okay. That's the one issue with my otherwise pretty helpful method, if I'm pulling it shut manually then it means he's not as far in as he's supposed to be when the trap functions normally. I've tried basically everything to get him, so I do really want this trick to work but not if it'll hurt him. I could see it going either way so I'd like an opinion from someone with more experience or common sense than me.

Not a ship btw, just ex childhood best friend angst (I don't care if you ship it but that's not the goal.)

Reminder for context: They were close friends while training under Urokodaki, until Sabito died. Giyuu took the trauma out on Keitaro, and Keitaro moved on to having the Butterfly Sisters as mentors/siblings instead. Their friendship never really recovered, neither held a grudge but Giyuu felt like he didn't deserve to be back in Keitaro's life anyway, so he ignored his efforts to reconnect. Later in the Infinity Castle, Keitaro (as a demon) beheads himself with Giyuu's sword, and Giyuu finally tries to apologize, but Keitaro died without ever hearing the full thing and knowing how he felt.

All the physical stuff I've made of him so far! There will def be more in the future, these types of things are really fun to make!

Also yes my paper dolls are comically sized, my first attempts were too big and then too small. I did eventually make a normal sized one which is still sitting disassembled in my room cuz I was too lazy to ever finish it loll, I will one day

The water trio before they were hit by the obligatory childhood trauma that every KNY character must endure. Poor kids have no idea what's coming 😞🙏

All the KyoTaro art so far, the train scene is not canon unfortunately, Keitaro was on another mission when Kyo died 💔

First 3 slides are mine, 4th is from art fight, and 5th is from someone in another sub

Okay this time my excuses are that reddit wouldn't load for an entire day and then i forgot. Love how the pic from the right half of the meme has now become Keitaro's equivalent of the Lizzo pfp meme (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about)

I keep forgetting omloml but anyway here's him being traumatized watching Sabito die <3 I kinda wanna redraw this sometime it's a little ugly, but I'm too busy rn so maybe later. Also Giyuu is so mean in my AU cuz imagine seeing Keitaro go through this too and then blaming him 😭 that's lowkey a mischaracterization of Giyuu but the lore needed drama

(Also if you didn't see this back when I posted it in the old sub, zoom in on the eyes)

All his Douma ship art (I ship human Keitaro with Kyojuro, and demon Keitaro with Douma, so there will be more ship art later of not Douma, but don't get confused 🙏🙏)

I keep forgetting to post smh smh

Like he's so real for that, I love them so much it's not even funny

Obviously there's no way to trap or hold onto him in a way that won't stress him out to some extent. I've bought calming treats and spray/diffusers to try and keep him chill while he sits in the laundry room until surgery day, but I hate seeing him scared and I'm working myself up just thinking about it. He won't know what I'm doing, where he is, that he'll be okay, and there's the chance he might not come back when I release him. I'm preparing myself to be anxious the entire time he's in the trap because that's just how I work, we're scared together. I just feel bad for him and I wanna make him as comfy as possible, it's worrying me to the point of borderline nausea imagining him being so scared. Does anyone have any stories or something of your experiences to chill me out, or just general reassurance?

Keitaro's old bday art from all the way in March lol

I totally almost forgot and just woke myself up out of half sleep to post this. Bunch of character charts, I think i fixed anything on them that was outdated from a few months ago but this may not be 1000% accurate so don't take anything too serious. If anything sounds weird and like it was written at midnight, that's because it was and I'm tired 😞🙏

Demon Keitaro art dump shh pretend it's not midnight (for me)

It'll be based mostly off looks/vibes, unless you give me some sort of description then my answer may change. Since these posts usually get a decent amount of interaction and idk a lot of characters, I'm not gonna spend forever dwelling on the most accurate answer for each, so I'm sorry in advance if you don't like what I pick, it's just for fun! If you rudely tell me you hate my answer I will cry. But I've wanted to do one of these kinds of post and didn't wanna do anything that's been done already, so this was the best I could think of since 2 of my f/os are from Demon Slayer lol (sorry in advance if this post attracts any KNY doubles, Douma doubles block me and Kyojuro doubles block if you're nonsharing cuz I'm mirror w him)

Hope this is fun <3

Keitaro loves animals and takes in strays if he finds them, this design is based off one of my own cats. The crow is named Fujiko and has beef with the human OC Fujiko lol (over who the better one is). Keitaro made little friendship bracelets for both of them because he makes them for everyone he meets