Happy, happy, happy update on Sprinkles!
We acquired our first feral cat in November, and I do believe she was truly feral. We cared for her and fed her and tried desperately to trap her without success. She got pregnant and we continued trying to trap her to no avail. It didn’t seem to matter if she went hungry from us, she would never go in the trap. But during her pregnancy, my husband started being able to handle her more and more (not me, the one who sat outside in the elements with her all the time 🤣). When she had the kittens, we were able to track them down and in doing so, we figured out that she had multiple food sources in a 2 block radius.
Eventually she moved her babies to our garage and we got all three into homes and we had earned her trust (and narrowed her food sources!) enough to just get her into a carrier at that point. One of her kittens went to our next door neighbor while the other two went to a friend. Sprinkles got spayed and started hanging around their yard, so they let her in to see her baby, and now she’s living in their house. I wish so much we had avoided her pregnancy and litter but all the babies have been fixed and immunized.
It is true that socialization saves lives!!!