so some of y'all might remember last year i rescued this sweet older gentleman that i saw in a parking lot. i finally feel like i can share him without crying. we brought him home on May 21st 2025 and he passed away 6 months later to the day on November 21st 2025 at home, in my arms. when I saw him he had fleas, worms, broken teeth, scabs, and the doctor confirmed he was FIV+. although we only had six months i find comfort in the fact that he lived out his retirement in absolute bliss. he was the sweetest, funniest old man. 9 days before he passed we brought home a dog that was being rehomed. if it wasn't for her, i would've never left my bed. having her forced me to get out and get some fresh air even on the days that i just wanted to rot under the covers. it felt like he was waiting to make sure we were gonna be okay. last month we took in another cat that was being rehomed and i found myself calling him Max instead of his name, Remy, because he reminds me of Max so much it's crazy. last night, this feral little girl limped across our front porch and now she's in our bathroom. our love for Max lives on forever in all the critters we care for. he was one of a kind. rest in peace, Max 🩷🩷🩷

We trapped Moo, who the vet believes is about 3 months old; last week. She had her vet appointment today. The vet knew she was feral, but they handled her with the simple blue latex gloves and she tore through one and bit the vet tech/assistant who was sent to urgent care. We waited in the room for a while to hear if Moo would need to be euthanized (apparently that’s a thing if they bite someone and their rabies status is unknown, which makes sense but was still devastating).

Thankfully she did not have to be euthanized, but she had to be released to the shelter to be quarantined and monitored for ten days. They will contact us in the future. I feel terrible about what happened and more or less don’t understand it. I thought the vet would be equipped to handle her. Why weren’t they? In the future what should we do? We didn’t take her to the shelter to begin with because we know they are euthanized if they are difficult to treat (what the shelter told me on the phone when I called).

Super sweet boy

so this cutie limped in front of my door yesterday. my husband and i knew immediately that we had to help her despite already having 4 cats and a dog of our own, with one cat being special needs. she's missing her back left foot. haven't gotten a good look but it seems like it might be a birth defects rather than trauma. she bit my thumb so now she's on quarantine for 10 days. it's been 18 hours since then. i reported the bite but the person at the AC office said that the bite investigators were the ones that could answer my questions. i believe she has mange/some type of infection. i read that she can't get her rabies shot until quarantine is done but i have to wait for the investigators to tell me if I can take her to the vet or not. is there anything y'all recommend that I can do at home in the meantime? i've rescued before but never a baby in this condition. any (kind and respectful) advice is welcome!

Mom, Dad and kids. All fixed, clearly never leaving.
We love our little backyard feral family.

I've just gotten an information from a neighbor that they saw a car hit a black and white cat. The only black and white cat in my neighborhood was Micky, my beloved Micky I fed and pet so many times and formed an attachment over 2 years ago. I wasn't very kind to him at first. At the time I was feeding the only first stray, their older brother, and him and his brother Vicky (the licky tabby white one on 3rd pic) found me intimidating and ran away whenever I'd approach them. But they eventually charmed me and I really grew fond of them and their bond so I started getting them food too instead of shooing them away. And with our mutual care we bonded.

I'd play with all 3 of my strays I fed and while going through dark stuff mentally for years, these two made it feel a little less hard. Before Micky's death their older sibling Tufny (4th pic) had also gone missing and I don't know whether he's alive.

With Micky's death, Vicky has become more anxious and attacked another stray cat today, which was hostile at first towards him but Vicky is usually a laid back cat who minds his business and only enjoyed play fighting with Micky who was undoubtedly his bonded pair. With Micky gone, Vicky is now a lonely and anxious stray kitty who's pain will further induce the intolerant anxiety he has already had towards the hostile cat who keeps pestering him.

I couldn't adopt them. I'm not mature myself enough to take care of two fragile lives that require special care and responsibility. Vicky is scared of just entering the hallways while Micky would quickly grow annoyed of the interiors and rush towards the exit, I only let him once inside my house to explore. They were much happier outside. They were healthy and alongside me, they had several other neighbors who fed them. I admit that I was sometimes too lazy myself to get down and feed them but they also seemed very well fed to me so I didn't see the point of stuffing them with more food. They always had a bowl of water ready, one of them even takes them to the vet so I thought they really didn't need all that food, and also I didn't want to spend too much money.

It's such a tragic and stupid end. I bet that driver was just pent up from some personal bullshit and caused the death of a cat that would cheer me up on my darkest days when humans were too focused on glowing up, career goals and rejecting anyone who doesn't meet their stupid criteria.

I want my cats to get attention and upvotes. I want other people to see what I saw. I had a channel called Tufnycats that had 250 subs and had many videos of Micky and others. I deleted them out of privacy concerns with regret sadly. I'm posting them again for all of us here to grieve and land our candles for Micky and Tufny, the stray kitties, not known by many, but still loved, fed and given a decent and quite a long stray kitten life.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, all of the cats I fed were sterilized.

Short meow montage of his: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-shYQ28zDF4

On Sunday we lost one of our ferals. He got sick on Friday and by Sunday he was gone. He started having seizures and by the time the neighbor got him to urgent care he was gone. We originally thought he just had a URI because he had some wheezing and all signs pointed to just that. Turns out he had very swollen lymph nodes and the vet there was concerned he had an infectious disease (still waiting on the test results to see what he had)

We both were working on getting him socialized and trusting us and we were so freaking close to getting him neutered and our goal was to adopt him out to someone because he really was a sweet guy. He was with me since October and he spent the winter in our shed with his friend who I ended up taking in since I was able to trap her and TNR and she ended up being a TNR fail since she didn't want to be back outside. My heart still hurts and every day at 6:30am he'd be at my back porch waiting for his wet food. I named him CJ since he looked like my indoor cat. I'll miss you buddy and I'll never forget you 😭

We live in a rural area and there are a lot of barn/feral cats in the area, as well as strays as people will often dump their unwanted pets nearby. We had a cat meowing by our back door for 2 days, driving our dog and our indoor cat nuts. We had hoped she'd move on. Then when we didn't respond she brought out the "big guns" and showed us her nursing kitten right on the back porch. Game over!

We figured we had to do something so we enticed them to our back porch, away from the windows where our dog and cat can see out, and set out some food and water. From what we can tell it seems they have been staying in a small shed on the property. Mama is wary/cautious, with low growls when we are near, especially if the kitten is with her, but not aggressive in any way, and she's been getting more bold about approaching and coming close to us when we bring out the food. The kitten is similar, cautious but curious. They seem quite clean and in good shape which is causing us to believe these were a dump/abandon not a feral/barn cat situation.

We would like to try and get them spayed/neutered (don't know sex of the kitten) as soon as practicable. They seem very attached to each other so I don't like the idea of separating mom from baby for a week while mom recovers - the local vet who does the TNR in the area said one week in a secure indoor area for healing. So ideally I'd like to try to take them both at the same time. Vet says the kitten must be at least 3 pounds before surgery. Kitten is active and mom leaves it for quite a bit of time (we didn't even know she had a kitten for the first 2 days), and is eating solid food but still nursing. I have a tentative appointment for 2 weeks from now but think I may postpone another 1-2 weeks just to be sure kitten is big enough.

Never having done this before (and frankly, never really wanting to but what are we going to do?), looking for some advice from your experience. Local resource said we should try to use these next 2 weeks to gain trust, be able to pet them, etc so we could maybe avoid the whole trapping experience and instead just scoop them up into a carrier. Mom seems like she would be pretty savvy to a trap situation. Does that seem like that's too good to be true? Also, I'm seeing conflicting advice RE healing time. Local vet says 1 week contained in a dog crate, the interwebs says 24-48 hours. I think if I can do both at once I'd be okay with 1 week, but I think if mom is separated from baby I wouldn't feel comfortable separating them that long.

The vet also suggested that we may be able to find someone to adopt out/foster the kitten, but they seem so attached I don't think I could separate them. Am I being unreasonable and doing the kitten a disservice? FWIW there are few resources here locally and the few volunteer run shelters are full to overflowing with cats already and not taking any more. I don't even know if that's feasible for them to take a kitten.

Finally, we're concerned that having food out will attract more cats, which in and of itself could become a bigger problem with fights, etc. Not to mention we don't want to end up with a cat rescue here if we can help it. How likely of a problem is that to be, given that the nearest homes to us are about 500 yards away on either side.

Thanks all for any advice!

For 2 years we looked after a feral boy we had named CK. We built shelter for him. We fed him. We gave him supplements. We dewormed him and we loved him. Now when we would take his food out to him he wouldn't run off. But he would walk very quickly and go behind a bush to watch us. Abbut a month ago he just sat there when we took his food out sat there and looked at us. This was very unusual behavior for him He did that for 2 days before he went missing. And I know this is projection but I can't help thinking that he was saying goodbye and I'm heartbroken.

I know in my heart that he's probably gone but I don't think I'll ever recover from missing him because there's no closure and I'll always wonder where he is. If he passed you know stuff like that.

My son-in-law asked me one day about him. How can you love something you've never touched? You don't need to touch something to feel love. You just need a strong connection and that's what I had with CK

Ck my love, hope that wherever you are, you're happy and you're at peace and meowmy ​will always love you

Atsea was TNRed on August 10, 2026. She was trapped with one of her kittens who was Spay also.

The kitten never went anywhere and bounced back immediately but Atsea disappeared.

Today the kitten (Purrsephany) came this morning with three siblings.

This afternoon Atsea showed up and I got a proof of life photo.

I am so glad she is okay. I was worried sick.

Hazel is home and recuperating now. Just keeping her and the babies separated for a few hours, per the instructions I received. Hopefully they'll all forgive me soon 😬

So a few days ago I made this post about a feral I'm feeding named Stevie Nicks who i thought might be sick as she's so skinny. Well, she's acting kinda more normal now, eating a lot more, and seems overall okay.

However, the other day I was talking to neighbors asking them to keep a look out for kittens (bc she may or may not have babies out there)

and my neighbor was making comments about drowning the kittens and poisoning her!

I think he was "joking" but tbh, that's the type of neighborhood I live in, so with her being so friendly and trusting and also kNOWING that she goes to his house a lot (he's seen her a lot), I didn't feel safe leaving her out there. If not him, someone else. PLUS people around here have big dogs, shoot guns a lot, drive drunk, act wild. Plus coyotes and foxes.

So, now I have her in my bathroom.

However, what if she has babies? I don't want them to die, but genuinely I simply do not feel like my neighborhood is safe for her right now, and I would not forgive myself if she ended up dying bc I waited too long to decide to bring her in.

I obviously don't want the babies to die tho!! But I can't find them and I'm very distraught.

Maybe she is pregnant, or maybe there are no kittens. i don't know. I need help!

Also, I am definitely adopting her, that's established. So she's mine now, I just really am worried about the babies.

Her nips are kind of prominent but don't look hugely engorged so idk if she's nursing or weaning or preg or what. I'm including a picture of them for context -- second slide

I think right now, the most helpful thing for me would be to have someone come and help maybe locate possible babies. Does anyone know of groups in Maryland (Bmore county) that would do that? I have actually reached out to multiple rescues but have not heard back via phone or via email.

I made a post here a couple days ago about my
struggle to catch a feral kitten. After a week of staying out until 5am, I’ve caught her!

This is Feather, named because she’d run around with her tail poofed up when she was stray and it looked like a bird feather. She’s 3.2 lbs, about 3 months old likely.

I brought her home and expected her to be spicy for ages but after a few hours of hissing she randomly let me pick her up and then instantly became a velcro cat. Less than 12 hours in my home and she’s already snuggling up, purring, making biscuits, and crying for attention from her playpen.

I’m going to see if my mother can adopt her so I know she’s going to a good home, but with how stuck she is to me I might end up keeping her myself. Though I’d have to hide her from my landlord until she’s a year old.

(First pic is her after being moved from the trap to the pen, the rest are her after becoming a velcro cat)

I know black cats are at the most risk around Halloween, but cats of all colors can be at risk as well. This is the first Halloween that I am caring for a feral cat colony. And I'm just wondering, do you take any precautions or do anything extra to keep them safe around Halloween? Or are they pretty fine on their own?

Any tips, tricks, advice, or personal stories/examples are appreciated!!

I hate breaking their trust like this. But, momma here, who I named Hazel, has an appointment first thing tomorrow morning to get spayed. So, I've spent the last week and a half feeding them in a crate that I could shut the door on. I eventually did it, but only got the kittens (Dennis [gold] and Max [gray]) at first, and it took forever to get Hazel too. Well, fast forward an hour and a half later, after a fight, I finally got them in the porch cage for the night. But, I'm wanting to make them as comfortable as possible for this temporary settlement. Hazel and Max look terrified and miserable (Dennis actually likes me) and I'm feeling incredibly guilty. Any advice?

I'm seeking the kind, loving, and responsible pawrents that are destined to be the lifelong companions to this inseparable pair: Fiona and Marlin! I took in Fiona off the streets in January when she was begging for shelter, and I have been fostering her ever since. I didn't realize until February that she was pregnant, and she gave birth to 5 kittens in my bathroom on March 1st. All of her kittens have since moved on to their furever homes, except for Marlin, who is absolutely enamored with his mama and will never part with her. A little bit about them:

Fiona is approximately 2 years old, spayed, dewormed, and FIV/FelV negative. She has a very serene demeanor and loves to snooze peacefully near her humans all through the day. She is unbelievably sweet and affectionate, always purring and accepting scritches. She's also vocal and has an adorable raspy meow that she's always dispatching to make Marlin fall in line. Though she's less energetic than her baby, she can definitely catch a bout of the zoomies at least once per day, and loves to wrestle with Marlin or chase a string toy.

Marlin is 5.5 months old, in-tact, and dewormed. He's lived indoors his whole life. He is very curious, adventurous and rambunctious and will entertain you all day long with his little boy antics. He is obsessed with his mommy and always running after her when she calls. When Fiona is purring and taking pets, he always runs in-between and tries to steal the pets for himself. Though he's too busy working off his zoomies to be a lap cat, he can be very sweet and affectionate when he winds down and he has an adorable little purr. He is also a vocal little man and has a perfectly practiced "whiny" meow to let you know when he's displeased.

You can check out Marlin and Fiona on Instagram @ realstreetcatsofJC

There is no adoption fee for these two, but we do require that the adopter schedule an appointment to get Marlin neutered through Liberty Humane Society as part of the adoption contract - I am happy to facilitate that.

If you are interested, please fill out This Adoption Inquiry Form. This form serves merely as a precursor to gauge compatibility and set up a meet and greet, it is NOT a commitment to adopt. If upon reading through the form we feel there is potential, we will reach out to schedule a call.

If you cannot adopt but would like to help these angels find their furever home, PLEASE help us by ENGAGING WITH THIS POST (like, comment, repost) and sharing with your network! It is common knowledge that adult cats are adopted far less easily than kittens. Marlin is still a kitten and I'd love for his human companions to experience the delight of witnessing him grow up. Tabbies are too often overlooked and we'd appreciate any boost we can get in circulating this post until it reaches the ones who are meant to love and be loved by Fiona and Marlin forever <3

This cat has been hanging around and I’m a bit perplexed because he does have an ear notch but very obvious balls (sorry for lack of a better term 😂)
Super sweet and friendly, doesn’t show signs of being unfixed but he also does look a bit young
Plus I feel like cats get the two lil notches as a standard in my town (example pic included)
Thank you 🖤

This is long, I apologize!!

Need ideas for a skunk-resistant, feral-friendly feeding setup that doesn’t make my house in my HOA neighborhood look like a junkyard. 😂

I’m in Central PA and care for a random group of TNR/community cats throughout my densely populated neighborhood. Around 50 cats have been TNR’d by my neighbors and me over the last five years.

Most are VERY feral and almost entirely nocturnal. They don’t show up at predictable times, won’t approach with people around, and rarely are more than 1–2 at my house at once. So unfortunately, the usual “put food out for 30 minutes and remove it” advice doesn’t work. I need food available for a good portion of the night.

The whole reason for this post: the skunks have discovered the buffet. 🙄🦨

I have two different situations:

FRONT PORCH — Gus:
Gus was bullied out back & now exclusively eats out front. He has a small heated deck-box shelter beside my tiny porch and eats on the porch. The porch is open on three sides, exposed to rain, and anything I put there can’t block the front door.
Eventually I’d like to build something like an elevated planter table that blends in rather than looking like a cat feeding station. I have neighbors who’ve already reported me to the HOA once for attracting wildlife via feeding cats, so appearance matters.

Unfortunately, Gus is currently injured and can’t jump or climb normally, so elevation isn’t an option for him right now. I’m working on retrapping him, to get him to the Vet again and he’s also FeLV/FIV+, so keeping his food accessible is important. He IS my favorite cat and the least feral. Other random cats eat out front as well but don’t bother Gus.

The skunks have recently discovered his food out front. 🤬

BACK PATIO — most everyone else:
I have a large 4’ deck box on the patio tgat originally started as a covered feeding station. When winter came, I turned it into an insulated shelter, put it up against the hottub (for extra heat) & added radiant chicken coop heaters to the ceiling & straw to bed in.

I’m considering putting the entire deck box on a sturdy table/platform high enough for the cats to jump into but skunks can’t.

*Has anyone actually tried this? *How high does it need to be to stop a skunk?
*What do the legs of the table need to look like so they can’t climb them like a ladder?
*Will cautious ferals figure out that they need to jump up to enter a box they’ve always accessed from the ground?

And since it becomes their winter shelter, would I ultimately need two deck boxes… 🤔 an elevated feeding box and a ground-level winter shelter that I don’t want the skunks to turn into a den…

I morally cannot hire an exterminator because they euthanize them in PA because they’re 🦨 a Rabies Vector Species (RVS).
I’m also open to humane skunk 🦨 deterrents that won’t scare extremely cautious cats away. Motion sprinklers, noises, alarms, etc. worry me for exactly that reason. I’ve even added solar lights around the feeding areas since skunks supposedly dislike light, but I’m convinced they do not bother them. 😂

I’m trying to keep everything compact, weather-resistant, inexpensive/DIY-able and, importantly, not horribly ugly. These are our actual porch and patio, and I don’t want my house looking like I’ve constructed a feral-cat shantytown. 😂 Also trying to keep my husband’s sanity or from thinking I’m losing mine.

I’d especially love pictures of setups that have ACTUALLY worked against skunks, along with heights/dimensions. And any ideas for protecting Gus’s ground-level food while he’s injured would be hugely appreciated. If I can get him repaired, it won’t matter.

Thanks from me, Gus, the shy ferals, and apparently every skunk, possum and raccoon in the neighborhood who thinks I’m running a 24-hour buffet. 🐈‍⬛🦨🤦‍♀️

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