‘This yard is her entire world’: After 8 months of befriending the neighborhood feral cat who lacks survival skills, a kind neighbor purrvides an indoor home for a single-braincelled orange kitty

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
May 15, 2025 10:00 PM EDT

Feral cats are not like indoor cats—they pawsess far more of their ancestor's survival traits like hunting, climbing, and human avoidance. Unsocialized ferals are usually the neighborhood rat watchers, providing a dutiful service to clear out the vermin in the streets and be beautiful, untouchable felines in the distance whenever hoomans are around. 

However, sometimes there are feral felines that don't have an ounce of survival skills, and these kitties find themselves in a pickle. Unable to fathom catching their own food with their own two paws, these outdoor cats crave the cuddles and the protection of a human companion, but are too scared to approach. This ginger cat in our next tale was the spicy lone-survivor kitten in a litter of feral cats born in the courtyard of an apartment complex, but despite being the only living descendant of a witty feral cat, this fluffy orange almost never got full use of the orange cat collective braincell. 

Keep scrolling to read about how a feral cat with no survival skills ended up befriending the one hooman who would give him a chance. 

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  • Hi everyone So around 8 months ago a female cat gave birth to 4 ginger kittens in our apartments yard. In the span of 3 months 3 of the kittens d d of disease. One
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  • of them d d when he was a month old he was the only long haired kitten and was missing for a week until I found his body... the other one d d at 2 months
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  • and the mom abandoned the remaining two after her passing. One of the last surviving kittens also passed away when he was 3 months old (they all had eye
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  • infection as their eyes were closed and I think they had respiratory infection as well). Now only one kitten remained a full ginger kitten who was also
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  • the smallest in the litter and since their mother had abandoned them he had none of the survival skills a cat usually has like climbing walls, hunting etc. we
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  • kept feeding him and he started getting used to us but he was "no touch" I mean I couldn't pet him like at all. Recently I've realized he's actually a she. We've grown
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  • fond of her and I've been thinking about adopting her as she hasn't left the apartment yard in the 7_8 months of her life (she can't leave and she thinks this yard is
    via Alien684
  • her entire world and I'm sure she can't survive outside even if she gets out of the yard) other cats bu y her especially adult males and some of our neighbors are
    via Alien684
  • not happy about her living in the yard and are complaining. I want to bring her home and keep but I have a question... how do I get her to trust me more? She's used to us but I want her to feel
    via Alien684
  • completely safe around me and my family. Catching her won't be an issue as she loves eating and I'm going to set some food in a box to catch her; that's also how I'm trying to pet her recently;
    via Alien684
  • when she's busy eating I slowly pet her but if she realizes I'm petting her she smacks me with her paw and hisses at me. I want her to not be scared when she's at home with us or when she needs a bath or checkup at the vet. Any advice is highly appreciated.
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  • spicykitty93 The first step should be TNR. She will end up pregnant soon, if not already, if you don't act fast. You can trap her without being able to touch her. What the organization I work with does, is we get them
    via spicykitty93
  • used to eating in the traps for about a week first. We ziptie them open so that they don't shut when they step on the trip plate like it usually does. We use enticing wet food or sardines. When the cats
    via spicykitty93
  • are used to eating in there, when it's time to trap for the clinic day, we cut the zip ties. Then when they go in for the food and step on the plate, the trap will shut behind them. We cover the trap
    via spicykitty93
  • ASAP to help calm them down, while they are waiting for their appointment. You could try to bring her inside after this, or you could release her and try to tame her outside.
    via spicykitty93
  • Play can be a huge tool in socialization. Try a wand toy with a bird or other prey on the end.. see if you can get her interested in that. Another thing I've found successful was just sitting outside on the
    via spicykitty93
  • ground with her. Initially I would ignore her, because she didn't want me to look at her. I would scroll on my phone or read out loud. And I would talk to her and narrate what I was doing while I fed her.
    via spicykitty93
  • Eventually, that plus play got her to come much closer to me, but she still didn't want touch yet. Handheld treats like Churu or Delectables were a godsend for this. Before she would eat them
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  • from my hand, I would take them and squirt some on the ground, creating a trail that led her to me. Eventually I got her to lick it directly off my hands. Soon after, I was able to pet her while feeding them to her. It was smooth sailing from there. She lives in my house now.
    via spicykitty93
  • Since yours is a bit older, it may very well take longer. That window for socialization is pretty short early on, but it still should be easier than socializing a feral adult. There is also the Socialization Saves Lives method you can search on Google. Best of luck! Please update us with your progress.
    via spicykitty93
  • Calm Cry1981. I've done this plenty of times. I get a can of Fancy Feast shrimp and tuna flaked, plate it, and sit about 5ft away, move plate closer every feeding. Don't move it too close really fast though. Talk softly and
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  • extend your arm and wiggle your fingers. After the cat is close enough to you, maybe the kitty will rub on your hand.... let the cat get used to you on her terms. Then you know you've won the cat over.
    via Calm_Cry1981

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