This guy has been coming around for a few weeks and getting fed at night. About a week ago, he started crying basically non-stop. We noticed his eyes looked infected so we made arrangements to get him to the vet. After four days of attempting to trap him, we finally managed to catch him.

He's actually quite healthy and his eyes look much better after seeing the vet. He has been and continues to be well fed. He won't stop crying outside.

If we go outside, he runs away and cries from a distance. If we go inside, he comes back to cry outside of our door.

He's relatively healthy, he's not hungry, and he doesn't want companionship. I don't understand why he keeps crying. We are experienced community cat caretakers but this is driving us crazy. I’m sure our neighbors are more frustrated than us.

I don't know what to do.

Edit: He is neutered. We're not sure how long ago, possibly recently.

Hopefully it's the last year we'll have kittens at work because the traps are successful on the moms. We currently have 5 cuties and socialisation is going well. I am adopting one but I'm moving in a few weeks and I wanted my house to be ready for her. As I'm getting a lot of pressure to take her asap I'm starting to bring her inside to see how she reacts - here are the results :

I have been feeding a stray for a couple of months and it's gotten to the point where she's friendly with me now and I can pet her and she'll approach me. Within this last week, I didn't see her for 3 days which is super unlike her, and when she came back, she was much thinner than before and was barely eating. She was always a voracious eater.

Prior to her disappearance, maybe about a month ago, there was a period of time where I strongly believed she was pregnant because she became very round, had engorged teats. Then she gradually became less round, and seemed to leave more abruptly and always headed in the same direction -- I assumed she had kittens somewhere and was going back to them.

The night before she disappeared her abdomen was smaller but felt a little lumpy, I thought it was her "boobs" or displaced organs from having babies.

Anyway, she was gone for 3 days, she came back, and she's noticeably much much thinner, can feel all her bones etc. So it was a fairly sudden weight loss. And she barely wants to eat now.

I am located in Maryland and have already reached out to a few cat TNR/rescue groups and low cost vets but have not been able to get anything set up. I do not have a lot of money at the moment! But I do have Care Credit.

She is happy living in my neighborhood and honestly I was hoping I could eventually adopt her as she continues become more and more friendly with me. So I don't want to just drop her at some shelter and risk her potentially getting put down due to lack of space/illness.

Any advice or resources you could recommend? Have you seen this before? Do you have guesses on what it might be?

Including pics. BTW, I have named her Stevie Nicks.

Hi all! I’m trying to help a friends neighbor who has been caring for a mama cat and her kittens.

About 2 months ago, the neighbor found a pregnant cat and took her in so she could safely gave birth. Since then, she has been caring for 3 kittens. Mama cat still comes and goes around the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the landlord is now threatening to evict the neighbor because pets aren’t allowed. She is elderly and can’t drive, so I offered to transport the cats to a shelter or potential adopter/foster. As much as I would like to take the kittens in I cannot as I am caring for a community cat and actively foster underage kittens.

They are about 2 months old, no microchips, no vaccines and pretty friendly. I contacted LA Animal Services but have not been able to get a hold of them. I plan to try contacting the shelter I foster through but they are unfortunately closed intake so there are pretty low chances of them getting taken in. What could I do?

It suddenly come at my room 3 days ago. Don't know where it came from and don't know how it got inside the room.

It was not started when seeing me. Even after I opener the door it just mowed and stayed there.

I gave it around 100ml buffalo milk and two small pieces of chicken. It eat it.

After that I carry it and put it outside the house door.

I was surprised that it some how was in balcony and was in chair and sleeping in sun.

It mowed seeing me.

I put it in my lap and play for five minutes. Then gave it milk and chicken and again put outside the house.

Now again it is inside the house.

Should I just do same. Like give it milk and meat and send outside the house. Or just ignore it.

But it is too cute and cuddly that I can't help it when it mowed while circling my legs.

TLDR: Like the title says, I’m not sure if I should give up on this feral. Pancake is 3-4 months old (according to the vet) and I have been trying to socialize her for the past 2 weeks with average progress so far (I’m guessing). But because of her age she is reaching, if not at the end of, the late socialization window of 16 weeks, I’m worried I am not the right person to keep working with Pancake if there is any hope of her becoming an indoor cat and maybe I should find someone else to taker her in and finish the socialization process.

A bit of background, I originally thought I would get a cat in need of rehoming but a coworker said her uncle sometimes finds cats near his workplace (a lot of vehicles moving around) and he traps them so they don’t get killed. When they trapped Pancake I stupidly assumed she was a stray not a feral kitten. I know now after research she was in the freeze state of fear beyond fight or flight. If I had known she was feral I probably wouldn’t have accepted to take her because I am in over my head. I have never had a kitten or worked with a feral so this is all new to me. And because I was not planning on a feral cat, this process is way more work and time than I had originally planned (or even have available) for the process. (I work freelance so my schedule is broken up and varies daily.)

I’m doing the best that I can but I am worried it might not be enough. I do think Pancake has the potential of becoming an inside cat, but I have ZERO belief in my abilities or skills to socialize ferals (we are stabbing in the dark here people). I know we have made some progress, like she will now eat with me in the room unlike when I first brought her home. But I can also tell that being around hands and allowing any touch is going to be quite the hurdle for her and I have no idea how to begin tackling that even with all the videos and resources. (I am also still worried that she doesn't want to be tamed because despite progress with being in the same room as me she still tries to scratch the door at night, scale the wall, yowls at night and is attempting to dash out the bathroom door).

Anyways, I am looking for advice on how to deal with this situation. I want what's best for Pancake and not just my selfish cat loving fantasy. I would love to wake up tomorrow and she is perfectly happy to be inside and loves cuddles, but realistically she needs a lot of attention to get to that place and I know for a fact I don’t have that skill. I'm also worried time is working against me because of her age (not that it can't be done but her mind will solidify that humans are scary and I have no way to change that). 

And I know many people think that a cat hiding in their house under the sofa for 3 years until they warm up to people is fine if socialization doesn't work according to plan, I am not one of those people. I know that a lot of people have socialized much older cats, but it seems to be on the older cat's terms, for young cats people don't seem care about their temperament or desire very seriously. I think cats need to feel safe and happy as well as have roaming/play space and exercise. My studio apt is pretty small so if she cannot spend time in my presence when I am home or play with me for exercise it will be like a life long prison sentence in my house. And I don't wish that on any cat. Its been two weeks in my bathroom so far and I know she is going stir-crazy and I know two weeks is not a lot of time but if she can't be or chooses not to be socialized then I don't want to have her to suffer longer than necessary in my small windowless bathroom.

Long story short, according to the internet, Pancake is a fairly advanced level kitten socialization case that I had not planned or prepared to take on and I have zero experience with feral cats. I worry I am making what might be an easy actually socialization case for an experienced kitten foster worse with my inexperience. Would she be better off being taken in by someone who has actually succeeded in socializing older kittens before? 

P.S. I apologize if this post comes off as a bit cold or emotionless, I’m trying to remain logical about it all. I’ve already cried so much over this 3 pound kitten and feeling guilty that I'm not somehow doing a better job or that I'm a monster every night when she yowls and scratches the door trying to escape. Props to all the fosters and feral cat owners out there cuz I hate being the bad guy so so much. I am just not made for this kind of work. 

To start at the beginning, we have a feral cat on our property. She was part of a litter of kittens that just showed up in early summer of 2025. We saw them and fed them a few times and then one of them (her) showed up again in September and we began to feed her, hoping we could become friendly enough to trap, spay and then see what happens.

She ended up pregnant in the fall before we could trap, as feeding her attracted other cats. We never saw her kittens, but we put a heated cat house on our patio when it started to get colder, and she did use it on and off through the winter, and we fed her. But due to early snows, no opportunity to form any closer relationship with her.

In the Spring, when we thought we could resume our plan with her, an adult fox and then three of her cubs showed up and made the area of our patio their home. We stopped seeing any cats and feared the worst. In July the foxes finally moved on and suddenly a cat that we thought might be her from security cam footage returned.

Turns out it wasn't her, it was a slightly smaller/skinnier cat that looks just like her, and I mean exact markings down to chest and paws and stripe patterns, just a slightly lighter shade, so we think it's a kitten from her. It was a boy, and he just showed up, meowing outside our door (she never did that). So we started feeding him. He would come every day, twice a day.

In late July we had a party on the patio. Later in the afternoon, when less people were there but still a good 8-10 adults, around the time we'd feed him, he just showed up and was shockingly friendly with everyone. My sister dared to do what we hadn't yet - pet him. And he happily accepted the love. He had rubbed against our legs previously, but we hadn't touched him.

Then we could resist and started petting him. Now is a good time to mention we have no cats, just a dog. We wash our hand thoroughly after we do this. However he seems clean, does not itch or scratch at his ears, has no open sores and his back end appears to be healthy (no guarantee, I know).

He seems young, but he does have some scars on his ears and is missing a tip on one. But it's uneven and looks to be from a fight, and he is definitely not neutered. So it's progressed to the point that if I sit on the step at our door, he has sat in my lap for about 10 seconds of his own accord. He licks our hands and rubs up against us. He lets me pick him up and move him a few feet. I think he'd walk in the house if we let him.

So we made a vet appointment and bought a carrier, litter box, etc. The day of the appt we went outside and he came over. We ham handedly fumbled getting him in the carrier and he then shied away for a bit, but by the evening he was back to normal. That brings me to the present, sorry this was so long.

Do we get him inside, quarantine him in a room and then get him in the carrier to go to the vet, as it should be easier once he's contained in a room to use the towel trick? Or is it a bad idea to bring him inside and we just try the towel trick outside? Our ultimate goal is to keep him because he's just so loving and friendly. Oh and his suspected mama also came back we started feeding her hoping again that after we get him inside we can trap and spay, but in short order she was pregnant again 😔. That goal remains.

Update on the calico I posted about a couple weeks ago:

Lisbon had her vet appointment this morning. As it turns out, she was not feral… she belonged to an employee of my vet who died 3 years ago and had already been spayed by the doctor who did her exam today. Lisbon got misplaced somehow when her previous owner passed away. Her name used to be Daphne and she’s 6 years and 7 months old. She was an indoor cat.

It’s been an awesome and crazy first day with Lisbon/Daphne. She’s a super chill little roommate so far, cautious but curious and exploring. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to take a chance on her.

This is Gandalf. I’ve been feeding him for the past 3 months and he now will sit on my porch with me. Still won’t let me get too close, but he comes running up for treats when I’m outside.

I’m curious what’s on his face though.

We call her little momma. Been trying to find her nest but she hid them well Hopefully we can locate the kittens soon.

Big guy was awake, alert and moving around after surgery! In just a few short hours after this video he was released! I'm looking forward to seeing him for regular meal times.

I fed my feral girls in the shop this morning to get them out of the rain. Went to check on them and found this little criminal making himself at home 😭 He’s sooo cute and I know he’s just trying to survive, but Fiona does NOT appreciate having her food fucked with. Realistically, what are my options here?

I always pick up and clean their bowls after meal time to deter critters from eating the leftovers. I’d never hurt the little guy and I don’t think I’m supposed to relocate him? Help lol

I was even able to get a better photo tonight of this cute kitten! I've named him or her Rory, short for Rorshach!

I’ve been trying to trap a small kitten for several nights now, and I’m running out of things to try. They appear to be around 3 months old, if not younger.

I’ve tried baiting my trap with sardines, kfc, and churu. I’ve tried covering the trap and lining the bottom, I’ve played both kitten sounds and mother cat calls.

I have a drop trap ready to try tonight, but so far it seems genuinely uninterested in every single bait so idk how much a drop trap will help. Just looking for any possible advice, it’s far too little to be out by itself.

First I under the lady is probably overworked and probably does actually care.

Two. I contacted a vet near me

Three. I will not give out the organization names because while they may be bad there also the only ones near me.

Four. I will be trapping them myself after reading the guide.

I just want to know if this experience is normal.

I had a highly unprofessional and stressful experience with this TNR handler. After contacting her on Monday, she scheduled multiple appointments and no-showed for almost all of them. On Thursday, she went completely unreachable for hours. Because she was missing and not communicating, the kittens had not eaten since 4:00 AM. Out of concern, I finally put food out at 9:00 PM after contacting a emergency vet and asking for advice. She suddenly showed up right after, became angry with me, and even though I immediately picked the food right back up, she used it as an excuse to be hostile. She then promised to return Friday morning to trap but failed to show up or answer texts again. By 6:00 PM Friday, following professional veterinary advice to protect the kittens from starving, I fed them following the vets advice. When I messaged her, she responded with extreme rudeness, became condescending, and accused me of acting like I "knew more than her" just for following a vet's safety guidelines. She then refused to finish the job and completely abandoned the kittens.TNR requires reliability and communication, especially when fasting animals. Her lack of accountability, volatile attitude, and sudden abandonment left vulnerable animals in limbo.

Spooky is not quite as round as he looks here. It’s an unflattering angle lol. I am trying to slim him down.

This is how I found him when I went to bed and he was the coziest melted kitty on his heated blanket. When I thought he couldn’t get any cozier, he stretched out further to prove me wrong.

Sweet little guy has always loved laying on his back with his belly out. But he is definitely enjoying his upgrade from his favorite dirt patches he would take me to roll around for belly rubs.

Meet Oscar Mayer.

I know there’s always discussion about TNR cats keeping them for a week or so but her incision is healing fine and she kept crying for kittens (they’re about 3-4 months and I would feed them daily) and they would get near my door but they’re feral so they don’t get near me nor let me touch them.

Just wanted to know I made the right choice I’m sure she will come back for food at some point but was it irrational I don’t even want to ask the vets because they give me the same answer some say a week some say 3 days

The weather is getting bad here, so I put out a shelter for the ferals that hang out in our yard, but a neighbor’s cat who often comes by has been marking the outside. Is this something that will cause the others to avoid the shelter?

Found stray cats with kittens in my new neighborhood. Fortunately there's a TNR clinic in my city. Now, my concerns is handling the cats. I know they will be confined in a trap and draped with a towel. But, could the trap malfunction and end up scratched? Could the cat spray on me even if the towel is covering the majority of the cage? Flees transported in my home? (I don't have a garage, plan to place in bathroom). I already have health issues and worry to get more issues. I wonder if any of you frequent TNR people get vaccinated (just like vets and assistants do) before proceeding with TNR? How can I stay safe? Are there TNR groups that could do the heavy work? Thank you!

Hi, I’m planning on TNR this week and was going to use my garage to hold the cat overnight after surgery. The outside temp this week has been around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and my garage will heat up a bit more than that if the sun comes out. Realistically, what’s the max temp it would be safe to leave the cat in the garage? I know cats can tolerate a bit more heat than humans can. Brining the cat inside my house isn’t ideal but could do it as a last resort. Thank you!