# Anyone here adopted adult stray cat/s?



## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

I have two former strays at home, one is believed to be about 5 years old, the other about 3. I realize that there are differences when a cat was born and lived in the street all their lives and suddenly form part of a household, so I'm hoping to hear about the experiences of those who have coped or are coping with this kind of challenge...


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

According to the Humane Society, Sinatra was a stray cat. He acts very similar to most house cats. No challenge.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

Sinatra-Butters said:


> According to the Humane Society, Sinatra was a stray cat. He acts very similar to most house cats. No challenge.


Change out "Sinatra" to MowMow and same deal.


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## dweamgoil (Feb 3, 2010)

I know Egypt was the only one of my cats who was an actual stray. I posted about her in this thread from last November:

http://www.catforum.com/forum/36-cat-chat/137546-egypt-my-little-birthday-girl.html


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## crstroik (Aug 20, 2011)

Growing up my family adopted a 10 year old orange giant tomcat named Bluto. Now he had been at the shelter for several months at that point, but had definitely been a feral cat before that. He had no ears, a chewed up face, and was absolutely the loveliest cat we ever had. Had 6 wonderful years with him before he passed.


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Captain Jack is an adult stray I picked up off the streets around my house. He's adapted quite well to indoor life. He doesn't even look like he wants to go back outside. He doesn't make mad dashes at the door when I open it. In fact, if I see him near the glass doors for the yard, I open the door and he's already leaving.

He has no litterbox issues and diligently uses them. The only think is he has a fixation with food. He will tell me rather loudly when it's almost time to feed him and he'll do almost anything for food. I think it has to do with his time on the street when food wasn't available on a consistent basis.

Another difference I noticed was he didn't know how to play! In the beginning, he was simply too scared to do anything. He spent a lot of time just watching Miu play but he'd be sitting there all tense. After a couple of months, he relaxed and finally he started to play with the toys. It was funny cuz he did it awkwardly like he'd never played with toys before.

Depending on what happened to them, they might be skittish and wary. Since they may learn that as a defense mechanism. Captain Jack is the first one to run if anything seems untoward. New situations or people cause him concern whereas Miu is usually brave and curious. He'll run and perhaps hide while Miu will either investigate or sit off in the distance assessing the situation. I found repeated exposure helps him to accept things though. An example is the vacuum cleaner. He was frightened out of his mind at first, but now he'll allow it to come quite close before he walks off.


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## tghsmith (Dec 9, 2010)

tammi feral cat was trapped by us, she was a little more than a year old, had every parasite, looked like she had and lost kittens, and was the wildest of wildest things. she is now known as tammi lap magnate.. smokey was wild and making a good living off the birdfeeders, he lives in an outdoor kennel now, still shows his wild every now and then, but all in all is good cat,smokey tamed down in 2 months tammi was 2 year battle..


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## tarah44 (Jul 18, 2011)

Smirkitty said:


> TomTom was a stray, and the only difference we see is that he likes to bury his leftover supper to save for later. Needless to say it doesn't work that well with linoleum floors


Ha ha that made me laugh very loud! 

It's not exactly the same scenario but our Angel was born to a feral mom who abandoned her kittens at 4 weeks of age. My mom and a friend had to tear apart an old mouldy mattress to get to the kittens. It was in an old barn on my mom's friend property. She said she had not seen mom cat in days. It's been a long time so my numbers may be slightly off, but my mom brought 7 or 8 kittens home, a few died right away but she managed to save the rest and re-home saving the adorable Torbi with a blaze down her nose for us. Although she was very young Angel has been skittish her whole life. When we have multiple guests over we have to set her up in a room, otherwise she will hide in the most awkward places for hours after everyone is left. We spent 2 hours coaxing her out of a vent once. I don't mind having a skittish cat but she's not as bad as an adult stray or feral can be. She was socialized quite young so as long as it's never been a big issue for us. I think their instinctual impulses have a lot do to with their early years and experiences. Time and love will calm them down.....I think for adult strays it just takes a bit longer.


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## Goldtanker (Jan 9, 2011)

Midnight, the wild cat, refuses to produce any ID whatsoever,and, when pressed - Just pretends to be an innocent house-cat, licking his paw. Yeah - Right!


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Alpaca, that all sounds just like Princess Gatita. A neighbor who adopted her litter mate at birth told me they were born in the street here. 

Prince is a lot more gentle, he loves playing and knew toys well. For this and other reasons I think he used to be a house cat that got thrown out. 

PG doesn't play with the toys; she attacks them and kills them, then goes to sleep. Often she'll be playing (or maybe for her it's defending herself?) and suddenly run to hide from the toy under the bed. I wonder if she's really playing.


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

tghsmith, is tammi's story in some thread that I could read?


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## AmberH (Jul 20, 2011)

My Oden found me one evening while I was mowing the yard. He was skin and bones and covered in fleas. He was also already neutered and declawed on all four feet. I told myself if he stuck around for a week then he was offically mine. That is longer than the humane society gives for a stray hold. Well, he did. He lived outside for about a year. When I moved, I was to paranoid to turn him loose at the new house so I brought him in. He did great. I think he was an inside cat before he came to me but he still really loves the outdoors. 

Now Possum, I'm almost certain that he was an inside cat too. Animal control found him and brought him to the shelter which is strange because they don't pick up cats. He was covered in cat lice and mange and looked liked total crap. Well, he's better now, obviously and settled back into live perfectly. He's probably the best cat ever!


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Amber, do you have any before and after photos? I just love those!


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