# Help! Can't find the strength to trap a feral cat.



## Minita (May 22, 2021)

Hi!

Hang in there, the story is a little long but will try to make it as short as possible. 🙂

I live in a great neighborhood with greenery and well taken cared of open backwards.

A feral cat has been visiting my backward for a few months. I live in a very cold part of the world where winters can be as low as -35 Celcius. I see him out during winters too. He looks like a feral cat, thin but muscular, with fighting wounds, not neutered.

I posted a picture of him on Facebook and surprisingly, a young woman showed up at my house saying he was hers! In a nutshell, she told me that she lives with her parents and her cat lives and is fed outside at all times. She told me that it had been weeks since he didn't come to ask for food though.

I also got a reply from a neighbour saying that she fed him twice a day for the past months (all through winter).

With the young owner, we agreed that we would stop feeding him so he could find his way home (same neighborhood).

It has been weeks and the cat never returned, nor did she did anything to get him back. He is still visiting my backyard everyday and fighting with any other cats
that are on "his" territory (that includes my 3 neutered female cats). He is also looking for food, waiting at the door.

Upon the suggestion of my local shelter, I am now in the process of trapping him and bringing him to them... But for some reasons, I feel torned and can't seem to do it.

One day I feel bad for him for getting him out of this great environment that he had known forever, other days I just feel like he may not be adopted at all. It is just spiralling in my head and Ican't seem to be able to do it! I am a woman living on her own and very autonomous. But when it comes to animals, I think I am just overly empathic... Which is not a bad thing but in situations like this I am stalling.

I am very interested in your opinions and comments about this, it may give me the push I need to go ahead! It is the first time I am doing this..

Thank you!


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## Mosi (May 17, 2021)

I think I would feel the same way in your position.
There's another option, though. What if you caught him in the live trap, took him to be neutered, and then took him to the woman who said he was hers? Or, another option is what if you got him neutered and then released him again and fed him?

Where I live, there are catch-neuter-release programs, and the local shelter will even loan you the traps to do it, or you can call one of the organizations that do this and they will come and do it. I don't know if any of that is available where you live.

A cat who is out all winter where you live (and I have lived in the North Country myself) has to be one tough survivor. If he's never lived in a house he may not be very adaptable to being a pet. But if he were neutered it could make him less inclined to get into fights.

BTW....I do not think you are overly empathetic. At all. Or, if you are then so am I and so are all the other millions of people who know that animals have the same feeling we do and deserve our respect and protection!


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