crying cat outside, what to do?

Good morning:

Chelle here.

Several weeks ago I trapped a medium sized to small gray tabby/white mix male. He was neutered, rabies shot, combo test negative. He bit the vet and was put in rabies observation for 10 days. I took him home and put him in a cage since I had two others in the same room with him, one who was sick and the other who was very dominant and may have started a fight. Medium sized dog crate covered with a blanket. He went used the box, and on the third day I noted much less stool in the box. He would not drink much. He would not eat at all. I put him back outside at 11:30 p.m. near my portch. I tried lots of stuff to get him to eat, but the vet said he would be in danger if he did not eat for more than 3 days. 2.5 weeks later he came back to my house. I feed him, but he is still very frightened. He is not a dominant cat and is not a good food competitor. He spends a few hours a day lounging around my portch, and he cries so very much. I can't see any open wounds, broken extremities, he moves well and runs without a limp. Any ideas on what he would want with all the crying? All my inside cats are fixed. He is fixed.

Maybe he wants to come in...... does he let you pet him?

Good morning:

Well ...

He acts like he wants me to pet him but when I open the door he runs.

He also cries when going around the gate in the next yard.

He hever has let us pet him.

I wonder if he wants me to follow him, which I can't do because the neighbor gate is such that I can't open it, it is a privacy fence, and the neighbor is gone.

He has been coming up and crying several times a day ever since he showed up again.

I can, however, talk to him, and he does seem to pay attention to me.

Chelle.

'The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they SUFFER?'

Chelle

Well I was feeding this stray who would do the exact same thing

Feral cats do not meow at you. What you are discribing is a once friendly cat who has been through the hell of being a stray and no longer trusts people. I'd trap the cat again bring him in and put him in a cage.

Your vet is wrong as well 3 days isn't dangerous if he doesn't eat for a week then worry but I'm sure in 4 to 5 days he'll be eating. Its just such a huge shift for him coming in that it often takes time to them to even want to eat. I doubt your vet has had many cats like this the information he gave you makes sense for house cats but not for this type of situation. I bet you'll find that in a few weeks this cat is showing signs of trusting you and wanting to be petted.

I often get cats in that don't want to eat. I can't just put a rescue cat back out into danger just because its not eating. We recently had a pregnant feral we traped and where considering aborting and returning when she hadn't eaten for 5 days on the 6th day she ate and has been fine since.

Well, there is no telling what they did at the vet's office after he bit them. They are probably okay foks, but I can't watch them as they only take the animals back and not let the people into the rooms like other vets do.

His cry is higher pitched and squeaky. H rubs agains the doorjam and the stick I use to keep the door open. He may actually be living under the porch now. I trapped him once. I don't know if he would be hungry enough or too trap wary for it to work again. I will try putting some of the Bach's on his dry food maybe. He seems to have a hard time eating wet food, hard for him to pick up. We have a current infestation of hookworms, the cat next door had them also, and he may have a tummy full of worms. We found out about the neighbor cat last night. I will see if I can get a bottle of wormer tablets (I know thay make them for dogs) for cats at PetsMart or something, and see if I can crumble them up into the dry food. I do talk to him, and he will look at me and sometimes acts like he is really trying to understand what I am saying. I probably should not have let him go, but I was not sure what else to do with him, and at the time I had a dominant cat whom I thought might try to bite him or attack him. She is another story. I always seem to end up with two or three kitties at a time. I have one under treatment for hookworm. And I have a second who i am going to start on this afternoon.

Chelle

'The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they SUFFER?'

n article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it >,

Heh. I've trapped many cats multiple times. I didn't want to, they just wanted the food in there and had no apparent fear of the trap. I call them my pain-in-the-neck ferals (and some of them *are* genuinely feral; agressive, violent when confronted). It's a real problem keeping them away from the traps.

Then there are the ones who won't go in even once unless they're starving. A whole 'nother story.