Pets
sassypants527
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Need some guidance, please (a tad long)
in Pets
DH and I live in a really small town that isn't technically a town anymore. People around here let their animals roam, and it drives me insane! Mostly dogs, esp. hunting dogs, but there are some cats, too. One young cat in particular has been really friendly and comes and goes around here with great frequency--more and more frequently of late. I (and DH) want to adopt her, but we're unsure of her provenance. I went for a walk yesterday and asked anyone I saw if they knew the cat or her owners, and most common response was that they didn't know who she belonged to if anyone, but that they would feed her and some of them would let her come inside. She's a total love, and when she comes to our house she tries to come inside, but we have 3 cats already, and I know all about FIV and FLV and other communicable diseases, and I want to protect our brood. I wash my hands and change clothes every time I handle "Clover" (yes, I named her after our town). If we took her in, she'd go straight to the vet for a clean bill of health, naturally. My concern is this: I am worried about taking her out of the only environment she's ever known--the outdoors--and bringing her inside. I've had barn cats as a child, and my kitties that I've had as an adult have all been rescue cats from shelters/family, but never kitties that went from outdoors to strictly indoors. I could not with good conscience allow a kitty to be indoor-outdoor, esp. around here where we have a moderately busy 2-lane state highway running right outside our door and live a mile from a majorly busy 4-lane state highway. Can you help me?
Re: Need some guidance, please (a tad long)
I volunteer at a shelter and we get strays in all the time that go from living outside to enjoying the indoors. It can definitely be done! I think you should rescue this one
)
My SIL rescued a cat off the street in her old neighborhood and although they let their cats out (which drives me nuts), this one doesn't like to go outside. I always say "Lucy knows the good life is inside!"
I just took in and adopted out a foster cat who was an outside cat before I got him.
It will be an adjustment, but she'll do okay. The cat I fostered would still go to the door like he expected you to let him out, but I'd just tell him "no" and redirect him to a toy or something. You had to watch when you opened the door so he didn't dart out, but that's not a big deal. We would just put him in the guest room before we went anywhere.
You are right, inside is safer than outside. I hope you can keep the kitty--she sounds adorable.
Snow!
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DReplace small town with major city, and I could have written this story. Our friendly stray was named Hunter, and he was a total love. We knew he had been outside at least 2 years. He had tons of battle wounds, and several large abscesses. We assumed he would be FIV+, which was not a deal breaker for us.
We took him in, he settled right in, perfectly clean bill of health, and he couldn't be happier now.
It can definitely be done. We took in an approximately 8 month old feral cat this past July, and she has integrated wonderfully with our crew.
Two of our cats came from living on the streets to being indoor kitties. One still has interest in going out, but the other is terrified of outside. We've successfully transitioned a lot of fosters as well. I'd say she's already socialized, as long as she has some toys, etc inside I'm sure she will adjust just fine!
As for FIV, just be aware that it is rarely spread between fixed indoor only cats who are healthy (not immune compromised). We foster them and they share food, water, toys, beds, etc with my cats and have never had any issues or fears about it spreading. I think there is a section in the FAQ or you can PM me if she tests positive (very unlikely, cats rarely have it and females even more rarely).