I called a woman in the area who worked with feral cats and asked if someone had called her about a missing a cat. We spoke for a bit and after I gave her a description of the cat she was shocked. They had been trying for over a year to trap Feral so they could take the collar off of him.
I immediately went to her house and picked up a trap so I could try my hand at catching him. He didn't look good and the weather was starting to get very cold. He came out pretty much the same time every day so I put the trap by the truck, set the door so it would spring quickly closed, and put some yummy cat food inside the trap. I then walked away and went about my business. I looked out about ten minutes later and Feral was walking around the trap. I laughed to myself, thinking he was much too smart to fall for a trap. Low and behold, as I was about to walk away, he had gone in the trap and the door had slammed shut. I had the infamous Mr. Feral! I called the "cat" people and everyone was elated. My vet came by and picked him up so she could surgically remove the collar. It was embedded in his skin and the wound was open and infected.
After extensive surgery, it was too cold to let him outside so the woman who had fed him since he was small took him in. She kept him for months until the blizzard and cold weather had subsided. Mr. Feral lived in a room in her house but would stay under a chair, out of sight, from everyone. Even the vet had trouble checking him after surgery to make sure he was healing.
Finally the day came to release Feral. The door was opened and he ran out. I don't think he's returned to her house since. I didn't see him for about a week and then he appeared under the truck one day. Over the next year I fed him, talked to him, and he slowly started to cross the street and come in our yard.
Luna, the feral that we adopted, had also been born in the sewer and was being fed by the same woman who fed Feral. When I sent her a picture of Luna she couldn't believe her eyes. She had been trying to trap Luna, whom she thought was a male, to have her neutered. She said she never saw Luna again. I laughed because Luna had shown up at our doorstep, sat on our stoop for three nights, and when we let her in she had eight kittens the following week. She was about one year old at the time.
Our feral guard cat :)
Feral doesn't seem to mind Leo as long as there is a piece of glass separating them.
One day I was talking to Feral and I reached down when he was eating and he let me pet him. From that point on he seeks me out and I can pet him, very carefully. He is still jumpy and afraid and will slap me sometimes. That boy sure can purr!
Every night Feral peeks in the back window and waits for me to come out and pet him. He has a wood house under our picnic table that is insulated and filled with straw. I had to start bringing the dry cat food in at night because the raccoons were eating it.
Here is Feral recovering after getting stitches. I trapped Feral last night and the vet picked him up today to look at his old wound. I had seen a hole under his arm when he had rolled over one day. The vet cleaned it out, stitched it up, got him up to speed on his shots, and brought him back to us. We'll keep him inside until he heals and then let him out. He's a sweet boy!
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