Feral Cats Can Become Domestic Cats
Feral Cats Can Become Domestic Cats
by Corie
(Nashville, TN)

Falcor at about a year old with his brothers.
I don't have feral cats in my neighborhood, but my cat Falcor was a feral cat. Falcor is a 12lb orange and white male. His mother was virtually a feral barn cat and his father was a stray that had turned feral.
I got him from a woman who was giving away kittens out of a box in a Walmart parking lot. The woman's husband had managed to catch the kittens and she was trying to find homes for them.
While I realize she was trying to do a good thing. Falcor was in terrible shape. He had fleas to the point of being anemic and had been in some kind of accident that caused him to lose full movement in his hips.
I already had two cats when I adopted him, but I had no idea what I was getting into. The first couple of days Falcor seemed normal, just sick.
Then he got better and his personality emerged in full force. He was terrified of me and my roommate and attacked my other kittens, even though they were four weeks older and much bigger than he was.
He wouldn't let anyone touch him, ran from us, and though he never bit either of us, he did scratch us to get away from us. I was heartbroken. I had never had a cat that hated me before, but with time he adjusted.
One day I was sitting on the couch and he walked up to me and rubbed against my legs. He wouldn't let me pet him, but I knew there was hope. He is now 3 1/2 years old and though he still shies away from me sometimes if I reach to pet him and startle him, he sleeps in the bed and with me, is completely attached to my other cats, and has regained almost full motion in his hips.
He will never be the kind of cat who sits on your laps for hours or follows you around the house, but people who meet him are always shocked to find out he was a feral cat.
Whenever I hear people bad mouth feral cats or talk about killing them I tell them his story. Most people believe that there is no hope for feral cats and their kittens, but he is living proof that there IS hope and all it requires is a little hard work and a lot of patience.
Thank you for your hard work to save these cats and your humane advice on how to handle them.
Corie
See also: Taming wild feral cats and kittens
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