To Be Or Not To Be Feral, That Is The Question

In December I transferred five cats classified as feral from Chicago Animal Care and Control, CACC. The plan was to spay and neuter/vaccinate/eartip/microchip them and return them back to their original locations where they came from. Otherwise, because they were classified as feral and considered unadoptable, they would have eventually been killed. Tree House Humane Society covered all of their TNR medical expenses, and one of their long-term volunteers and cat colony caretakers came with me to do the transfer. Four of the five cats were successfully returned back outside to their original locations after recovering from their medical procedures.

This caretaker was relocating the fifth cat into her yard, because this cat originally came from a very busy intersection. The caretaker lives close to this intersection, so we thought this relocation would work quite well.

It worked out even better than we thought. This cat, named Knox, has stayed in her yard for a month now, and was quite vocal the entire time. Knox trained her new caretaker to feed her multiple times a day, and showed other friendly tendencies. Perhaps Knox was never feral at all, just cautious in CACC’s facility. Once she felt safer, she started to show signs that she was friendly. Here is Knox inside for now.

Knox in her box.