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Not So Feral Anymore

September 4th, 2010

Miss Mama the resident feral cat that moved her kittens into our garage this summer, has been declassified. She’s no longer feral, she’s become a garage cat, or a “pet”. She spends her days lounging by the pet door in the garage (her front porch as we call it) or lounging on our back deck in the kitty cabana, which is the rack I use for drying seeds & herbs.


I guess she’s realized Chiot’s Run is feline friendly place and has moved in for good. She follows me around the gardens meowing for me to pet her and I’ve even opened up the door several times to find her sitting there waiting for me. She’s definitely no longer the feral cat that used to run if she even saw us looking out the window.


Little Softie is still a bit skittish, she loves to watch what I’m doing though and follows me at a distance. Every now and then she’ll chase me when I’m going by, she’s still cute and playful but she’s starting to get big and look like a cat instead of a kitten. Her and Miss Mama play in the gardens all the time, they’re fun to watch.

It won’t be long until we have to take her in to be fixed as well, another month or two and she should be old enough. Hopefully she’ll do as well as Miss Mama did.

They’re both very sweet cats and we love having them around the gardens. I haven’t seen or heard a chipmunk since Miss Mama moved in, so our strawberries should be safe next year, and perhaps I can actually plant some crocus bulbs this fall that will survive to bloom in the spring.

Have you ever tamed a pet? be it a feral cat, raccoon, skunk, snake, etc?

17 Comments to “Not So Feral Anymore”
  1. Sue on September 4, 2010 at 5:07 am

    Gorgeous photos-I particularly like the fence one.
    We spent ages taming up a feral kitty once-finally earned its trust. Took it to the vet to be “fixed” and she had already been “fixed”. She eventually forgave us, and became a very wonderful companion for many years.

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  2. Allie on September 4, 2010 at 8:16 am

    Oh! They are beautiful! Our cat has never been feral, but she’s still not what I would consider tame. :)

    Reply to Allie's comment

  3. Kim on September 4, 2010 at 8:27 am

    Great pics. We have had a barn cat that moved in 2-3 years ago. He still keeps a real low profile. We feed him so he sticks around but you rarely see him. Cats are essential here on our farm to keep the rodent population day, they do a good job of it.

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  4. Dave on September 4, 2010 at 8:28 am

    We had a visitor cat who used to come around last year. He was wild and would run whenever he saw us but eventually he approached and hung around. He disappeared in the spring unfortunately.

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  5. Corrie on September 4, 2010 at 8:54 am

    A sweet, but wild orange cat started hanging out in my flower beds at Krohn Conservatory one spring. I called him Sunny, and he kept me company all season, running alongside me, meowing, rolling around in the sun. By the time winter came, he was tame enough to become the pet of a friend of a friend. I hope he’s a happy cat.

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  6. Melanie on September 4, 2010 at 9:12 am

    Hi – I’m new to your blog, and found you through Not Dabbling in Normal (where I’m also new!). I’m always excited to find another 30-something who is interested in things most of my peers don’t consider “normal.”

    When we lived in Chicago, we adopted a cat from a shelter that was essentially feral. She was a street cat who was picked up at 3 months old and lived in a cage at the shelter for the next 6 months of her life until we got her. She was terrified of us, and it took several long, patient months to convince her we were trustworthy. We all fell in love with each other together, even my husband, who really wasn’t a “cat person” but conceded to getting her for my sake.

    Sadly, when she was just 4 years old she got kidney disease, and in spite of all our efforts, we had to put her down. It was awful and we haven’t been able to give our hearts to another animal since!

    Reply to Melanie's comment

    • Susy on September 4, 2010 at 9:36 am

      Oh so sad, Mr Chiots parent’s just lost one of their cats to kidney disease as well. When we had to have our first cat put to sleep we thought we’d wait a year or so to get more, then I was on Petfinder.com looking and came across a cute little of feral rescues in Cincinnati and we ended up with 2 of them, my mom got one as well. Then Dexter showed up on our doorstep almost 2 years ago and adopted us.

      It seems like when it’s time another cat will find you!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. deedee on September 4, 2010 at 9:27 am

    that fence shot is so cute! i haven’t tamed a wild animal, but i had to “tame” a carl how to live in our house without destroying everything with his tail:)

    Reply to deedee's comment

  8. MAYBELLINE on September 4, 2010 at 11:46 am

    Yes – my garden kitty, Pumpkin, was found in a tree years ago by my daughter. Pumpkin’s mother must have been moving her babies when she was killed by a neighborhood dog. Pumpkin would ride around with me in my work truck so I could feed her regularly. When my kids got home from school they would be all over Pumpkin to insure she was properly socialized/terrorized.

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  9. Norma on September 5, 2010 at 6:11 am

    My first pet was a feral cat/kitten that was alone. She lived with us over 16 years and was one of the family. I still miss her 10 years later.
    Presently, I have a feral pigeon that has decided to live with us. He has been with us about 9 years. Flew in one day, then kept coming back and finally stayed the night. I attract animals:)
    I had a feral duck, but sadly he was run over by a car. No one cared!
    I could say how many sick birds come my way in their last days.

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  10. Ramona K on September 5, 2010 at 8:11 am

    Our dear Mamma Mia was a feral cat. I estimated she was about 5 months old when she turned up. We fed her and she hung around then disappeared for a while. She turned up when it was below zero outside and moved in. However, she would not let us come near, took a long circle round us when she was going anywhere. That went on until the spring. We knew she was about to have kittens when she disappeared again. Returned again with what I thought was a rat in her mouth. No, it was a kitten which she promptly dumped at my feet whilst she went to the cat food bowl. The kitten which couldn´t stand yet hissed at me!. A while later she turned up with kitty nr 2.

    To cut a long story short, we kept the two boys – Tom and Jerry. It was absolutely fascinating seeing a feral cat bring up its young ones. We tried many times to trap her and take her to the vet for sterilization but no way…P-pills were the only option.
    It took 5 years of constantly living with us before I was allowed to touch her head. Talk about a thrill!. My husband wasn´t permitted to – near but not quite. Tom and Jerry are now 9 years old and our dearest, dearest pets. It broke my heart when Mamma Mia suddenly became very ill last year – so ill that I was able to catch her (under protest) and take her to the vet. After giving her a strong sedative, we were told there was no hope. This was the first time I had ever got to hold her in my arms but the only thing to do was to thank our dear feral cat for 9 years of friendship – on her terms – and her two sons.
    Greetings from Sweden from a “secret” reader.

    Reply to Ramona K's comment

    • Susy on September 5, 2010 at 8:29 am

      What a great story, love the names of the two boys!

      I tamed Miss Mama with pieces of chicken, that’s how I finally got her to come close to me and let me pet her. She now will even let me pick her up. She’s more leery of Mr Chiots, she lets him touch her sometimes, but usually she runs away from him.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  11. Wenchypoo on September 5, 2010 at 10:12 am

    About 8 years ago, when i went outside to feed the strays in the winter, out comes this little orange and white kitten…IN THE SNOW, mind you! I continued to feed everybody until I was able to lure the kitten into a place where I could grab it.

    After taking her around to the neighbors to find out where she came from, nobody claimed her, so I made a deal with my then-landlord to keep her if I promised to stop feeding the strays.

    We went to the vet, and found out she was 6 months old, and ready for spaying. She tested negative for all the big diseases (AIDS, leukemia, etc.), so we went ahead and got her spayed, and her teeth cleaned.

    She is now our 8-year-old Ragamuffin who likes to THINK she’s feral, but runs to Mama (me) when she’s in any sort of discomfort. She looks just like the kitty on the Fresh Step cat litter jug.

    As for the strays who I was feeding, I continued to feed them throughout the winter, and most of them had either wandered off or died off in the spring (some were really old or in bad shape).

    Reply to Wenchypoo's comment

  12. nic@nipitinthebud on September 6, 2010 at 9:40 am

    it’s amazing what love and titbits can achieve. She looks very content and who wouldn’t want to hang out at Chiots Run!

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  13. lee on September 7, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    Looks like they love your place Susy. They look so at peace in your garden. Most of my cats are ex feral and eventually they got tamed except one. Chiquita showed up about a year and a half ago. The tiniest and fastest kitty I’ve ever seen. She was slightly bigger than a fist and incredibly fast. She could outrun all the other cats. Eventually she became friends with one of the cats and now they are inseparable. They hang around together and sleep together. The only time she lets me pet her is when she jumps on my desk and wants me to feed her. Chiquita is still tiny, the smallest cat I have, so it looks like I named her aptly.

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  14. warren on September 8, 2010 at 10:06 am

    We still have a dozen feral cats lingering about but two have become pretty close to tame…they won’t come in the house but we can pet them most days and they are happy to eat the food we put out (while we watch even!) It’s been pretty cool really….

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  15. A Sad Day at Chiot’s Run | Chiot's Run on April 28, 2011 at 4:46 am

    […] cat “Miss Mama” hadn’t been looking great. While she was friendly and would let us pet her, she was never as tame as an indoor cat, which meant we didn’t see her up close a lot. When the weather warmed she started spending her […]

    Reply to A Sad Day at Chiot’s Run | Chiot’s Run's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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