[howsefrau32]

Your story completely mimics what is going on with me and my outside, formerly VERY feral cat. This kitty, Arwen, was the resident, neighborhood feral kitty for the past 5-8 years, only to be seen on garbage days, rummaging through the trash cans. She would never accept food, and would run if she was seen. Almost 3 years ago, she decided to accept some food that I left near the trash cans. It was a VERY long, slow, journey to gain her trust, and now, she is almost like a normal cat. She lets me and my husband and one of my neighbors pet her, she is an absolute sweetheart, although she still does have her feral tendencies, and she will not let us pick her up, but we adore her. In December, we started letting her sleep in our garage. She has spent every night, except one night, in our garage....in fact, she is in there right now, snoozing away on her comfy pink bed. I am in FL, and it has pretty much warmed up here now, so the cold is not an issue, but we do have a few tom cats running around our neighborhood now, and she is the most non-confrontational cat I have ever seen, she does not like to fight. She mainly sleeps in the garage all night because she feels safer. And she is getting older. This cat is TNR, which if you are not familiar with that, it means she has been spayed and had shots. So we know that she at least cannot have kittens. But i want to do more for her.

Sorry to ramble with that, I just wanted to let you know that I feel the same way, we want to trap Arwen, and get her into the vet to be checked out to see if she has FIV or Felv, and to get her some updated shots, and de-wormed. I do put Revolution on her every month, and I have de-wormed her myself several times, but we want to do more for her. Pretty much all she does is sleep all day, she only travels to two or three yards on my street, everyone knows her, she has a pretty good life, but I very much want to bring her in, if I can. Right now, the garage is working, but it's going to get very, very hot here soon, and I'm just not sure how the garage will work out during the really hot months. I told my husband, she is getting old, she sleeps soooo soundly outside that it terrifies me that something is going to get her. She will do the same thing now, if we are out, and we get home late, she is huddled by our front door waiting for us. I'm so scared of the thought of trapping her, and stressing her out, and wondering how she will act at the vet. We are actually even considering having a mobile vet come out and check her out, if they will deal with a feral.

I just wanted to tell you, I completely understand where you are, I am the same with my Arwen. I think she would probably get along with my cats, and I just need to make the leap to get her tested and just bring her in officially. I mean.....how hard can she be? She is older and she eats and sleeps almost all day long, and that's about it.