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I always thought feral and stray were interchangeable terms for cats that don't have homes, but it seems like on this forum, some people use the terms interchangeably, but others don't.
Just curious.
I was reading the feral stories, and it reminded me of a stray cat that came around when me and my brother were kids. He was a tabby and we called him Tigger. We assumed he was a stray because we knew all the neighbors' cats and dogs at the time and he was one we'd never seen before. Plus, he was very skinny, and his stomach was bloated. He was super friendly, though. As I'm reading the stories of strays/ferals on here, it seems like they're not always so friendly and don't like human contact. But Tigger did. We would pet him and pick him up and everything. He didn't come around every day, and we didn't always leave food out for him- we would only bring food out when he came to our house. We had a cat already, so my parents wouldn't let us bring him in the house and keep him. So we would give him food and affection when he came by. Eventually, he just never came back. I don't remember how long the time period was that he was coming around, but like I said, it wasn't every day. It was kind of sporadic. So we never got super attached to him. But after about a month of not seeing him, we wondered where he was, and then he just never came back. I still wonder sometimes what happened to him. Maybe another family took him in.
Hopefully.
But thinking back on how friendly he was, I wonder if he used to belong to someone and they just left him or stopped feeding him.
Just curious.
I was reading the feral stories, and it reminded me of a stray cat that came around when me and my brother were kids. He was a tabby and we called him Tigger. We assumed he was a stray because we knew all the neighbors' cats and dogs at the time and he was one we'd never seen before. Plus, he was very skinny, and his stomach was bloated. He was super friendly, though. As I'm reading the stories of strays/ferals on here, it seems like they're not always so friendly and don't like human contact. But Tigger did. We would pet him and pick him up and everything. He didn't come around every day, and we didn't always leave food out for him- we would only bring food out when he came to our house. We had a cat already, so my parents wouldn't let us bring him in the house and keep him. So we would give him food and affection when he came by. Eventually, he just never came back. I don't remember how long the time period was that he was coming around, but like I said, it wasn't every day. It was kind of sporadic. So we never got super attached to him. But after about a month of not seeing him, we wondered where he was, and then he just never came back. I still wonder sometimes what happened to him. Maybe another family took him in.
But thinking back on how friendly he was, I wonder if he used to belong to someone and they just left him or stopped feeding him.