Topic: Sammy (Read 3342 times)

imschur · « **on:** July 09, 2011, 11:15:39 AM »

I may have mentioned elsewhere that after two years of trying I managed to catch a feral cat we had named Sammy. He was always around but you couldnt get near him. Then finally last October he went into my havahart. took him to the vet and learned he was very old, missing a lot of teeth and had some tumors on the back of his tongue. Vet figures age will kill him long before the tumors. Anyhow initially I set Sammy up with his room about 6x8 with all kinds of places to climb and sleep. After of several months in his room I made some progress in that I could touch his nose, just once at every feeding. As time went on his status didnt change, in fact he wasnt gaining the weight I had hoped and he wasnt grooming himself. After I thought a bit about it I decided to give him the run of the basement where he could intereact with the other two rescue cats. Well that action had a few side effects. One of the other strays has refused to come back in. The other needs to be forced. Now keep in mind Sammy shadowed these two while he was living outside. They didnt like him but they tolerated him.

Since giving Sammy the full run of the basement he has bulked up, cleaned up and seems to be doing well other than being lonely.

Now all along the plan was to release Sammy in the spring and catch him again in the fall. No way he can survive a winter out. I postponed releasing him because it's been such a rainy spring and early summer.

This brings me to my current situation. I want to set him free because I think he wants that but at the same time Im concerned he will get killed or meet with some other misfortune. What if Im wrong and he's actually content living in the basement with unlimited food, water and warm dry comfort.

What do you guys think free him or keep him in?

Microgunner · « **Reply #1 on:** July 09, 2011, 12:01:32 PM »

Free him, after all he's a feral cat and outside is his home. If he wants the security of your basement he'll be back.
He should decide, not you.

rodent.22 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 09, 2011, 12:33:18 PM »

He probably needs a goround with the babe cats anyway.....

imschur · « **Reply #3 on:** July 09, 2011, 12:42:56 PM »

Freedom it is

imschur · « **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2011, 03:32:26 PM »

Well before I finished my previous post Sammy jumped the gate I was going to use to acclimate him to the back door. He went about five feet and was laying down in the sun. Hung out for a while but has sinced disappeared.

Apparantly he voted freedom too