You Can Tame Feral Cats

Mike Fountaine bought a ranch in Santa Barbara, California, and found out it came with dozens of feral cats. Over time, he made friends with them. Not only has he tamed them, he has trained them! And he’s built elaborate doors and passageways to corral the cats, and they are caged at night to protect them from coyotes and other wildlife. The feeding thing at the beginning was “just a silly idea cos we thought it would look cute.”

(YouTube link)

One thing you don’t see in the video is kittens. Each cat was spayed or neutered as soon as possible and it’s been ten years since any were born. Fountaine founded an organization for animals called The Lucky Few. Read more about Fountaine’s adventures in cat taming. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

I imagine there are quite a few such organizations now. For example, the Dane County Friends of Ferals is now over a decade old. After the founder learned of how often cats had to be put down by the local humane society due to being too feral to adopt, a growing effort was made to tame the ferals instead. The result is the county being no-kill now (outside of medical issues), with ferals being tamed and adopted out to families (we have had one in our place for a couple years now) or for the older, grumpier ones, being adopted out to farms. The taming process is simple enough that volunteers can be trained in two days for cleaning & maintenance of the shelter plus socialization of cats.

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"Kitties in boxes! Kitties in boxes!" That made me laugh. Trying to get a cat into a carry box is darn near impossible for mere mortals, IMO. He's definitely the kitty whisperer.

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Looks like a bigger version of the mouse organ.

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