Forever.

Get her a cat condo and put it in the window. Get her toys. Let her become part of the family of other cats.

The feral cat I trapped and had spayed, was in a cage in the garage just for one night. She had been given an antibiotic by the vet before I brought her home. The next morning I released her - absolutely no problems. Except I did panic when I noticed as she raced off that the bandage from the IV was still on her leg! I called the vet all in a dither and the assistant said it was a paper bandage and it will come off on its own. Which it did in three days time, plus the spay incision never got infected or even red, maybe a little pink because she was licking it. But even the licking didn't last very long. I couldn't believe how fast it healed. That was my experience anyway.

You should see her now. No more skin and bones and finally after a month I am able to reach down and pet her. In fact, she was so surprised the first time I simple reached down and ran my hand along her back, that it was like, "Hey, I think I like this!" Now she's to the point of being rather clingy and loves the attention. I'm working on picking her up and placing her on my lap.

Are you able to handle her? You could give her a quick exam and if the incision isn't swollen or red she's probably good to go.

Thanks for the input. Yes, she's very friendly. Not feral, although the kittens took some effort to tame. Her incision looks good.

Elly, I've had a lot of experience with rescues, and they've almost always become part of the family. In fact, my two current cats were found as a stray mother and her kitten. I had her spayed and took them both in. We had three other cats at the time: two rescued as strays and the other adopted from a shelter. But I have reasons for wanting to try keeping this one outside.

Schoolhouse, good for you! I know how it feels to have your patience rewarded like that.

It is so wonderful that you took responsibility for this (obviously) dumped sweet cat) You've put time and money into her. Now try to find her a good home.

Good luck whatever you do.

Good luck whatever you do.

Thanks,alisande. The half grown kitten actually showed up the last of April, so it's taken this long for her to trust me. She came into heat the first three weeks she was here, ugh. But as I said, all went well.

When our feral cat Baby was spayed, they kept her overnight at the vet and I kept her in a large cage in in the basement for 2 days, IIRC. We had 2 house cats, she was totally feral, but boy did I want to keep her inside. Just too many concerns about FIP, feleuk, etc with 2 other adult cats.

A plus is that we haven't got ferals around our house except her, and there are a lot of ferals in my neighborhood. She does pretty well outside, we feed & water her 2x/day, and she has a heated house in the winter.
Good luck with her!

I agree, keep her as an indoor cat. There are too many dangers outside for a tame domesticated cat. I learned this the hard way.

It seems keeping her is not an option (she already has 3), nor is finding a good home (which Alisande already tried).

Again, I think it is very nice to have taken care of her. Not everyone would do that.

It's really, really difficult trying to find these stray cats homes. There are so many abandoned, the shelters are full and kittens are so plentiful. I just wanted to comment that I think it's great you took on the responsibility to take care of this cat and all of the kittens. I can't imagine anyone would send her outside again if there was another workable option. (I'm in the same boat with 3 cats - full)! Two thumbs up for having stopped the kitten-making cycle!

my cat (dead now) had gone through, being a stray in the middle of winter and then went to the shelter and we got him and he was not neutered so we had to do that and then he was a happy cat until our cat wanted to get out of the house more due to construction and redoing our basement after a flood and his leg got stuck in a fox trap, so he got that amputated and he has had a brother all of the time he has been here as we took in stray kittens but sadly one of them died cause of a head injury. her name was luna but then my other cat who was siblings to luna named Leo had been here for 7 years but he had passed away due to kidney failure and the three-legged cat had died 8 months after the amputation he was hit by a car and after Leo had died we found two older stray kittens who had no microchip and was unspayed and luckily we got them before there first heat. so we had taken them in and their new names are, Baby and Thumbs. baby being a smaller and most likely the runt or the other cat hogged all the food, but they had been underfed but in really good shape for a stray living in an old den of any other animal, no other cats were found and they seemed to have no other family and snow was approaching soon and they had no chip so we kept them. there spaying will be in a few days and they will be maybe able to go back outside as they were strays and now I think once I have a home of my own I think I know what my job will be, most likely a vet or a cat foster. thank you for reading, have a good day.