there´s a stray orange tabby roaming around our house in calgary we named him mr. Flanders and we can pick him up and everything and is the most sweetest cat.

That´s great!! That´s how we got Shadow--he just wandered up--and he is the sweetest cat ever.

If you can you should take him to the local vet and get him scanned to see if he has a microchip, a friendly stray usually has a home. If no home, then a physical to check him out and get him vaccinated before you try to introduce him to your own cat.

AWWWW...that´s great! Beau kept escaping from an upstairs neighbor and coming down and hanging out around my place. I finally got to keep him! All the above advice is what I would do...check for a chip (Beau is chipped), shots, a thorough physical, and have him checked for fleas (just in case). Glad Mr. Flanders found a very caring person to care for him!

I used to hear little noises during the night and one night discovered a little white cat in the house. Turned out it was my next door neighbours cat Suzie wanting to meet Tyke which they did and, well I guess they went out for a while. They were inseperable outside but she moved away and broke his heart. He is still single..... I think!!! Check them out on my photos.

That´s how Levin came into our family. A neighbor called my mom and said there was a cat in her backyard that looked like our Abby (who had passed away a few months prior) so naturally we went down to see. Levin was just the sweetest kitty, giving lots of love to all of us so we brought him home, brushed him and gave him lots of food, and now he´s a part of the family!

We have a stray cat around our property firstly I thought he was locked inside the yard as we had some extentions done to the house. So myself Kylie and Millburn went looking for this cat. Nope we found nothing. Then myself and my daughter waited up for this kitty and we saw him crawling underneath our front gates, as we have electric fence around he cannot jump over the walls. At night Millburn will call me to come have a look. One night I saw this small little kitty on the outside putting his paw up against the window trying to pat Millburn and the rest in the house. It nearly broke my heart to see such love or friendship between them. I have try´ed calling him but he does not want to be my friend he only comes at night to visit my cats. At night I have a special place where I put his food out. But I am worried for 4 days I have not seen him. I am thinking all kinds of stuff as we had lots of rain for weeks now.

That is how we got our cats Halloween and Panda. They were hanging around our house as kittens but they were just to wild to bring inside or even to pick up. We had to get humane traps. We captured them and now they are great cats to have around. Glad Mr.Flanders has a great home too.

That´s great!! That´s how we got Shadow--he just wandered up--and he is the sweetest cat ever.
You must becarful if you take a stray to be your pet because you might be Taken someone else´s cat!

--joshyd

Take the cat to the nearest vet, get him checked out and all... and ask the vet if anybody has inquired about a lost cat. You could also call around to other vets and ask them if anybody´s looking for this cat - also check out any local cat shelters and ASPCA/RSPCA (whichever one you have). Then, if nobody replies, I´d say you just found yourself another cat!

Hey, we live in Calgary too, and an orange cat always comes to visit, I wonder if that´s the same cat... I caught him in one of the photos posted for Fizzgig.

You never can be too sure if he is a stray or someone elses cat coming for a visit. You see I use to have a grey tabby come visit all the time. He would lie on my porch and my back deck. Her had a tag so I knew he belonged to someone. I also had another cat visiti all the time who didn´t have a tag but I tracked down where he lived. I think cats sense that a good cat person lives inside and that´s why they come to visit me.

I dont really like stray cats in my yard because I take my cats to the shows and would not like any germs, sickness around them. Although we had a stray crawling under the gate (how he does that nobody knows) for food. Now because we have baby geese, ducs, or chickens all year round I have to feed the stray if I dont he will eat my newborns. I had a special plate for him and will keep my cats in when he is around at night times. Since we had a few heavy rain storms I have not seen the stray around, we were thinking that he has drowned in the stormwater pipes. (Or has got to fat the crawl under the gate). However I still miss him although I dont like him near my cats I can never see any animal without food, I will rather give my food as to see an animal go hungry.

I live on the 3rd floor of an apartment building and had a stray cat turn up at my door last year! I posted signs and went to every apartment in the building to ask if she belonged to them - no response. I kept her isolated from my cats for the several days I had her (in case of disease), checked pounds and shelters for inquiries about strays, then arranged for her to be taken in by a shelter and posted notices in the building to that effect. Turns out she was the building manager´s FORMER girlfriend´s cat and they didn´t feel like caring for her anymore so they just opened the door. Little Orphan Annie was adopted by a friend´s mother in the end and she is one pampered little kitty. Occasionally these things do turn out for the best.

I´m a little bit confuse with the tersm of stray and feral cats, do they have similar meanings, or have a significance meaning? Bunyu descendant (Putzzy) was coming from no-where, so I consider Putzzy was a stray, she suddenly popped-up in my house just few days after my mom passed away... Myorie & Dixie were also came into my house a little kitty from no-where, their meaouww were so melancholic & high pitchy, so I couldnt have the heart to leave them behind nor to ignore; now they become so cute & adorable teenagers So, for more than 30 years being felinelover, most of my furry family were stray/feral, only once I had a calico female feline that was a gift from my late grandma...

A stray cat is one that has been a pet but has strayed away from home, so is now alone and lost. A feral cat is one that has been born outside and has never had a home. Some poor stray cats are homeless so long that they become feral and don´t remember the days when they were loved.

thx a lot furr ur explanations very much appreciated....

I´m also a sucker for stray cats. I can´t stand to see an animal go hungry. When I was still living in Zimbabwe I lived in a cottage with my then fiance and one night whilst having a party a grey tabby joined in the festivities as it were. The funny thing was that she arrived at exactly the same moment as one of our guests and we thought that it was his cat and found it strange that he brought it to the party. Anyways we didn´t say anything to him until he got ready to leave and we reminded him to take his cat to which he replied that it was his cat. The weirder thing was that there were in fact 2 cats almost identical looking and because of this we thought that it was just the one. To cut a long story short we adopted them and called them Fatty and Skinny due to their sizes. Later on came Handsome to lived up to his name, but unfortunately had one eye missing. As he was entire Tom I guess he lost it in a fight. Unfortunately we never managed to tame him though he ate everything that we put out for him.

Feral cats can become house cats again, my Jiskefet was born in the wild, living free with his mother and siblings untill he was caught at nearly 5 months. He was awfully shy and scared at first, but he is my only cat ever who turned into a true lover. He absolutely adored me, and the feeling was mutual.
Tosca was born in the wild, too, she is still a free spirit, only coming home to be fed, and roaming the park day and night. She does consider us her staff, though, and will report in whenever she needs food or help of any kind.
I am now looking after a feral cat who lives in an apartment and does not go out at all, she knows I mean food, and though she is supposed to be shy, she will be the sweetest, cuddlyest kitty, untill she has her food. After that I don´t matter all that much

That was pretty much the case with Handsome. Hung around for meals but was not into the love, attention and cuddles thing. The few times I did get to touch him was sheer luck and then he acted as though he had been hit by an electric current.

Certain feral or stray cats can be hardly into homy feline members, but other with persistency and sincere love could make them tame and gentle, though a little bit skittish