Sometimes feral cats do come into people's homes. It depends on the circumstances. One of those circumstances is how feral the cat is. If the cat is hard-wired feral and totally unsocialised, they won't go into a person's home as it would be too frightening. Too many possible dangers lurking in a strange place. Dorothy and Marvin. Marvin was a semi-feral cat that DW adopted and brought inside. He adapted brilliantly to home life. But if the cat is somewhat feral and partially domesticated as is the case fairly often and if they are starving which is also pretty common, they'll take risks to get food and take their chances particularly if the home owner is apparently friendly or even calling them over and actively encouraging them to come in. It is all about the competing feline emotions of fear and hunger. Both are linked to survival. The cat makes a decision on the best strategy in order to survive. Cats are great survivors which is why they have nine lives. RELATED: 

Ginger tabby owns the Istanbul Metro. Screenshot. This video, for me, is a reflection of the relationship that Turkish people living in Turkey have with their stray cats. They have community cats in Turkey and Turkey has an ancient tradition going back thousands of years to be kind to street cats. That's the way I see it. There are two cat breeds which originated in Turkey namely the Turkish Van and the Turkish Angora. Although, in my view, they are one and the same cat breed. What happened was this: the cat fancy took one Turkish non-purebred community cat and turned it (selective breeding) into two different cat breeds. But that's my theory and I can't really support it. The real Turkish Vat . But the real Turkish Angora is entirely different to the American cat fancy version of the Turkish Angora. And something similar can be said about the Turkish Van. The real Turkish Angora . But to get back to the video, initially we see a ginger tabby enjoying sitting on the barrier

Laces refers to white fur on the back feet. You'll see them on some cat breeds like the Birman and Snowshoe. The Birman is a pointed cat with 'gloves' (white fur on the feet to contrast with the dark pointing). These gloves on the hind feet are referred to as laces . In the Birman the laces finish with an inverted V extended half to three-fourths up the hock. The hock is at the end of the foot and the beginning of the leg; the joint between the tarsal bones and tibia of a digitigrade. The cat is a digitigrade (walks on their toes). Blue point Birman showing gloves and laces. Image: Wikipedia. Full image credit: By Claudia Zaino - Albafeles Sacred Birmans, CC BY-SA 2.5 it, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2308036. The cat fancy likes to use these terms that are applicable to human clothes. Another is 'britches' (or pantaloons) which describes the longer fur at the top of the hind legs of some cat breeds .

This is not Kylo but another tuxedo cat. Image: MikeB. I want to ask the readers (not many I guess!) who they think is most at fault in this story. I'll say right away that I'd apportion blame at 50:50. What do you think? Here is the story: In America, a young woman (26) with a full-time indoors tuxedo cat, Kylo, asked her parents to take care of her cat while she moved to a new state to live with her husband. She gave her parents strict instructions that Kylo was an indoor cat because her previous cats had been indoor/outdoor cats who'd come to early, unnatural deaths such as being poisoned and a hit and run. Her parents agreed. But they had three dogs and liked to keep the backdoor open! Not good and I guess she might have foreseen what was going to happen and it did. Kylo escaped the home and was hit by a car outside and killed. Her father telephoned her to inform her that her cat had been killed and she yelled at him: "I told you to keep him inside!". His resp

 A user on the Reddit.com website was concerned about their recently adopted young Maine Coon. As you can see in the photograph, he is quite skinny. He looks a little bit underweight to me. But young cats tend to be skinnier than older cats. They are more active and they don't tend to eat enough to bulk up to counteract the increased activity in my view.  And in any case, Maine Coon cats tend to be quite rangy or skinny below that shaggy coat. That's the normal shape but you don't want your young Maine Coon cat to be too skinny. Young MC is skinny. Image: Reddit user: u/morbidleo I think it's okay to feed treats in moderate amounts which might help to bulk them up a little bit. My cat is not a Maine Coon but he likes king prawns! He likes them so much that I can bulk him up a bit because he was skinny when he was a youngster. In middle age he's become a little stockier in appearance which is fine. If a young cat is skinny, it's okay. You might describe them as f

In broad terms, there are six types of cat litter substrate (material) and each cat owner has their personal choice. Personally, I always used sawdust turned into wood pellets because I thought this was the best in terms of the environment, odour retention or odour control and for the health of my cat. One of the great issues with cat litter material is the dust that is kicked up by the cat when they are rummaging around. If the litter material is clumping and that dust gets into their lungs and it can clump inside the kitten or cat. This is clearly very bad for health.  The most notorious cat litter material allegedly which does that is lightweight clay-based litter and the manufacturer Tidy Cats comes to mind the most and I have an article on that which ranks highly in Google search results . There is strong evidence that this litter is dangerous to cats although no doubt it is still popular which, personally, I find disturbing. And that's another factor in deciding which litter

The Week, a website, has the title "6 of the most invasive species on the planet". The author lists the feral cat as the second most potent invasive species. And I've heard this numerous times. You hear this in Australia by the way where the feral cat is in general hated certainly by the authorities. Of course, the domestic cat is also an invasive species in Australia but you don't hear them say that. Remember that the so-called "feral cat problem" is actually a human problem because it is of human making. This picture is in the public domain in my assessment. Sidebar : let's remind ourselves that all invasive species are the handiwork of humankind. That's true to the best of my knowledge. All species would not have moved around the globe from one country to the other but for the movement of humans bringing those species into countries where they don't belong. The Australians regard the dingo, as a native Australian wild dog species. But the fac