Many people do not know that adult feral cats can be made to be human-friendly to varying degrees. I have been working with feral cats off and on for over 30 years and full-time for the last 2. I have come to find that every feral cat can be somewhat socialized if you have a little time, a lot of patience and a smidge of compassion.
Not every feral cat will be the quintessential "lap-cat" but most can at least become "indoor-outdoor" if not completely indoor members of your household. At the very least you can get them to the point where they can be handled in order to be seen by a vet and possibly will come to you for petting and other interaction. Many can even be prepared to be adopted out to another home, in case you are thinking along those lines.
I've been trying to spread the word about this, but it seems like slow-going. Many people are either immediately dismissive of this idea (I'm assuming in the case that they don't understand it), or outright opposing it (I can only assume because they know it to be true and don't want their attitude towards feral cats to be called into question.) Indeed, it's almost like some people think that there are 2 species of domestic cats, one that are friendly and another that are just never going to be friendly because of what they are.
The point of this petition is to spread the word about the fact that any cat can potentially be made to be friendly and how to achieve this. You're basically trying to force the cat to realize that being touched by humans is not the bad thing they think it is, because they are afraid, never having known it before.
If anyone wants more info on this process, you can web-search terms like "socialize feral cat" (keeping in mind that many sites will take the untrue stance that only young kittens can be socialized), PM me on Facebook under my name (Colin Wright), or email me at squeezeplay69@gmail.com. If you have a positive viewpoint on this idea then please sign the petition and I will use the Butterfly Credits to help animals.
