We had a cat in the neighbourhood (DOZENS of feral cats) we’d been courting for about three years and she started letting us pet her, give belly rubs, etc. Then our landlord announced he was tired of mowing two lawns and was listing the house.

No way we were leaving her behind, but as we have two indoor-only cats and four parrots, we were hesitant to bring her in without a vet check, which we couldn’t afford on top of everything else. During hurricane Milton, we’d already tried to bring her into the laundry room for safety, and she completely freaked. I’ve never heard such a tortured, frantic cat before. Opened the door and she zipped out into the storm—and as we’d hoped, she hunkered in somewhere and returned after the storm. Decided the best we could do for the move was to trick her into a crate and just take her with us.

As we were loading the UHaul, she’d come out to watch us, and as we were standing around taking a breather, we noticed a squirrel zipping down a tree, under the UHaul, and… ZOOOOOM! as it emerged from the other side of the truck, she dove right in front of us, tackled the squirrel, and before the shock could even register, tore the poor wee thing to pieces and started eating it. In minutes, there was nothing left but a furry, bloody mess. It was horrifying.

No way she would ever become an indoor cat or be safe around our birds—two Orange wing Amazons and two African greys. If a free-roaming squirrel wasn’t safe, caged birds certainly wouldn’t be.

We did make the move, forced the cat to come with us, and she now sticks mainly to our fenced yard (she sleeps in a huge sea hyacinth in the back yard), and she runs out to greet us every time we come home. I’ve resigned myself to the fact she will never be an indoor cat, but she is safe as we can make her.

Does give me extra-warm fuzzies whenever I see that someone succeeds in rescuing a feral cat like this, though.