Separating Feral Cats Inside the House

I know that title sounds odd. One thinks of feral cats as being outside cats, too wild to be inside. However, we do have 3 feral cats living here now in the house with us. One I've had for over ten years now. She was a tiny motherless kitten that mewed for about 24 hours before I had to, of course, give in and bring her inside and feed and bathe her. She was not grateful for being rescued. She hissed and spat and hid behind the furniture, un-pet-able, un-cuddle-able, for actually years.

Now she (Lil Girly) has progressed to accepting petting from me, still from nobody else. She's just feral.

Late last Spring, about this time, two kittens showed up here, in the Yadkin Yard, hungry, thirsty, open to attack from dogs and other larger cats. One of the kittens was clearly the mother of the other. Yet both were small and skinny.

After struggling with this for several days, and saving them from one dog, they came inside to the downstairs only and had a trip to the vet. After getting their shots and deworming medicine, they both were neutered. The mama kitten was about 6 months old, the vet said, and actually pregnant with her second litter when he spayed her. She had an infection and was too young to be having back-to-back litters like this. The vet said we saved her life.

So they learned to use the litter box and to watch the birds from inside the window.

But MamaCat had a kitten with her and so she and Lil Girly fought. When I say fought, I mean running through the house, over and under things, oblivious to what was in the path. This had to stop. So Lil Girly took up residence in the craft room and the sunroom, while the two kittens had the rest of the upstairs and sometimes the downstairs also. There was a problem with this separation, however. Without open air flow, those two back rooms were cold in the winter and hot in the summer. As this spring heated up, we searched for a solution. Enter Latch'n'Vent Interior Door Prop.

You unscrew the brass plate on the door frame and replace it with the Latch'nVent by screwing that in its place. Then you close the door onto the end of the 2", 3", or 4" (we used 2" to be safe) vent arm. Voila, end of problem. Now the air circulates, we're comfortable, they're comfortable, all is well. What a difference. It's made by Symphatics in Oklahoma and is about $15. And no, we weren't compensated for this commercial, haha!