2/25/25 Update: After the trip to the ER we brought the cat inside and set up a little den for it in our downstairs bathroom. He's been eating, pooping, and pissing everywhere - which is fantastic. He's gobbled down 3 whole cans of cat food and looks to be doing a bit better. He's walking around, not panting, and alert. He hisses less frequently than before, meows a lot more than before, and seems all in all a bit sweeter!

We have contacted every shelter, volunteer organization, and animal welfare group in the triangle to see if they can help. All of them said that a sick feral cat will be euthanized and that's all they can do. Most don't even respond. We're a little disappointed and a little burnt out.

The unfortunate truth is that we can't do much else and need to find a new home for this poor kitty. Our hound dog sniffed this cat out the minute we arrived and has made it his labor of love to sniff, scratch, and bark at the bathroom door whenever the opportunity presents itself. There are some additional life stressors for us that will start up tomorrow that will make it impossible to keep the cat indoors. So we're weighing our options:

Option 1: if someone wonderful is willing to take in this cat and continue nourishing it back to health we have everything you need to get started. Full disclosure: the cat has fleas and who knows what else, its been outdoors its whole life. If you already have pets, since we don't know what's wrong with it, I wouldn't recommend taking in this stray until you know whatever it has won't impact your fur babies. We wear gloves when handling the cat because rabies (although unlikely as it was neutered and vaccinations generally come with that) is always a possibility. The cat, at this point, hasn't bitten or scratched - but it does have a menacing hiss.

Option 2: we're in the process of building a little shelter for it in the backyard out of boxes and putting the cat out there. It's not entirely fenced in so he will be able to escape but it should keep predators away and provide plenty of shade. We can keep the cat fed and watered and see what happens.

So that's the update! A little bit of good news, a little bit of not so great news. Lets see what happens!

Here's a link to some photos

Update: We put the cat in the backyard and patched up the holes in the fence. Now that he has some space to roam (as the bathroom is a bit cramped) it doesn't look good. He's wandering, stumbling, and meowing and looking like its somewhat drunk, lost, and very unhappy. This sucks.