Any tips of calming a feral cat for capture?
We have a stray - probably a feral - who has been hanging around the house since last summer. We - being complete suckers - started setting out food and water, because he was obviously hungry.
As time has passed, he has gotten more comfortable around us and now comes inside at dinner time to get his food along with our five spoiled felines. They aren't totally impressed with him, but he's not an aggressor and a detente has been achieved.
He will even stay in the house for awhile and appreciates the cat bed we put down for him - but he will not let us near him. Closest we can come is when we're sliding his food dish toward him. Any false move will cause him to skitter away.
We don't really want another cat (yes, I know - we already have another cat . . .) but we do need to catch him so he can be neutered and vaccinated, preferably soon as mating season is almost upon us.
We can borrow a humane trap from the vet and there is a shelter that will do the necessary veterinary care for free, but my concern is that if we do capture him, he'll never forgive us and all the work of getting him more or less settled down will be lost. It feels like a betrayal, almost.
There is also the concern that we'll never get him in the trap because it will be filled with one of our five. They're sweet but not the brightest crayons in the box.
= new reply since forum marked as read
a set of nuts that look like they could populate half the county. I noticed this evening that he also seems to have a scratch over one eye that could use some attention. He really is a sweet kitty and I think he's fairly young because he just started getting that "tomcat" look around the neck - he didn't have it a few months ago. Hard to tell by size; he's smaller than our monsters, but none of our males is less than 12 pounds (the biggest is about 20 and three feet long). He's got really short legs and a long body - like a dachshund . . . 
The blanket approach sounds slightly more kind than the traps - I don't like the traps, although I understand their necessity.
I've swaddled hysterical cats before, though never a feral. We'll make a plan and give it a shot.
Thanks!
rescue and he wasn't a feral. They're all vaccinated so I'm not worrying about that - I just don't want to stress out this little guy.
He does respond to us; he's just so skittish.
I'm going to try the swaddle approach, once a plan is in place, and will report back unless I die of massive blood loss.
I fed this cat for four months in my side yard and got to sitting there so she's get used to me. I got advice from a woman who works with the vet office with ferals and brings them inside herself. She suggested that I use something odiferous to get her into the trap, like tuna, "human chicken," or sardines. Tuna worked for me. I was advised to keep moving the trap closer and closer to the food I left, so the cat would get used to it being there. When I finally had her, I brought her straight to the vet.
I got to panicking when the weather got bad, though I now wished I'd tried it sooner. The poor cat had to be suffering outdoors.
I got a book, "The Stray Cat Handbook," to learn how to handle things when I brought her home. I also sent for articles from Alley Cat Allies, and they are a wonderful resource.
I was advised to keep her bed/food/litter box on the same side of the room, so she wouldn't have to cross the room to get to them. Fortunately, I had a large room at the back of the house and could keep the door closed. They said to initially restrict her to one room, so she could get used to it and have an enclosed room where she could hide.
I also got a cat home, kind of a plush igloo type of thing that she could use as a bed and was also her safe place to hide. She really did well, got used to me, was much better after she had dental surgery at the vet, must have been in pain, poor little thing. She became almost a lap cat when she felt better, would look out the window, but never wanted to go out again. I know she felt so much better to be warm and safe.
Good luck and let us know how it goes! Sounds like you're already ahead of the game since your cat is already somewhat used to you... 
it's encouraging! I'm glad your your kitty adjusted so well.
And required my friend who has caught cats for the SPCA to catch her in my house the first time I took her back to the vet. They sedated her to examine her properly. But, over time, she did calm down a whole lot, especially after the dental surgery.
From what the feral cat lady told me, I'm guessing that, like mine, yours isn't really a feral. She told me that if my cat was truly a feral, I wouldn't have seen her, let alone let me sit by her and talk to her. She said that my cat sounded like a former house cat who had been abandoned and "lost trust."
And it turned out that she was exactly right. I later learned from my next door neighbor that she had fed this cat, too. She believed she belonged to the woman in the house behind her who had moved, had numerous cats and this one had somehow gotten away during the move.
I was surprised that the woman hadn't contacted me, since she liked me a lot after I found and returned her small dog who had a habit of getting loose, too... A Yorkie. 
And it's great that you've already given your cat a name. That's another thing that the feral cat lady advised me to do, give her a name and keep using it, so she got used to it.
Initially, they assumed my cat was a male, but it turned out she was a spayed female, so I knew then that she had once had a home. 
So she'd have to cross in front of the door to get to it. She normally stuck pretty close to her house/bed and her food was right near it, but having to cross in front of the door, where someone might come in, made her nervous. She was very good about it though.
If the cats have sorted it out, I'm not sure I'd let him back outside after he comes home from being fixed. You do, already, have that cat. It is never about what we humans want it is about what the cats decide--any cat person knows this to be the reality!
I'd suggest catching the kitty however you can--if it was me, I'd try the live trap from the rescue folks. They know what works. Then I'd take the cat--still in the trap--to the vet for whatever needs doing, including shots, neutering, and any dental work that needs to happen.
Once kitty comes home he needs an escape proof room to himself with his own litter box, food/water and sleep-cave. Make sure the closet doors are closed and that he can't scootch under something to hide. Let him settle down to a routine. Some folks swear by Feliway, others think it is of no use. Can't hurt to try it. EVERY time you go in that room, do it quietly and calmly. No sudden moves, and no loud noises if you can manage it.
Whenever you go in the room in a soft voice say, "Hi, CC" or whatever name you have decided on for the cat, and (THIS IS IMPORTANT!!)) when the cat looks at you, close your eyes and turn your head away without re-opening your eyes. Cats signal aggression with a stare. It confuses hell outta them when they see humans staring at them while they coo and coax them to come. With that eye trick you are mimicking a cat behavior of trust.
After he's calmed down, you need to just go sit still and quietly in that room and ignore the cat for the next few days. Reading works, and I've started to wonder if working on a computer would be ok. (You are sitting still, and you are not paying the cat any mind--works like a magnet on other cats--so who knows--it might work with ferals as well...) Don't look at him! (When you do get busted looking at him, just close your eyes SLOWLY and turn your head away while your eyes are closed the same way you did before.) It is not gonna take long for him to come check you out. Always move slow, always act in a non-aggressive way, always talk softly.
It won't take long. Couple of days and he'll be checking you out, after that, it is quick business to establish a relationship. Don't try to pick the cat up for a long while, and never force him to do much of anything. Please DO consider keeping him in the house exclusively for at least a few months.
Good luck, and bless you for being a caring person who is helping out this kitty!
Laura
Start by skipping his feeding for one night if you can stand to. I know how difficult that would be, but he needs to be hungry for this to work. The following night at feeding time, don't feed the feral inside. Set the trap with tuna or something really smelly (suggested upthread, too) and set it outside. Hope for the best.
Another suggestion: once you have set the trap, cover it with a towel, and keep the cat covered all the time. From trapped time to vet, and home from vet. It will keep him calmer.
Best of luck! 
I'd say that after he's fixed if you can keep him in a large enclosure near or in your house for a week or two he will be bonded to it no matter what. He knows where the food is.
Sort of funny story: When I was a kid, we trapped a young "feral" mama kitty and her two babies who were living in a nearby park. We said we'd find homes for them after they were tame. (We already had several cats.) The mama and son became friendly and "domestic" almost immediately. The daughter just wouldn't come around, but of course we'd fallen in love with all three kitties and were happy to have them. Thirteen, fourteen years later the little girl kitty finally came around and would go on our laps and let us pet her. The big joke was "Okay, she's finally tame -- let's find homes for them!" Yeah, right.
gotta say I disagree . . . but that comes from a lifetime as a cat servant. 
And yes, I've seen them do some pretty silly things.
and harmless in the long run.
I really don't care if they have a clue what I'm saying when I talk to them - or if they really are responding to their names or just some sort of Pavlovian response. Having them in my life makes my life a better place, and that's all that matters to me.
No, they're not human, but I have to say that's not a bad thing. I do understand what I'm doing, the psychology isn't difficult to grasp at all. I do it willingly and will continue to do so, because it benefits me and doesn't harm them.
You're absolutely right, though - if I attempted to neuter one of my male friends, they wouldn't be my friend anymore.
as soon as he decides to come around again . . . not to anthropomorphize or anything, but it almost feels like he knows we're planning his capture (or, alternately, the weather has warmed up and it is baby bird season, so free food doesn't have quite the same allure).
