10/13/2026
Have you ever met a feral cat? These cats are born wild and have little to no interaction with humans. They live outside and hunt for food. Although its hard to pin point an exact number, there are an estimated 60 million to 100 million stray&feral cats in the US. 🐱
Because of their lack of human interaction, feral cats are wild & often aggressive/unable to be handled by humans. When we are able to catch them (mostly to spay/neuter to help over population), we often use medications like Gabapentin to keep these kitties calm and lower stress, as well as keep humans & cats alike safe. We also use gabapentin on many domesticated cats in the clinic to make appointments a less stressful event. 💊
Remember ⚠️: Any cat bites warrant a trip to the doctor for antibiotics
Meet OB & Puck! 🩵
OB (which stands for outside brother) spent 2 years in Dr. Coleman's neighborhood while she tried to help him warm up to her. At one point, a neighbor trapped him and got him neutered. After that, it took just 4 months for OB to warm up and become part of Dr. Colemans family. OB is now an indoor brother! 🐾
Puck spent his whole life living outside in rural Arlington (he is estimated to be about 2-3yrs old). One night, Dr. Johnson woke up to commotion in her house... this stray cat had broken in at 4am and was being chased by her dogs through her home, over her bed, knocking over everything, creating chaos. Yes this is a true story, yes she had to use a fishing net and hockey stick to safely coax him into a kennel (hence the name). After he was neutered, one of our assistants (Molly) took him home to monitor him over the weekend... She fell in love and they haven't looked back since. 🏒
We would love to see your kitties (feral, stray, or otherwise) & hear their stories in the comments below! ⬇️
