We have 15 cats, all rescues. This is our latest addition, lulu was a street cat and we started feeding her around 18 months ago. I gradually managed to stroke her and gain her trust. Then one day she brought 3 little kittens to us at feeding time. We managed to catch all 3, and re home them successfully in great homes
So the next thing was to catch lulu and spay her, although I was able to stroke her, she wouldn’t let me pick her up. We spent hours with all sorts of traps and cages, filled with tempting food, but she totally refused to be caught. Then one day I took a small cage down and waited with it for about 40 minutes and gradually got her closer and closer until I was able to give her a nudge and close the door.
She was spayed the following week, already pregnant again, and we kept her for a week to recover, fully expecting to take her back to where we found her, but she was so affectionate and calm I really didn’t want to leave her out to fend for herself coming into the winter when she had got used to home comforts and a constant supply of food.
So we decided to take her cage from our ‘hospital’ wing, into the house and see if the other cats, and 2 dogs, would accept her (we’d done it before but always with kittens not adult cats) and you can see the result. She’s shown no signs of wanting to leave and is now a house cat enjoying the lap of luxury