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and give him lots of little treats – anything that gives him a positive association with youis good. Eventually, when trust has been built up, move the kitten into a confined spacelike the bathroom and start using the play and food techniques described earlier.The more contact feral kittens have with you, the faster they will socialize. This isvery important at the beginning of the socialization process when the kittens, especiallythe younger ones, may identify you as their surrogate parent. So play, feed and talk withthem as often as you can. Interacting with them for short periods several times a day isbetter than being with them for one long period and then leaving them alone the rest ofthe time. As mentioned, it’s helpful with feral kittens to have multiple people handlethem. This way, you avoid the risk of having them only socialize to you and not becomeadoptable to others. This risk is higher with feral kittens older than eight weeks so it’sespecially important with that age group to have more than one person involved in thesocialization process.Even young kittens who quickly learn to become house cats will usually still retainsome feral characteristics. They may be extra sensitive to changes in their environmentor have more than the usual fear of leaving their territory, like going to the veterinarian.If you move and their territory changes, they may at first revert to feral behavior. It’sbest to anticipate these reactions and take steps to lessen the cat’s stress. For example, ifyou move, don’t let your former feral loose right away into the whole house, but start himoff in one room and give him a nice quiet place to hide. When he’s gotten used to thingsand acts comfortable in the confined space, then gradually introduce him to other roomsone at a time, until he’s comfortable in your entire house.For more ideas, see the step-by-step guide on taming feral kittens bythe Feral Cat Coalition of San Diego, CA: www.feralcat.com/taming.html Socializing feral teenagers & adults• Should you try?Socializing a feral cat over sixteen weeks old can be a time-consuming, difficult taskwith uncertain results. The older the cat, past the age of sixteen weeks, the more likely hewill socialize only to a certain degree and then only to the person taming him. This ofcourse can make him difficult to adopt. If a potential adopter has a choice between aneight week old kitten who curls up in her lap purring the first time they meet or a fourmonth old feral kitten who you know is a lovely creature but who hides when the adoptercomes over or scrambles to get out of her grasp, you can see the problem.Even if you decide you’re up for the challenge, there are several other factors toconsider before you attempt to socialize a feral teenager or adult.The first question is what is your plan for placement of the cat? If you personally aregoing to adopt her and can accept she may or may not ever become a pet in the traditionalsense – one you can pick up, hold, etc. – then bringing her indoors will likely work outjust fine. On the other hand, if your goal is to totally tame the cat so someone as yetunknown will want to adopt her, that’s much more difficult to achieve. If the cat does not139