Need opinions

[sunnyks]

When we bought our house we are in now it came with a stray cat.  She was full grown when we moved in and we've been here almost 10 years.  She roams the neighborhood and I give her some cat food in the evenings and worm her a couple times a year.  She pops out a litter of kittens each spring on my back porch.  When the kittens are big enough my Mom takes them for barn cats.  Plus we've kept some for house pets. She's not a pet but she's not exactly feral.  I can pet her if she feels like that day. So here's my dilemma: do we take her when we move?  She's fairly old and she's lived her whole life in this neighborhood.  I'm afraid it will be too big a shock moving to the country and I don't want to scare her or get her killed by coyotes or what not.  What do you think?

[Wildcat]

Boy, that's a tough one.  I guess I'd not worry about it until you know the house is going to sell and then explain the situation to the buyers to see if they'd be willing to look after her.  (Maybe take her to get spayed so they don't have to worry about homing litters of kittens to make it less of a responsibility?)  You might get lucky.  You might get someone who will allow her to keep things as they are and then you won't have to worry about the stress she'd face if you were to move her.

That is what I did with the last house we sold.  The people before us left us with their stray cat without a word.  I tried to make friends with her so I could get her spayed, get her vaccinated, and all that stuff, but she wasn't having it.  One day I found two of her kittens in a wood pile.  They had to be about 4 weeks old and terrified out of their minds at the sight of me.  One was guarding the other, who was huddled as far back as she could go.  The guard was throwing his foot in the threatening manner cats do and it was just so adorable.  My plan was to catch them, tame them, then take them to the pet store I used to work at so they could be adopted out.  Those two kittens are Loki and Elli, still with me 5 years later.  Anyway, (sorry to get off track here) when we sold the house, I was worried about their mother.  I asked the buyer if he would look after her.  (I explained she wasn't ours but that if he had a problem with her staying, I'd try to set traps to try to catch her.)  He was all for her staying.  So, the problem was solved.

[lonepaz789]

When your place sells ask the buyers what they think. Make it a point to tell them you don't have many mouse problems with her around. Ask if they have a dog that will get the cat. (as i do) If they want to keep the cat around ask if they want kittens or to get her spayed. and make your decision based on that.
Just my thoughts of what i would do.

[sunnyks]

I never thought about asking the new owners.  Duh!  I'll do that and see what happens.  Most people from town are resigned to the cats.  We don't have animal control here and this town has more stray cats than squirrels.  Plus she's not a problem.  Never meow's at the door and I've never seen any cat poo around the yard so she's not a problem. 

I would love to keep her.  She's a great mouser but I sure would hate to cause her distress and take her away from the only place she's ever known.