Today, July 31st, 2026, marks the one-year anniversary of formally feral kitten Junimoon (AKA, Juni) coming into this house to stay. She was born wild on or about April 9th, 2025, and was carried from my lap to inside the house at 6:44 p.m., July 31st, 2025. It was a process. I had tried about a week earlier, and that experience was a little traumatic for both of us. I will point out that I had some emotional, logistical, and general moral support for this process over the phone, and for that, I will always be grateful.
Currently, Juni is curled up, sleeping in my lap. Which means typing is somewhat compromised. She's a big girl now. She last weighed in at 11.8 lbs, nine days ago. By comparison, 20 year old Lucy the cat is 9.2 lbs.
Here's some of the evolution of Juni finally coming indoors to stay.
A feral mother cat typically stays with and cares for her kittens until they are about 10 to 12 weeks old. I could probably pin down a very accurate date when I started to see Juni's mom letting Juni know she was on her own but that's not the point of this post, this post is a celebration. However, I will note that feral male tomcat Vit, started playing a very important role as Juni's protector as Juni was just moving into her 9th week. Vit was immensely affectionate with Juni's mother, Kalika. He was and still is the dominant male in the neighborhood and is the most likely candidate for being Juni’s dad. Vit taking on this role as protector, that’s unusual, a feral male taking care for one of his offspring. In typical feral dynamics, tomcats rarely pay mind to individual kittens, let alone actively guard and play with them. For Vit to display that kind of steady, protective presence over Juni—especially as Kalika was beginning to step back—says a lot about his temperament. Whether it was paternal instinct or just a unique bond forged on the patio, he gave her a safe buffer when she was at her most vulnerable.
Here is Vit tolerating Juni playing with his tail on July 9th, 2025. That's 8 weeks and 5 days for Junimoon, her mother was no where around. Vit was actively following Juni, keeping an eye on her and this went on into evenings. Vit didn't ever hang out here that much before Juni was around.
Here's Vit from this morning after he had breakfast.
Yes, he was alerted to my moving closer with my phone but I kept talking to him and he relaxed.
I've only barely touched him a couple of times. He is reasonably trusting of me. I've even done yard work with him nearby and he's okay with it. Power tools and all. He does appear to be hard of hearing but this is not linked to the genetic condition that causes deafness in white cats with blue eyes--congenital sensorineural deafness. That high rate of deafness applies almost exclusively to completely, solid white cats with two blue eyes. Perhaps, he just likes to ignore me.
Back to Juni's story about coming inside...
June 27th, 2025. I was starting to figure out how it might work out. Juni was also becoming very attached to me. If she had a choice to play with me or to hang with Vit, she chose me.
July 29th, 2025. I had started leaving the patio door open for her. She was encouraged to come inside with toys and food. She had accepted my petting her and coming into my lap out on the patio, the goal was to get her to become comfortable enough to start nodding off in my lap indoors.
Here you can see her feather toy just hanging over the edge of Lucy's cat tree. Hauling that cat tree near the door was also an enticement to come inside,
Another catalyst for my convictions about getting Juni inside and soon. One, there was the hooting from a great horned owl almost every evening and two, there were these guys. I would do a camera check with the GardePro trail camera before daylight.
June 30th, 2025. This was the day Juni felt most comfortable about casually going from outside back inside the house. The patio door was open for most of the day. Surprisingly, there weren't a bunch of flies coming inside.
Once she started going down the halls, she was hooked on exploring. Note, the ping pong ball is near the Target bag.
Spring toys too. Anything I could throw that would bounce was a wonderful new indoor adventure for Junimoon.
July 31st. I really wanted this to be the day I was going to feel comfortable closing the patio door with Juni inside. This was 6:51 a.m., something else she loved to play with outside.
I followed the same program I had followed out on the patio. I encouraged her to climb up my pants legs into my lap. Again, the goal was to get her to feel comfortable in my lap inside the house.
7:52 a.m., a decision was made to close the patio door partway and see how Juni reacted. She was fine with it. She was staring at a bug here.
Meanwhile, when Juni would go outside, I would go check on the unsuspecting Lucy in our bedroom. Lucy had already taken a path to rarely leave the bedroom. The bedroom was her comfort zone. Lucy remains the Queen of the castle.
This happened about an hour earlier. She stayed in my lap for several minutes, but mostly because I was petting her. This happened more than once, but it wasn't until we were back on the patio, approaching evening, that Juni was in my lap and seemed very content; I didn't want her outside for another evening. The decision was made, and I simply picked her up, walked inside, and gently closed the door.
And so she remains, content and safe.
May 12, 2026.
July 30th (yesterday).
Lucy too, content and safe. Lap time with Lucy just started up again a couple of nights ago. This was last night during the Dodgers game. Lucy and Juni get exposure time but it has to be strictly supervised. I don't think there would be an altercation but Juni's age and size difference is intimidating to Lucy. Lucy has earned her peace and quiet.
Lucy splits most of her time with me on the bed or inside her custom nightstand fort.
Yes, everybody wants to be a cat
Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at
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