I have an orange boy who was feral. Mom was a feral and got killed. They were found in a barn and they were only a few days old. None of the shelters would take them, the people who found them were told "they will die before you even get them here."

Thankfully, they had tools and formula to get them through the first 24 hours when my friend decided to take the entire litter in. They were being bottle fed by hand every 2 hours, she had to manually simulate them to go to the bathroom, the whole works. As they became actual kittens and not eating sleeping blobs, the feral became evident.

She was the only one allowed in the room with the kittens, they viewed her as mom. Anyone else the kittens would scratch to shreds. The girl cat who became the head protector got the affectionate nickname of "bitch face."

Thankfully she had a great community of friends who was willing to put in time and effort with them. They were regularly meeting new people in a safe way, they were starting to socialize and do well. They were eventually able to be adopted out, thankfully by people in the group who were helping. My friend only kept one cat and that's my orange boy.

She had him for 2 years but she recognized he wasn't thriving with her. That's when she posted she was looking for a good home for him. I had just went through a messy breakup and I had my girl and a dog (who was amazing with cats) and I decided why not? It took about 3 months before the 2 cats would tolerate each other. Probably about a year before they liked each other. I'm not sure when they became besties but, it was slow. She's almost 21 now, he's almost 19.