There's a few shelters out this way that actuslly adopt ferals out specifically as WORK cats. We have a lot of rural properties/farms/ranches/Etc. that function well as safe homes for these cats. The cat people out here are SUPER connected and I love the kind culture that surrounds it.

That's how it is here in Vermont, too! ❤️

The shelter that has provided most of my pets in the last couple decades here in the PNW calls them "barn buddies." I love this program.

I had a feral cat and tried for years to make him happy. I wish that I had thought of giving him to a farm where he could be his weird little self and maybe I could visit every so often to let him chew on me (which he really loved 😆)

Yep, my city too. Can't get some of the cats out of being feral. But they'll get them fixed and vaccinated, then local farms and such will adopt them to be outdoor kitties. Friend took one for her horse ranch, has a nice warm shelter for kitty in winter.

Here too (Ontario in Canada). They call it the barn buddies program!

The shelter I used to work at (& adopted my kitties from) does the same thing. Though amusingly, they tried to rehome a feral cat at my old apt complex 2x to diff't farms as a barn cat. The 2nd time it showed back up at the complex the office staff adopted it & it became a complex kitty instead.

We adopted 2 kittens from the local cat rescue. They were completely wild but now 3 months on they're gradually beginning to talk to us and have discovered the advantages of being patted. My garden shed is free from mice for the first time ever.