A "feral" cat was brought into the clinic to be neutered but somehow after the neuter he ended up staying with us. The person who brought him in wanted to find him a good home and left him at the clinic. He was brought in a cat trap so we carefully moved him into a kennel after his neuter and labeled it as "Wild Thing" "Use Caution" He would hiss at anyone who looked at him.
After he was at the clinic for a few days I decided to try handling him to see if it could be possible to adopt him out. He hissed at me but did not strike. I used leather gloved and pet him, he was only hissing but not biting or trying to attack so I felt safe to take off the gloves. After a while of petting I was able to hold him and took him out of the kennel. Once out of the kennel he was a sweat as could be, purring and letting me huge him close to my chest. It turns out he is only cage fear reactive. Once out of the cage he did not show any signs of being feral. He no longer hisses at me but will hiss at any new people who come to see him making it difficult to find him a good home.
We now call him "Wild Thing" as his name and he still does hiss while in the kennel but really isn't "feral" like we thought, now he needs a good home. I would love to take him home but I just can't. He's about 7mo old, orange domestic long hair.