Not every homeless cat is the same: there’s a huge difference in the behavior of feral and stray cats.

The latter usually have already had an owner at some point in their life, which means that the animal already knows its way around people.

For feral cats, however, that can be an entirely different story, as they tend to avoid human contact altogether.

Imgur-user Shaunesphoto came across a black and white feral cat over three years ago and has been keeping an eye on her ever since.

Shaunesphoto simply gave her food every time she spotted her, and the woman knew that it would be a very lengthy process to socialize with the feline.

In fact, it took more than two years before the cat, who is now named Cookie, would even allow someone to pat her head.

After the first few times, Shaunesphoto noticed Cookie one day under different circumstances: she didn’t come alone.

There was a baby kitten with her.

The Imgur-user immediately assumed that Cookie was the mommy and that the baby was the only one left of the litter. He was a male who was later named Scrappy.

Luckily, Scrappy was a lot less timid than his mother, and the Good Samaritan was able to take him along with her to the vet fairly easily.

Scrappy was neutered, dewormed and vaccinated – but mommy still needed to be rescued.

“I just had to rescue her too,” Shaunesphoto said. “I worried about her at night. I kept trying and trying for another whole year to get her to trust me enough to pick her up.”

However, Cookie the feral cat, felt betrayed because the woman took her son to the vet.

Whatever trust that she had built up with Cookie at that point, seemed lost – even if she only did what was best for Scrappy.

After three years, Shaunesphoto finally decided that it was enough and attempted to rescue Cookie as well, no matter what.

Unfortunately, the cat responded by biting her arm and running into the wilderness again. The woman kept looking for her the entire day, but couldn’t seem to find her.

Before she headed to sleep, she put up a food trap.

She never thought that the idea would actually work, but she was in for a surprise the next morning.

“At 4 am I woke up, went to check the trap and to my surprise I saw glowing eyes. It was her! It was truly a miracle, the chances of her finding my trap in a wildlife preserve with all the possums, raccoons, foxes, and armadillos roaming around, were slim to none. I took her in the house to a spare bathroom, opened the trap, made a nice bed out of towels, put out food and water and went back to bed feeling triumphant.”

The surprises weren’t over yet! Cookie was pregnant with four kittens and gave birth to them overnight.

It’s as if this mommy cat knew that the woman only wanted to help, and she seemed to realize that this was the only way that her baby kittens would be safe.

So what happens next? The woman is now actually taking care of Scrappy, Cookie, and her four kittens!

Their timidness has faded, and she even says that they’re absolutely wonderful pets!

“Now I have Cookie and her babies, they are nine months old, and Scrappy too. I am keeping them all. They have been through enough. Cookie and Scrappy have tamed down quite a bit and are wonderful pets. They are one big happy family!”

Talk about a special rescue story!

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Source: iHeartCats/Shaunesphoto (Imgur)