A community cat has been raised in the wild (feral cat) or has been abandoned or lost and turned to wild ways in order to survive (stray cat). Community cats are not accustomed to contact with people and are typically too fearful and wild to be handled. Community cats do not easily or may never adapt to living as pets in close contact with people.
However, there are many things you can do to help improve the health and well-being of community cats. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Programs humanely trap community cats in order to vaccinate and spay/neuter the animal. The cat is vaccinated and ear-tipped (for easy identification from a distance) during the same visit. The healthy and altered community cat is now free to live out its natural life with a colony caretaker while not producing more community cats.