Good for you! And best of luck on the abduction.
I think that outdoor cats very often adapt just fine to indoor-only life. We ended up rescuing and then adopting a battle-scarred orange Manx at one point. (He was hiding in the bottom of our apartment stairwell — he must have seen a sign in cat-ese reading: “Suckers live here! Inquire within!” with a huge laceration on his back, evidently from a run-in with a car.) At any rate, after he healed up, Samwise would pad over to the door once in a while when we were leaving, take a good look outside, and then go back and jump on the couch. It was pretty clear where he wanted to be! LOL!
I think cats can spot a sucker/cat lover from a distance, and act accordingly if they are looking for a home. A couple of years ago, I fostered a small 2 year old brindle tabby-the vet said she was likely the runt of a litter-only 4 pounds or so. She was found in the woods, obviously feral but not hostile-and afraid of every noise and movement.
She needed to get over her fears before adoption, and I’ve fostered before so I agreed to do so, since I have a cat-loving Husky, and both Titus and my Maine Coon are pretty laid back. She got spayed, and the thought was that she would be offered to a single person who had no other pets-a tranquil environment for a skittish cat.
A few weeks into the fostering, Midget began playing with my Husky and other two cats-and sleeping on my bed at night-that was it-I paid the adoption fee-she weighs a respectable 6 pounds now and is a velcro cat...