Chuck, it looked like the woman was going to turn you into a collector for her. I'm sympathetic with rescue no doubt about it. I don't mean this to put it down, but sometimes it goes to the extreme when the animals are worse off.
Looks like you were trying to do the right thing and got caught in the middle. That's a shame about your carpet, I don't suppose she offered to have it cleaned. No I didn't think so.
Can feral cats ever be tamed? I believe the little cat I found on Christmas was a street cat, Baby, and she was so loving. In fact we were so suprised we have a chain link fence and gate around our property. One night a dog was trying to get in the gate and we were there and she went up to the dog and hissed and made a racket, of course on our side of the fence and I was surprised she wasen't afraid. She also had babies here and we found homes for all of them except one who died.