Kittens, Kittens and more Kittens!

[6518John]

My son and I have been active in feral cat rescue since he did a science fair project on Trap, Neuter and Release several years ago. We focus mainly on catching, taming and getting adopted out or into a working cat program for those too wild to tame.

Well we caught a young kitten that I would guess is 6-8 months old that was about to pop from her own litter. She turned into a huge lap cat after we got her checked out at the vet and found out she was disease free.

Well she delivered Wednesday night. My lord, SEVEN fat, healthy black-tiger stripped Tabbies. 3 Toms, 4 girls. My son helped her deliver the first 4 that came almost immediately then the rest came throughout the night. I sat up with her through the night per the vet to keep an eye on her due to her being so young. By sunrise we had 7!

Fortunately the adoption group we work with has no trouble placing kittens in good homes after they are spayed and neutered.

The little momma—we named "Little Bit"—is producing milk like a prized Holstein dairy cow and eating like a hog (3-5 small cans of soft food a day). All are fat and even the runt (a little Tom) is growing. He came into the world tail-first to boot. My son saw the tail come out after all the head-first deliveries and said "DAD THERE IS A SNAKE IN THERE!"

I caught back up on sleep last night thank goodness.

Sorry I don't have better pictures-it's hard to get a good picture of the striped devils. Looks like the bull did not jump the fence and they all have the same daddy. Daddy needs to visit the vet too if I ever catch him—he either gets snipped or faces a lot of cat support on seven. I am not sure even the Arkansas Child Support Charts go that high!

 

[6518John]

PS. I actually had to do some counting—with 7 kittens I was afraid there would be too many pigs for the teats as Abraham Lincoln use to say. She has one to spare

 

[Bullseye 2620]

With that brood, I'll bet she's eating like a champ.

Our newest addition to the pride is a spay-neuter-release kitten that showed up at our front door, a gray and white "little girl" we have named Cleokatra. Last night, during a tummy scratching session, I discovered that Cleo is a him, not a her, but I think the name is going to stick since s/he already answers to it.

Spay-neuter-release programs work and save a lot of lives.

 

[D Brown]

6518John,

What a wonderful thing! I find it absolutely amazing that you were able to make a lap kitty out of a 6-8 month feral! That's almost incomprehensible!

I feed a batch of ferals on the edge of the town I live in. I won't sugar coat this; the illegals abandon their cats when they move out of town, and it has created a large feral population. I can assure you, the born and raised ferals, are hardly ever going to become lap cats. There's one Tortoise Shell that I've been feeding for over four years, and she's just now, within the last couple of weeks allowed me to get close enough to touch her!

 

[6518John]

6518John, I find it absolutely amazing that you were able to make a lap kitty out of a 6-8 month feral! That's almost incomprehensible!

Dave—You are dead on about the "lap kitty" part. It's not "almost incomprehensible"—it is incomprehensible. No way she has been on the streets her entire life and be that tameable. Both our vet and I think she was someone's pet, then they dumped her because they did not want to deal with the kittens. She had no fleas, ticks, scars, etc. But here is the crazy part—was wild as the wind and trap savvy.

My son and my Marine Corp Reserve law clerk (both trappers and country boys) had to set a big double-ended Havaheart covered in rocks and canvass like a tunnel out of the building she was living under. She would not come to a baited box trap period—like she had been trapped before. I think she was simply terrified being dumped. We had seen her for a couple of weeks before we could catch her.

Then look at this in a week:

 

[Geronimo Jim]

God bless you! Best post of the day!

 

[billwill]

Aw....cute little kittens. Way to go! Everybody needs a kitty!

 

[venomballistics]

nothing new to me ... If theres a feral or stray within visual range, it'll be on my lap within a half hour. Just the way it is.
For this odd gift, I have a few friends. the latest is Squeek ... a high energy tuxie back up alarm clock model.
if you sleep through the alarm, your feet are fair game.

 

[6518John]

nothing new to me ... If theres a feral or stray within visual range, it'll be on my lap within a half hour. Just the way it is.

My boy is that way. For me—I get a plug bit out of my arm or leg. I guess that is a contribution too!

 

[venomballistics]

My boy is that way. For me—I get a plug bit out of my arm or leg. I guess that is a contribution too!

well ... they gotta eat somehow

 

[H Richard]

Our latest furry friend was a feral cat. We went to the Rescue Center last Feb, looking to replace our little Samantha who passed on and a little grey& white female who was very cautious. The staff explained she was a feral cat about two years old and was turned in with two little ones about 6 months earlier.

She was so frightened she wouldn't come out from a holding room (where new cats are interred) for over two months. Even then she wouldn't come out of her cage except at night to eat. She was adopted once by a man who brought her back within 30 days stating "she was broken".

My wife fell for her, we brought her home and she disappeared, hiding behind my desk so tight she couldn't get out. We stuffed old towels in every opening she might be able to squeeze into. She went under our bed, and wouldn't come out. We were determined she could be calmed down, so we moved a litter box and food & water into our bedroom. After nearly two weeks one night she jumped up on the bed and snuggled by my wife's feet. If I tried to reach for her she would jump off and hide. Over the next 2-3 weeks she would come out at night to get on the bed and begun to allow us to pet her. After another couple weeks one evening as we were sitting in the living room she walked out and jumped up into the wife's lap. This continued a couple more weeks, we moved her litter box and food & water into the kitchen. One evening when the wife was gone she jumped up into my lap for petting. She has since trusted me as I feed her every morning, and we now have opened the door to the basement and moved her litter box down there (where it had always been for out other cats).

It has been over 6 months, she now comes out every day during the day time, lets us know she wants a "treat" and plays with her toys during the daytime. She sleeps on our bed at night and seldom goes under the bed to hide. We left for a two week trip and we hired a person to come in and feed her and see to her every day while were gone and gave a key to one of the neighbors who is a friend also who volunteered to come in a d play with her a couple times a week. She came in almost every day and would watch a TV program in the afternoon and little Daphne would come out sit on her lap. The person feeding her every evening after work didn't see her the first three days, then would meet her at the door when she came every day.

She has come to trust us and several others, but when we have company over she will normally stay out of the way.

We think she is a keeper that took awhile before she knew we loved her.

I've got to get some pictures of her.

Here's a picture of Daphne

 

[6518John]

I would love to see her picture.

 

[Doug M.]

Like the mommy pic. I need to add a cat here, once we get Ruby through the transition to our home. (Rescue dogs tend to have entire subscriptions, not "issues".)

 

[snubbyfan]

You made my wife go "aww."

 

[les.b]

John,

Thanks for the PM. I had not seen this heartwarming thread before. Good for you and H Richard, and all the others who befriend these wonderful creatures. They certainly pay us back for our love by trusting us and returning our affection.

John, that is great work you and your son are doing with the feral kitties. I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of folks here on the forum (like Jennifer Culina) who work with the ferals.

Best Regards, Les

 

[6518John]

Updated Photos

It is amazing how they have grown, even the runt is fat and sassy. Little Bit (the mom) continues to do an excellent job at feeding a huge litter that now look like piglets. The runt:

 

[6518John]

They are very hard to get decent pictures of because they are so dark and look so much alike. General snuggling:

 

[amazingflapjack]

Bless you and your house John-Wife wants to no Momma's name. we caught, fixed, and adopted out 29 kittens 8 years ago-fixed all of the co-conspirators as well, and haven't had any mewling in the bushes since!

 

[DWalt]

We have a feral cat as a pet, with us about two years now. She was hanging around our house for several months and took to sleeping on the driveway under my truck. My wife started putting out dry food and water for her. One day she put the food and water inside the garage with the door partly open. She came in and I closed the door. Like all ferals, she was very wary and was difficult to catch, but we made her a bed with litter box on our sun porch. She stayed there but wouldn't come out. After several weeks she calmed down. We have a tomcat and two dogs, but none of them paid much attention to her, so she got used to them fairly quickly. My wife took her to the vet, found out she was very healthy and had been fixed, probably a spay-neuter-release, as she had the tip cut off one ear. We didn't know about that. She was fully tame after several months and gets along fine with our other animals. And is she ever a talker. She greatly prefers my wife, and doesn't like me very much. Her name is Fuzzy.

 

[Tom K]

All y'all are some good people. Thanks to les.b for linking to this thread from his "Lucky" thread.