Meet Munchkin!

Laurie, I am so enjoying the picture I have of Munchkin "making bread" with all four legs. It must be adorable. It's great that she's so loving, considering the small amount of handling she probably had before you--if she was handled at all!

Just one question, if she's not using the litter box, where is she depositing her deposits? Ahem.

Like Lazlo, she was just holding it. But unlike Lazlo, at least she wasn't sleeping on the dirt!

She FINALLY went! Of course she used the little litter box he made for her. We praised her to high heaven.

She got SO playful after that! (What a relief for everyone! ).

Laz was kind of mad, and I remembered about the height issue (alphas get the highest place...). We took the big crate off the couch and have placed it on the floor in front of the front door. (You can't get out the front door without moving it, but we made sure we were done with outside for the day first. The crate is too big to put on the floor anywhere else. It is as wide as the space to walk here).

He immediately trotted out of the bedroom - tail up. He kind of leaned his head over her direction and sniffed - and hopped up on top of his box (where the crate had been). He stared at her for a while, and decided all was O.K. Had a bite, and then slipped inside the box for his usual late afternoon nap.

While Shelly and Lazlo passed out, she went to the bathroom for the first time. Of course she was peeing for like 10 minutes.

We "showed" her around the house, and the little cave we bought for her that we put in the bedroom - just lower than the bedside tables where Laz's and Shelly's beds are. It's the other side of the table we put up so Gary has a "bedside" table (since Shelly's bed is on the actual bedside table). She popped in there and started purring up a storm. The whole thing was rumbling.

Jeanie - she's never been handled by people before. I am not kidding when I say that Gary is extraordinary with animals. The Vets are amazed each time we bring a cat in. They all let Gary handle them. It's a gift and a blessing.

But she's inside and happy, and it looks like there's not going to be much of a problem with Laz and Shelly. Shelly has said "hi" a couple more times, and she's just part of the fam for him now, I think. Lazlo just needs constant reminding he's King of the Castle, and he'll be fine. :tounge2:

Here's another pic (after the bath):

(Maybe now you can see how little she is!)

The close-up:

How cute. That definately is a look of pure content written all over her face.

OMG!!! She is so tiny! And SO adorable!!!!

Oh goodness!!! She's such a.....a..... MUNCHKIN!!! Owwweee!!!! She's soo cute!!!

She is so beautiful. I would go to an interview with her. But I'm wondering about the "feral" tag. All the ferals I've had anything to do with have been not like domestic cats. They are compact, sturdy, wild looking animals that are totally wild, totally unapproachable. So I'm just wondering whether feral means the same everywhere.
Diann in Australia

Laurie, she is such a sweet baby doll! What a face. Goodness she is a tiny thing, isn't she? She may be "feral" but with all that kneading going on she doesn't sound like a feral. Sounds like she is pretty happy to be inside, and Shelly and Laz will be good big brothers to her. What a happy little family!

Well - I don't know about Lazlo yet. Shelly has made peace with Munchie. Lazlo still growls, although now that he's hit her in the head a couple of times with his paw and she FINALLY hunched down and put her ears down (not back) (sure looks like "I give" to me!), I think we'll be alright. At least Laz is back to himself this morning - strutting around with his tail up, playing, purring when I pet him. Until Munchie "gave," he was very disturbed and didn't do much except stare at her, constantly changing his position to eyeball her from a different place.

When we finally headed for bed around 1:30am last night, we decided to leave Munchie in the crate as opposed to bringing her to bed with us. We figured it'd make the guys feel better. We don't have a separate room to keep her in, so I guess we effectively made one (and it has the equivalent of a screen door!). It's big enough to house a place to play for her, a place to sleep for her, a small litter box Gary made out of a cereal box, and her food and water. We didn't hear a peep out of her until we woke up this morning. She was snoozing each time one of us came out to check on her. And she continued to use the litterbox when she had to go to the bathroom (as we found out this morning) and she slept in the blankets. Yay!

We did put a mid-sized litterbox next to Lazlo's and Shelly's (the only place it really fits). Of course, they'd mostly used that one last night, but because it's so small for them, they kicked litter out of it when burying their stuff. So we had quite a mess of litter to clean up this morning!

We let Shelly and Laz "inspect"her this morning before we opened the crate. Then we fed the boys, waited a few minutes, and then put (wet) food out for her in the other corner of the kitchen. She was eating when they finished, and Laz came over and stuck his nose in her ear. She backed away, he sniffed her food - and strutted off. She then finished eating.

During "play time" after that, She was rolling around with her toys on the bed by herself. We played out here with the guys like usual. Laz kept getting really distracted. So I picked him up and took him in there. He went into "stalk" mode. But I decided not to interefere unless he jumped her. We krept up on her - and she finally stopped playing when he was about an inch away.

He Sat Up as Tall As He goes. He leaned over - and BAM! He hit her in the head. No claws though. She just stared at him. He did it three times in rapid succession. And she finally crouched down. He looked so pleased with himself, and trotted out with his tail up and everything seemed normal.

I kept leaning around to check on her. I couldn't see her so got up to look. She was passed out in Shelly's bed holding the little Ty cat (stuffed animal). After I came back to work (at the laptop), I noticed Laz wandering in there. He tip-toed up to her (instead of stalking her) - leaned in there and put his nose right on her ear. She didn't wake up. Then he started licking her! I guess that's good! I praised him to high heaven and gave him treats.

Here she is, sleeping:

Laurie, What a neat story! If Lazlo gave her a mini-bath, he must feel pretty good about himself. And Munchkin is so sweet, cute as can be, and barely as big as Gary's hand! Gary's gift? Isn't that something? For a man who never thought much about cats before? It's just magical. I'm happy/sad that Rocki is going to a different home. I'm sure you feel the same. God bless you for helping His little creatures.

Diann, feral cats in the U.S. can be any breed. They are different from strays in that they have never lived with human beings. Some, on very rare occasions, can be socialized, but it takes great patience and is close to a miracle. Debra Myers, moderator of The Rainbow Bridge, did it with Goldie, and Hissy, another moderator, had also done it often. I would assume that the feral colonies to which you're referring have been established for so long that they are inbred and have become a separate breed unto themselves. Perhaps you have areas that are not heavily populated. ??? I don't know.

She seems like a little love! I just want to snuggle her. I think that since you live in a mobile home you should travel to each TCS member who lives in North America (I mean you can't drive on water). I wanna snuggle a kitten. I am so happy everyone is getting along. Give them all a smooch for me please!

Oh Diann - sorry! I forgot about your feral question. Jeanie answered it already, but as to "ours:"

These kittens were born of a feral mom. In this area, there are a lot of small farms, and the farmers keep "barn cats." Unfortunately, a lot of them are not responsible about it, and un-sterilized cats start reproducing uncontrolled. There is a very large population of cats that were once tame but now must live on their own around here - many of them many generations into being "wild." I believe that those that come to us for food while we are present outside putting it out are cats who are only 2 - 3 generations wild and are just desperately hungery.

While they are wild animals, they come from "house cat" genes, I guess.

The kittens that got us involved with them just turned up in our yard one day. There were several adults that raided the garbage cans last Winter - that's what first brought our attention to the problem.

The kittens were only 4 - 6 weeks old when they first started playing around the R.V. and in the yard. I came to the cat site and lo and behold - now we care for the whole gang! (And spend a lot of time trapping and getting the animals sterilized). The "family" disappeared one day - leaving Lazlo behind. He cried for two days, and we brought him inside. He was 8 - 10 weeks old at the time. The family showed up two days later, but he was already part of the family! He snuggled into Gary's shirt and that was it.

We decided he'd be lonely, so we picked up the runt of the litter, Sheldon. Shelly took about two hours to calm down, and then it was smooth sailing. Lazlo and Sheldon have TOTALLY different personalities but are great buddies.

We continued to feed the rest of the kittens, and trapped the mom and the dads that we could. We waited until the kids were all 12 weeks old to get them spayed/neutered. Of course, once we started feeding them, it didn't take long for lots of cats to show up at meal time.

There was a pregnant mom - and her kittens are just showing up now, although we haven't seen her. I think she abandoned them, or something happened to her. When we first brought Munchkin in, the Vet told us she had all of her adult teeth. When we just took her in this past weekend, one of the other Vets said that was just wrong. It makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE that she is part of the new litter of kittens - but she's still the runt of the litter, and is about half the size of the other two that have turned up. Although Gary says he saw a new one last night. So if she's part of the new batch of kittens, we've had two of the four new ones spayed/neutered, and all five of the first litter. We've had a lot of adults done, too, though we still haven't trapped Sheldon's dad. Their mom disappeared the day after we had her spayed, and we haven't seen her since. I'm so glad we waited until the kittens were old enough to be on their own.

The adult cats do not let us handle them and do not get too near. Some only come when we leave, but we see them scooting off into the woods when we come back out. The kittens have all been around us from a young age, and though I doubt they trust other people, they are very friendly to us. It took until about 2 - 3 weeks ago for Lazlo's and Shelly's siblings (outside) to allow us to touch them for pets (and Lazlo and Shelly have been happily adjusted inside pets since early July). But ALL of their purr motors are going now, and they come RUNNING for pets!

So while they are all feral, because they're kittens and got used to us from a young age, I think that's why they're more open to human contact.

And Jeanie - it isn't just cats. It is ALL animals, wild or no. We pull over to watch Deer - Gary opens the window, makes some noises, and they stop and watch us. Once he got one to walk over to the car, curious - and Gary was able to pet it! Same with a fawn that we saw while out for a walk (although we didn't pet it because we didn't want our smell on it). He's had flocks of geese and ducks follow him. He can get small animals (squirrels and such) to eat out of his hand. Dogs go nuts for him and totally listen to him. And apparently wild cats accept him and just somehow feel OK that he's going to help them. He was a farmer in Israel when he left the full-time army thing (he continued to live in Israel for several years after serving full time for seven) and raised sheep and goats.