pregnant stray living in my garage!

Thanks Laurie! You're so helpfull and supportive! My parents aren't that supportive, they get a bit annoyed whenever i mention getting a trap or a cage and when i say I'm going out to ask around about the white kitty they give me exasperated looks. They're not really animal lovers but i am and so was my grandad (it must have skipped a generation).
I presume that it would cost money to get the white kitty spayed and them both dewormed and both injections?
Laurie I rang one of the numbers from the links you put up ( thanks very much btw) and a women named Irene is going to come to my house sometime next week, trap preggers in a havahart trap, take her to her own house and let her have her kittens in her house, then bring Preggers back here to the place that she knows and gets fed by me and find homes for the kittens!
I'm so happy that Preggers will be able to have her litter in a safe cosy enviroment but a little bit sad that she won't be with me for a while.
As for the lil white kitty I think I'll be keeping her ~kind of~ just making her a bed in my garage, putting a hot water bottle wraped in a blanket in it and feeding her. She's so tame already that maybe after I while if i train her to use a litter tray and everything I'll be able to bring her into the house!
Also i think that i might be keeping one of Preggers Kitties but I'm not sure. The women on the phone said that she thought that Preggers must be a stray and not feral because i told her that when i tryed to stroke Preggers she didn't hiss or scrath she just jumped back a few feet. She said that if Preggers was a feral she would have scrabed my arm and hissed and ran away!
Anyway things are definately looking up! And all thanks to you laurie!

What a wonderful update TCSers - you rock Posts & vibes from around the world have made miracles happen for 2 kitties in need

Oh that is too cool! I'm so glad one of the places worked for you! And what fabulous news!

If I were you, I'd ask the lady about what to do about getting the white kitty spayed (or neutered) so you can keep her or him. I'm willing to bet she knows where to go that it would be free or at a substantial discount. And if she doesn't? Try calling some of the other places you can find (if any) in those links.

Also, here in the States, many vets are willing to do spays/neuters at a reduced cost for non-owned cats - and often on a payment plan. But it often takes the personal touch - I mean - going in there to talk about it with them. Don't know if this will help, but

You're making lots of progress already though!

Laurie

Yeh theres a vet a couple of miles away from me and the women says that she is a personal friend of his and that she would gladly get him to spay the white kitty for free because of quote' such an act of selflessness ' towards the kitties and she's done this many times before for people who have cared for stray kitties!
So that's great theres no need to buy a trap anymore and i don't have to pay to get her spayed or neutered...i still don't know what gender it is, I'm assuming it's a she for some reason :S
I'm hoping that I'll be able to train White kitty in the garage to use a litter box and encourage her to scrab at a certain... scrab toy thing you can buy which I'll spray with the scrab encourager scent thing lol I'm so uneducated about this!
But hopefully in the not so distant future I'll have Lil white kittie and one of Preggers babies living in the house with me!
Rob

Aw - you've got us to help along the way - and the cats will teach you plenty.

I'm SO GLAD everything's working out for you and the kitties!

....and we thought all of the kittens in that first litter were little girls - there were all so cute! ....of course, once we started rescuing and found out that all except one were boys - well - I guess they still kinda all looked like little girls to us! We have four of the five as inside only pets now (the big long-haired orange male got adopted out to a wonderful home) - and now that they're all grown up, the boys look very masculine to me. You'll love white kitty just as much whether he's a he or she's a she.

Laurie

Awwww, he's beautiful!

I guess you figured out the hard way a lot of cats don't like to be picked up! With our feral rescues, it's something we had to work on. DO be careful of the bites - cat's mouths are not the most antiseptic place in the world.

He looks like he's been without care and on his own for a while, with that scratch on his nose and that sore on his chest, poor baby.

When he heads in to be neutered, I would talk to the vet about a flea treatment, either Advantage or Frontline. They must carry it there. Flea treatments you purchase in a pet store or supermarket can be dangerous to cats. The Frontline or Advantage are safe for kitty, effective, and easy to use.

As to your question about white cats - in your area, I don't know. In general, and all white cat is not so unusual. However, if a white cat has blue eyes, there is a high probability it is deaf. It's complicated, but has to do with genes they carry.

We have a deaf white kitty, though it's because she lost her hearing from disease. She does have a very light "dust" of a few black hairs on her head.

Here's a pic of her after she'd been rescued and in the hospital for 2 weeks:



I have a number of threads with pictures of her in the Cat Pictures thread inside of The Cat Lounge - here's a link to one of them. http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...erbelle%2A

And there are quite a number of white cat lovers on this site!

She really went through hell, and we ended up having to have her left eye removed.

We named her Flowerbelle Lee after a Mae West character in a movie - she needed to be a strong woman to pull through.

You could probably get LOTS of ideas for names if you started a "Help me name my white cat" thread (or something) in the Cat Lounge! We're a friendly bunch (as you've found out, I think). Just say hi, tell 'em you're rescuing this kitty, and need help with names!

Laurie

Oh - you may want to ask the vet to do a quick check for worms. Many strays/ferals getting their nourishment from unknown places wind up with at least round worm or tapeworm. The vet should be able to take a small fecal sample while kitty is there and check it in a microscope.

Whatever de-worming medication the vet gives you, it's usually something that needs to be administered for 7 - 10 days, and then repeated again in three weeks. The meds only kill the adult worms, which is why the medication needs to be given again in three weeks.

Advice on how to administer it depends upon whether it's a liquid or a pill. But being able to entice kitty on your lap with food is a great sign that you'll be able to manage it if you need to.

Laurie

Yeh thanks Laurie i will do that with the vet.
I was walking along my street just there now and there was a wee tabby kitten underneath a car. I called it with a 'pisswisswiss' sound and it came to me and started rubbing it's head on my legs and i picked it up. I stroked it for about a minute while it purred and then set it down again. I started to walk away and it followed me! I said NO and hissed it to go back but it kept on following me so i picked it up and took it the person that owned it's house and rang the doorbell. A dirty looking unfriendly women opened the door, smoking a cigarette and with a glass of wine in her hand and said "What?!" and i told her that the cat had follwed me. The cat jumped down from my arms and tried to go inside the house but the women said "No you stay out here!"
It's really cold and windy here at the moment and the kitty must have been freezing! I had half a mind to take it home with me away from its horrible owners!!!! But I didn't but I'll see how many times I see it outside freezing half to death and think about it. I doubt the owners would even care! Obviously i know it would be unfair but it's being mistreated! what to do what to do!!

I would never advocate stealing someone's cat.

That said.... cats and kittens that are outside disappear all the time without their owners knowing what happened to them. Mistreatment of animals is NOT ok in my book, and I believe kitties deserve a loving home. And you have been putting out cat food. I'm surprised kitty hasn't turned up there already.

On the other hand...maybe it's not her pet? Maybe the kitty's tried to get into her house. If that was her reaction, you can't assume it's hers can you? In fact - it would seem she didn't want the cat around. Hmmmmmmm......

Maybe you found another stray that rescue lady wants to help?

I know that it's a misdemeanor offense (here) to spay or neuter someone else's cat (if they didn't want it spayed or neutered). I also know if it's on our property, it gets spayed or neutered. Because it's on our property when it's trapped, though, I think if anyone tried to actually press charges it would be a really gray area. I can't assume all the animals that roll through are owned by someone - if they're not responsible enough to keep their cat off our property, that's not my problem. Of course, we've never had anyone complain.

So - I guess the way I see it is that sometimes "the right thing to do" isn't within the letter of the law.

Being involved with rescuing kitties can be so rewarding - but it can also be heartbreaking and frustrating.

We also tend to sound like broken records sometimes on this site, and advice almost always boils down to "follow your heart."

to you and scritches to all the kitties,

Laurie

Thanks Laurie. I'm pretty sure the women owns it because I think i heard her calling it by it's name. I walk along my road a lot. I'll see how many times I see it half freezing to death underneath a car and then make my decision.
It's 10.00 am here in the U.K. The two cat rescue ers arrived at 9.30 and I was talking to them for a while. They left me a trap and a box and they want to see the white kitty. I showed them a vid of the white kitty and they said it looked like a female and pregnant cat!! They were nearly certain when I told them that it's belly felt hard and it wouldn't let me touch it. But i definately saw two small sacs just below the cats anus so I don't know what they are?! :S
But if they are both female and pregnant then the women will be taking both and I'll be left with no Kitties!
I've kind of been relying on the cats to keep my spirits up, as stupid as it sounds. Just because I know that someone or something is getting something good from me putting out food and the helping the cats just makes me feel a bit better lol.
Anyway, tell me what you think, Robert.

If they are both pregnant femals than you are saving lots of lives! Perhaps since this woman (Ilene?) lives so close she'll let you visit with them? I'd hope so for all your doing to help these cats.

My vibe is that the white kitty is male!

Probably has lots of worms .... i hope it's a boy and you get to keep him!!

Yeh her name is Irene btw, I said to her that if she needed any help with any of her cats or catching any other cats then i would be happy to help because I really respect what she's doing and she said there'd probably be lots I coulld help her with in the summer.
If i can't keep the white cat because she's pregnant and Irene wants to take her then I'd like to take one of Preggers or the white cats kittens whenever they're old enough but I'm not sure if it's right to seeing as they'll just be living in my garage, but they'll have food everyday and a hot water bottle every night!

If you think there is any sort of abuse you could always report the owner, but if they want an outdoor-only cat I dont think thats against the law.

Well, you'll know soon enough whether white kitty is male or female! Wouldn't it be funny if the white kitty turned out to be a pregnant female, and "preggers" turned out to be male?

Gary and I are TERRIBLE at telling the gender of kitties. Older cats you can tell because of the sacs - but neutered males we often mistake for females.

I think you would make a wonderful kitty guardian, and as long as kitty is loved and cared for - with a place to keep warm, I don't see a problem. We keep all our kitties indoors because we can't take the heartbreak of anything happening to them. In our feral colony there would always be cats that just disappeared, and it was always heartbreaking. You never knew if they moved on or were hurt or sick or what. But if there are kitties, you can always see how the adoptions go. You never know - might be one that just doesn't get taken into a home.

The other option is to help with the rescue - then you'd be helping lots of cats - and wait until you've got a place of your own so you can have an indoor kitty.

We'll just keep our fingers crossed that lil' white kitty is a male full of worms.

Laurie

Any news yet? How's the trapping going?

Laurie

Well since my last post, both kitties have been caught. White kitty (Casper I've decided to call it) is a boy and quite a big boy. He stays in a hedge in my garden untill i come out and he comes out to greet me lol. Preggers isn't preggers after all!!! It is a she and it is a stray but women said she definately wasn't Preggers but it was one of the biggest cat she'd ever seen including pregnant ones! She is keeping the cat for a few days while she take it to the vet. She gave me a form to take to my own vet to get casper neutered which I'll be doing tomorrow. She said that the reason Preggers was so big could be anything. It could be that shes full of worms, getting fed b y many people or is an excellelent hunter and that apparently some cats will stop eating when they're not hungry anymore but some will just eat and eat untill they're sick.
So what do you think?

So the lil' white cat isn't so little!

Welcome home, Caspar! So... is he off to the vet for a check-up and his neuter? And will he then become a kitty in your care?

Some kitties do develop the "need to eat" if they haven't had regular sources of food, so it is possible. But you've seen her eat - does she gobble it up in like two seconds? Does she ever leave any behind? If she eats it all, do you put out more? That's be the only real way to know if she's just eating and eating - is you seeing her do it and get sick.

Of course - it could mean she's full of worms or is ill. We'll just have to wait to hear from her vet visit.

So.... what's going to happen with big fat kitty - will she be spayed and just released back to your garage? Or is Irene going to try to find a home for her? Or you going to become a daddy to two kitties, and do we have to name "formerly preggers?"

Laurie

O.K we ended up not taking Casper to the vet today because my mum was too busy and i havn't got any form of transport. Casper is going to be staying with us yes I'll keeping feeding him and I'll buy a cat bed for him which I'll put a hot water bottle in every night. I'm planning on taking Casper to the vet on Thursday, I'll make the appointment tonight.
Once Irene is finished with Preggers she's going to release her back to near my house where she came from which could potentially be a problem for Casper because Preggers is bigger and I think he would be reluctant to go anywhere near my house if Preggers was hanging around too. Also she could end up eating Caspers food, we'll just have to wait and see!