What does she want?

We have had Sunny in the house for almost 3 weeks now. She is a feral kitten who is motherless. She really took to us and kept following us in the house so we let her stay. She's getting along pretty well with our bird (she has not eaten him) and uses her litter box like a dream. She is usually quite playfull and tried to attack the paper coming out of my printer. For the past two days she has been rather lethargic. She ususally sleeps on and off and plays the rest of the time. Today she has slept most of the day in a room away from us. She's usually in the living room with us in her favorite chair. Today, when she's not sleeping - she's crying LOUDLY at the door. Does she want out? I have finally gotten all of the fleas off of her (and bathing her was NOT FUN). I don't know how old she is so I was planning to take her to be spayed and given her shots in 2 weeks.

1. If she wants out, should I let her out? It is against my better judgment since there are approx 40 feral cats in the yard next to mine. I have a family of 3 that I have taken care of for approx 3 years and they are quite territorial.

2. Do I wait for the 2 weeks and have her spayed and her ear cropped (so Animal control knows she's feral, fixed and healthy) and let her out then only if she persists?

3. Will this pass? We really love her and would love for her to stay. This is not normal baby kitty crying for food or affection - it's the type of crying my ferals were doing when we took them to have them fixed and had to keep them in our home for 24 hours. They wanted out - BADLY!

I don't know what to do and only want the best for her. We only have our experience with the ferals outside and have never had a cat indoor. Any help you can give us is appreciated.

I'm not sure how old she is. She has doubled in size in the past 3 weeks and we only knew of her for a total of 6 weeks. She was so tiny that she could walk through a chain link fence without having to try to squeeze through it.

I definately don't want to let her out - I just dont want our precious little kitten to be miserable.

As I stated, I am taking her to be spayed in 2 weeks. I don't think that she's old enough to be in heat as of yet. I could tell that she was very young when we took her in because she would not eat unless I held her first and when she had enough affection she would start kneading on me and trying to suckle. Then I would put her down and she would eat. She still does that just not as much. I'm not sure if she was dumped by some stupid person who does not know that there is such a thing as spaying and neutering your pets so that you don't have unwanted kittens or puppies or if a hawk dropped her. We have hawks in the neighborhood that are around each season when there are little kittens born.

Sure sounds to me like she's in heat. It could be that her size was stunted by malnutrition, and she's older than you might think. Letting her out could result in her being seriously injured by the male cats.

I agree with all the posts. Sounds like she is in heat. My baby-cat was just like you described - she was a feral, very skinny & tiny when she first came to my door. I wasn't quite sure how old she was but just like your cat, she also started acting up. I used to let her out but stopped doing that ever since she came back injured one night

I see you're from Tampa, FL. Which vet are you taking your cat to?

Heat! It comes on sooner than you'd expect!

We had the EXACT same situation with our girl kitten. We took her and her two brothers in as ferals - they just kept coming into our house for rest/food and one night we just closed the door and decided to see if they could get by staying in our house permanently. The two brothers were always playful and curious, but Conor (our girl) became sullen and wouldn't participate in play sessions. Then, a few days after that, she started whining ALL THE TIME. Then, she started rolling around on the ground and crying and whining. Called the vet, took her in and got her all fixed up.

Since her recovery, she has become the biggest love-bug in the world. She is a true lap cat. She is playful, loving and has no desire whatsoever to go outside. I'm not saying your cat will be the same, but I think you need to get her fixed and see how she goes - then make the decision.

It's funny - everyone said the biggest personality changes would come with getting the boys fixed - but Conor is like a different cat since we got her spayed.

I'm a bit worried about her being lethargic and sleeping away from you (or her regular place). Young kittens are very prone to certain diseases like FELV and when a cat is sick, they will take themselves 'away' to somewhere and sleep more than usual. If there's any chance you can get to a vet tomorrow I'd do it if she hasn't come around, and never mind about the spaying until that time comes.

Originally Posted by KKH

I agree with all the posts. Sounds like she is in heat. My baby-cat was just like you described - she was a feral, very skinny & tiny when she first came to my door. I wasn't quite sure how old she was but just like your cat, she also started acting up. I used to let her out but stopped doing that ever since she came back injured one night

I see you're from Tampa, FL. Which vet are you taking your cat to?

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I'm taking her to the clinic at the Humane Society. We are taking her today.

Originally Posted by Larke

I'm a bit worried about her being lethargic and sleeping away from you (or her regular place). Young kittens are very prone to certain diseases like FELV and when a cat is sick, they will take themselves 'away' to somewhere and sleep more than usual. If there's any chance you can get to a vet tomorrow I'd do it if she hasn't come around, and never mind about the spaying until that time comes.

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I was real worried by that too, just because she's a Momma's girl and is usually very cuddly. She seems to be back to her normal cuddly self today, but she got sick to her stomach last night. We are taking a trip to the vets today. We are still planning on spaying her in 2 weeks.

Thank you all! You have been such a big help We are loading up for a trip to the vet and hopefully our girl is healthy and just in need of a spaying.

This information I have received on this forum has been priceless. Thank you for answering all of my questions. I love the concern that everyone expresses over our precious girl. Thanks again

Originally Posted by laureen227

don't forget to update us on what the vet says!

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Well, we took little Sunny to the vet and found out that she is actually a he! He was tested for feline leukemia and FIV and did not have that
He was running a fever and was given an antibiotic that he has to take 2x's a day. We also found out that he is actually 4-5 mos old (not a few weeks like we thought) and only weighed 2.1 lbs. He was also prescribed a high potency vitamin that he has to take (much to his dismay) 2x's a day. Little Sunny is also full of worms and was given a treatment for that. He will have to go back in 2 weeks for another treatment but the vet assured me that he will be with us for a very long time ! Our little guy is starting to show signs that he's feeling much better after 2 doses of his antiboitic, but is not completely back to himself. He's eating and drinking like it's going out of style.

Thank you all, again, for your advice and for just caring about my little kitten.

Cindy and Sunny

Wow...your baby was a BOY, not a girl? How could it be possible...
Also, surprising to know that he's actually few months old, not weeks...

Glad to hear that he's been taking care of

Originally Posted by KKH

Wow...your baby was a BOY, not a girl? How could it be possible...

Also, surprising to know that he's actually few months old, not weeks...

Glad to hear that he's been taking care of

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Yeah, since he is not sexually mature, the fact that he is a boy escaped us. With the feral boy we have, Hercules, he was pretty huge pretty fast and it was VERY evident that he was a boy. When we checked Sunny, we thought he was a girl since there was nothing hanging where you'd expect them to be.

The vet said that he was so small most likely due to malnutrition. We've only had him for 3 weeks in the house and before that he was eating with my feral children outside. The doctor thought there was something wrong with the scale since he was only 2.1 lbs and went and got another scale!

I was having a very hard time in the vets office because the vet told me that if he tested positive on the Leukemia/FIV test he would not have a good prognosis at all I was ecstatic and dancing all over the exam room when we found out that he was negative I don't know what we would have done if we had lost him, we love him dearly in the few weeks we have had the pleasure of having him live with us

He's had 3 doses of his antibiotic at this time and 2 doses of his vitamins and is almost 30% back to his old self. He likes to climb on the door of the dishwasher when I'm loading/unloading it and he did that today - it's been two days since I was able to do anything around the house without him right on top of me (printing, opening the fridge, trying to use the bathroom, doing laundry). It'll be great to have him back.

Originally Posted by laureen227

don't feel bad - Cable has a very masculine [at least to me!] sounding name... because i thought she was a boy until we went to the vet!
my other foundlings were tricolors, so i was almost positive THEY were girls [since tricolors usually are]!

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I had no idea that it was not clearly evident - I just thought that there was nothing hanging, so he must be a girl. At least we named him Sunny - it's good for either a boy or a girl. I call him Sunshine alot since he was this little long-haired orange ball that reminded me of the sun.

Cable is not a bad name for a girl - it's just not frou-frou. We have a feral child that we have called Al since birth. She's the only one we have that wont let us pet her (after 3 years), so we had no way of knowing anything about her. When we took her to have her fixed, we were informed that she was a girl. We initially named her after her father, who is Big Al - she was Baby Al. She still comes to it, so we never changed it!

Glad to know he is doing better and just needed some patching up. Worms can be nasty business left unchecked. You should be able to use Advantage on him soon instead of the horrendous bathing you endured.