Hello from the middle of Nowhere!

Hey all!

My name's Amanda, and I live out in rural MO. I'm joining this forum because I need help!

We've got three cats, and a dog. Well, we *had* three cats. Now we have 4. Early this morning, A truck drove along the gravel road behind my house. I heard a door open and shut, then squealing tires and the truck drove off. When I got out to the end of the road (about 15 mins later), I found a bag with three kittens in it. Two of them were dead, but the third was still alive. After an emergency vet visit, and a sad burial, I find myself the owner of a three month old kitten. While my family has had cats for a while, I've never cared for any of from kitten hood (all three I have were given to me by family members who couldn't have cats anymore for various reasons). While it's not newborn, I still have -no idea- what I'm doing. Hopefully everyone here will be able to help!

Anyway, Hi everyone!

Welcome Amanda,

Those poor kittens. May they rest in peace.

You are a hero for welcoming that little survivor into your home.
We are all here to share our experiences with cats and help each other when we can.
I am sure that you have a lot of questions about your new family member...
I invite you to scan our fourms to find areas that might be of help to you.
You are welcome to start your own threads with questions you might have, as you go forward.

If I can help you with questions about our site,
simply click my username, send you question,
I will get back to you asap.

Please make yourself at home. :rub:

Welcome to TCS, Amanda.  This is a great place to come for help.  I joined when I took in a pregnant stray and didn't have a clue what I was doing.

At three months a kitten should be completely weaned, so at least you won't be doing bottle feeding.  You can post questions in the nutrition forum about feeding him/her.

Once you get past the introductions your older cats should be a big help in socializing the new little one.  You can find a link at the top of the page to a good article on introducing cats.

What are the names of your cats?  Do you have pictures?  We

Welcome to TCS!

It's so unfortunate people think it's 'OK' to dump kitties. I had a 12 week old kitten dropped off in my yard a few months back (I was unable to keep him so fostered him for the local humane society until he got adopted). The one kitten that survived is lucky to have been found by you!

We're here for any questions you may have!

Hi,

Welcome. Everyone here is really great and you will be able to find lots of help and information about taking care of a new kitten. Its a lot of work, but definitely very rewarding to get to watch them grow up! They start out as cute little crazy energetic fuzz-balls and turn into beautiful cats!

Have you named the new kitten? 

Thank you ladies! Sadly I don't have pictures of my other cats on this computer, I'll see if I can grab some off of my grandmother's tomorrow.

The three cats we had last night (haha) are:

Kaji, an 11 year old "tuxedo cat". He's been plagued with health problems since birth, and we're beginning to think he's nearing the end of his life. He wont eat nearly as much as he used to (maybe 1/4th a can of soft food a day, down from a whole can),  and can't even make it to the litter box anymore. We took him to the vet, who said that he's just "getting old". He offered to put him to sleep, but my uncle refused. Kaji spends most of his time sleeping on my uncles bed, and hissing at Possum. He is always good with kittens, and sniffed her a bit when I set her on my uncle's bed beside him, and then proceeded to go back to sleep. So... All good there, I think. I don't want her to get too close to Kaji, though, in case he has something contagious.

Possum, a 6 year old "stray", mostly black, with mottled brown. I really know very little about Possum. She has a nickname, but it can't be repeated in front of polite company. The only reason it stays around my family is because it was my uncle's late wife's cat, and he couldn't bare to part with it after she died due to breast cancer a few years ago. Possum hisses and swats at everything, including people. The only cat she tolerates is Tundra, her daughter. Possum, of course, hates this new kitten, and hisses at her whenever they're in the same room together. This is normal Possum behavior.

Tundra is a 4 year old cat, and Possum's daughter. She's a grey/silver tabby, and very, very, VERY affectionate. She loves everyone, and will come get attention whenever she can. She's also an excellent ratter. Despite living in the country, we have no rats, and she very rarely eats the provided food, but often can be found in the yard chowing down on a small bird or squirrel or rat, or other hapless creature that wandered out of the woods. Her favorite activity is to sit in the driveway and stare at the dogs that live across the street, driving them bonkers. Tundra sat and stared at the new kitten for a while, then flicked her tail and walked off.

Our dog, Suzie is dumb. Very dumb. My grandmother insists on having a dog to scare off the things in the woods, and drunks who come tearing down the gravel roads at 2am. We got her in May, 6 months after Lucy, our last dog, passed away. Suzie has been hell on earth to train, because she's very unintelligent, but she is very affectionate, and a decent guard dog. If she doesn't know you, she'll bark up a storm when you approach, but wont bite.  We have no idea what breeds she was made up of. She seems to be part black lab, and part "something else". She has the webbed toes of a lab, but is monstrously large. Suzie enjoys sniffing the kitten, but doesn't seem to understand that her rubbing her nose on the cat is enough to push her over.

As far as humans, haha, We've got me, Amanda, I'm 26 and take care of my grandmother, since her insurance wont cover in home care despite her need for it. I'm dating a lovely young man from Chicago, who hates cats, but tolerates them because he knows he'll get the boot before they do. XD

Three of my uncles live here, because two of them were laid off from work, and save money by living with their mother. The third never really moved out, and works a full time job to help keep the house afloat.

As far as the new kitten -- We haven't named her yet, as I'm trying to let her get a little stable and see what her personality's like, though I've got a few ideas lined up. They are "Aiko" (little loved one), "Kaida" (little dragon), and "Umeko" (Little Plum/Plum Blossom). My family has a thing about japanese names for cats. Also, I'm beginning to think she has some Ragdoll in her. She is just as affectionate as every Ragdoll I've met. (She loves to sleep on people, hates being alone), and she does the whole "limp" thing when she's picked up. She also just reminds me of every Ragdoll I've seen in some nebulous way. Her tail is also crazy long. Thankfully, she appears to be litterbox trained, at least, because after I showed her where it was, she has bee lined for it whenever she needed it.

Whoo. that's a lot of text. Sorry for the novel. If you're still with me, thanks for reading!

You are a part of our community now.....
we love learning about our new friends and their 4 legged (sometimes no legged :lol3: ) family
members.
Be sure to let us know when your kitty chooses a name. :bigthumb:


I wanted to let you know that we have a forum that might be just the right place to share about your interesting dog. He sounds like a real sweetie pie. :heart3:
Other Animals

Goodness, those poor, poor little darlings... THANK YOU for saving the little one! I really enjoyed reading about you and your babes and I hope you enjoy your time here!

Cool! All your kitties (and family members sound really interesting!) I love seeing how different each and every animal is and its always fun to get to know their personalities. 

I love japanese names! Those all sound really pretty. My sister's cat (a grey tabby) is named Kaze, which means wind. or The wind. Can't remember exactly.