Dear very knowledgable cat friends,
we have been visiting thecatsite.com for a while, looking for helpful advice as we have no vets in this area (north India) with cat experience. Dogs are kept as pets but cats are considered very unlucky. There are feral cats both in the city and out in the countryside where we are, but they are very cautious as they are routinely killed in the most horrible ways. However, nearly 3 years ago we managed to catch a starving kitten on our farm. We estimate she was about 10 weeks old, maybe a little older, but small. She was very fierce, and slashed the hell out of the two guys who caught her, but only a couple of hours later she was eating out of my hand (paneer, a type of soft cheese) and has since become a completely tame member of the household. I'll put up a pic or two of Molly soon, she is beautiful... tho I know all cats are gorgeous to their people.
Recently she had her first litter of kittens, while we are still trying to find someone who will spay her - as I say, no vet we have found is experienced at all with cats.
Only 2 of the 4 have survived, as they were all very small, and not strong. The two that survived are one tiger-striped boy, and one white girl with a striped tail and one striped spot on her back. They are now 2 months old. They have been kept inside almost all the time, with only occasional trips out, tho' their mum has a cat door downstairs and a well-trained human upstairs (one of our daughters) who lets her out and in on demand - and she is very demanding!
In the last few weeks they have become increasingly impatient to go out with mum, and Molly likewise has been keen to take them out.
Here I come to the scary part - last week, at about 6 in the morning when there are not many people about Molly and the kittens were playing on the upstairs verandah, running from the front of the house down the side verandah and round to the back verandah at the top of the stairs. Well, the little male kitten, Tigger, or Tiggly wiggly for short - was attacked. When our daughter heard the sounds of cats fighting, she rushed out of bed and to the door, and Molly arrived at the same time. The big male cat which had been crouched over one of the kittens rushed off, and when she picked up Tig, she found blood on him, which turned out to be from his anus. It was pretty obvious he had been raped, as his anus was bleeding and torn, and his abdomen was very tender and sore. He was distressed and trembling for some time afterwards - as indeed we all were.
Now we don't know what to do. How can we protect him and his sister?
Tig is about as far from an alpha male as could be - even his sister beats him up - but he is the sweetest kitten I've ever seen. Unfortunately he tends to get left behind when the kittens go outside with their mum. This afternoon he got lost while they were playing in the rice field, and he is just not quite alert enough to wander freely.
There are quite a few feral cats round here - at least 2 big males that we know of and one medium-sized. There is also another female who has a litter of 4 surviving kittens, now about 4 months old.
Help - who can give us some advice?
What can we do about spaying? We don't really want a vet to do his first ever job on our precious Molly - and no vet we have talked to is very keen either...
Is there some cat contraceptive we could get by internet? - Here the vet has prescribed human medicine (children's doses) on the one occasion when we needed medication for Molly as no cat medicine is available.
What about the feral cats? Because we don't throw stones at every cat we see, word has gone round that this is a safe farm for billae and billia (male and female cats) to hunt on - not something we want to encourage as they kill birds, squirrels, mongeese, and other animals as well as mice and rats.
Any advice gratefully received....
Felicity - and Molly, Tigger and Spotto (kittens still in temporary names stage)
we have been visiting thecatsite.com for a while, looking for helpful advice as we have no vets in this area (north India) with cat experience. Dogs are kept as pets but cats are considered very unlucky. There are feral cats both in the city and out in the countryside where we are, but they are very cautious as they are routinely killed in the most horrible ways. However, nearly 3 years ago we managed to catch a starving kitten on our farm. We estimate she was about 10 weeks old, maybe a little older, but small. She was very fierce, and slashed the hell out of the two guys who caught her, but only a couple of hours later she was eating out of my hand (paneer, a type of soft cheese) and has since become a completely tame member of the household. I'll put up a pic or two of Molly soon, she is beautiful... tho I know all cats are gorgeous to their people.
Recently she had her first litter of kittens, while we are still trying to find someone who will spay her - as I say, no vet we have found is experienced at all with cats.
Only 2 of the 4 have survived, as they were all very small, and not strong. The two that survived are one tiger-striped boy, and one white girl with a striped tail and one striped spot on her back. They are now 2 months old. They have been kept inside almost all the time, with only occasional trips out, tho' their mum has a cat door downstairs and a well-trained human upstairs (one of our daughters) who lets her out and in on demand - and she is very demanding!
In the last few weeks they have become increasingly impatient to go out with mum, and Molly likewise has been keen to take them out.
Here I come to the scary part - last week, at about 6 in the morning when there are not many people about Molly and the kittens were playing on the upstairs verandah, running from the front of the house down the side verandah and round to the back verandah at the top of the stairs. Well, the little male kitten, Tigger, or Tiggly wiggly for short - was attacked. When our daughter heard the sounds of cats fighting, she rushed out of bed and to the door, and Molly arrived at the same time. The big male cat which had been crouched over one of the kittens rushed off, and when she picked up Tig, she found blood on him, which turned out to be from his anus. It was pretty obvious he had been raped, as his anus was bleeding and torn, and his abdomen was very tender and sore. He was distressed and trembling for some time afterwards - as indeed we all were.
Now we don't know what to do. How can we protect him and his sister?
Tig is about as far from an alpha male as could be - even his sister beats him up - but he is the sweetest kitten I've ever seen. Unfortunately he tends to get left behind when the kittens go outside with their mum. This afternoon he got lost while they were playing in the rice field, and he is just not quite alert enough to wander freely.
There are quite a few feral cats round here - at least 2 big males that we know of and one medium-sized. There is also another female who has a litter of 4 surviving kittens, now about 4 months old.
Help - who can give us some advice?
What can we do about spaying? We don't really want a vet to do his first ever job on our precious Molly - and no vet we have talked to is very keen either...
Is there some cat contraceptive we could get by internet? - Here the vet has prescribed human medicine (children's doses) on the one occasion when we needed medication for Molly as no cat medicine is available.
What about the feral cats? Because we don't throw stones at every cat we see, word has gone round that this is a safe farm for billae and billia (male and female cats) to hunt on - not something we want to encourage as they kill birds, squirrels, mongeese, and other animals as well as mice and rats.
Any advice gratefully received....
Felicity - and Molly, Tigger and Spotto (kittens still in temporary names stage)
