Grrrr some people infuriate me!

I was just in a pet chat room talking about the feral kittens I just took in and cats in general.I was telling them how I picked up one of the ferals today to clean her eyes with a washcloth, and held her in my lap and once she calmed down, she stayed willingly for a good 10 minutes and was purring up a storm while I pet her! I am so excited by this but this one woman called me a liar and said its highly unlikely a feral would do that Then I explained to her that I know they are feral cause I found out the woman across the street has been feeding the momma and she said this is the mommas third litter! (why she never did anything to help the kittens or fix the momma is a whole other story that pisses me off to no end ...I WILL be trapping momma and fixing her as soon as I am able) So the woman in chat calls me a bitch and tells me I am terrible for taking the kittens from their momma!!!!!!! and that if it were her, she would have figured out a way to keep them sheltered, fed and together. I feel guilty enough that I couldnt take the momma in ...she is very skittish and I will need a trap to get her, not to mention with all the other kitties in this house, I just dont have a place for her. And wouldnt having her with the kittens hamper my being able to tame them? The small bathroom is ok for four kittens, but momma in there too would have been too much. The woman across the street says she has a shed the mommas been staying in and I am making sure momma eats every day. (I dont think the woman feeds momma well enough cause she wants her to be a mouser ) I cant believe someone would call me a bitch for doing what Im doing. Momma may have to stay an outside kitty the rest of her life, but these kittens where young enough that I figured they had a chance at a better life. Was I wrong? Im just trying to do the right thing here ..maybe even getting a little obsessed about it ..Im an at home mom on disability with a very hard working loving man, when everyones at school or work, these kitties are all I really have (god Im sad...lol) But it gives me something worthwile to do and makes me feel good. If I shouldnt have taken the kittens in and left them out in a snow storm just so they can stay with momma, Id sure like to know so I can straighten my dumbass out. Thanks for letting me

Kali
P.S. All 10 of my beautiful kitties can be viewed here till I get my website up and running ..


Kalis Kittys

I don't think you did anything wrong. Better to get these kittens socialized so that they have a chance to live a life as someone's pet. I wish you luck trapping the mom before next spring.

Katie

P.S. Thank you soooo much for doing what you are doing...because too many people just "talk" about helping and do nothing.

Originally posted by TNR1
I don't think you did anything wrong. Better to get these kittens socialized so that they have a chance to live a life as someone's pet. I wish you luck trapping the mom before next spring.

Katie

P.S. Thank you soooo much for doing what you are doing...because too many people just "talk" about helping and do nothing.

Click to expand...

I agree with Katie.
Better to get the kittens now than to wait and let them get wild like the momma cat.

Don't worry about what the woman said to you.You are doing a good thing.

If they were still nursing off of mom then I would have left them with her, but if they are old enough to eat on their own, she would eventually drive them away from her anyway. Just tell the woman that she really doesn't know ferals much at all.

Your kitties are lovely!!

I love the picture of Mufasa! Looks like he's saying "Are you suggesting that I created this mess?"

What you are doing is a good thing. Sadly, not everyone in the world is informed about domestic cats, let alone ferals. You're socialising them and giving them a better chance of being successfully adopted out. And please charge something for them. Don't give them away for free. People willing to pay for a kitten will understand that feeding and getting kittens their shots and getting them fixed all costs money. People who don't wish to pay for an animal are more likely to abandon the animal at the first instance when something goes 'wrong'.

If you were able to get Momma cat and have her indoors with the kittens. Well let's see, Momma Cat would have been stressed out by the sudden change of environment and sudden loss of freedom. The kittens would pick up on this stress. And if Momma Cat was being a good mother cat, I don't think you'd be able to get close to the kittens without being swatted or bitten. You'd be able to provide food and water for Momma Cat and perhaps something extra for the kittens if they were able to eat solid food. And heck, the kittens wouldn't trust you as easily either. Their momma didn't, so why should they? And this is if Momma Cat doesn't decide to dismantle your lovely bathroom in an effort to regain her freedom.

You still would be able to socialise the kittens, but in my opinion, things would be harder and complicated.

I've again typed far much more than what I intended. I'm sorry. But you are doing a good job. These kittens are lucky to have you fighting the good fight for them.

A lot of people have a lot to say, but few know what they are talking about! Listen to the people on this forum. You have people here I consider feral experts!

You did the right thing. Don't let these ignorant people that have to call others names bring you down. Keep up the good work. I only wish that I could do more for these cats.

Most organizations that work with ferals recommend taking the kittens from 6 weeks to 10 weeks. Here, if the intent is to have the kittens spayed and neutered and returned outside, we recommend that people leave the kittens with mom until 12 weeks. This is around the time when she will drive them away - until then, even though they're no longer weaning, she's teaching them things.

But if the intent is to have the kittens adopted, I think it's best to pick them up after they're weaned - at just about the time you brought your gang inside. They won't learn what could be valuable things from mom, but they will be more accepting of the strange sights and sounds of a home, and will socialize better with people without necessarily having learned mom's fear.

We had five feral kittens from one litter last summer. One of them allowed us to pet it outside within a week or so of starting to feed them out there - two of them took about five months. The one that let us pet him first let us pet him within hours of bringing him inside. And once that little purr motor gets going, there's no going back, LOL! He's not a lap cat yet - but he does jump on my lap once a day for brushes (which he LOVES) for about 10 minutes. My point is that there is no hard and fast rule for what does and doesn't happen - especially with kittens. Even with older ferals! Look at Sandi's story about Lucky - (sticked at the top of the Caring for Ferals forum, Socializing a feral, the story of Lucky) - it took Lucky months to be OK - and she was only about 6 months. But then look at Jamie100s story about Maggie (now Annie) (New Here/New to Feral Cats)- within weeks this "vicious" cat was happy and playing, and she's an older cat.

You absolutely made the right decision. If mom was pregnant, the situation would be different. But these kittens were already 8 or so weeks old, which means they're weaned. They were not too young to be taken from mom, and you're right - she would have stressed out.

Whether a kitten is able to be petted within hours or days of coming inside is entirely dependent upon the cat - it has nothing to do with being feral or not.

The woman you encountered is not only not well educated about ferals - perhaps she works with them and has had an entirely different experience. I would imagine that's because she's not such a nice person, and cats pick up on that! But this woman obviously does not have much experience with others who work with ferals, and she is also obviously very rude!!!!!

I guess I should add - it's not just entirely dependent upon the cat. It's also dependent upon the person. Animals love my hubby. Period. He can get wild deer to approach our car. He can engage almost any feral cat in "conversation." They'll let him approach within days - and they'll run from me for weeks. Some people have that gift - others don't.

So go pet your feral kitty, and delight in his purrs! And forget about that horrible woman who doesn't know what she's talking about!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for the encouragement, advice and kind words.
Apparently I may have been wrong about their age and they could be closer to 10-12 weeks old. Still young enough to tame. Im still learning as its been years since I dealt with kittens. They were eating solid foods from me since about 4 days before Thanksgiving and wondering away from momma so thats why after reading information about kittens, I figure they must be a little older then I originally thought. Gosh they so tiny its so hard to tell ..lol. On another note, I finally got enough funds together to vet the threesome in hubbies office Two females and a male ...he is clearly neutered and we are pretty sure the females are fixed too so it wont be so bad Then the threesome can move into the basement with visits to the main house, and the kittens can move to the office ...what a shuffle! Hey, whatever works right?
Again, thanks for all the kind words ..its nice to have support

Kali

Ignore her Kali!.

I'm not an expert on ferals, but its obvious if their young they can adapt to a 'normal' life.

She sounds an evil woman, thinking only of her house to be rid of rodents.

Keep up the good work!

Susan

Kali, what great news about the threesome! It'll be easy for the vet to tell if they've been spayed - all they have to do is shave their bellies and see if there's a scar.

And about a kitten's age - it's difficult for anyone to tell, even a vet. They can guesstimate, and from experience will be able to better tell than most of us can. But cats can have such great ranges in size and growth rates. Even when they lose their kitten teeth and get adult teeth can range so greatly depending upon their growth rates, the nutrition available to them when younger, etc. We've had two kittens now that were SO confusing about the age thing. One turned out to be much older than we thought (because she had some adult teeth in and we didn't know that), and one turned out to be much younger than we thought (because of when she lost her kitten teeth). So don't worry about it too much. Most kittens are eating hard food by 5-6 weeks, though they may still be weaning. But by mixing kitten replacement milk in with the hard food if you ever encounter kittens you think may be that young works.