Trying to catch a feral kitten...

You likely saved that kitten's life. Upper respiratory infections can be fatal to a kitten, especially one that is outdoors and malnourished. I hope you'll take the time to socialize him before taking him to a shelter. Feral kittens this young are really easy to socialize. As soon as he's feeling better, engage him in play with a wand toy and laser pointer toy. Play therapy is a great way to bond with and socialize a kitten. Spend as much time as you can with him in the garage, talking softly to him. Maybe he could become your indoor/outdoor cat? My guess is that you're going to fall in love with this little guy. He's already been in your house many times and your other cats tolerate him, so that's a great start. This kitty is lucky to have found you!

I was definitely hoping to save him! I was worrying a lot about him being outside in the cold and wet and I knew he was trying to get help but was just too scared.

I'm really glad I was able to rescue him. I do go and check on him every couple of hours and talk to him over near where he hides (behind some boxes) but I don't want to stay and bother him for too long because I know what he needs the most at the moment is rest so that he can get over his infection. Plus he's had a very big day today! Poor thing must be exhausted.

The vet said he should be fine once he recovers from the chest infection and since he's now warm and dry (and had the antibiotics) it should go away on its own. If it doesn't I'll take him back to the vet. I'm glad he had nothing else wrong with him! And there's nothing my cats could get from him either, which makes me feel better about the whole thing.

as @MsAimee  posted, you've likely saved his life!  Glad to read your success story....good on 'ya.

He's still doing the wheezing a bit and can be quite loud but I think he's okay. My mum went into the garage for the first time since we caught him and she thought he sounded bad, but she could just be not used to the sound. I also thought he could be trying to hiss at her...

Also, how many cans of wet food a day should I feed him? I'm currently giving him 2-3 but they're making him poop a lot (although that could also be a side effect of the antibiotic perhaps) and I'm not sure how much is too much. I've been feeding him a tuna & whitebait flavour because it's the only kind we have (the vet said I didn't need to worry about what I feed him) and he seems to be okay with it.

I'm probably just being a bit too paranoid but I don't want to do anything wrong!

The kitten needs to eat around 4 times a day. Space out the timing and amount each time. Feed him as much as he can eat at one go. So from there you can roughly gauge the amount for each feed. Don't worry that he'll over eat. He'll stop when he's full and that should be the amount to give him.

He's only 9 weeks old so he has lots of growing to do and kittens eat a lot and also very active. So please feed him enough.

TabbyTom said:

 Feed him as much as he can eat at one go. So from there you can roughly gauge the amount for each feed. Don't worry that he'll over eat. He'll stop when he's full                

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Starra... ^ this sounds like a good deal....if you've got the room, can i move in too?    :  ) 

In addition to the wet food, you should leave a bowl of dry food out for him 24/7, kitten chow would be the best because it has extra protein. He has likely been malnourished for quite some time, and if he had parasites, he will need the extra calories and nutrition. It can take a few weeks for a cat to recover from an upper respiratory infection. As long as he is getting the antibiotics every day, he will be fine. You might want to make a clear chicken broth without any spices in it. Boil a chicken breast. He may enjoy eating the meat as well. The broth will help him recover more quickly. You can also add some water to his canned wet food for the extra hydration. I do that with my cats wet food. Good luck and keep us posted.

So we rang the SPCA (the aforementioned "shelter") again and said they actually were able to take him since A) he was sick and B) we realistically couldn't keep him. 

It sucks that I can't keep him, but with 2 cats in a small house it just wouldn't have been good for them (or us). They haven't liked having him around as it is (and they also only kind of  tolerate each other)! And the SPCA will know exactly what they're doing and they'll be able to properly take care of him and nurse him back to full health, so I don't have to worry about him anymore. He'll definitely be okay now.

I hope he manages to find a good home. He deserves it. I'm just glad that I was able to rescue him, all in all. I was not going to let a kitten die if there was anything I could do to save it... It's been a learning experience but I'm glad I did it and even if it was stressing me (and my mother) out I do not regret it at all.

Thanks to everyone for your help! I really do appreciate it all and I will definitely ask on this forum again if I ever run across another feral or if I have any issues with my cats. 

@bigbadbass  Ha ha! If only I had the room for another human, let alone another cat!   

Thank you for all that you've done for this kitty. I hope that he'll find a nice home to go to

Unfortunately I have a sad update.

The SPCA (please note that they are usually no-kill and they do try to save as many cats as possible) decided to euthanise the kitten. He was quite sick and probably could never properly be handled by humans. There are so many cats that need adopting already and they had no space to isolate him from the other cats until he got better (if he managed to). And he probably never really spent any time with his mother either, which makes it a lot harder to socialise him.

It's upsetting but I completely understand their decision and I doubt it was an easy one to make. I still don't regret what I did and I think this option was much better for him than just leaving him to die on his own. He most likely could've never fully recovered from being feral and would've been very hard to have as a pet.

I think this was the best thing for him. This way he's not suffering. RIP little guy <3.

so sorry, Starra. Chin up. 

Oh no! After visits to the vet and was administered medicine and was told that he'll recover and yet they put him down? Geeez, I don't understand.

So sad [emoji]128546[/emoji]

He might've recovered from the URI, but he was way too feral to be tameable. He'd been without a mother for at least a month (so from when he was 4 weeks old or even before that) and most likely he wouldn't have been able to be handled or trained properly.

When we took him to the vet he was okay, but I think he was just too scared to do anything. He did scratch the person who helped me though! (And gave the same person a really bad bite today). He was very scared of us and kept hissing when we'd get close to him. So it would've been super hard to socialise him, if it was possible at all.

Like I said, I don't think they made this decision lightly. They just couldn't take him and he wouldn't have made it without proper care, and even then maybe not. I think they're right in their decision given the circumstances, and I did really want to save him! But oh well, sadly this happens...

At 4 weeks old it is very possible to be easily socialized, especially if he needs medical attention. The bond will be stronger because care and attention is given all the time and they know who looks after them and love them.

It is natural to hiss and scratch or bite if they feel threatened as this is their only defense but it is not because he is a feral. Being left alone at 4 weeks old and that's why he's defensive and fight for himself.

It's such a sad ending for a young kitten like him with so much hope and I do really appreciate for what you've done to save him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming you.

Anyway, what's done can't be undone. Poor kitty, my heart goes out to you [emoji]128546[/emoji]

He was 9 weeks when I caught him -- he's been hanging around for over a month, so we know he's been without a mother since he was at least 4 week, which is what I meant. Apologies if I was being confusing!

I'm not mad about it, and I'm not blaming anyone. It's a shame, but it happens. As I said, this is probably for the best at the end of the day.

At 9 weeks still very possible to be socialized.

I hope they change their minds. Have they done it already? I hope not [emoji]128591[/emoji][emoji]127995[/emoji]

Yeah, they have. I think it was more him being sick. I don't know anything about kitten health so chances are he was worse than what we thought. He could've even had something fatal, or at least something that couldn't have been easily cured. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't worth the risk.

They know more than I do, after all. If he couldn't be properly taken care of then this was the right choice. Even the people who work as foster carers for the SPCA had their hands full, otherwise they might have been able to do something. But maybe he was also too far gone at the stage we rescued him.

PS I'm not beating myself up over it. I'd rescue a kitten again if one came by. It's sad, but he's better off this way. Even if he was physically okay he would've been extremely  traumatised. We have a traumatised cat and even after having her for almost 5 years she's still never fully recovered from whatever she went through before we got her (she had kittens at 5 months and we suspect she was abused and neglected due to her behaviour at times). They're worth it, but they're a hell of a lot of work. And I'd like to avoid creating any more traumatised cats if possible.

"Heartbroken, utter helplessness and overwhelmed" are the emotions and thoughts going through my mind after hearing this.  The hope I saw for him, smashed into pieces.  No fault of yours Starra, but that of the system.  Is there no Trap-Neuter-Return program in the area?  Feral by definition is to say the squirrel outside my door can never be socialized to become a safe pet in a home.  Feral cats are considered just as wild as squirrels and other creatures of nature.  TNR cats are deemed unsociable and unsuitable to be homed as family pets.

I feed a TNR female cat every day and have done so since the spring of 2016.  Once I realized she was a TNR, I gave up hope of giving her a home away from having to fend for herself in the elements or beg for food at the door fronts of strangers.  She has learned to be a little sociable with me, to the point she would eat from the palm of my hand if I wanted it.  I can kneel over her dish as I scrape morsels from a wet food can, and she takes her little head and pushes my hand away as if too impatient to wait for me to finish.  She constantly does circle eights around my legs, christening me with her Chanel #9.  I can pat her, gently palming her little head as if it were a fuzzy tennis ball, stroke her back and sides, or hold my palm down while she bumps repeatedly. She would enter my home if I allowed her.  Mine recently adopted outdoor cat desires no other companion but me and will pounce on her if given the chance.  Feral creatures with the right interest can learn to be sociable with the right motivation.  The wild squirrel comes into my home and retrieves peanuts.  He once bounced off my knee in an attempt to get a peanut (freaked me out.. never done it again.)  

It is just sad that the SPCA felt the little kitty you befriended had no place in this world. Being that this kitty would come within sight of you, tells me there was hope of socializing him given time and effort. I just read tonight that the number of "adoptable" pets euthanized yearly number in the thousands in major cities alone.  

Thank you for all that you have done for him/her

Well, I do really feel sad for the kitten but we have to move on.

Thank you

@KatKnapper I think there are far too many cats in the area for that. They do try to take in as many as they can and adopt them out. But so many SPCAs around the country are full. I know that in the city where I used to live they'd often advertise for adoption days where you could come and meet the cats with the hope of maybe having someone take at least one of them home. It's also summer here, so all the kittens from this spring that were dumped/abandoned or whatever are there, and with the timing there was nowhere for this little guy to go, unfortunately.

I talked to my mum more about it and it was the illness more so than the socialising thing that made them decide to euthanise him. I'm not quite sure exactly what he had, but it seems like it was something pretty serious and it would've taken a lot of time for him to get better. And he would've infected the other unvaccinated kittens (the ones that were too young to be vaccinated that is) with whatever it was.

As I said, I understand them. He wouldn't have had a happy life if he had actually been saved. He might not've lived that long either, and this way is better in my opinion, as cruel as it may sound. We did everything we could, after all. But sometimes this is still the outcome, and I've accepted that. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very upset. But I know that it was the right thing to do for his own health/safety.