Here is some story about 3 feral cats and how we ended up under same roof.
First off, sorry if my english is not perfect, as it is my 2nd or 3rd language, depending how you count them, oh and post will be really long, but hopefully it gives something to someone at someday.
During summer of 2010 I did encounter a cat in my warehouse extension section of my house, encounters were quite quick, cat spotted me, ditched to hole next to stairs where she could run outside, few times we met so, that I was between exit and her, in those cases she jumped to wall and climbed up to wall faster than I can run on floor.
Now our summer season is not very long, there is about 4 months of good weather and here only one or most two months of weather without temperatures dropping below 0C during nights.
I did start feeding her, slowly visits started to be daily, then several times in a day, I was bit worried of how poor creature will survive from upcoming winter, so I did decide to trap her.
I set up trap to warehouse and put her food in it, found at the morning that trap had set off and there were no cat, but food had gone.
Few nights passed, then I found some really big tom cat from the trap, he had forced himself already half way out from the trap by bending metal wires so that there was gap between gate and body of trap. It was quite thrilling to help him out from the jammed position, cat had rather large paws with big claws and lot of steam to unleash, so while he was swinging his paws around and throwing his neck while trying to put those big teeths into my meat, I tried to pry trap open so that he can get off and at the same time I was hoping he would now jump to my throat right when his rear section is released.
All did go well, no bites, after little struggle he was hissing at me fur erect and back arched, so I step back, go to my knees and turned side of my head to his direction, soon hissing stopped and he jumped on top of sofa that is on self near the ceiling (warehouse is not very small).
I have known that tomcat for quite some time, about two years, he pretty much dislikes me, but comes to mate at warehouse, because feral females come there too, my warehouse is kind of feral crossing station, they come and go, especially at spring.
So after night after that I found some hair on floor and one plexiglass window broken to pieces, after checking up from surveillance video I did found out that this tomcat had a fight with a cat I had not seen before and decided to escape trough the plexiglass window, which I really did not thought being possible at all, however there were no other explanation after seeing low fps footage. where there were two cats, then some dark smudge and after that window pieces.
So those two or one of them is/are father of two kittens that this story's original cat gave birth.
Now after that incident with trap, I decided to build trap of my own, I did use whole warehouse as a trap, made trap mechanism using one strong spring as actuator to close the door, with that I did succesfully captured the female feral which I had seen often in warehouse (in that time I had no idea that she might be pregnant or that she might have kittens). However, I did underestimated strenght of the cat, even door was so hard to open that I did need my both hands, she did manage to pull it open and escape once again, at that point I thought that I will never see the cat again.
It took perhaps a week or so and I did spot her again eating at warehouse, running off again when she hear me, but I kept feeding her, trying to offer her some good meat whenever I met her on yard. It was late July when she let me lie on ground 5 meters from her, 1 foot is ~0.33 meters if you are not familiar with metric system we use here.
She started to sit at front door during those times, then came August and we slowly had developed a habit of me throwing meat to her and she picking it up and running to bushes, then come for more, this did happen on daily bases and there was cat food on warehouse that she did eat during the day when she did not liked to see any human beings.
Late August I found her on my driveway when returning from shop, it was bit odd at first as she was sitting on road, but as I got closer (around 20 meters from her) I did noticed two tiny furballs moving around her with not so smooth manners, that was first time that I did saw her kittens, it was like she had bring them to show them to me. I did put again some meat to near bushes and she did eat there, but I was clearly not allowed to come closer than that 20 meters.
During next few days I did saw her bringin kittens to warehouse to eat solid food, but still she escaped from warehouse if I did entered there, so I did kept intervaning at minimum, so they could find place safe to spend some time.
During the day when she usually stayed some other place, I did build some shelters into warehouse from boxes, I did put holes into cardboard boxes, stuffed them with old clothes, some old blankets inside boxes etc. Also put water into a bowl and got some kitten food.
At September temperatures started to go below freezing already, so I did introduce electric heater to them, which they gladly accepted and they started to spend more and more time in warehouse.
All the time I have had webcam at warehouse recording from movement so I know what happens in there, also it broadcasts video over network so I could watch them any time I liked, was much better than what comes from tv these days.
I started to make them some toys, some toys I did bought, also started regular feeding schedules. They still often went outside for a day, also usually did run away when I bring food.
At october we had first snow, so I build a box where they could stay warm, I used some urethane and material called Finnfoam, that is kind of styrofoam but cell size is similar to urethane.
It took two weeks from them to try out the box, mother cat took 3 weeks until she started sleeping in it.
At November we had permanent snow and temperatures did go permanently under freezing point, water and wet food which I had started to give them became frozen quite fast, so I did build heated place to keep their food and water, during this point it was late November and one of the kittens were eating from the spoon now and then. Mother cat still hid when I did came to give food.
Late November we got Arctic chill, temperatures falled to almost -29C (-20.2F) and I started to worry about how warm their box will be as it is rather large in size, so I did put electric heating on it and flap to hole so that heat stays inside bit better. I could not put flap into it at first as they were not entering into it with flap on, but as they were already used to sleep in the box I could put flap on now.
Winter did progress, snow accumulated so that we had over 70cm of snow at end of December.
During December I increased number of visits so that I visited them 4 times a day providing food every time. Both kittens were eating from the spoon and mother cat did stay inside the warehouse, keeping eye of my actions.
I did started also playing with kittens, first they could manage to do only few minutes, but soon they could play longer than I on that freezing -20C temperature which we were having at the time.
January of 2011 had mild weather, so I could play with kittens 30 minutes, sometimes even more, mother cat did exit from warehouse when I did play with kittens, but at end of January she started to try playing too, only few punches with paw to string on stick, but still started to show interest to playing.
February of 2011 has been really fast improvement, I have provided them with litter boxes which they have learned to use, also I have opened access to indoors now, they were scared of it at January so had to hold that back until now, in about 3 weeks time kittens did learn to visit indoors and also spend time there even I was inside, other kitten was safely running past me, while other was more reserved and kept his distance, even at warehouse both learned to eat from hand and lick fingers, even mother cat started to eat from hand.
Then we finally reach situation of today and this last week, I did install a proper cat door as having hole size of man's head in a door replacement board when there was -37C outside was not the most energy efficient solution.
However this has lead to a situation that I was not completely prepared. While I did install the door, all cats did pay attention and were curious about it, then I started to teach them how to use the door, but before I got started other kitten jumped inside while I was closing the door, there I thought that ok, I teach how to get out first, but kitten got spooked during the progress and did run under the bed and started to sink into deep panic mode.
I did some thinking there, if I let it out from door, then it would be impossible to get it back inside before mother cat starts to get rid of kittens as new heat will start soon, day is already lot longer than 5 hours what we had at December, also I did see how kittens had act of sex bit over week ago, which is one of worries too, so one that got inside is a girl and one that was left outside is a boy.
Current situation is that I have confined girl kitten into dark room which is not used. Then boy kitten I have been training to use cat door, which I have set so that when he gets in, he can't get out and mother cat I just feed as she shows no interest to inside of house.
What I want is to get both kittens inside and get them both as pets, of course also neutered too. I could also give indoor cat life to mother cat, but I doubt if that would be success, probably I have to use some other trap method to capture and then neuter her. Release is option bit questionable in this our climate, also after capturing once again, I don't know if she would stay around, I could allow her then to stay as outdoor cat, but I don't know what will happen when summer comes, will she look new locations or will her still be around?
With confined kitten situation is now such that it is 3rd night, she has been there two days as I did caught her at the evening. Today she started eating at early in morning, still trying to escape trough the walls, as this is old house there are some leaks at corners and as cat senses them she tries to dig trough soft wood parts. However this evening she has started to play a bit, also she has eaten most of cat candy I left for her, so probably she is starting to come around a bit and not just sitting under the bed.
I don't know if our previous relationship where she let me already to touch her a little has any affect to progress of socializing, but I try to follow path of fully foreign feral socialization and let her come closer when she is ready, there is no rush.
One big issue is that act of sex, she perhaps had her first heat then? Maybe she is then pregnant too, what are the odds 90%? As she is about 7 months old now. Abort would be perhaps best thing to do, but is that possible? I don't even know if those two have had happy nights for long before.
With boy kitten I really do hope that things would work out and he would enter trough the door, so far he has entered only when I have pryed door open and called him, but I hope that he would come soon as I think those two could socialize lot better if they would have each other to trust, but I'm pretty much beginner at these things.
What has surprised me is that mother cat and boy kitten keep going as if nothing have had happened, even one of them is missing and that one was the most active one of them all.
I don't know age of mother cat, but she has matured a lot during this time, so I would think that she is under two years?
So this small book is how my ferals life has been and is as I know it.
This is the girl kitten:
Boy kitten:
Mother, young:
Bit older:
First off, sorry if my english is not perfect, as it is my 2nd or 3rd language, depending how you count them, oh and post will be really long, but hopefully it gives something to someone at someday.
During summer of 2010 I did encounter a cat in my warehouse extension section of my house, encounters were quite quick, cat spotted me, ditched to hole next to stairs where she could run outside, few times we met so, that I was between exit and her, in those cases she jumped to wall and climbed up to wall faster than I can run on floor.
Now our summer season is not very long, there is about 4 months of good weather and here only one or most two months of weather without temperatures dropping below 0C during nights.
I did start feeding her, slowly visits started to be daily, then several times in a day, I was bit worried of how poor creature will survive from upcoming winter, so I did decide to trap her.
I set up trap to warehouse and put her food in it, found at the morning that trap had set off and there were no cat, but food had gone.
Few nights passed, then I found some really big tom cat from the trap, he had forced himself already half way out from the trap by bending metal wires so that there was gap between gate and body of trap. It was quite thrilling to help him out from the jammed position, cat had rather large paws with big claws and lot of steam to unleash, so while he was swinging his paws around and throwing his neck while trying to put those big teeths into my meat, I tried to pry trap open so that he can get off and at the same time I was hoping he would now jump to my throat right when his rear section is released.
All did go well, no bites, after little struggle he was hissing at me fur erect and back arched, so I step back, go to my knees and turned side of my head to his direction, soon hissing stopped and he jumped on top of sofa that is on self near the ceiling (warehouse is not very small).
I have known that tomcat for quite some time, about two years, he pretty much dislikes me, but comes to mate at warehouse, because feral females come there too, my warehouse is kind of feral crossing station, they come and go, especially at spring.
So after night after that I found some hair on floor and one plexiglass window broken to pieces, after checking up from surveillance video I did found out that this tomcat had a fight with a cat I had not seen before and decided to escape trough the plexiglass window, which I really did not thought being possible at all, however there were no other explanation after seeing low fps footage. where there were two cats, then some dark smudge and after that window pieces.
So those two or one of them is/are father of two kittens that this story's original cat gave birth.
Now after that incident with trap, I decided to build trap of my own, I did use whole warehouse as a trap, made trap mechanism using one strong spring as actuator to close the door, with that I did succesfully captured the female feral which I had seen often in warehouse (in that time I had no idea that she might be pregnant or that she might have kittens). However, I did underestimated strenght of the cat, even door was so hard to open that I did need my both hands, she did manage to pull it open and escape once again, at that point I thought that I will never see the cat again.
It took perhaps a week or so and I did spot her again eating at warehouse, running off again when she hear me, but I kept feeding her, trying to offer her some good meat whenever I met her on yard. It was late July when she let me lie on ground 5 meters from her, 1 foot is ~0.33 meters if you are not familiar with metric system we use here.
She started to sit at front door during those times, then came August and we slowly had developed a habit of me throwing meat to her and she picking it up and running to bushes, then come for more, this did happen on daily bases and there was cat food on warehouse that she did eat during the day when she did not liked to see any human beings.
Late August I found her on my driveway when returning from shop, it was bit odd at first as she was sitting on road, but as I got closer (around 20 meters from her) I did noticed two tiny furballs moving around her with not so smooth manners, that was first time that I did saw her kittens, it was like she had bring them to show them to me. I did put again some meat to near bushes and she did eat there, but I was clearly not allowed to come closer than that 20 meters.
During next few days I did saw her bringin kittens to warehouse to eat solid food, but still she escaped from warehouse if I did entered there, so I did kept intervaning at minimum, so they could find place safe to spend some time.
During the day when she usually stayed some other place, I did build some shelters into warehouse from boxes, I did put holes into cardboard boxes, stuffed them with old clothes, some old blankets inside boxes etc. Also put water into a bowl and got some kitten food.
At September temperatures started to go below freezing already, so I did introduce electric heater to them, which they gladly accepted and they started to spend more and more time in warehouse.
All the time I have had webcam at warehouse recording from movement so I know what happens in there, also it broadcasts video over network so I could watch them any time I liked, was much better than what comes from tv these days.
I started to make them some toys, some toys I did bought, also started regular feeding schedules. They still often went outside for a day, also usually did run away when I bring food.
At october we had first snow, so I build a box where they could stay warm, I used some urethane and material called Finnfoam, that is kind of styrofoam but cell size is similar to urethane.
It took two weeks from them to try out the box, mother cat took 3 weeks until she started sleeping in it.
At November we had permanent snow and temperatures did go permanently under freezing point, water and wet food which I had started to give them became frozen quite fast, so I did build heated place to keep their food and water, during this point it was late November and one of the kittens were eating from the spoon now and then. Mother cat still hid when I did came to give food.
Late November we got Arctic chill, temperatures falled to almost -29C (-20.2F) and I started to worry about how warm their box will be as it is rather large in size, so I did put electric heating on it and flap to hole so that heat stays inside bit better. I could not put flap into it at first as they were not entering into it with flap on, but as they were already used to sleep in the box I could put flap on now.
Winter did progress, snow accumulated so that we had over 70cm of snow at end of December.
During December I increased number of visits so that I visited them 4 times a day providing food every time. Both kittens were eating from the spoon and mother cat did stay inside the warehouse, keeping eye of my actions.
I did started also playing with kittens, first they could manage to do only few minutes, but soon they could play longer than I on that freezing -20C temperature which we were having at the time.
January of 2011 had mild weather, so I could play with kittens 30 minutes, sometimes even more, mother cat did exit from warehouse when I did play with kittens, but at end of January she started to try playing too, only few punches with paw to string on stick, but still started to show interest to playing.
February of 2011 has been really fast improvement, I have provided them with litter boxes which they have learned to use, also I have opened access to indoors now, they were scared of it at January so had to hold that back until now, in about 3 weeks time kittens did learn to visit indoors and also spend time there even I was inside, other kitten was safely running past me, while other was more reserved and kept his distance, even at warehouse both learned to eat from hand and lick fingers, even mother cat started to eat from hand.
Then we finally reach situation of today and this last week, I did install a proper cat door as having hole size of man's head in a door replacement board when there was -37C outside was not the most energy efficient solution.
However this has lead to a situation that I was not completely prepared. While I did install the door, all cats did pay attention and were curious about it, then I started to teach them how to use the door, but before I got started other kitten jumped inside while I was closing the door, there I thought that ok, I teach how to get out first, but kitten got spooked during the progress and did run under the bed and started to sink into deep panic mode.
I did some thinking there, if I let it out from door, then it would be impossible to get it back inside before mother cat starts to get rid of kittens as new heat will start soon, day is already lot longer than 5 hours what we had at December, also I did see how kittens had act of sex bit over week ago, which is one of worries too, so one that got inside is a girl and one that was left outside is a boy.
Current situation is that I have confined girl kitten into dark room which is not used. Then boy kitten I have been training to use cat door, which I have set so that when he gets in, he can't get out and mother cat I just feed as she shows no interest to inside of house.
What I want is to get both kittens inside and get them both as pets, of course also neutered too. I could also give indoor cat life to mother cat, but I doubt if that would be success, probably I have to use some other trap method to capture and then neuter her. Release is option bit questionable in this our climate, also after capturing once again, I don't know if she would stay around, I could allow her then to stay as outdoor cat, but I don't know what will happen when summer comes, will she look new locations or will her still be around?
With confined kitten situation is now such that it is 3rd night, she has been there two days as I did caught her at the evening. Today she started eating at early in morning, still trying to escape trough the walls, as this is old house there are some leaks at corners and as cat senses them she tries to dig trough soft wood parts. However this evening she has started to play a bit, also she has eaten most of cat candy I left for her, so probably she is starting to come around a bit and not just sitting under the bed.
I don't know if our previous relationship where she let me already to touch her a little has any affect to progress of socializing, but I try to follow path of fully foreign feral socialization and let her come closer when she is ready, there is no rush.
One big issue is that act of sex, she perhaps had her first heat then? Maybe she is then pregnant too, what are the odds 90%? As she is about 7 months old now. Abort would be perhaps best thing to do, but is that possible? I don't even know if those two have had happy nights for long before.
With boy kitten I really do hope that things would work out and he would enter trough the door, so far he has entered only when I have pryed door open and called him, but I hope that he would come soon as I think those two could socialize lot better if they would have each other to trust, but I'm pretty much beginner at these things.
What has surprised me is that mother cat and boy kitten keep going as if nothing have had happened, even one of them is missing and that one was the most active one of them all.
I don't know age of mother cat, but she has matured a lot during this time, so I would think that she is under two years?
So this small book is how my ferals life has been and is as I know it.
This is the girl kitten:
Boy kitten:
Mother, young:
Bit older: