Fostering two feral kittens - advice needed!

[ondine]

Oh - this is good news!  Your post about the chicken reminded me.  Have you tried Gerber Stage 2 chicken?  Its without onions or anything else.  I guarantee they will not be able to resist it.  A little on a spoon and you will be their very bestest friend in the whole world.

Thanks for the update.  Good luck with the vet visits.  A necessary pain ...

 

[kittychick]

So glad to hear there's been progress!!! Even small progress is progress - and any touching is BIG progress in my book!

Good luck at (and after ) the vet!

 

[stillife]

Hello!  This is just an update on my two formerly feral kittens, Samson and Delilah.  It's been a little over three months since I began fostering them and they're not so feral anymore.

We've had a few bumps in the road.  First, Delilah unexpectedly went into heat back in January.  I don't know if the vet underestimated her age or she's just precocious but I was not ready for that!  With one exception (an older spayed female), all my cats have been boys.  Her heat lasted only a couple of days and I took her and Samson in for spay/neuter immediately after.

Then I went away on vacation for a week.  I had hired a trusted cat sitter to take care of the four cats.  An hour before I was leaving to go to the airport, Samson escaped from the cat room and he stayed escaped for the entire week.  I was worried sick about him.  My cat sitter left food and water (and litter) out for him but she spotted him only briefly.  However, the night I returned, he came back into the cat room so all is well.  

I am happy to report that Samson and I are now friends!  He approaches me and solicits petting.  And purrs!  It's just been in the last couple of days that he decided that petting is a good thing, but he's been warming up to me for awhile.  He has also taken a great interest in the computer.  He likes watching the cursor and when I play TV shows, he watches with me, all wide-eyed.  In fact, he's checking out the computer screen as I type this.

His sister, Delilah, is much more reticent.  I am still not able to pet her.  She'll come near me if I am ignoring her but if I approach her (such as trying to get a pic of the two of them cuddling), she runs away.  

Even though Delilah is still so shy, she and Samson have come a long way from the days when they were scared  little kittens, too petrified to play.  They play all the time now although Samson is much more high energy than his sister so I have to pick up the slack sometimes.

I found that patience is the key.  I debated at first about "forced cuddling" and it just didn't feel right, so I didn't do it.  It has been difficult because this pair was so shy that food was not an incentive for them - they would just hide.  Now they're very much like normal kittens.  They still have a ways to go before being adoptable (especially Delilah) but I'm not putting any time limit on it.  I don't mind having them around at all.  

 

[ondine]

I'm not the type to force anything on anyone, either, so do what feels comfortable to you.  They may never be lap cats but their lives are vastly better now than they would have been without you.

We have a formal feral, brought in a six months old, who has suddenly discovered she loves being brushed.  She's eight!  No one would have convinced me she would get to this point when she first arrived.  But we allowed her to be herself and move at her own pace.

 

[kittychick]

So so so glad to hear such a positive (with the exception of the escape) update!! Sounds like Samson has made such amazing progress (and I know that it seems like forever to you - but when I looked back and realized that you've made such great progress in only (and I say "only" knowing 3 months can feel like forever when you're the one doing the socializing!) 3 months!!!! 

I have to share an abbreviated version of an "escape" story of my own. We'd been working with three truly feral kittens for months - one of which socialized very quickly and found a great home quickly too. The other two were muuuuuch slower to socialize - one of them I still could barely get near after months of working with them for hours a day (his other brother had really begun warming up to us). The really shy one (in true feral fashion) we'd never heard make a sound - purr, chirp, nothing. So you can imagine our panic when - the morning we were taking the last two to the vet, my husband and I managed to get both into carriers, cover the carriers with towels - and then we set the carriers briefly in the driveway while I ran back into for my purse and my husband ran back in for something. I came back outside and picked up the extremely shy one's carrier and it felt way too light - I realize that my husband had accidentally not latched that carrier properly but we didn't notice the kitten had escaped because of the towel covering it! And of course - this kitten had come toward us, answered to his name, let me pick him up easily, etc. the entire time we'd been working with him! So between that and not ever hearing any sound from him - we had no idea how to ever find him (plus he was almost entirely black - making seeing him in bushes, etc. even harder). You can imagine our utter panic - both of us were actually in tears trying to find him. Looking back it was almost a comedy of errors - including a huge garbage truck coming unexpectedly down the street and then backing up in front of our house making that loud "beep beep" backing up sound. What we thought would be the final "we'll never find him" straw turned out to be a huge stroke of luck - a sudden, enormous, lightening-filled downpour! The totally silent kitten that we couldn't even see suddenly showed himself as a yowling, panicked soaked kitty running in circles around our house! I literally ended up throwing myself on top of him and grabbing him as he rammed into the siding in the corner of our house! The very happy ending - that I don't know I will ever understand - the next day when they got back from their neutering, it was almost like he told himself "that outside world is loud and scary!" as he overnight turned into a lap cat, complete with playing, snuggling, purring!!! And they ended up getting adopted together, and we've seen them several times since - both very happy!

So I guess the moral of the story is - you never know what's going to happen! Ok - my "you never know" story is a lot longer than Ondine's

 

[ondine]

KittyChick:  Four of our six cats run when we open the door.  The other two will sit just inside the door and greet us but would not even think to go outside.  I agree with you - your kitten knows a good thing!

 

[lila]

We had a similar problem.  I sat in the same room as the 2 female feral kittens for hours.  I just ignored them but was their.  Eventually they got used to my being their and came closer.  Eventually we had gentle strokes.  Finally one afternoon one of them rubbed against me first!!  It took months but was well worth it.  Let them set the pace.  Don't try to force it as this will only be a set back.  Now of these two, one will happiliy climb onto my lap.  The other while accepting fuss will not let me near her while feed ing and will not get on my lap.  Vive la difference.  They are individuals and I respect that ( bit disappointing ) but so rewarding.  Just give it time and love.  Good luck