- Joined
- Jun 1, 2012
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- 275
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- 16
Last year a kitten was born outside. Although I spent time around the mother and the rest of her littermates they avoided me until they stumbled into my feeding station when they were about five months old. One of the four kittens died, the other two never tamed up completely. However, the little female became very acclimated to us. We did not have air conditioning so we thought they would have a better chance of survival living outdoors than in a house that was constantly heated to 85 degrees. Outside they could at least live in crawl spaces under houses.
It was our intention to get our air conditioning fixed then bring this little lady in. She was always in and out of our house, she'd nap on our bed, etc, so we figured she'd adjust well. We can even brush her and rub her belly. So, two days ago, we brought her in, as well as a little one.
See, before we could bring her in to get her fixed, etc (there is no cat rescue here and the shelter's policy with cats born outdoors is to put them down, even if the person bringing them to fix wants to adopt them) she had kittens. They were born April 25th. We know this day for certain, because late on April 24th she was waddling and early April 26th she was rail thin. As far as we know, none of them lived. However, two days ago, the guy who fixed our air conditioning found a little kitten behind our outdoor air conditioning unit. The mother was nowhere around, there were no littermates. Looking at pictures of kittens by age and development, this little one appears to be 3 to 3 1/2 weeks. So unless it's possible for kittens to appear over a week behind developmentally, we have no clue who the mother is.
At any rate, we could not just leave it there, since the air conditioning unit would be loud and cold. So we brought it inside. This was actually before we brought the other cat in, but the same day.
We hoped that we were bringing her to her baby, but she seemed to ignore it at first, and even to hiss at it. This is why we don't think it was hers. However, she soon took to it and started nursing. Problem solved.
Both are doing well, both got the idea of the litter box the very first day. The kitten pretty much just eats, sleeps, and poops. It's too young for much play yet, and can barely walk on its wobbly little legs. But the "mother" is getting stir crazy. The first night she went outside a bit but only sat on our porch. She seems to understand that she's been moved inside now. She doesn't even try to escape to the outside. We bought some toys and she does play with them but she seems to need more in the way of exercise. Should I attempt to get a cat harness and see about training her to walk on a leash? The only time she has EVER scratched me was completely accidentally while launching herself out of my arms. She is smart and very patient.
We have a few toys, several boxes, and a cat scratcher. We live in a small apartment so we don't have room for a cat tree or anything like that.
It was our intention to get our air conditioning fixed then bring this little lady in. She was always in and out of our house, she'd nap on our bed, etc, so we figured she'd adjust well. We can even brush her and rub her belly. So, two days ago, we brought her in, as well as a little one.
See, before we could bring her in to get her fixed, etc (there is no cat rescue here and the shelter's policy with cats born outdoors is to put them down, even if the person bringing them to fix wants to adopt them) she had kittens. They were born April 25th. We know this day for certain, because late on April 24th she was waddling and early April 26th she was rail thin. As far as we know, none of them lived. However, two days ago, the guy who fixed our air conditioning found a little kitten behind our outdoor air conditioning unit. The mother was nowhere around, there were no littermates. Looking at pictures of kittens by age and development, this little one appears to be 3 to 3 1/2 weeks. So unless it's possible for kittens to appear over a week behind developmentally, we have no clue who the mother is.
At any rate, we could not just leave it there, since the air conditioning unit would be loud and cold. So we brought it inside. This was actually before we brought the other cat in, but the same day.
We hoped that we were bringing her to her baby, but she seemed to ignore it at first, and even to hiss at it. This is why we don't think it was hers. However, she soon took to it and started nursing. Problem solved.
Both are doing well, both got the idea of the litter box the very first day. The kitten pretty much just eats, sleeps, and poops. It's too young for much play yet, and can barely walk on its wobbly little legs. But the "mother" is getting stir crazy. The first night she went outside a bit but only sat on our porch. She seems to understand that she's been moved inside now. She doesn't even try to escape to the outside. We bought some toys and she does play with them but she seems to need more in the way of exercise. Should I attempt to get a cat harness and see about training her to walk on a leash? The only time she has EVER scratched me was completely accidentally while launching herself out of my arms. She is smart and very patient.
We have a few toys, several boxes, and a cat scratcher. We live in a small apartment so we don't have room for a cat tree or anything like that.