Please Share Yours

[dana17]

It brings warmth to my heart to see and read about all of you caring for these strays and ferals!
It also breaks my heart to read threads about a cat going missing or getting hurt. My ferals were my therapy when my mother battled cancer and are therapy after she lost her battle to cancer May 29, 2016. It helps me to care for all of our ferals and at the same time im anxious that thry will get hurt, killed or lost. Can you all share with me and the rest of us about how you made a stray or a feral into a permanent house pet cat. I love reading things like that, it helps me. Ty!

 

[Kieka]

My girl was from a bad feral hoarding type situation. A neighbor liked feeding cats and seeing kittens but she never got any fixed and wouldn't let anyone take "her" kittens. She just put it food on her front porch once a day and watched the cats and kittens from her window. No interaction with people beyond her print out food and her some scaring the cats away when they went out to smoke. By my count close to a hundred kittens were born and only a few made it to one year. Sad tale aside, the last group of litters before her landlord disallowed feeding (animal control complaint driven) there were some pointed kittens. One looked kinda like my boy (he is neutered).

When the kittens were almost four months old she knocked on my door. "I caught your kitten" with a filthy kitten in a box. Stunned I took the kitten and closed the door. Best guess was a mix of my mom commenting on the appearance of the kitten and old enough she wasn't as cute to watch.

I dumped the kitten in the bathtub and called my mom. We both agreed we couldn't just take the kitten back, it would be a death sentence, but she had no human interaction and was feral. By the time we decided to socialize and Foster her I went back in the bathroom and the whole room stunk. Not because the kitten had pooped or peed in the tub but because she was so filthy. I ran to the store for some safe soap and food. Then got to cleaning the kitten. Luckily, the shock of everything kept her from fighting me as I gave her a bath. Probably also malnutrition because she was all skin and bones. I put her on the kitchen scale and she was a smidgen over a pound at four months old. A tiny miserable thing. Here she is drying off after the bath.

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• Kieka
• Dec 1, 2016

She was extremely skittish and kept trying to run and hide whenever we weren't holding her. So we setup our large rabbit cage and put her in the cage whenever I wasn't holding her. Over two weeks I got her to the point where she wouldn't immediately dash to cover when my grip loosened and she was move to my bedroom with her cage. At that point I kept the door open when I was in the room with hiding spots blocked off. Over the next two weeks I slowly expanded her boundaries and kept bringing her back to me when she got too far (which kept getting further away). After a month she had full run of the house and looked much better. I started looking for a new home and found one, but when it came time to take her I just couldn't so she stayed. Here she is with a beetle one of the boys brought in for her at about 7 months old (3 months after bringing her in).

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• Kieka
• Nov 30, 2016

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• Kieka
• Oct 25, 2016

Link loved Rocket from the moment she was given some free movement. He shadowed her until she started playing back. Nightfury took about three months to warm up to her. I worked very closely with her to get her coming when called, even outside, so that by the time she was spayed at 8 months old she was able to go outside with the boys during the days.

She didn't seem to gain weight even being on Blue Buffalo kitten (one of the highest fat kitten foods). At the time of her spay she was just over 5 pounds. But she did eventually grow some.

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• Kieka
• Sep 13, 2016

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• Kieka
• Oct 5, 2016

Even now as an adult she is smaller, barely 8 pounds and very short. Today, she still had feral moments. She still is the most cautious and first to run. She hates eye contact with people. Anyone outside the immediate family will only see her feral tendencies. But with those she has come to trust she is a little love bug. Every morning she wants cuddles before I leave for work and every evening she sleeps pressed against my side.

Even though it took four to five months to socialize her, she socialized pretty quickly for a 3-4 month old feral kitten. I think her health and the sudden shock of change, along with Link being such a relaxed boy, helped her make the change a lot quicker than most. It isn't always easy and despite her obvious trust and coming when called she didn't let anyone but me pet her outside for a year and she can't be picked up. But when she makes a break through and suddenly allows something she didn't before (my Mom petting her outside last year) it is a cause for celebration and makes it all the more precious.