pregnant stray living in my garage!

[ldg]

I have a feeling you're going to be feeding two kitties. Given the access into and out of your garage, there's really not any way to control what kitties eat food that's put out. That's how we ended up with a colony of 20 at one point!

We got them all spayed and neutered, all the kittens were adopted out, and two of the older ferals we found homes for - and the rest disappeared at various points in time.

(We live in a very rural area, so we ended up both feeding and trapping a lot of coons and possums along the way!)

Good luck tomorrow!

Laurie

 

[catsknowme]

Sending that all goes well with Casper's surgery and also for that poor wee kitten - bless you for caring for the cats in your neighborhood

 

[robdog]

OK so we ended up not taking Casper to get get fixed today. My mum just keeps on saying she doesn't know when she'll be free but hopefully it will be early next week. I don't think she knows how important it is... I know that we're coming into cat mating season at the moment i think and i don't want Casper going around getting other kitties pregnant!
We brought the fat cat (formerly know as Preggers) back today from Irenes house. I think that Irene has tamed her slightly just by being around her. I let her out of the cage when we got out of the car at about 11.00am, it's now 5.45pm and i havn't seen her since.
Casper is getting tamer by the minute now he is bairly ever biting or scrabbing and I'm getting very good at enterpreting the warnings. E.g if i were to pet him on somewhere he was hurting or something he would turn his head very quickly and i would just start petting him on his head. He refuses to sleep in any sort of box and the only place he will sit is ontop of an old chair near the garage door. When i try to shelter it slightly he doesn't like it he must just like being able to see everything. I put a hot water bottle down in the morning and at night ( its really cold here atm 2 degrees centagrade). Sometimes he will sit on the chair for hours but sometimes he'll sit on it for about 15 minutes and then go and sit under a bush where it must be freezing! But i just let him do what he likes. Anyway i took some pics, One of his bed and two of his cute little face!







Robert.

 

[twstychik]

Aww... what a sweet face. Looks like he's had his share of fights. I sure hope you mom finds time soon. Bless you for caring so much!

 

[addiebee]

Try to impress upon your mum just how important it is to get Casper fixed. That it would be very easy for him to get a female pregnant, which only compounds any problems you might have with neighborhood strays.

 

[ldg]

He is soooooo cute!

What about giving Irene a call - maybe she wouldn't mind getting you there?

Laurie

 

[robdog]

Irene works during the day at a paying job seperate from her voluntere work. I bought a cat bed today which was 1 of those igloo ones with like half a roof but Casper wouldn't go into it so I'll just have to take it back. I'm pretty sure Casper is sleeping in my garage all night now. My sleep patterns are pretty messed up and i don't normally drift off to sleep untill about 4.00am so last night i jumped out my window at 1.00am to have a look to see if casper was there and he was, and he was still there when i had another look at 3.30 am. LOL it probs sounds ridiculous me jumping out my window at 3.30 in the morning but i would have just been lying in bed wide awake anyway... I hope my parents don't read this they wouldn't be very happy :S

 

[ldg]

I'm sure many of us pulled similar stunts (slipping out of the house without our parents knowing it).

We found with the ferals that when we built enclosures for them for the Winter that they wouldn't use them unless they had two entrances. Since it's in your garage and protected from rain and stuff, do you have any way to get hold of a pretty large box? Paper is a fabulous insulater. And you can cut half of one flap away on one side and tape that side closed, and cut half of one flap away on the other side. Put a bunch of straw in there - and Casper will have a really cozy, warm home - that he might use. The straw is better than blankets because it's a better insulater - and you can replace it easily, and buggies won't build homes in it like they would blankets. Any way to get your hands on the ingredients?

Laurie

 

[robdog]

Yeh i've got a big box which i've tried to get Casper to go into. I put blankets and a hot water bottle in there but he wouldnt go in. Also he likes to be near the entrance to the garage so that he could make a quick escape if he needed to i suppose. I've got a friend that lives on a farm a couple of doors down from me so i could get straw from there.
Laurie are you talking about just a big box with two holes in it? DO you think that the extra hole will make the difference? I'll def try it thanks Laurie!
O.k the appointment is finally made for Tuesday morning! And I don't think that my mum will be able to not go because the vet wouldn't be very happy lol.
I havn't seen the fat cat since i left it out yesterday btw I don't know where she's gone!
I can't help feeling that Casper must be bored out of his brain just sitting on that chair in my garage all day, It's all he does! And it's not like he goes out in the dead of night i mean i was out there at 3.30am and he was still there and I'm prety sure he's getting bigger, maybe through being fed more or lack of exercise?!
What ya think?

 

[ldg]

I do think having the second hole will make a difference - at least, it did for our ferals.

And he probably is getting fatter - regular food, probably higher quality food - and though you may not think he's warm, he must be warmer than he was - so he's not expending the energy to stay warm. Also, he's not getting much exercise now because he's found a good spot!

There's a woman on TCS that had an older feral rescue - not a stray. The kitty was free to come and go from her laundry room (had access to the outside, but not the rest of the house because she's got a kitty that will not tolerate other cats in the house). He lived in her laundry room, and slept in the dryer for eight years. Some cats do not want much territory!

Also, to help Caspar become even more comfortable around you, get a shirt that you don't mind giving up or not having for a while really good and sweaty. Put this under his food dish.

And if he's in the garage - just spend as much time in there as you can! Drag a chair or something out there and sit and read (if you can stay warm enough). Just being around him without trying to interact with him every time will help gain his trust more quickly.

Also, to help him get liquids, ask your mum to get some chicken for you to boil. To help our ferals warm up in winter, we would boil chicken in water (nothing else added), and we'd put out warm (not hot) chicken water for them to drink at night. We'd leave water out for them to drink - but it kept icing over. We fill the bowls with warm water every morning, but they LOVED that warm chicken water at night.

Laurie

 

[robdog]

Thanks for the Advise Laurie I'm going to try the chicken water now its 11.30pm here.
Do you leave the chicken in the water when you take it out to the cats or do you take the chicken out so that the water just tastes like chicken??
Reply ASAP please!!
Robert.

 

[ldg]

Rob, I boil chicken in the water until the chicken is cooked and then remove the chicken and store each separately in the fridge. We heat up like a tablespoon of the chicken and shred it for kitty to snack on, and heat up a small bowl of chicken water - like maybe at most a cup full, and let them drink that.

Laurie

 

[robdog]

OK so we took Casper to the vet today. The appointment was at 9.00am so we had to get up pretty early, It took me about 15 minutes to get Casper into the cage because i wasn't allowed to entice him with ham because he wasn't allowed to eat. In the end i had to be quite forcefull to get him in, he's quite a strong little fella'!
We left him at the vet at 9.00am and called back at 4.30pm and they said he was all fixed up and had all his injections and had been de wormed and everything and he was alright to take back home. When we let him out of his cage back at our house i was quite suprised by the fact that he didn't just bolt out and run away he just ran about 3 meters away and sat down. He hadn't ate the night before so he was starving and he gobbled up a big bowl of cat food and then stayed in the garage while a stroked him for a while. He's gone off for a wander now ( to tell all his friends what we've done to him my mum says lol)His back end is quite raw where they operated and it's bleeding very slightly but I don't think he's actually in that much pain he seems to be able to sit down on his bum alright.
I don't actually know how it works i didn't ask the vet. What does the operation involve? Do they completely remove the testicles? I've heard with dogs that some vets cut off the blood supply to the testicles with a pair of plyers for about a minute and they die and dissolve into the blood stream. Laurie do you know how it works??
Robert.

 

[ldg]

I actually don't, but I do know there are several methods of doing it.

Here is information I found at this site: http://www.thepetcenter.com/sur/Spayandneuter.htm

Originally Posted by ThePetCenter

NEUTER... another term is castration. In this surgery the doctor makes an incision in front of the scrotum and through that incision accesses each testicle. The fibrous coverings of the testicles are incised and each testicle is removed after securely ligating the blood vessels that attach to each testicle. The benefits of having a dog and cat neutered are well documented. And to simply do a vasectomy to render the male sterile would not alleviate the scent marking, desire to breed, territorial defense and other testosterone driven behaviors. Even in guard dogs and hunting dogs, many owners report improved behavior and manageability when the dog has been neutered.

We've never had a problem with a neuter before (

) - but I've also never seen any spotting afterwards. Just keep an eye on your boy for a day or two.

Congratulations! While he'll still want to go for his walks, he won't be wandering as much or as far - and the likelihood of him getting injured in a fight over a female has just plummted.

Laurie

 

[twstychik]

I'm glad to hear tha Casper is back home fully vetted now. As for his neuter this is what I found about Neutering the male cat

WHAT IS DONE EXACTLY

The feline neuter is one of the simplest surgical procedures performed in all of veterinary medicine. The cat is fasted over night so that anesthesia is performed on an empty stomach. The scrotum is opened with a small incision and the testicles are brought out. The cords are either pulled free and tied to eachother or a small suture is used to tie the cords and the testicle is cut free. The skin incision on the scrotum is small enough so as not to require stitches of any kind.

It is much less invasive then say a spay and he should be perfectly fine in a day or two.

 

[robdog]

Excellent thanks for the replies guys! Hopefully he'll be good as new in a couple of days. I went out about an hour ago at about midnight to see if he had eaten his food as i han't seen him for about 3 hours but he hadn't, also there was a fox at the bottom of the garden just looking at me. Do cats get intimidated by foxs? I'm sure they do and i don't want to end up feeding a fox!

 

[addiebee]

Poor Cap. (nickname for Casper).

He's been nipped! But everyone, including him, will be better off for it. No unwanted kittens from that chap anymore.

Yes, keep an eye on the surgical site. Complications can happen.

 

[ldg]

Yes, cats can be intimidated by foxes. Cats are not (usually) prey of foxes, but they're nasty animals (meaning mean) and they compete for the same food. I don't know what to recommend you do. Caspar eats in the garage, right? I doubt the fox would actually come into the garage unless he/she were DESPERATELY hungry.

...but if he sticks around, he might prevent Caspar from coming home until he's gone for a while.

Laurie

 

[robdog]

OK well when i went out yesterday morning Casper was sitting happily on his chair so the the fox mustn't have bothered him that much, I haven't seen the fox since. I live out in the country surrounded by fields so theres quite a lot of wildlife.
I bought Casper some new dry food because its far less expensive and good for teeth, bones etc. But I'm a bit confused. On the tins of catfood it says to feed a full grown cat (4-5KG) 400g of tinned cat food a day, but on the dry stuff it says to feed a full grown cat 100g of dry food a day. Is this assuming that you'll feed it 300g of tinned food?
Or is it that theres as much vitamins and calories in 100g of dry food as there is in 400g of tinned food?
I've put up a pic of the instructions...and a new pic of casper, he looks funny in photos i always think, he looks a bit angry when he's looking directly at the lense lol.

 

[twstychik]

I love seeing pics of him...

As for food I think it's more of a recomendation. Neither of my cats eat the quantity recomended on their food. I'd put down the suggested ammount and watch to see how much he eats and adjust it accordingly. Also, you don't want to leave wet food out too long. It's cold now but as it gets warmer the wet food will attract bugs and eventually spoil.