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- Apr 14, 2018
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I rescued 3 kittens from my backyard sometime in late october/november just before the temperature dropped. I knew they were there since about early september, but they were in a place I could not get to them. I would feed the mother cat and I put out a kennel for them to use as house. I actually trapped them in the kennel one night when the temp was heading towards single digits. They were probably about 6-8 weeks, maybe 10 weeks when we trapped them. We brought them into the house and kept them in a closed off room where my wife lived with them almost 24x7 for weeks.
They are probably about 7-8 months old at this point and I've had them fixed and given them their shots - which I could not really afford but did it anyway. We also TNR'd the mother cat and she still comes around for food - so does the cat that we believe to be the father cat but we could not catch him.
One of the kittens has domesticated quite well and is a pleasure and my wife will probably end up keeping her but she would be our 4th cat so I'm not thrilled.
Two of the kittens are really what I need help with. They received exactly the same attention and care as the other one but they did not respond as well and while my wife could feed them with a spoon and they will sometimes sleep with us at night, we cannot touch them and they run and hide. They also pee on clothes and blankets even though they clearly know how to use the litterbox and use them all the time.
Basically, they seem unadoptable at this point - and we can't even catch them if someone wanted to take them. When we took them to the vet to be fixed, it was a nightmare and multi-day event trying to catch them, especially the male cat.
What can we do? They mostly get along with the other cats but 6 cats is too many and when they pee on clothes and blankets, its a huge problem.
I am not putting them outside or abandoning them somewhere. They will be safe and well cared for but at the cost of my sanity.
This is a good deed gone straight down the tubes.
We've started another attempt at socializing them by separating the two of them back into the closed off room and living with them in the room again but they are not happy about that.
Is there any organization that can take them and socialize them better than we can? They really are nice cats and as long as you leave them alone, they are fine, the one girl interacts with us - she'll come get me along with one of our other cats if they need food, the boy is really standoffish but will curl up by my feet when I'm sleeping but if you move anywhere near them, they take off so fast you can't touch them.
Its the peeing that that's the real problem, though.
They are probably about 7-8 months old at this point and I've had them fixed and given them their shots - which I could not really afford but did it anyway. We also TNR'd the mother cat and she still comes around for food - so does the cat that we believe to be the father cat but we could not catch him.
One of the kittens has domesticated quite well and is a pleasure and my wife will probably end up keeping her but she would be our 4th cat so I'm not thrilled.
Two of the kittens are really what I need help with. They received exactly the same attention and care as the other one but they did not respond as well and while my wife could feed them with a spoon and they will sometimes sleep with us at night, we cannot touch them and they run and hide. They also pee on clothes and blankets even though they clearly know how to use the litterbox and use them all the time.
Basically, they seem unadoptable at this point - and we can't even catch them if someone wanted to take them. When we took them to the vet to be fixed, it was a nightmare and multi-day event trying to catch them, especially the male cat.
What can we do? They mostly get along with the other cats but 6 cats is too many and when they pee on clothes and blankets, its a huge problem.
I am not putting them outside or abandoning them somewhere. They will be safe and well cared for but at the cost of my sanity.
This is a good deed gone straight down the tubes.
We've started another attempt at socializing them by separating the two of them back into the closed off room and living with them in the room again but they are not happy about that.
Is there any organization that can take them and socialize them better than we can? They really are nice cats and as long as you leave them alone, they are fine, the one girl interacts with us - she'll come get me along with one of our other cats if they need food, the boy is really standoffish but will curl up by my feet when I'm sleeping but if you move anywhere near them, they take off so fast you can't touch them.
Its the peeing that that's the real problem, though.