feral kitten

feral kitten - help!

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

dkhedmo - 14 Dec 2005 01:40 GMT

About 8 weeks ago, a little kitten started showing up in the woods
around the edge of our property. It seemd clear it had no home,
eventually took up residence under the front porch. It seemd to be about
3-4 months old at the time. Our indoor/outdoor 4yo male befriended the
kitten, playing with it in the yard, teaching and correcting, etc. That
went on for about 5 weeks. Around thanksgiving, just before the first
snow, our cat seemed to "invite" the kitten into the house, which was
fine with us, I held the door open.

So the kitten has been in the house now for about 3 weeks, mostly hiding
under the bed in the master bedroom. The kitten comes out more and more
often to play with our adult cat, and we know it is getting food and
water, but she is still terrified of us and runs like heck once you get
within three feet of it. We can't get close enough to check the gender,
or get it to a vet. The cat generally seems healthy and to be growing.

My main concerns are litterbox issues.(Surprised?) I don't know if the
kitten is using the box or not, but I do know I'm cleaning at least one
poop a day out from under my son's bed. Yesterday it peed in his bed,
and today it pooped in the baby's crib in the master bedroom while we
had my older son's door closed to keep it from pooping in there! We are
in a small apartment, two up/two down. Littler box is in the bottom of a
cupboard in the kitchen, and I would really prefer not to have a second
box upstairs, as we have very little storage room as it is and giving up
more cupboard space is hard (boxes need to be in cupboards because of
toddler who eats anything that doesn't run away fast enough.)

So, I could use some general advice on taming this wild kitten, and
specific advice on getting these litter activities relocated from under
my son's bed and in the beds to an actual litter recptacle. I'm
generally overrun with laundry and caring for two little kids, so if we
can't effect a change soon, I will need to find this kitten either a
foster or permanent home. Oh, and I've had cats my whole life, but never
an actual kitten, we always took in adults.

Thanks for any help.

-Karen-

Reply to this Message

shortfuse - 14 Dec 2005 01:51 GMT

We have a stray outside,,,not sure if its feral or not, but it wont let us
get close to her to pick her up...would love to get her to the vet for a
check up, but dont want to take the chance of getting bit or scratched.
So I understand some what of your dilema...Unfortunately, I am no help :-(
Sorry

> About 8 weeks ago, a little kitten started showing up in the woods around
> the edge of our property. It seemd clear it had no home, eventually took
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
>
> -Karen-

Reply to this Message

DL Farnworth - 14 Dec 2005 18:27 GMT

Pee Wee was a stray about 4 months old when he showed
up outside. He made friends with Willard, another
porch denizen. It took about a month to get him inside
and another 2 months before he could be handled safely.
Handling him was a serious problem: he "killed" my
hand, biting my thumb three times, when I picked him up
before he was ready. My bad.

I'd pet him though when he was asleep. At first, it
took him about 4 minutes to wake up and realize the
horrible monster was after him again, then he'd run.
Gradually the time he'd remain in place got longer.

Our plan was to rehome him but since he couldn't be
handled, the only real alternatives were to keep him or
turn him over to the animal "shelter," definitely a
killing facility. So I kept him and worked with him.
I did set a realistic deadline: he had to sit in my lap
by a certain time or go. With nine cats, some old,
some sick, some neurotic, I just don't have the
resources. Now, 2 years later, he's still very
jumpy, easily frightened, liable to scratch. But I can
play with him, easy, then rough, then easy, letting him
go when he wants, petting him when he wants. We can
even carry him around now briefly. And he's shocked
and chagrined when he hurts us accidentally.

I don't have much encouragement for you. It's a lot of
work and a lot of time. Sitting quietly by, talking
and working quietly while it's in hiding might work.
Lookin after the children might preclude this.

The catbox issue: most cats I've met prefer a catbox,
even kittens. Can you put one under the bed and block
it off from the young'un? Just long enough to
condition the kitten to use a box. The advice I've
read says, "gradually move it," but that may not be
possible. We've always successfully relocated the
boxes in big jumps and showed the cats where they were.

The difficulties may be insurmountable and rehoming may
be the only option for you. There are people who are
willing to spend the time and effort and you may be
able to find them locally through cat help groups. The
sooner the better, really. Cats socialize early but
only briefly. If they don't learn to be domestic then,
they hardly ever do later in my experience.

Neutering or spaying should be coming up soon too. An
intact unfriendly male in the house is a real nuisance,
to say the least. And a female will populate your
house with batches more. Not a rosy feline future.

Good luck to all of you.

: We have a stray outside,,,not sure if its feral or not, but it wont let us
: get close to her to pick her up...would love to get her to the vet for a
: check up, but dont want to take the chance of getting bit or scratched.
: So I understand some what of your dilema...Unfortunately, I am no help :-(
: Sorry
: "dkhedmo" <dkhedmo@earthlink.net> wrote in message

news:lKKnf.3138$QQ1.973@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...

: > About 8 weeks ago, a little kitten started showing up in the woods around
: > the edge of our property. ... she is still

terrified of us and runs like heck once you get

: > within three feet of it. We can't get close enough to check the gender, or
: > get it to a vet. ... My main concerns are litterbox

issues... -Karen-

Reply to this Message

Lesley - 15 Dec 2005 12:20 GMT

. We've always successfully relocated the

> boxes in big jumps and showed the cats where they were.

This made me remember something that had me in fits of laughter. We'd
only had the Furballs about a week and we'd been moving the litter box
gradually until finally it was in the bathroom.

About half an hour later I heard a very puzzled "Mew" and found
Sarrasine standing in the middle of the hallway looking completely
lost...I said something like "It's in the bathroom now" and she meeped
and trotted off into the bathroom to do her business in the box.,...

I swear she understood what I said, one of the signs that we had a
feline criminal genius on our hand

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Reply to this Message

Upscale - 15 Dec 2005 12:42 GMT

"Lesley" <LMadigan@hhnt.nhs.uk> wrote in message

> I said something like "It's in the bathroom now" and she meeped
> and trotted off into the bathroom to do her business in the box.,...

I agree 100%. When my Deetoo meeps at me (and it does sound exactly like a
meep), then I know that we understand each other fully.

Reply to this Message

Marie - 19 Dec 2005 03:34 GMT

> We have a stray outside,,,not sure if its feral or not, but it wont let us
> get close to her to pick her up...would love to get her to the vet for a
> check up, but dont want to take the chance of getting bit or scratched.
> So I understand some what of your dilema...Unfortunately, I am no help :-(
> Sorry

We have a sick stray outside who won't let me near it. And I have tried. I
just keep food out for it and a warm coat to sleep on at night. Actually
there are two strays who actually stay at my house all day/night, and 3 more
that come around at dusk to be fed and then they leave. The two who stay
here meow, cry and run at me when they are out of food but if I take a step
towards THEM they hiss at me. Very funny to see.

Marie

Reply to this Message