Cat Advice

[Slings and Arrows]

?

Good question.

Just in case this lightning rod seeker after knowledge is serious...

[wallcrawlr]

ha ha ha...i knew I'd get some feedback from that one...

all in good fun.

;)

[MotleyGirl70]

And, silly as it sounds, uyou must speak to them.

That's not silly. My kitten knows her name already and comes when she's called.

When I got her (on Oct.12th) that first week she was a little weary until she heard my voice more each day.

Now she thinks she owns the place :)

[The_Victor]

It's a kitten ZOT! Best of both worlds.

[Darksheare]

My cat, all 24 pounds of her, looks at me like I am insane if I speak to her.
And then she does something demented and the laughter starts.

[Slings and Arrows]

My wife did not take our cat to be fixed like I told her to do and the cat got pregnant. She went over to under an old shed to have the kittens and nursed them there, too.

I'm not a veterinarian, but your wife really should not be nursing kittens. Just my two cents...

More to the point, if his wife had kittens he should get a DNA test immediately.

[MotleyGirl70]

Wow! Twenty-four pounds! That's a big kitty. Motley weighs 12 and Kumar (RIP) weighed about 8 at normal size, but only five at the time her passing.

The vet says Motley is the one of the most healthy cats she's seen for a 13 year old.

Here she is last year:

[FairOpinion]

I would suggest that as a first thing you try to tame the kittens, then give them away to good homes, than spay the mother cat.

I and others I know tamed kittens in your situation. The basic concept is food.

Put out canned food, milk, small pieces of cooked meat, etc., the kind of stuff cats really like, first in the area where the kittens are, then closer to the house, and stand not to close to scare them, but close enough so they can see you/your wife, so the kittens start associating you with food and conclude that you are OK.

Then gradually stand closer, eventually, you may be able to actually hand feed them, then gently pet them. When you reach the petting stage, you need to reach towards them with an open hand, palm up, that's less threatening, give them some food, and gently touch to kittens, then as they get gradually unafraid, you can pet them, pick them up, and spend a little more time taming them.

I suggest you start now, it would have been better to start earlier, but don't wait any later, the longer you wait, the longer it will take.

I think if you wait and let the animal control people capture and take away the kittens, your wife might be upset and never forget it.

But with a little or a bit more than a little effort, you can probably tame them in a few weeks, it's not going to be days, but weeks, so have patience.

And feed and pet the Mother cat in front of the kittens, maybe the Mother cat will bring her kittens to you to show them off.

Good luck.

[FairOpinion]

In this kind of situation, I tend to assume they really want an answer and try to help. If they are serious, it hopefully helps them, and if not, no real harm done.

[A knight without armor]

Call the vet you told your wife to go to but didn't because she failed to follow your orders and get the number of a feral cat outfit.

But this sounds fake to me. There are only a squintillion animal sites on the internet and you come here for this?

You don't fool us with your blunt little tool.

[Lady Jag]

A guy up the street from me had a similar issue and called the local ASPCA. They lent him a Hav-a-Heart trap and, as the guy fed them and they got used to him and the food, he'd get a kitten or two and bring him to the ASPCA till they were all there.

[Darksheare]

None of my images are working.
Seems my bandwidth has been exceeded.
Had a troll eat all my image bandwidth up.
:(

[Jack Deth]

Hi, Motley: Your girl looks like an absolute doll.

Confident and fully aware of the Feline Ethos:

All that a cat sees
Belongs to either he of
She... Don't you get it?

More Kitten Haikus:

Up on my hind legs
Stretching up to touch the sky
Why did I fall down?

Leap up on the chair
Curl up and nap. Try for the
Table tomorrow!

Played so hard today
Sun warm on my fur as I
Rest and close my eyes

Must be Clean Clothes Day!
Slither inside the Basket
To play Peek A Boo!

Jack.

[Darksheare]

My human is a playtoy
I chase him like a string
Bite his tender toes
His ankles paws-a-fling
Bounce between his ankles
in the doorway flop
Stub his toe avoiding me
Bounce with his cursing hop!
And as the day turns to night
with my food dish, fight
I curl up in my bed
above my humans sleeping head...

[GovernmentShrinker]

I had a feral female turn up under my shed last winter, when she was 2-3 months old. She was terrified of people. We put nice smelly canned food out for her as frequently as we could (sometimes in small amounts, so we could repeat the routine more frequently without her getting to full to care), and warmed it in the microwave first to make it extra enticing. Kept watching her and talking to her as she ate, from whatever the allowed distance of the day was. We'd get closer and closer, but it was slow progress. Still took almost 4 months of conditioning to get her to let us touch her. Since she was just coming into heat for the first time (2 tomcats had just turned up in my yard!) we grabbed her the first chance we got and took her to be fixed. The weird thing was, despite her longstanding fear of people, once we caught her, she turned unferal almost immediately. First night, she was snuggling in my bed (so snuggly I couldn't get much sleep), and even used the litterbox! She still prefers to stay outside most of the time, though now she only gets canned food inside. We figure when it gets cold again, she'll be ready to start sleeping inside. You really MUST get hold of those kittens and get them fixed, or you're going to have a huge cat problem on your hands.

[GovernmentShrinker]

And, silly as it sounds, uyou must speak to them.

It's not silly at all. Predators make a point of keeping quiet, and all animals that have predators instinctively know that anything that is vocalizing near them is not fixing to eat them.

[Darksheare]

Yes, this is true.
Predator instinct is also what makes my cat rush over to check on me if I trip over her.
She isn't concerned that I am hurt, she's just checking to see if I am too hurt to feed her.
If I am too hurt to feed her, she'll check to see if I am hurt enough for her to take down..
;-)

[EsmeraldaA]

HEY Darks,
I love your Kearen poem.

[Darksheare]

There's one other written for her:

Kearen Kearen thunder paw
stomped her foot and shook my jaw
Said to follow feline law
Or face the dainty kitty claw
Kearen Kearen thunder paw.

[beyond the sea]

I can't help you. I am still trying to get rid of this one:

Have you just become a giant, gaping foolish *sshole lately, or is that just a lifetime expectation?

Keep your nasty, cruel crap to yourself!