Feral Cat Behavior

The last six rescued ferals are all black. I am unable to find them homes because they are black! No one appears to want them. They are fully socialized, loving, wonderful cats and everyone that has been here to see them have turned them down! I had a lady today tell me all my cats are wonderful, but didn’t I have any that came in “other colors!” What am I? A furniture store? These are six quirky kitties that have great personalities and were abandoned at a very early age. Looks like my crew has just expanded by six. This saddens me because it means when Kitty Season draws near, I will be unable to take bottle babies. I will have the room while they are on the bottle, but after they are weaned, I won’t be able to keep the balance in the home with more cats.

Right now, I am still dealing with India being chased about six times a day into the kitchen cupboard by Prowler. I have started giving prowler a 3 minute time-out in the bathroom when she chases. Today, it appeared to get the message across and Prowler only chased Indy twice versus six times.

The dynamics of my group keeps changing. It is fascinating to watch cat behavior and how they relate to everything around them. I have also realized that Dash isn’t part of the litter that came here. I believe she is the momcat. They were all in such bad shape when I got them. Underweight, malnourished, flea ridden, wormy. The kittens are growing, but Dash has exceeded their growth pattern. She is twice as large as the others and I find them all trying to nurse off of her every so often and she lets them. I stop the behavior as soon as I see it, but I would bet she is the momcat.

Had a family stop by earlier to adopt a kitty. They came completely prepared, kitty carrier, kitty toys, and a blanket. They neglected to even call me first! When they arrived they were all smiles and excitement. The kids were running around and yelling, and yep, those in the know, you guessed it. My cats/kittens all vanished. They leaped out into the tunnels and vanished into the enclosure.

The kids wanted to follow them down the tunnels! I was thankful that Mike had blocked the opening inside the dining room with wood, so only the cats can fit through the holes, or else we would have kids sliding down the tunnels and really scaring the cats!

They were a bit put off that my cats vanished, so they said they would go out to the enclosure and look at them there. I tried to tell them that all that is going to happen is the cats are going to scramble up the tunnels back into the house, but they wouldn’t hear it. So out we went and once we stepped into the enclosure, the cats all took off back in the house!

I sat down with the family and explained the cats to them. I told them that most of the cats had been either abused or abandoned, and even though they have bonded with Mike and I, they are not going to take to strangers automatically.

Once everyone was sitting down in the enclosure and talking quietly, Prowler and Oliver did come out to see us. They were supremely disappointed that those two were not up for adoption.

They left with shattered hopes and empty arms. I am thankful they are gone. Feral cats are special, they are not for everyone.

I have placed ads around town for six of my kittens. I grow so attached to these feral babies and even the older adults, but as I told my husband… if I do not keep my numbers down and achieve balance here with the resident cats, then I tread that fine line and cross over to being a hoarder and not a rescuer.

I know he is really fond of Chappy and Dash, but if I can find the perfect place for them to live, then I will be happy. I do know that India needs to be somewhere else besides here. She is getting chased into the kitchen cupboard about four times a day now. I am not sure why, she has been to the vet, and I had the whole regime done on her, blood work and checking for UTI and she came up perfectly healthy. I had thought that perhaps she was ill and her scent was changing, causing normally placid Prowler to start chasing her out of the enclosure, up the tunnels and into the kitchen. I am at a loss to figure this out, because until just recently, she was getting along with everyone here. I think, with the arrival of the dumpster kitties, the numbers may just be to high to have the balance and so the territorial wars began.

I went and visted two previous bottle babies of mine today; Scuba and Sonic. They look good! Sleek and healthy thank the Lord! I walked in, and saw them and knelt down on the ground calling to them. Both of them came to me in a dead run and jumped all over me crawling up my shoulder and sniffing me. Their new owner was surprised and said they generally hide from strangers. I just smiled, I am no stranger, I am their mom. They bonded with me from first moment I offered them a bottle and we were tagged for life. Scuba wouldn’t leave me alone, but after awhile, Sonic wandered over to her new best friend, a yellow-headed parrot named Charley.

So now it is time to again set my heart for goodbyes, and see if I can find a perfect place for Dash, Chappy, India, Mercedes, Bently and Tipster. Only time will tell~

The price of rescue is knowing when your time would be more valuable saving lives instead of collecting cats and being unable to part with them. The price, truly comes out of your heart every time they leave, because a piece of you leaves at the same time.

At 7 months old they arrived here, four kittens that had been found in an abandoned campground, untouched by humans and as wild as could be. They were immediately spayed and neutered and returned back here. For months they would spit and hiss and run out of the room. All of the kittens are black and white…

India who looks like someone swiped her nose with a paintbrush, was the first one to bond with me. She is now a complete love and will demand her time on my lap. I have to put a heavy towel down first, because the minute she hears the dog coming into the room, she launches off my lap and springs for the cat condo. Her claws, fully intact help her to escape.

Tipster, who is solid black with a white chest and a white tip on his tail, is the most mysterious. For months, I could not get near him. His refuge was under the kitchen table and if I tried to make contact, he would run out the tunnel and into the enclosure. So I began to ignore him completely and only feed him and make sure his water was fresh. Now, he will come up to me and wind through my legs, and when I reach down to pet him, he will purr and headbump me. If I stop, he will meow at me . I wait until he is perfectly quiet before I pick him up and we snuggle briefly. Before the thought of capture enters his brain, I quickly put him back on the floor and he trots off satisfied.

Chappy- is a long haired black and white male. L ike his littermates, he wanted nothing to do with us, so we returned the favor. Now, he will hop up on the couch and look at me expectantly, while my hubby says “Pet that cat!” The only petting Chappy likes is elevator butt, his favorite way to be stroked, and if I stop rubbing the base of his tail, he will gently reach over and take my arm in his mouth and put it back where he believes it belongs~ on him! Truly remarkable- he and his sister look like identical bookends when they are sitting together.

Dash- she is the last one of the litter. I named her Dash because she has a white mark on her face that looks like a comma. Ironically, she also dashes out of the room when we show up, and she is still doing so, so she is not quite ready for adoption, but very soon, I am certain she will be coming over to us on her own to be acknowledged and loved on. And people keep telling me; “Mary Anne, older feral kittens can’t be socialized!” Bull pucky! They can to!

I was so angry at the situation for this poor calico girl that she spent three days in a dumpster. I took her to my vet to be checked out, and one of the vet tech’s fell in love with her! Not only did she take the kitten home with her, but she also paid the vet bill~ That was wonderful! I know that Bundles will have a great home, as the tech also has another one of my rescues. It validates me when this type of stuff happens and things fall into place. I just need to find homes now for the last 6 arrivals here, and then we will back to a balanced feline household. I would love to keep them all, but that would defeat the purpose.

I just got a new rescue earlier. From the local post office, a sweet calico kitty estimate her to be about 6 weeks old was left in their dumpster! They haven’t been to the dumpster in three days- the weekend and the holiday, so this sweet baby has been left alone along with all the cardboard there. She is upstairs, she has eaten and she has a vet appointment at 3:00 p.m. Her lungs sound a bit wet. People- SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR ANIMALS and prevent this type of thing from occurring. She could have drowned in that dumpster, it has beeen raining for a solid week now!

I am not sure where I am going with this website. This is my first-ever blog website, so it is new territory.

Originally, I set this domain up with the intention of filling it with revelant content about feral cat behavior. Then my friend Anne, convinced me to start a blog, as it is all the rage. So we will see.

A brief intro-

I have been living with ferals and strays now for over 25 years, which is half my life (almost). In that timeframe, I have learned how to set aside my expectations and allow these cats to be who they are, independent and free spirits. I specialize in bottle babies (orphaned kittens) and abused older ferals. A cyber-friend and I started www.kitten-rescue.com for people who are confused when they find an orphaned kitten or are left with a motherless litter.

That’s it for now, I have work to do. I am sure I will blog later