Feral Cat Behavior

We are remodeling under the watchful eyes of our cat friends. I noticed when scrubbing the walls in the hallway, the telltale old stains of cat pee. I remembered seeing a website that sells a Spray Alert Alarm and I am now in the process of testing it. The final results will be posted on my other website www.catreviews.com

I have to say that I am impressed with the concept. The design is attractive and the unit unobtrusive, it looks like a small thermostat, with a cat motiff on it.

The concept behind it, is that the alarm sounds right when the cat sprays, alerting you to go into the room and finding out which cat is spraying. I am excited about testing this and will update when the test period is over. I did try it out with a small spray bottle of water, and the alarm is loud enough to bring me from other rooms of the house.

It has been exactly 13 days since I started with the remedies from SpiritEssence.com I am thrilled to report that after three days of routine dousing the cats involved, the kichen cupboard tag game started to get less and less. On the thirteenth day the tag has now ceased! Indy is now fully accepted into the group and last night I caught her and Prowler in a groomfest. Jackson, you are a wonder my friend, thank you for understanding all these flower essences and putting together the right mix for my group~

Kitten season is here in full force. Emails are flooding in, and the phone is ringing with people who have found orphaned kittens, or whose momcat has died. I am sad, because this year as full as I am of cats, I can’t do the bottle babies. It is no problem when they are tiny-tiny but as they grow and merge into the group, it offsets the balance here and causes all sorts of wars and problems.

I have one email in my bin that I just talked to a friend of mine about. Thankfully the two kittens are in her area (Southern California) and she is going to go over today and pick them up. The kittens are only just a few days old, found by a couple of kids on their way to school. I have to wonder how many of these “orphaned” kittens really aren’t orphaned at all, but instead abandoned by the momcat, or that the momcat got scared away and is waiting nearby in the bushes for the human intruders to leave. Hard to say really, and I wish I could save them all, but already know that this is near impossible.

I will fight to save all I can~

This morning as I was doing the breakfast dishes, I looked outside into the enclosure and was surprised to see a chickadee eating the cat food! I don’t have a clue how he got inside, so I hustled on my boots (it was raining) and went in to rescue him.

Seven cats were riveted on this poor chickadee, although I had grabbed a towel for capture of the feathered friend, I ended up waving the towel at the cats in order to stop them from having a feathered snack!

Just as I was about to throw the towel over the bird and carry it to safety, Riley, my fiercest hunter, pounced and snagged the bird. By the time I got Riley to drop the prize, it was to late.

I still have no clue as to how this bird got inside. The chicken wire is solid all the way around and is the smallest mesh they make. My fear is, if there is a hole in the enclosure big enough for a bird to get through, then if I can’t find it, it might just be big enough for the cats to get through as well.

On the battle front, there has been no chase into the cupboard games lately. The peacemaker remedy goes into the water bowl, Matuse and Prowl get the bully remedy and India is getting the self-esteem mix.

Okay, I know, earthworms can’t run. But around here they need to, because Bently the cat is on the hunt. She finds these worms in the enclosure and runs up the tunnels with them hanging in her mouth. A sort of mini-snake for this kitten… Then she dumps the unsuspecting earthworm on the kitchen floor and slides it around, basically worrying the poor creature to death. By the time I find them in the morning, the earthworm is dry and shriveled up and beyond repair. She does this at night when we are asleep. At last count, this war has many casualites- earthworms - 2 survivors
prisoners by kitten 39

Maybe the next generation of earthworms will be smarter and will stay away from our cat enclosure and opt for the garden area instead!

Recently spoke to my friend Jackson Galaxy of about my ongoing puzzle regarding Indy getting chased into the kitchen cupboard on a daily basis.

Will keep track of any progress as the days pass-

I have been contacted by a publisher in India who wants me to write up some articles about feral cat care for his readers. Apparently in India cats are considered bad luck charms and many are killed inhumanely out of fear.

It is his hope that my articles will begin a special understanding to the uniqueness of these special cats and an awareness to what it will take to socialize them and bring them in out of the world.

I am excited and honored to be asked this. I am waiting for more information about the treatment of feral cats there so that what I write will be relevant for the readers of the magazine.

My apolgies first off to Wendy Christensen for pilfering for one second her specialty which is herding cats. But there is no other way to explain what is going on here.

We are remodeling and there will be workers in and out of the house. For that reason, all the cats need to stay inside the enclosure during the workday so that I don’t have to worry about a cat getting outside, or getting lost in the attic.

Yesterday, some workers were going to be here, so I put all the cats I could find into the tunnels leading to the enclosure, then we sealed up the side of the tunnels that lead to the house. This allowed the cats to either hang out in the tunnels or go into the enclosure. I thought I got everyone. I had shut the bedroom door previously so the cats couldn’t run and hide under the bed.

After the tunnel was sealed, and I did a head count. There was one kitten missing, and of course this was Bently, the kitten that bit me and she was hiding out in the bedroom. It was a good 45 minute herding expedition with a blanket, before I was able to capture her and put her inside the tunnels with the others.

We sealed up the one side of the tunnels with some lattice board, and that was also a mistake. Every time the cats heard us in the kitchen or the dining room, they would run from the enclosure into the tunnels and then bat at us through their temporary bars. Made me feel so evil. I just told them it could be worse, they could be in a small cage in a shelter.

Most of the time they hung out in the enclosure, and we learned not to make quite so much noise so they wouldn’t be drawn into the tunnels and make us feel guilty for denying them access to the house.

But now the upstairs bedroom is ready for our out-of-town guests and the next thing for me to do is redo the cat room. I need to set that up to accomodate all the cats instead of just one or two~

Quincy went back to the shelter the other day. He went after one of the cats and he also kept squeezing through the woven wire fence and getting out in the highway. I told Mike that if we kept him we would either end up with one of the cats dying, or Quince would end up as road-kill. It was a sad decision, but the right one.

Squirrel is home from the vet, not herself at the moment but hopefully soon she will be okay. She is so used to dogs, she is not a cat that fears dogs having been raised with our Shepherds. I hope this experience does not turn her into a scaredy cat.

I felt so bad leaving Quincy, he knew right where he was going and he didn’t want to go. At least this time the shelter has a history on him, which will help to adopt him out faster (I hope).

We are painting and carpeting the upstairs. The cats are in an uproar, it is quite funny to watch them actually. I wonder what they are going to do when we start redoing the cat room?

I also entered the Coolest Cat Room Contest this month. I submitted photos of our cat enclosure. I don’t know it qualifies as a “room” but it is certainly cool for our cats~

He is a very subdued dog now. I know they took great care of him, so I imagine he just still doesn’t feel very good at the moment.

All the cats were so happy to see him, our “Disney Dog” as the vet’s office has christened him. Riley was the happiest, snuggling with Quincy and kneading him, silly cat! Hopefully in the next few days Quincy will be back to his energetic self. Now, I just have to keep the blankets away from him when he is in his cage and we are not around to watch him. At least he doesn’t eat the dog beds.