Feral Cat Behavior

Here she is after climbing the pet stairs to get to the coolness of the shelves above. I will never be able to thank Neil of www.spoilmykitty.com enough for sending me this pet stairs unit. It was cute to see my kittens play on them, and nice to watch the older cats fall asleep on the stairs, but the real reason they are here is because God knew that Guinevere would arrive soon. These stairs offer her comfort she has never known.

Yesterday, I decided it is time for Guinevere and Sinatra to meet casually. I have found that when introducing two strange cats together, if you don’t make a big deal about it neither will they. Cats are social creatures unlike some myths flying around that ferals and strays are aloof and prefer to be alone. They group together, hence the “colonies” of feral cats and stray cats that are forming all over this planet. They have a heirarchy and they like to follow it instinctively.

I went in and cleaned Sinatra’s room first. He had vomited overnight, which I attribute to him just being stressed in confinement. Although he is not in a small cage at the shelter any longer, he is a larger caged room and there is not much difference to a cat that is used to being able to roam outside.

I left his door open and then went in to clean Guinevere’s room leaving her door open as well. Soon the room was clean and Sinatra was at the door. Rather than chase him away, I sat down on the floor in the corner with Guinevere in my lap and just let the two cats figure this out. I was petting Guin, she saw Sinatra and I noticed her ears were forward, her eyes were large and her tail was twitching. She was not growling, nor was he. I moved her off my lap slowly, if there was going to be a confrontation, I didn’t want my knees to be the victims of the attack. I continued to pet Guinevere and since Sinatra was just within reach he got some pets as well.

He stayed in the room about 20 minutes, he investigated the room thoroughly and maintained his composure when he saw Guinevere. Soon he left to go downstairs to the landing, then back up as the door downstairs was tightly shut. He saw Prowler through the wire and Prowler immediately dropped to her back and waved at him with her paws. She is such a flirt!

It is really a submissive pose, one that I have seen her do many times with new cats. It serves two purposes really as I have discovered. Although an act of submission, it is also an invitation to war. The cat has all her weapons ready to use claws and jaws, and what happens next is dependent on the actions of the new cat. Sinatra didn’t even growl at her, his tail was erect, his ears were forward and he trotted back upstairs to be with me. Guinevere’s door was not shut and he joined me in his room, where he was once again confined.

I will continue with this type of introduction in small increments until I am sure that Guinevere and Sinatra are buddies. Then they can keep each other company upstairs and I won’t feel so guilty about not being able to go up there more than 5-6 times a day to visit with them.

The kittens are fully intregrated into the house now. The only thing stopping me from letting them run full-tilt around the house is Leah the puppy. In her exuberance of being with us, one slap of her puppy paw and a kitty could die. She would never intentionally hurt them. I see no evidence of a high prey drive (thank you God!) Yesterday in the tack room several brown rats were gorging on the new bag of grain that I hadn’t yet opened. Leah was with me and when I opened the door, they scattered, i screamed and she just looked at them and said “Oh well!” Not even an attempt to chase them for which I was glad! The last GSD pup we had would leap in the air and catch birds and snap their necks! I have never seen anything like it before and hope never to again. So Leah’s low prey drive is perfectly fine with us. It means the kitties will be safe once they get old enough.

Both Sinatra and Guinevere show aggression towards the other cats. We ended up putting the door back at the bottom of the stairs, until the two cats adjust to their new place. Then we worry about introducing them to the group.

Interesting though, Prowler got into Sinatra’s room yesterday without being noticed. The first thing she did was show submission to his alpha tendencies. There was no major cat fight after that, just an intense staredown.

I scooped her up and got her out of harm’s way quickly. I was surprised the cat fur didn’t fly, but then Prowler has this charming way about her.

I am seeing an accupuncturist now to try and manage the pain in my shoulder. The first session was intense (to say the least) and she put these patches on me afterwards. Needles to go, I guess you could call them. They look like small bandaids and there are small needles in the center of each of them. She also put a gold needle in my ear and told me to leave it be unless it gave me trouble. I go back on Friday. This treatment upcoming is one she said she is going to “amp up” so that I am not in so much pain. I can’t wait (sarcastically speaking). The last session was intense enough, I can’t imagine upping the level.

Passed Jeremy’s anniversary with no phone call from the ex. Thankfully, perhaps now Don has learned to accept the grief he denied 31 years ago when our son died. Happy Birthday Jeremy, I think of you often and wonder how my life would be different had you survived.

The two new cats Sinatra and Guinevere are settling in upstairs. It is an uneasy time for the group, as both older cats are quite aggressive when noses are pushed against the screen. Matuse is of course, my biggest bully and has to climb the two screen doors at least five times a day to establish that HE is Alpha. Neither Guin or Sinatra are amused though, and there is a lot of rushing to the door (on Sinatra’s part) and growling and hissing and swatting. Thankfully, the pet screen truly is claw proof.

Guin just wants to be left alone by the group and covets instead our company. When we go into the room, she will slowly come out of her established hiding place, under the pet stairs and demand to have a lap and cuddle time.

Mike and I were talking about how different it is to have cats that run to you, instead of fleeing. It is quite gratifying, though there are still obstacles. Both cats display tendencies that they are love-starved and will chase our hands for pets and attention. Sinatra is eating, just not as much as I would like him to, although we are now in a hot spell and are breaking records across the state in regards to heat.

I have 5 fans on upstairs, last I looked it was 85 degrees up there and 93 degrees outside.

I am glad I didn’t say no when I look at these two cats. It will take some time, but soon both of them will be acclimated to their new home.

As I passed the first row of cages in the animal shelter, I felt a light tap on my arm. I paused and looked over at these startling blue eyes framed by a light orange face. I followed the line of the paw that was holding on to my arm (sans claws) and saw a beautiful flame point. He was lying in the cage, with one front leg extended, stopping me in my tracks. He seemed to be saying “Won’t you please take me home with you?”

I gently removed his paw and gave him a quick scratch under his chin. I was on the move again needing to check in regarding a recent litter of orphaned kittens. Sandie, one of the workers who was nearby leaned over and said- “We have never seen him reach out like that.”

I shook off the thought of adding still another cat to my group and hurried over to the exam room to reschedule an appointment.

As I turned to head out of the door, I again had to pass the row of cages, each one containing either one cat or several, or litters of kittens waiting for a home that hopefully would be in the near future. As I passed his cage again, he reached out a final time…tap…tap..tap…

I paused and looked in, fully drinking in the sight of him. I studied his card. He was a 3 year old, neutered flame point. His name…Flame. He has crystal blue eyes and he gazed at me unwavering. I slowly blinked my eyes a few times to let him know I was no threat.

“We have had him quite awhile, ” I heard behind me in a whisper. “He’s been through his vaccinations and quarantine and is ready for the cat room now.
I thought about the cat room, cages stacked on cages, cats inside each one. No room in the Inn I thought sadly- all these lovely creatures, abandoned for whatever reason waiting for either adoption day, or euthanasia.

“I can’t take him. My husband will kill me!’ Said husband was waiting patiently out in the truck for me to come out of the shelter. With so many cats at home now, I couldn’t even concieve that Mike would agree to another one. I said my goodbyes and headed out the door.

Climbing into the truck, Mike noticed my eyes. “What’s wrong?” He asked. “Anything happen?”

“No, nothing, there was just a sweet cat in there that apparently liked me a lot. But there is no way we can have another one. I looked quickly in his direction and he was grinning. “Why not? What difference could one more cat make?”

I looked at him in amazement. “Are you serious? You would let me adopt him?”

As an answer, he suddenly swung a U-turn and headed back to the shelter. “Go and get him. It sounds like he needs us.”

As I entered the shelter, Sandie looked up and smiled. “Forget something?”

“Yes, I forgot him!’ I pointed at Flame.

Her smile got larger. “Tell you what, take him home now and I’ll throw Lily in for free! Have you seen Lily yet?”

I hadn’t so she led me into the cat room. In one of the bottom cages there lay a big white cat. “Lily” was brought to the shelter by someone who had found her. A vet visit revealed that she had been pelted with pellets from a BB gun, she had either been beaten or hit by a car, and denied vet care. Her pelvis was broken, the vet suspected when she was a kitten. She was unable to walk normally and crabbed across the floor. She was in her Senior years and she just needed a safe place to call her own. Sandie said no one wanted her because of her disablity and her age.

I sat down on the floor and Sandie brought Lily out of the cage and set her nearby. I snapped my fingers lightly and Lily hopped over to me. She pushed her lovely face into my arm and tried to crawl in my lap. Because she had no traction in her backend, she kept sliding off.

Tears were flowing as I thought of what this cat had endured. How could I say no to her needs? “Okay” I said sighing. “I will take both cats.”

The kittens are becoming integrated into the family and are doing quite well. The only cat who seems to believe the kittens might be a unique form of rodent is my huntress Squirrel. I have to keep a sharp eye on her when the kittens are in the enclosure, because if they run under the hay, Squirrel thinks “Ureka! A mouse!” and goes after the kitten with gusto.

Yesterday in the tack room, I surprised four fat rats that were pilfering the grain. Lei yelped and went after them, but thankfully she does not have a high prey drive, and she didn’t get to them fast enough. They scooted back behind the exotic woods to hide. I secured the grain pan lids and wished for Noddy to still be around. She was a great mouser and my tack room was the place she loved to hang out. She would climb up into the loft overhead and jump on the table when I walked into the room.

The horses were in fine style this morning when I went to release them. Yesterday Mr. Farmer and myself spent the entire day brush hogging all the blackberry bushes back by the creek. Now, you can actually see the creek and there is a mini-beaver dam in one place. We are contemplating tearing it down, because the water that is backed up should be moving to stop mosquitos from breeding. But the dam is such a marvel of beaver engineering, I would hate to destroy it.

Mr. Farmer was worn out yesterday after brush hogging. He fell asleep on the couch before dinner time and I had not the heart to wake him up. He slept most of the night on the couch until Lei decided to jump in the middle of his lap and give him goodnight kisses.

I told Mr. Farmer that we should change the name of Lei to DQ short for Drama Queen. I have never met a German shepherd puppy that carried on so, all the time. It is either DQ or Ms. Howl! You would think we were killing her sometimes in the truck, when she has to ride….GASP! confined in her travel kennel! 18 miles of howling the other day, that is a new world’s record for her. We had the windows down in the truck both back and front and people would just stare at us as this “OOOOOOOOOWWW OOOOOOWWW OWWWWW Let me OUT” erupted from the truck. I would just smile and wave at the people in the cars and say “How’s it going? Do you have a pair of earplugs I might borrow?” Then they would laugh, but I could see it in their faces- “Should we call the animal abuse control people?”

Ok, I know, I flunked fosterkitten hood. I took the kittens in to be evaluated and they just didn’t have the room for them. I looked at their cat room which was overflowing with beautiful cats and kittens both, and then I took a deep breathe and announced we would keep all of them.

Their adoption rate on both cats and kittens is quite low, and as they are a no-kill shelter, room isn’t going to be available soon. I did tell the gal to take me off the foster family list because I clearly flunked. Dusty told me my undoing was naming them (she numbers them or gives them non-descript names).

At any rate I brought them back home and they are doing well. Mike just laughed at me knowingly. I remember when we pulled out of the shelter that day he told me we were going to keep them. I told him he was wrong- but looks like I was the one who was wrong.

Put the kittens out in the enclosure this morning for about 30 minutes. The kittens had a blast running up and down the cat beds and meeting and greeting the other cats.

No major confrontations, no hissing or growling or swiping of paws. My crew is so used to newcomers that they really don’t treat it as any big deal anymore. The only one who ran off was Maverick, but then she always runs off no matter what-

Showing is Riley, Taylor, Everest and Waverly

The kittens are doing quite well. They are stronger and playing and eating and drinking. Not a lot of litterpan accidents are happening. It has helped to bring in a large low-cut rubbermaid container for them to use as a litter pan. I moved the kittens all downstairs because it is much cooler, plus I don’t have to fight the narrow stairways to care for them.

We have named them, even if some aren’t staying- Rocky and Owen, Taylor and Everest, and Sierra. All named after mountain ranges. Mike wants to keep every kitten, but I told him that isn’t the purpose of fostering. The purpose of fostering is to provide a safe place for the kittens to grow up in until such a time that they can be adopted out. I may tell the group that if a kitten doesn’t get adopted, I will take the kitten back and raise it with the group. We are keeping Everest and Taylor though-

I have 5 new kittens upstairs. I have had them for three days, they are around 5 weeks old. The littlest one (I hate the word runt) was quite sick when she arrived, but I fixed my concoction for her and now (knock on wood) she is thriving.

When she first arrived she wouldn’t even move, and now she is romping and playing with her brothers and sisters. We have decided to keep her and one of her brothers Everest, so named because he loves to climb. The others will go back to the shelter where I am a foster for them.