Feral Cat Behavior

Yesterday Sinatra attacked Mike with a vengeance. After looking at his wrist, I made a tough decision and called the shelter. Sinatra is now back at the shelter on bite quarantine. I do not believe he will be back here.

The time I have spent with him, he has shown no indication of letting up on his aggression toward the others. His body language clearly shows me that his growls, hisses and screams are not bluff. He is a pariah kitty, and does not wish to compete for our attention over the others. His alpha tendencies tell him instead to search and destroy.

I was so sad to leave him there. He knew right where he was going and became agitated the minute I opened the door of the shelter. But, I cannot have aggression with my group. He would be the fourth cat that I have not been able to make headway with in twenty years. Not bad odds, but bad for Sinatra because now his fate is uncertain.

He needs to be with someone who understands him first of all. Someone with no cats, a whole lot of patience, and who is willing to get bit from time to time. If you don’t pet him enough, he will bite you. If you pet him to much, he will bite you. If you ignore him, he will nail you. He is a tough cat to read, and his attacks are quick and unexpected.

I wish you well Sinatra. I did hope that you would be able to accept living with the group here. If I didn’t already have three feral barn cats, I would have turned you out in the barn. You would have loved it out there.

Like most of the country, we are experiencing a heat wave of unusually high temperatures. Yesterday it got to 103 degrees here! I had put the fly sheets on the horses and then hosed them down while the sheets were on to help keep them cool and hold in the moisture.

At 9:00 p.m. last night several of the kittens were open-mouth panting it was so hot in the house (no air conditioner). I started applying rubbing alcohol to the pads of their feet, and then put them outside in a mesh carrier so they could cool down. Poor McKinley, I had to finally wrap her with a cold damp towel and call the vet. Thankfully, he talked me through some things to do, and she cooled down right away. I put one large ice cube on her head, and kept applying the rubbing alcohol to her pads until her body temperature went down. She was so lethargic at first, she didn’t struggle and I was afraid we were going to lose her. But she is fine today and tearing around the house.

This morning, I asked hubby to feed Sinatra, and Sinatra bit hubby’s hand. I feel bad, I can tell the signs of an attack, but Mike rarely interacts with caring for the adults, although he is a great bottle baby sitter. I put his hand in epsom salts and hot water. His tetanus is up to date so hopefully the bite won’t get infected.

Last night Guinevere came out from under the bed and was lying on the floor. She didn’t try to go under the bed when we came into the room. It was so nice to see her.

Sinatra does not seem distressed to be inside the cage. There are several levels and it is quite roomy. At 6′ tall, I can stand up inside of it. Building it took almost all day, and the enclosure was like a sauna! I was soaked by the time we were done.

But I love the results, and now Sinatra can have constant exposure to the group and be integrated with them much faster. He does have a place he can hide from the others in there as well.

I just checked on him, and he is doing better than he was in the bedroom. Maybe the fresh air reminds him of this cattin days. But there are no loud meows from the group yet, so I am hopeful that soon he can just be let out with the others.

We used scrap pieces of lumber, chicken wire, plastic trellis and cable ties to build this thing. It will never make house beautiful, but it is secure, roomy and I am proud of our achievement.

Yesterday the temperature topped 103 degrees! Unusual for this area and the upstairs was pretty unbearable. I decided to move the kittens out of the bedroom and bring the two older cats Guinevere and Sinatra downstairs to our bedroom where it is much cooler.

Putting Guinevere inside the carrier is challenging. Because of the nature of her past injuries, movement for her is tenuous at best. When I do pick her up, which I try not to do, I can hear crackling inside of her. To me it sounds like air has collected in her body which would be, I believe a symptom of the FIP that the vet fears she has. Though I could be wrong.

I am going to visit my favorite website this morning winnfoundation.com and read up on Dr. Susan’s latest findings about FIP.

At any rate, the cats are now downstairs and the noise has escalated. Sinatra seems intent on challenging Prowler, Matuse and Riley. When they go up to the door to stay hello, he charges them full throttle his yowls driving him.

He more than likely has a very good reason for not liking other cats. He is certainly going to be a cat that will take a long time to acclimate into the group, but I am hopeful this can be acheived. The only alternative for him would be to take him back to the shelter, which I do not wish to do, or turn him loose outside, which I won’t do.

I doubt, even if I took him back that he would be adopted out. The adoption rate there is quite low and it is kitten season as well. It is highly plausible that he would have to spend the rest of his life inside the shelter in a small cage.

Here he has a chance. He has to realize that this is a safe place and he can relax a bit. But for now, he is on edge and on alert.

Guinevere is hiding under our bed. I know his moans and yowls unnerve her. She did come out and say hello this morning once I got down on the floor and called to her. But, they are both noticeably cooler and for that, I am grateful.

Today we work on the barn and then on the new smaller enclosure. I am hoping him having full exposure to the other cats will eventually mean he will calm down and join them. Only time and patience will tell.

It is incredibly hot today. The cats have no less than six fans running upstairs and it is still 85 degrees. Mike and I are going ahead with our plans to build an introduction cage inside the enclosure. This will give Sinatra the option of meeting all the gang (because some of the cats just don’t come in the house) and this way, inside the enclosure, all the cats can meet Sinatra.

He is a funny cat, wanting so badly to be stroked, but also biting and pawing when you do. I have learned to watch his body language closely and when he crouches down and extends a paw, I know to watch out. Mike isn’t that receptive and has been bit several times. I tell him to no pet Sinatra so often but he continues to do so and then suffers later (not quietly).

We should be done with the cage in a few days, it will have three levels, a “cave” and several hello holes where the cats can meet and greet.

This year, I decided to go against my vet’s express wishes and get two of my kittens spayed early. One of them, Maverick had managed to go into heat before reaching her 4 month birthday! Since there was still one intact male in my bunch, I did not wish for any surprise litters. So I took both kittens to another vet to get them spayed and then took the older male in to be neutered at the same time.

Now, months later, I watch Maverick come and go out of a heat cycle that just shouldn’t be here. She suckles Oliver whenever she gets needy, and allows Matuse that is neutered to mount her. Mercedes is suddenly very needy and she will chase your hand if you dare to stop petting her. These are puzzling traits that none of my other cats have, and leads me to believe that Ben is right and it is best to wait until the kitten reaches 6 months old. That is to say that the person who is caring for the kittens keeps them inside, away from any other intact male and takes them in promptly at 6 months even if NO heat cycle has happened.

Guinevere about mugged me tonight when I arrived home! I have been out of town for four days helping out my mother who just had a hip replacement. I was pleasantly surprised to find Guinevere crawling toward me no matter where I was in the room (I was cleaning the cat room). Finally, I finished and sat down and we had a love-fest. What a wonderful feeling to know that she missed me, she kept scooting into my lap and sliding out and meowing at me as if demanding to know where it was I went.

I am glad to be home, it was a long time away from home for me and my critters did miss me, but guinevere missed me the most and I find that heartwarming.

Also major milestone; now at night the doors stay open and the two cats sleep side-by-side! I think Sinatra understands that Guinevere isn’t 100% operational and he is quite protective of her. I am glad to be able to let both of them hang out together.

I am going to start making an introduction cage inside the enclosure this week. I have the idea in my head, now all I need to do is to talk to Mike and see if he can build it for me. I think it will make the transition easier into the group-

I have started putting Sinatra in the hospitality cage for a few hours today. Of course all the other cats had to come running to see the newcomer. I put his small carrier into the cage as well so he could hide, but being the full alpha male that he is, he climbed instead up to the top of the carrier and challenged all the other cats.

He and Matuse are clashing the most severe. Both being alpha males, and both bonded to me they seemed to be fighting for my favor.

I didn’t see anything alarming though. His growls were loud and intimidating, but this posture wasn’t very threatening. His eyes were wide open, his tail up in a hook, his body high off the ground. So most of what he is doing is bluffing.

I feel that this cat has been hurt in the past by other cats and his noisemakers are only to keep the others at bay. He let the kittens get really close to his cage and didn’t charge them for sticking their paw through the wire, something that I was watching for.

I think a week of this hospitality cage exposure will be adequate for him to be merged into the group. He is more shook up at being put inside the carrier and taken downstairs then he is about being in the large cage around the other cats.

Here you can see where he has discovered Prowler has been over the top of him:

Both Guinevere and Sinatra now occupy the same two rooms together. There is no hissing, growling or swatting, they lay side by side now. There is even a bit of mutual grooming going on and Sinatra seems quite protective of her.

I have been going up in the evenings and leaving the doors open and just sitting on the floor and reading out loud. Soon Sinatra will come into the room and he would lay down near my feet. Guinevere is usually on my lap by that point. I just keep reading and hope that my knees won’t turn into shredded meat if there is a confrontation.

I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I leave those doors open at night. Night is when cats become predator, and I would hate for the two of them with Sinatra in high prey mode to clash. So the doors stay open during the day only and at night each cat is retired into their respective rooms.

I have my doubts that the people around us even know why we celebrate the 4th of July. For them, it is just another excuse to drink, get high and make noise.

Last night they started shooting off what turned out to be a large selection of fireworks. The horses were going nuts and I had to race out to the barn and release them before they busted down the chain gates and cut themselves.

Then the cats were going crazy, some of them speeding through the house, others cowering under the bed or other pieces of furniture. The only one who seemed not to be affected was Leah. She didn’t even whine.

I saw Cleo this morning and we had some cuddle time. I am worried about him and wish he would come indoors, at least until after the Fourth. But, he has made it through 12 years of Fourth of July’s and hopefully this year it won’t be much different. I am so sad that all the trees where he used to hide out have been cut down- he was full of sap so maybe he was climbing over them to say goodbye to his protecters before the logging company hauls them away. Century old trees gone in an instant all in the name of $$

I have a feeling that tonight the fireworks will continue. I just hope nothing catches on fire and all the cats remain safe.