Cat update

[conuly]

She moved them upstairs after one too many visits from the nieces. I was going to do that if she didn't, for the same reason.

I would've picked a better spot than the well overcrowded yarn room, though. The first place she picked was surrounded by such precarious stacks of boxes of yarn (and books!) that it was actually unsafe, and I spent half an hour clearing the boxes out. But then she felt they weren't hidden enough (because they were no longer hidden at all, although just getting in that room is a challenge) and moved them again. And now they're actually inaccessible for the moment. I mean, I could move all the boxes out of the way, but I figured I'd give her a day. I want to make sure I've cut off all unacceptable locations first!

Now, every time I post about the kittens you guys give me scads of advice, and while I appreciate it (and a lot of what you say is helpful and stuff I either don't know or hadn't remembered, it being a while since we've had a cat for any long term), I do want to let you know that I actually know a lot about cats and kittens, both through lots and lots of reading and personal observation. (In my middle school years, certainly, I felt (rightly or wrongly) that my understanding of cat behavior and body language far outstripped my understanding of human behavior and body language*, but this is because cats make sense.)

The nieces love nothing more than opening a can of food for the cat. This cat prefers dry food, which ought to be NO PROBLEM but I like the nieces to feel they can help out. So I went out today and bought a week's worth of little cans instead of the big cans we'd been using. Used the chance to a. get a higher quality cat food (now, THAT is something I urgently need advice on!) b. talk to the cat adoption people in case I fail to find five (!) homes for these kittens when they hit three months and c. snag a box top (for education!) from the box of hefty bags on the table. Yes, I do ask total strangers if they need those. (And yes, you can mail some to me and I'll pay for the stamps!)

Of course, the real problem with having a cat is that once you saved one pregnant kitty you start seeing cats everywhere that could use your help. I've had no luck re-tracking down the 3-legged one. Ana saw a mama cat with her three semi-feral kittens the other day, about four months, and asked if I could help them too (I'd like to, they're at an age where it's still easy enough to acclimate them to humans and it won't harm them to remove them from their mom, but I had nothing to lure them and they wouldn't come near. At least they seemed healthy). And it gets ridiculous. I really couldn't bring one or four new cats into the house. I still haven't worked out where I'm shifting the ones I've got! And all the shelters have waiting lists, and waiting lists for their foster owners too. There are cats all over the place. I'm starting to remember now why I gave up on the whole having cats concept. I could easily become the crazy cat lady, and this block already HAS a cat lady. (I need to talk to her about these kittens. She'll know the cheapest place to get their shots done, and is better able to find homes for cats than I've ever been.)

Anyway, you don't want to hear this, you want to hear how cute they are. The answer? Very, and they all have their eyes opening. One has them ALL the way open!

*It's important to remember that cats, even if you intend them to live in a one-cat household for their entire lives, need to be socialized with other cats as kittens. When I hear people talking about giving away kittens at two months, or six weeks (which is positively criminal and there is NO justification for), I get so mad. Kittens are in the most danger during the weaning period, health-wise, and they need those last months to learn how to act as cats. They shouldn't be separated from their mothers at that age unless there is a truly compelling reason to do so and it can't be avoided. Cats that aren't socialized properly or aren't weaned properly will show any number of behavior problems, and even if YOU think it's cute that your cat chews on all your shirts while sitting on your lap, it's not. It's sad.

Of course, all pet animals have to be socialized from a young age with humans as well, so they can be bilingual in a way (except for the lingual part - and yes, this is why, if you're saving a wild animal, you should give it to the trained professional who knows how to raise it so it doesn't get too attached!), but they still need adequate time with their mother and littermates to grow properly.

Sorry for the rant there, I'm sure you all know this already, but there are so many people who think kittens are adoptable when they're still just babies, not even, like, preschooler kittens! And it's not right.

Comments

[trialia]

Eight weeks is actually what the two major animal welfare charities in this country say, so it's probably coming from a lot of others in yours, too.

[conuly]

Oh, I know it is, and that's because at eight weeks it's at least not dangerous anymore. But for their psychological and emotional development, they really need that extra month. (Plus, you don't really want to adopt out a kitten that can't be fixed and vaccinated. You can't trust other people to do that for you.)

[kyrielle]

I had one cat when I was a teen who "nursed" on my hand all her life.

Sadly, we DID have to take her away from her mother that young, poor thing. She had serious health issues (temporary - infections and such - not permanent) - and her mother was feral and would neither come in nor take her back. She had socialization with other cats, but she imprinted on us because we were feeding her and dosing her and all that, so she never quite grew up right or all the way. She was sweet, and she seemed happy all her life, but we wouldn't have chosen it for her if there'd been a better option.

[conuly]

If she was sick, there was nothing to be done for it, poor baby. Better she be odd than that she be dead or permanently injured.

[kyrielle]

Yeah, that was the conclusion we came to. She had badly infected eyes when we first found her and her sibs, among other things - there was a real risk of blindness or the infection spreading to the brain, and in fact she did have poor sight (but not blind!) for her life.

She had three siblings that were healthier and stayed with their mom (with us greeting them and human-socializing them when she was away, carefully), who grew up more normally and never had her issues.

I wouldn't change what we did for Star - it was necessary - but I do wish it hadn't been, for socialization reasons AND because I wish she'd never had the health problems.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

The highest quality cat food we can afford is Petite Cuisine, which comes in small cans. It's basically human grade fish with taurine and other cat-essential nutrients added. Look at Petco or PetSmart.

[conuly]

Thankies :)

[leora.livejournal.com]

The cat I live with was forced to be undersocialized for part of his kittenhood. There was nothing to be done about it, either his mother died or abandoned him, but regardless of why, he was found at a very young age all alone crying under a house. Humans taking him in was certainly the best option given the circumstances. He has had a few problems that I think relate to not having been properly reared by a mother cat, although some of them were lessened because my friend (whose cat he is) also adopted another young cat shortly after acquiring him, and that cat had been raised by a cat (and by humans as well, but there was a cat involved in the mix).

When they first got him, he absolutely would not drink water. It was as if he didn't understand the concept. They had to seriously moisten his food to keep him alive. But when they got another cat, he watched her drink water and it was like he went - oh, that's what I'm supposed to do with it. So, then he started drinking water, although he's still a bit fussy and finicky and problematic with water. He also didn't really get a lot of the concept of playing like a normal cat does. Fortunately though, on the whole, he's managed very well and become quite a good pet cat. But it certainly would have been better for him to have been reared for longer by his mother. He's also always had anxiety issues. I can't say for sure that this is connected, but he gets upset about things far more than most cats seem to, took a long time to adjust to moving houses or any other serious change, and generally gets very upset by variations in his routine. He's a sweet kitty, and maybe part of that is just his nature, but I wonder if there's aspects where he'd just be a bit better adjusted if he'd had a better early kittenhood.

[redbird]

Many years ago, we adopted two cats from a shelter; they weren't siblings or anything, just the one that caught my eye and the one that reached out from inside the cage and grabbed cattitude. That one was maybe eight weeks old, and had definitely been taken from his mother too young; the other cat had to teach him to wash.

Once she taught him, well, it was the enthusiasm of the convert. He washed her. He washed himself. He washed us. He washed the edges of newspapers (and books if we didn't stop him).

[conuly]

There was nothing to be done about it, either his mother died or abandoned him, but regardless of why, he was found at a very young age all alone crying under a house. Humans taking him in was certainly the best option given the circumstances.

Obviously. Rescuing is a world different from taking a kitten from a safe, stable situation.

He's a sweet kitty, and maybe part of that is just his nature, but I wonder if there's aspects where he'd just be a bit better adjusted if he'd had a better early kittenhood.

One thing I've always noticed is that kittens that socialize with humans (too much, instead of with cats), in my experience, will be very sweet, even clingy at times. If it has to be done it has to be done, but all the better to avoid it if you can.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the sweetest cat I ever had was one who was removed from his mother too soon. He was very smart too. It was an unfortunate situation. A cat moved into a storeroom area of our garage, it had this attached little room. But we had so much miscellaneous stuff there and some of it was dangerous and there was some broken glass, that we were not happy with the kittens being there. So, we made the mother cat feel unsafe by making it clear we knew she was there, and she moved her kittens to a different location. But after she moved them, we found one kitten trapped under an item. So, we took the kitten in. Fortunately, it was old enough to survive without special care, because at the time, my siblings and I did not know nearly enough about caring for young kittens. But he did quite well and endeared himself to me by making one of his first acts be peeing on my brother while he was holding him. We tried to send him back to his mother when we found her around again, and she seemed willing to take him, but by that time, he'd bonded with me and he came back to me instead. We were lucky that it worked out okay. But I've never had a cat who seemed so focused on me and to care about me so much, and I figure it's because I filled the role of being his mother when he was young. It's a shame I didn't know what I was doing, but fortunate he wasn't any younger than he was. He did manage basic cat skills alright.

We were just so disturbed when we found that one kitten had gotten left behind and trapped. But there was nothing the mother could likely have done; I think it took a human to untrap the kitten. That's why we really didn't want her there in the first place - too many potential dangers.

[conuly]

Not much use now, but cats won't generally abandon their litters just because of human meddling. Sometimes very young cats will, but then their care is likely to be haphazard and bad anyway. If you find a bunch of kittens in a place where you simply can't HAVE kittens, you can usually put them in a box and, when Mom shows up again, move the whole lot out to a more acceptable place. She'll still care for them (probably move them, but not back into wherever-it-was you couldn't have them), and you'll know none are left behind.

[leora.livejournal.com]

There was no easy way for us to get in and search in there either. It was too much a pile of stuff and we weren't generally supposed to go into it, because it was considered dangerous. But since it was a feral cat, we figured we could encourage the mother to move the kittens by making it clear she was discovered, which did work. We only went in, because after she moved all of the kittens and had been gone for a bit, we heard a tiny meow and realized one had been left behind.

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

That makes my Mum (a registered breeder) mad too.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Nyan. My pair were dumped... very young. WHich is probaoby why they are such a pair of nutters. Oh well, I probalby wouldn't want a "normal" cat anyhow, al of mine have been rescues.