Open Post & Kitties Update
Sep. 8th, 2021 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kimberlysteeleIt has been a month of cat drama for me. After having to put my beloved Kiki down in July, I "adopted" one of my feral kittens, Shadow, from the back yard. Since he let me touch him and pet him while eating, I picked him up in late July, put him in a carrier, and took him to the veterinarian. He had a bad flu and was scrawny. The vet confirmed he was wormy, gave him some meds and immunizations, and we were on our way. The original plan was to let him go in the yard again once his kitty flu was gone and he was old enough to neuter.
Shadow is the son of Miss Blondie Piggy, a feral who has been frequenting the house since we moved in and started feeding the neighborhood animals. Piggy was the bane of our local trap neuter release person because she had litters of kittens year after year and could not be caught. In July I bought and started trapping with a Tomahawk drop trap. It did the trick: I caught Piggy within ten minutes of setting the trap out. After I caught her, the TNR person got her spayed. We had hopes of keeping her in the house because she seems to like me. Here's a photo of her briefly in my house. She was not happy!
Piggy jumped at the window, hoping it was open, and nearly taking these blinds down in the process.
Because it wasn't working out, I set Piggy free. By the next morning she was back in the yard, eating.
Then it was time to catch the last of my colony: Shadow's twin brother, Silhouette.
Unlike his brother, Silhouette never let me come near him. I drop box trapped him about a week after his mom was returned home. All went well until I took him to the same vet where his brother had been healed. We got to the vet, he let me handle him for about a minute, then he got spooked and bit my hands severely.
Luckily I treated my hands in time, thanks again to the TNR person's advice. I soaked my injured hands in very warm Betadine water (water with lots of Betadine in it) for 20 minutes 3 times a day for several days. I also got some antibiotics from my husband's doctor the next day.
My hands healed within about a week.
Little Silhouette, like his mother, was also unfit for indoor life. I turned him over to my TNR person and she got him neutered. Within a week, he too was back in the yard, eating breakfast and dinner every day.
Tommy (orange kitty) is also Miss Piggy's son. He was one of my first captures, and was the second feral to let me touch him and pet him. The first one was a gray and white cat I named Sir Puss in Boots, and he let me pet him one day and would cry for me outside the door every morning and night after that, wanting to be fed, played with, and touched. The only reason I didn't take him inside was because Kiki was still alive and she had always been a solitary cat who wanted me all to herself. Sir Puss and Boots disappeared one day, never to be seen by me again. I believe he was one of the renter neighbor's cats and they moved away. Please keep him in your prayers.
This is Tommy, who loves to play with Kiki's old toys and to be petted.
Shadow is the son of Miss Blondie Piggy, a feral who has been frequenting the house since we moved in and started feeding the neighborhood animals. Piggy was the bane of our local trap neuter release person because she had litters of kittens year after year and could not be caught. In July I bought and started trapping with a Tomahawk drop trap. It did the trick: I caught Piggy within ten minutes of setting the trap out. After I caught her, the TNR person got her spayed. We had hopes of keeping her in the house because she seems to like me. Here's a photo of her briefly in my house. She was not happy!
Piggy jumped at the window, hoping it was open, and nearly taking these blinds down in the process.
Because it wasn't working out, I set Piggy free. By the next morning she was back in the yard, eating.
Then it was time to catch the last of my colony: Shadow's twin brother, Silhouette.
Unlike his brother, Silhouette never let me come near him. I drop box trapped him about a week after his mom was returned home. All went well until I took him to the same vet where his brother had been healed. We got to the vet, he let me handle him for about a minute, then he got spooked and bit my hands severely.
Luckily I treated my hands in time, thanks again to the TNR person's advice. I soaked my injured hands in very warm Betadine water (water with lots of Betadine in it) for 20 minutes 3 times a day for several days. I also got some antibiotics from my husband's doctor the next day.
My hands healed within about a week.
Little Silhouette, like his mother, was also unfit for indoor life. I turned him over to my TNR person and she got him neutered. Within a week, he too was back in the yard, eating breakfast and dinner every day.
Tommy (orange kitty) is also Miss Piggy's son. He was one of my first captures, and was the second feral to let me touch him and pet him. The first one was a gray and white cat I named Sir Puss in Boots, and he let me pet him one day and would cry for me outside the door every morning and night after that, wanting to be fed, played with, and touched. The only reason I didn't take him inside was because Kiki was still alive and she had always been a solitary cat who wanted me all to herself. Sir Puss and Boots disappeared one day, never to be seen by me again. I believe he was one of the renter neighbor's cats and they moved away. Please keep him in your prayers.
This is Tommy, who loves to play with Kiki's old toys and to be petted.
Shadow is doing really well inside the house. He's inquisitive, bold, funny, mischievous, and fearless. He can be quite a brat and has gotten a few time outs. Overall, he's a sweet boy. He was just neutered last Tuesday. He did calm down a bit with the neuter. He still has mad kitten energy. I pity the mice who try to get into the house this winter...
