HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!
I am so excited! Today I have a guest blogger and her post is one no reader should miss!! Especially if you want some chuckles and squeeees…
Our pal Miss Jeanne from Random Felines offered to help Mom L get my blog posts filled up and she wrote this post just special for US! Thank you so very much Miss Jeanne!
Socializing feral kittens
We are by no means experts (and neither is mom), but we are going to tell you about our experience socializing feral kittens. The one crew in particular was about 6 weeks old when they were caught. Their mom was part of a neighborhood TNR project and when she was picked up, the vet informed mom that the mom cat had kittens…recently. The hunt was on. Over about 10 days they managed to catch five kittens total.
A couple of them liked mom right off the bat. She managed to figure out ages and then would snuggle them in a blanket up next to her chest. Grace and Audrey thought that was wonderful. Lucy thought that was a terrible idea and complained. Jimmy took a while to win over, and Josephine was not having anything to do with this project.
Mom got a little frustrated at this point and went looking for information. Her first stop was Alley Cat Allies. And reading their article about socializing feral kittens, she got to part that said: (click HERE for full article )
“As long as all are healthy, you can introduce kittens to an adult socialized cat. Monitor this interaction, especially the first few times, in case you need to intervene. A neutered tom will likely play and groom the kittens, which helps the socialization process.”
Wait…what??? You mean to tell us that something about being neutered makes tomcats into good babysitters??? Mom was all kinds of confused. However…when our foster kittens get old enough and are vaccinated, they are allowed freedom in the condo. And Tim LOVES him some kittens. They climb on him and he bathes them and sleeps with them.
Tim was recruited to help. The upside about taking Tim in with the foster is this: he is very gentle and he can be bribed. Will work for kitten food is his motto.
Mom sat on the floor. Tim sat in front of her. Grace and Audrey of course ran right over. Jimmy gave Tim a look and then came over with Lucy to check things out. And then there was a faint “meep” from the corner. Mom froze…out snuck Josephine. She came over and sniffed Tim. And then jumped on him chirping like he was a long lost friend. We still aren’t sure who was more shocked – Mom or Tim.
Over the next few weeks, Mom spent time every day in there with Tim helping out. And by the time the kittens were ready to go back to the shelter to be adopted, Josephine was fine with Mom and everyone else. She was a little reserved at the shelter, but was adopted by someone willing to give her the time to adapt at her own speed.
Now, we can’t recommend every mancat for this type of work. But in our house, if you have kittens that need a friend, we call Uncle Tim. It’s hard work, but some cat has to do it.
Savannah: “See??!! I told you there would be some chuckles and squees!”
Paw Pats, Savannah
Savannah's Paw Tracks 