feral kitten season | Savannah's Paw Tracks

23 Aug 2021

Kitten Season 2021 and counting…

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

I’m sure most of my readers know what “kitten season” means, but just in case—let me give you the 411 (info) in short. Kitten Season amongst those of us who do Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) with abandoned community cats is a dread time of year. Spring through Summer and into Fall, until cold/wet weather shows up, male and female cats find each other to breed. Mom L , Dad P and me started our Delta View Cats all volunteer group to try to address at least the part of the “iceberg” we can find in our home town of Pittsburg, CA.

I thought you might be inner-ested in seeing some of the little dear kittens we have been able to at least trap and get them spayed and neutered, flea treated, vaccinated and microchipped. If they are older than 10 to 12 weeks, they are usually already too feral for a foster to attempt to socialize. And another “411”—fosters for kittens/cats are as scarce as those old hen’s teeth!!

Here are a few kittens that we could only TNR. We had no one to foster them or they were already too feral. You can see one Mom cat nursing a kitten in the red chair.

Other kittens were more fortunate ‘cuz we could find a foster or our partners at Community Concern For Cats(CC4C) took them in and found fosters. CC4C also provides most of the medical care for any kittens we can help to get socialized and they then go through their adoption program. The itty bitty kitten actually fell from above a front door. Mom cat was moving her kittens and he got restless and slipped from the roof above the front door. He is fine! The photo with some oranges actually has FIVE in it. Four kittens and their mom. I tried to draw circles around each one, let me know in comments if you could find them all. The cutie Snowshoe Siamese kitten was found stuck to a cactus!! No kittening around!! By a city resident and they unstuck her and she is now in foster care, but feral still. And the tabby kitten is with CC4C and doing very well.

Delta View Cats (DVC) has two volunteers who feed every other Sunday at our waterfront park colony. They also live in a large apartment complex and were happy to help an experienced cat trapper in trapping a dad cat and four kittens. Once they saw the kittens in the traps, their hearts melted and after our county animal services spayed/neutered etc., these two wonderful volunteers decided to foster the two sister and two brothers. The happiest day in the last five weeks since they took these sweet, but semi-feral kittens in, is TODAY!! YES!!! The bounded sisters, Luna and Xochitl, found their forever family today!! WOOT!! The girls are in the photo with the rainbow nip tow.

Now comes the most frustrating 411 I have. Kitten season is always an incredible challenge for all of us in California’s Contra Costa County. We have “breeding weather” a good part of the whole year. In the past we were able to receive support from our county’s Animal Services because they had a large network of kitten fosters and so they would intake healthy kittens of almost any age. If the kittens were very feral then of course they did not. BUT—under the cloak of “COVID”, our county animal services is no longer intaking ANY healthy kittens, friendly abandoned adults like they did before. We all understood why they could not intake such cats during the shut down from COVID, but they are now operating almost at 100% and they have established a “new” policy to not intake ANY healthy kittens, friendly adults going forward, forever.

Now you ask—” But what about dogs?” And I answer that our county animal services, during COVID, was able to spend funds to build another lovely, large exercise area for the dogs. But nothing has been done for the cats. Their position is that “animal sheltering says that cats do not do well in a shelter environment”. Right, dogs do not do well there either. BUT, Mom L, Dad P and me have been able to pull over 30 cats in the years before COVID, off the streets and get them adopted in to loving homes through our county animal services.

Somebody please help me understand why our county has stated that all us “small non-profits must manage our county’s over population of abandoned community cats”??!! WAIT!!! WHAT??? Many cities in California have actually started to INVEST city and county funds in TNR and their cities and county’s are providing leadership to get the small non-profits together to humanely address this over population.

So let me know in comments what’s up in your area about addressing the over population of abandoned community cats.

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Posted in Community Cats, Feral Kitten Rescue and tagged CC4C, feral kitten season, kitten socialization

22 Aug 2016

37 Comments

Kitten Season and Death by Fleas

HIYA! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

I bet’cha I have lots of my readers and followers wondering what’s up with those cutie pit sibling kittens from my guest Sunday Selfie blog post yesterday, right?!

Oh hi! What’cha doin’ up there?

I asked you all to try to guess two things—first…which kitten has a health problem and second—what might that health problem be. These cuties are being fostered by Community Concern 4 Cats (CC4C), and they are very fortunate indeed to be under such responsible and professional loving care. They are from a feral Mom Kat, and arrived during a Doc Josie Kitchen Cat Clinic in the home of Miss Gemma, the current president of CC4C.

They were brought in by their caring foster human for their blood draw to test for FeLV etc, and to get their first vaccinations, worming and flea treatments. They all look just precious, adorable and healthy, right?

The first kitten up was a real cutie.

You’re gonna do what to me??!!

Check out that cute tummy, all white and those paws all pink. He took it like a champ! Not a flea in site.

Next up, a darling little pink nosed sweetie.

Ok, why is everyone staring at me??

Did’ya see that hot pink nose?? And he was looking might fine as well as the first kitten.

Then came the littlest kitten of the four siblings. As soon as this cutie hit the exam table, Doc Josie noted “oh my! this kitty is so white and pale!”

Ummm…I’m a bit scared and not feeling so well, ya’ know?

But the exam went on with the last of the four kittens hitting the exam table at the same time as the third kitten who had appeared “white” to Doc Josie.

Just check out my brofur, leave me be, ok?

And then the last of the four hit the table and Miss Gemma, owner of the Kitchen Clinic, brought out the most important diagnostic tool for kittens, especially those who come from a feral Mom Cat.

The flea comb arrived!

I don’t have fleas! Ummm…maybe one or two?

And then Doc Josie and Miss Gemma brought back the very pale kitten. Guess what? She was LOADED with fleas! Dozens and dozens of fleas! Her first two examined siblings had none—but the last one, had at least a couple. But those vile fleas had found the most vulnerable, smallest and least robust of these four siblings to literally suck the life out of her. She was ANEMIC from a severe flea infestation.

The foster human, as with all present, was dumbfounded! Those blood lusting insects had enough intelligence to source the weakest kitten and attach themselves to her and almost killed her.

LESSON LEARNED

It is kitten season across the USA. Do not lose vigilance when rescuing kittens when it comes to FLEA COMBING every single kitten in a litter!!

Only one kitten in this foursome had the potential death causing infestation of fleas. She was treated under Doc Josie’s medical expertise and will thankfully survive.

How many kittens in a kitten season will die from over looking a flea infestation?

Here is the tell tale photo illustrating how Doc Josie knew immediately that one kitten had a serious problem.

Notice the lack of color in the one kitten

I searched lots to find some reference to this condition in kittens, but most turned out to be advertisements for cat flea treatments. But, here are a few I thought might help if any of my readers are ever involved in the rescue of kittens.

Animal Alliance NYC

Catster

Pet Health

I welcome any reader, follower to add their own advice, information links in comments. Kitten season is a challenge for all countries across the world. In the USA alone there are states, such as Florida, where kitten season never ends. Let’s all try to be vigilant to keep the kittens safe and healthy and promote always—SPAY—NEUTER!!! IT SAVES LIVES!!