Cat and kitten update
This week has seen some ups and downs in the abandoned cat situation.
While I was at Odyssey, one of the cats seemed to get slightly ill (saturday), then has not been seen since- I strongly suspect that he died, possibly because of the ups and downs in his diet. Shortly afterwards, both of the parent cats disappeared as well, leaving just the two kittens who were still running over every time they saw us arrive on site. Naturally, we were both really worried.
Bryony and I decided that if one of the kittens had died and the parents had either left, been rescued or anything else, we could not just leave them there. Therefore we arranged to bring a large chicken house and run back to our garden where we could house them temporarily.
Yesterday I went to the site to pick them up with cat boxes. The kittens were ridiculously easy to catch- both are quite tame and with food to lure them they went right in. Not so easy to keep in though, once they had been caught. Getting the door closed behind them was almost farcical; because they have been used to food being scarce, they tend to grab it and run off a short distance, so their siblings cannot steal it. Thus each time I tried to close the door, one kitten ran out. I would grab it and put it back in, only for the other one to make a dash for it. Repeatedly.
Eventually I got them both in, or so I thought, when a black shape appeared at my elbow. After the farce of getting both kittens in, it felt like one of those magic eye pictures, where I'd now started to hallucinate cats. Then I managed to draw breath long enough to realise that the black shape was their mother, who had just reappeared for the first time in four days.
There wasn't much time to decide what to do- whether I should be rescuing her as well, or aborting the whole thing because now their mother was back- so I put some food in the second cat box and she went right in.
The three of them are now safely ensconced in the run. None of them are very impressed at being confined, but it is working well. Having them back, we've been able to feed them regularly and ensure they have warm bedding. We've also put a litter tray in there, which they are using, much to my glee. One of the kittens has discovered it can climb the wire at the side of the run, while the mother has merrily escaped twice. Each time she has slipped out of the run as soon as one of the doors is opened, but then waited outside. This morning she leaped out when I put the fresh bedding in, then walked back to me for fuss. After some attention she let me pick her up. Then she happily sat in my arms and purred while I stroked her.
This makes clear that I need to get them re-homed before I try to keep them, which will stress Spike and Willow. From what I've seen, the kittens are still at an age where their (terrible, ill mannered, thuggish) behaviour can be moulded by an owner who has the time to give them attention; just 24 hours after being with us they are starting to behave a bit better. The mother is a mystery- she is clearly very young (I can only think that she got pregnant literally as soon as she was biologically capable), so I doubt she is old enough to have ever been someone's pet. Despite this, she is incredibly friendly and not scared of people at all.
Currently I'm now terribly happy about their environment- the chicken run isn't tiny, but it also isn't as much room as they want. That said, it is letting us give them the regular attention they need to socialise them and an opportunity to litter train them. Next week Fliss is visiting to take a look and may adopt one of them. bigbadg may also be able to adopt one of them, so I am hopeful that we will find them loving homes.
While I was at Odyssey, one of the cats seemed to get slightly ill (saturday), then has not been seen since- I strongly suspect that he died, possibly because of the ups and downs in his diet. Shortly afterwards, both of the parent cats disappeared as well, leaving just the two kittens who were still running over every time they saw us arrive on site. Naturally, we were both really worried.
Bryony and I decided that if one of the kittens had died and the parents had either left, been rescued or anything else, we could not just leave them there. Therefore we arranged to bring a large chicken house and run back to our garden where we could house them temporarily.
Yesterday I went to the site to pick them up with cat boxes. The kittens were ridiculously easy to catch- both are quite tame and with food to lure them they went right in. Not so easy to keep in though, once they had been caught. Getting the door closed behind them was almost farcical; because they have been used to food being scarce, they tend to grab it and run off a short distance, so their siblings cannot steal it. Thus each time I tried to close the door, one kitten ran out. I would grab it and put it back in, only for the other one to make a dash for it. Repeatedly.
Eventually I got them both in, or so I thought, when a black shape appeared at my elbow. After the farce of getting both kittens in, it felt like one of those magic eye pictures, where I'd now started to hallucinate cats. Then I managed to draw breath long enough to realise that the black shape was their mother, who had just reappeared for the first time in four days.
There wasn't much time to decide what to do- whether I should be rescuing her as well, or aborting the whole thing because now their mother was back- so I put some food in the second cat box and she went right in.
The three of them are now safely ensconced in the run. None of them are very impressed at being confined, but it is working well. Having them back, we've been able to feed them regularly and ensure they have warm bedding. We've also put a litter tray in there, which they are using, much to my glee. One of the kittens has discovered it can climb the wire at the side of the run, while the mother has merrily escaped twice. Each time she has slipped out of the run as soon as one of the doors is opened, but then waited outside. This morning she leaped out when I put the fresh bedding in, then walked back to me for fuss. After some attention she let me pick her up. Then she happily sat in my arms and purred while I stroked her.
This makes clear that I need to get them re-homed before I try to keep them, which will stress Spike and Willow. From what I've seen, the kittens are still at an age where their (terrible, ill mannered, thuggish) behaviour can be moulded by an owner who has the time to give them attention; just 24 hours after being with us they are starting to behave a bit better. The mother is a mystery- she is clearly very young (I can only think that she got pregnant literally as soon as she was biologically capable), so I doubt she is old enough to have ever been someone's pet. Despite this, she is incredibly friendly and not scared of people at all.
Currently I'm now terribly happy about their environment- the chicken run isn't tiny, but it also isn't as much room as they want. That said, it is letting us give them the regular attention they need to socialise them and an opportunity to litter train them. Next week Fliss is visiting to take a look and may adopt one of them. bigbadg may also be able to adopt one of them, so I am hopeful that we will find them loving homes.