Cat switch-a-roo!

A lot has been going on in the last few days.

Jackson, Isabella and Daisy have moved to the shelter.  I feel sad about bringing a cat to the shelter every time.  It can be the best thing for them.  I say 'can' because some cats don't adjust very well.  If that happens, I will bring them back.  When I put Isabella in a cage, she seemed to be totally fine with the situation.  She was just smelling around the cage, looking around at everything.  I was very pleased that she seemed to be doing okay.

Jackson was very hissy but I know he will calm down in a few days.  He wants to put up a front so the other cats think he is tough.  haha!

Daisy was so scared, she wouldn't come out of her carrier.  I felt really bad for her.  I tried to make her come out of the carrier but she wouldn't....so I took the door off and left her in the carrier.

I am going to visit them today.

A new cat, Jonathon, who has diabetes and is FIV positive has moved in.  The only way I could take him is if those three moved to the shelter.  Jackson was going to move to the shelter anyway, as soon as a spot opened up in the room he would be in.

Daisy needed to go at some point because she needs a little more socialization and it is good for cats like her to be introduced to many different people who don't hurt them so they start to trust humans in general, rather than just my boyfriend and I.

I had no real plans to bring Isabella to the shelter (I guess) because I thought it would be too much trouble to medicate her.  She just needs ear drops every 3 days and her ears must be cleaned once a week.  Her previous owners neglected her and let ear mites sit in her ears for weeks.  They abandoned her and Jackson in a house with no food for three weeks before anyone realized they were there.  The ear mites caused both of her ear drums to burst.  They burst as a result of the immense infection and ear mites in her ears.  The vet said she can still hear muffled sounds.  Every time she is in a car, she vomits because of her ear problems.


I haven't been able to put a picture of Lucy online yet, so here she is:

Lucy is shy, she was born outside to a feral mother.  I am taming her.  She is just a little hissy and our goal is to have her available for adoption on the weekend of the 14th.  She is adjusting nicely here.  Right now, I have her in the hallway with Karma and they are playing.  I have a baby gate up to keep them in there.  In a few days, Lucy will be able to run around with everyone else.

No Adoptions at Petsmart...ugh!

We did adoptions at Petsmart today and unfortunately, nobody was adopted.  Nobody even looked seriously at any of the cats!  Some people wanted to hold Gracie but not because they wanted to take her home.  It was the slowest adoption day I have ever helped with.

Gracie did much better than anyone expected. She let strangers hold her, she was curious about what was going on, she didn't hide or hiss at anyone, she did great!  She came to me pretty scared and skittish so I expected her to be a little nervous with strangers and definitely scared of all of the noise of Petsmart but she reacted like a well adjusted kitten.  My hard work has paid off!

Taming Gracie is going well!

Gracie came to us to be tamed.  She was trapped with her siblings about a month ago.  There were four siblings and we separated them into 2 boys and 2 girls and brought them to different houses to be tamed.  The two boys were doing fine together but the two girls were not interacting with the humans and were not making progress.  So they were separated.  I have one of them.

It takes a lot of work and energy to tame a kitten.  For my opinion on taming adult cats, please click here.  
I agreed to tame Gracie because she is 3 months old.  At 3-4 months old, it is possible to tame them.  It isn't easy, though.  Taming (among other things with kittens) requires patience, energy, time and space.

My job is to get her used to be around humans, get her comfortable around the noises she will hear in a household (such as vacuuming) and begin to enjoy being around us.  Gracie is not considered feral.  She is very shy and very skittish.  She is just a "hard stray".  She is a stray cat that requires a lot of work to get her to be like a normal house cat.

Using baby food helps immensely.  I have noticed with all of my ferals, they are the most nervous and skittish when you are walking towards them or around them.  They run and hide.  I am trying to show her that she will not be hurt if I walk by her.  So, I carry around baby food and walk to her and give her some baby food.

I sit with her to lure her to my lap with baby food.  Once she gets some baby food, usually she will lay on my lap and let me pet her.  Sometimes she will snatch some baby food and run away to play with the other kitties.  She purrs and rolls around so I can scratch her belly.  Taming is a constant process.  You can't really tame them once a day, or even twice a day.  You have to keep on them and keep challenging them.

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Gracie and Artie are meeting for the first time.  Gracie loves Artie!  When she sees him, she instantly purrs.  It is so cute! :)

Gracie is eating baby food off my finger.  In order to tame her, we use baby food to get her to interact with us.  

Gracie is on the cat tree with the "big" cats.

Gracie is making some new friends!

Checkers is doing great!

As you may have read earlier, Checkers got out of her cage. I actually let her out to get some exercise. I had been letting her out and she would come back when she was ready to get back in-about 15 minutes. One day, she never went back in. So, I let her stay out. 3 days later, I decided it was not good for her and lured her back in with wet food.

Yesterday, she let me pet her and she even rubbed her head on my hand! She is becoming much more comfortable with us.

I am taking advantage of her new found comfort and I have really been working with her.

Checkers is out of her cage!

Occasionally, while cleaning her cage, I would leave the door open so she could come out if she wanted to. At first, she didn't come out at all, then she would come out but stay within a foot or two of her cage, then she walked a little farther...now, she is out and doesn't want to go back in. I don't blame her for not wanting to go back in a cage, I wouldn't either.

Yesterday, she spent almost the entire day behind the couch. She came out twice to investigate for about 10 minutes. Now, she is out playing with the other cats but is still very skittish of me. I have been working with her quite a bit with baby food. For those who don't know why I am talking about baby food, here's why: When you use meat baby food (nothing else works quite as well) and put it on your finger, you can get the kittens to do what you want, like sit on your lap, sit to be petted, etc. It takes a lot of energy to do this. She is about 5 months old and I have had her inside for 5 weeks or so. I am trying to get her ready to be adopted but she is still not ready.

So, I am going to try a little experiment. I am going to see if having her out, since everyone gets along with her anyway, helps to tame her. She is what I would consider a "hard" stray. She will let me hold her but I have to entice her, she will not come up to me on her own. She is startled by any movement by humans, even slight movement. She is completely comfortable and at home with other cats. Also, she can get some exercise. I know it is hard for cats, especially kittens who have so much energy, to be stuck in a cage. Taming generally calls for them to be in a cage, at least for a little while.

I feel a little pressured because she is just getting bigger everyday and the smaller she is, the better chance she has to be adopted. It is also hard to find people willing to put work into their new kitten when there are so many friendly ones out there that were born inside or a human found them early enough.