This is oscar right after we brought them inside and he was the first to be adopted.
Recently, I have been called the “Cat Lady”. You know, one of those people who has WAY too many cats. It all started one day many, many years ago when we acquired a young cat named Rusty who was about two years of age from some friends who were moving out of state. He has been our furry family member for the past 14 years. A year or two after his arrival in our family, we got an all black kitty for our daughter, which she named Velvet. Velvet lived with us for many years until she died of kidney failure a few years ago. And now the story continues:
One day in early August we discovered 3 kittens on our front porch, the next day there were three more. Where did they come from? and where was the mother?, we wondered. We were soon to wonder no more as the very skinny, all black mommy, who looks almost exactly like our daughter’s prior kitty Velvet, showed up. She was not much more than a kitten herself and she evidently found under our porch a safe place to have her brood of 6 kittens. At first I thought she was wild but she had on a very tight flea collar, thus we knew she had been a pet to someone at one time, although we could not find out whose. It didn’t take too long and she started to trust me and come to me when I called, but the kittens would run anytime we tried to get near to them. I contacted Purrfect Pals, a local no kill cat shelter and found some help there. I proceeded to trap all 7 cats and bring them into my house for safety. Once they were all trapped we took them up to the shelter for an examination, they all were healthy. When the kittens were big enough, I took them up to the shelter to be altered and have their vaccinations. We decided to keep one of the kittens and take care of the mommy as she was still a little wild and not likely to be adopted by anyone. I surrendered the other kittens to the shelter, but kept them at my home as foster kittens. Our family has worked on taming them so that they can be adopted. Purrfect Pals hosts adoption events at major pet stores in the area every Saturday and the foster parents bring their little wards to these events so people can see them. The first time we took our kitties to an adoption event they became stressed and hissed at everyone. Even so, one of the cute little guys got adopted. The remaining babies caught an upper respiratory infection and I had to give them an immune booster so that they could get over it before they went to another event. In the meantime they became more and more tame and used to us. Soon three of them were well enough to go to an event. They became so stressed while there, they had to be removed from the display and thus none were adopted and they came back home with us. The fourth little guy was adopted by a friend of ours and now happily has a family of his own. We were down to three kittens, 3 months old and thinking they belonged with us. We tried taking just two of them to an event (thinking they were feeding off of the third one’s stress). They still were stressed and hissed and thus came back to our home. So then I tried taking the mellowest one to an event by himself, he did better but still hissed. Who wants to adopt a hissing, snarly kitten when there are 13 sweet loving kittens nearby? It is very frustrating to have these sweet little kittens in our home and then see them get so stressed that everyone thinks they are snarling wild cats. My sister came and her children came to visit and fell in love with the kittens, now we only have two extras that need homes. A further complication that we have is that mommy kitty HATES my Old Man Kitty and causes a bit of chaos around here. Most of the time, foster parents don’t have their wards this long, we are just having a time with stressed out kitties. So while those at the shelter try to figure out what to do, here it is November and I still have 3 kittens and two adult cats and thus the name cat lady.
One day in early August we discovered 3 kittens on our front porch, the next day there were three more. Where did they come from? and where was the mother?, we wondered. We were soon to wonder no more as the very skinny, all black mommy, who looks almost exactly like our daughter’s prior kitty Velvet, showed up. She was not much more than a kitten herself and she evidently found under our porch a safe place to have her brood of 6 kittens. At first I thought she was wild but she had on a very tight flea collar, thus we knew she had been a pet to someone at one time, although we could not find out whose. It didn’t take too long and she started to trust me and come to me when I called, but the kittens would run anytime we tried to get near to them. I contacted Purrfect Pals, a local no kill cat shelter and found some help there. I proceeded to trap all 7 cats and bring them into my house for safety. Once they were all trapped we took them up to the shelter for an examination, they all were healthy. When the kittens were big enough, I took them up to the shelter to be altered and have their vaccinations. We decided to keep one of the kittens and take care of the mommy as she was still a little wild and not likely to be adopted by anyone. I surrendered the other kittens to the shelter, but kept them at my home as foster kittens. Our family has worked on taming them so that they can be adopted. Purrfect Pals hosts adoption events at major pet stores in the area every Saturday and the foster parents bring their little wards to these events so people can see them. The first time we took our kitties to an adoption event they became stressed and hissed at everyone. Even so, one of the cute little guys got adopted. The remaining babies caught an upper respiratory infection and I had to give them an immune booster so that they could get over it before they went to another event. In the meantime they became more and more tame and used to us. Soon three of them were well enough to go to an event. They became so stressed while there, they had to be removed from the display and thus none were adopted and they came back home with us. The fourth little guy was adopted by a friend of ours and now happily has a family of his own. We were down to three kittens, 3 months old and thinking they belonged with us. We tried taking just two of them to an event (thinking they were feeding off of the third one’s stress). They still were stressed and hissed and thus came back to our home. So then I tried taking the mellowest one to an event by himself, he did better but still hissed. Who wants to adopt a hissing, snarly kitten when there are 13 sweet loving kittens nearby? It is very frustrating to have these sweet little kittens in our home and then see them get so stressed that everyone thinks they are snarling wild cats. My sister came and her children came to visit and fell in love with the kittens, now we only have two extras that need homes. A further complication that we have is that mommy kitty HATES my Old Man Kitty and causes a bit of chaos around here. Most of the time, foster parents don’t have their wards this long, we are just having a time with stressed out kitties. So while those at the shelter try to figure out what to do, here it is November and I still have 3 kittens and two adult cats and thus the name cat lady.
1 comment:
We have had a total of 19 cats and the most we had at one time was 13 or 14. Our Siamese cat had babies twice (a batch of four and three) that we had a hard time giving up. Hence my email!
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