Dammit, I Am *NOT* a Cat Person!

[Wenchie]

or the cap
seriously i could flick on fo those across the room, into the bathtub or at my cat and he will chase, beat it up and play hockey.

Yup.... my cats will walk off with the caps to my soda bottles.

The one thing that I wasn't amused by... one morning I woke up and my glasses weren't on my bedside table. Apparently, they had miraculously grown 4 legs & a tail overnight and wandered off 5 feet. Kitty teeth marks in the lenses do NOT make for a happy wench. So... the glasses go in the case every night.

They will also steal the cat nail trimmer if they can and hide it. Kitties = smart!

My kitties are really social and love attention from me. They're psychotically friendly attention whores, unlike a lot of standoffish cats.

[Seshat]

Don't get clumping cat litter for a kitten - they clean their paws after going to the litter tray, it gets into their digestive system, clumps there, and they can't expel it. Adult cats have larger digestive systems.

If you want to, you can probably leave her with the vet or a shelter, with yourself having first right of refusal. When I volunteered at a shelter, we'd happily do that.

If you choose not to, and/or if you choose to keep her, always feel free to ask us for kitty advice.

Cats can be trained the same way dogs can, btw. They're more resistant, but diversion, reinforcement, reward, and so forth will teach a cat just as much as it will a dog.

Cover any valuable furniture with something unpleasant to claw, at least until she's learned to reliably claw her scratching post. Alfoil/tinfoil is one choice. Double-sided sticky tape is another.

Oh, and don't forget that cats can jump much higher than dogs. And will do so - they LOVE to be above you and look down.

[Pedersen]

whimper whimper whimper

It is now 4:45am. for the past two and a half hours, I have tried to sleep. Since I don't feel like I can leave him alone safely in any other room, he is sleeping in mine. Well, actually, he is meowing in mine, while I curse the powers that brought him in to my life.

If he was abandoned, them it was solely so that his former owner could get some sleep. I see that now.

If I am ever again allowed to sleep, I'll probably be happy to see him again. Right now, though, I have learned to hate the sound of a cats meow.

[Seshat]

Just like a small puppy, he can be safely left in a cage in the other room. Give him a blanket to snuggle into, an appropriate level of heat/cooling (if it's comfortable for humans, it's fine for him), a bowl of water, a litter tray, and since he's so very small, some dry food.

A couple of little toys would be good too. Dangle some string from the top of his cage.

Then put him in the other room alone, go to bed, and ignore his cries the same way you'd (try to) ignore the cries of a young puppy left alone in a perfectly safe cage.

He'll react much the same way as a puppy the same age.


It's good to see you caring. Just try not to suffer from it!

[Bright_Star]

Don't forget the litter box...lol.

[Mikkel]

He is calling his mother, just pick him up with your mouth and lick him for a bit, then he'll fall asleep .

He looks about six weeks old to me, a bit too young to take away from his mother, but that appears to have been done already. I think you have a new pet. I don't think he can be feral. He is unafraid even when you take pictures. A feral kitten would hide under something and try to escape.
The vet can probably tell you his age from his development. Good luck with your new master.

[terakhan]

Paper grocery bags, cardboard boxes, bits of string... cats are cheap to entertain.

As for getting the munchkin to quiet down and go to sleep so you can as well, I have heard that a mechanical alarm clock stuffed under a pillow resembles the mom's heartbeat enough for kittens to sleep with it, instead of you.

But yeah, you are officially a cat person. Not wanting to disturb the cat when its sleeping, and on top of you at that... you're one of us now.

And yes, cats LOVE cat-neutral people. We cat lovers tend to make too much fuss trying to get the cats to like us back, and cats do not like strangers much. A room full of people, the quiet person who isnt staring at the cat is the safest place in the cat's mind.

Feral kittens are a bizarre lot. We helped a friend catch and shelter a trio from one of his ferals. Two of them were absolute demons, and the third was a lovable little pudgeball.

[Eireann]

Awwww, this is one of the CUTEST threads I've ever seen!

Pedersen, I wouldn't worry about the fact that kitty keeps opening his mouth at you. The chances are excellent that this is simply what I call the "silent meow". My cats do it, too. I'm not sure why they do it, but they do.

Yes, he can be left alone in another room, in a cage, as long as he has food and water and some kind of litterbox. The alarm clock is a good idea. How are your dogs responding to him? Do you have one that will "mother" him? That might help him to feel at home.

The vet can give you the right kind of food for him, and check him for any potential problems.

Good luck!

[fireheart]

Oh yeah, as Whiskey has mentioned in another thread....$125 cat tree < box naturally.

[It's me]

bits of string

NO string!!!!!!!

Or elastic bands, or Easter grass, etc.

Cats eat string which can do nasty things in their gut if it gets knotted up on the intestines. They start chewing on the string, swallow a bit and can't get it back up. So they keep swallowing.

I caught our current beasty in the process of consuming a ball of yarn my daughter had left out. I pulled a good three feet of yarn out of that cat...... (also: if you find the string coming out of the other end... don't pull it as it could be knotted on something..... )

Now, cats do love to stalk things, so if you want to tow a piece of twisted up paper around for him to chase use the waist-cord off of an old pair of pajamas or something like that.

[fireheart]

Now, cats do love to stalk things, so if you want to tow a piece of twisted up paper around for him to chase use the waist-cord off of an old pair of pajamas or something like that.

That's what I've done with the cats. I just drag around that or I'll drag around something that won't fall to pieces easily.

[Dreamstalker]

*squeeee* Soo ADORABLE I just wanna reach through the screen and snuggle him.

Seconded on no string, ribbon, tinsel or anything of that sort, at least not if you're not at the other end (or a wide/thick string that he can nom but not swallow). Also be careful about houseplants, a lot can be poisonous to kittehs.

Toys that McGriff adored:

--Boxes
--Rings/caps from milk (someone once gave him the "spiky" ring off a soda bottle and it actually scratched his paws a bit)
--Hair clips
--Peas
--A craft-quality (real) otter tail on a string. I don't know what it was about the texture or latent smell or what, but that was the one toy he would NEVER get bored with.
--Yarn. Not in the usual cat way; he would plop himself right in the middle of whatever project mom was working on and try to "help". He had zero interest in yarn just lying around; there had to be a project going.

[telecom_goddess]

he's cute.....and he looks just like my boy cat, a tuxedo

I love kittens...I miss having them around.

[Kittish]

Young as the cutie is, he may not have been weaned to solid food yet, and some of the meowing may well be 'I'm hungry!'

To teach him to eat solid food, take whatever soft kitten food you've got and add a bit more water (if you don't have kitten milk yet, if you do add that) so it's kind of slushy. Mash up any solid pieces. Take a bit on the end of your finger and offer it to the kitten. If he licks it off, repeat while sort of leading him to the food dish. If he doesn't, touch a bit of the food to his lips and see if he licks them. Shouldn't take too long for him to get the idea, especially if he is hungry. Gotta keep in mind that babies eat more frequently than adults, so offer him food several times a day.

[zombiequeen]

I remember when my mum found Sebastien and Gretchen, our two kittens. Their mum was seriously evil, like she went straight for the jugular evil. The kittens were alright, because as soon as they were old enough to be away from their mother, she was gone. Gretchen was so much like her mum that she went away too.
One thing about found cats, they can be super territorial. When Sebastien was an adult, if anyone made me raise my voice, he would attack them. Otherwise he was the sweetest cat ever.
His favorite toy was our big chocolate lab. He would snuggle with him, play with his ears and tail, try to ride on his back, everything. Jake eventually just raised Sebastien as his "puppy" and would let him do whatever. So be sure to warn your dogs.