A kitten fell down my chimney and I need advice!

[TobiDaDog]

Its quite common points are a little cross eyed.

I've heard this! Other than that I don't know a lot about it though. Is it a condition that develops as the kittens grow older? When he was smaller I didn't notice it. Now I am noticing it especially on one side. I also couldn't find any pictures of very young kittens with cross eyes when I Googled it. Only older kittens and adults.

Could this be part of the reason why he is so much more uncoordinated than Nikolas? He is getting better...but when he was smaller he would bump into walls and things headfirst when playing, and he is still pretty unsure of himself when climbing and jumping.

 

[TobiDaDog]

While on the subject of his eyes, I am also quite curious about the color. I know that young kittens shift quite a bit before settling on their final shade. Reese had gold eyes when she was small and they eventually settled into a beautiful green.

Tato's look aquamarine? But they have deep blue around the pupil, leaving me guessing what they might settle into.

 

[Margot Lane]

Oh Tatoooo…you’ve stolen our hearts!

 

[StefanZ]

Being a point, the base color is blue as the usual. But sometimes aquamarine may occur, especially among some ragdolls.

 

[TobiDaDog]

Being a point, the base color is blue as the usual. But sometimes aquamarine may occur, especially among some ragdolls.

I'm excited to see what shade he ends up with! It's funny because people keep telling me I was so lucky to find a ragdoll but I know he isn't - Ragdolls don't typically grow in your vegetable garden. He has some beautiful, distinctive features and rabbit soft fur and he DOES go floppy when he's picked up. But he's certainly no pedigree.

At the same time, someone yesterday commented that Niko looks just like a baby Maine Coon. Sure, maybe a shaved one... if you squint really hard!

 

[Caspers Human]

Before she left for the hospital, the kittens wanted so badly to make friends with her and she just didn't know what to do with them. She's been here since she was only a couple of weeks old and as far as we know, she's never seen a kitten. Still, they've persisted, scooching closer and closer to her all the time hoping that she'll let them cuddle. This evening she finally relented.

I saw the picture and laughed! Three cats snuggled up in front of the heater vent!

Our eldest, Casper, knows the sound of the thermostat clicking on. When he hears it, he'll get up from wherever he is, stroll straight to the nearest vent, lay down and wait for the heat to come up. He knows the location of all the vents in the house and he can hear the thermostat from just about anywhere.

In the winter, he lays by the vent to get warm. In the summer, he goes for the air conditioning.

You've got three kitties, all snuggled up by the vent. It's hasn't quite been a month, yet, but two little kittens have already started figuring out where all the warms spots are!

 

[catsknowme]

Thank you!! Here are some updated pictures of Reese. She has my whole heart. She turned into such a lovely cat. And she's been taking this kitten thing so well.View attachment 464622View attachment 464623

Reese's features sure resemble my RB Maine Coon J.C. , especially the eyes, ears and muzzle as well as the gorgeous neck ruff & long whiskers. Does she have fur between her toes? My MC used the fur between his toes as snowshoes so he could walk on the deepest of powder yet only sink ankle-deep.

 

[TobiDaDog]

Reese's features sure resemble my RB Maine Coon J.C. , especially the eyes, ears and muzzle as well as the gorgeous neck ruff & long whiskers. Does she have fur between her toes? My MC used the fur between his toes as snowshoes so he could walk on the deepest of powder yet only sink ankle-deep.

She's got some tufts! Maybe not as impressive as some, but they're definitely there.

Around the time she appeared as a tiny kitten, someone had lost their unaltered stud - a beautiful maine coon - in our neighborhood a few blocks down. He was never found as far as I know, but it always made me wonder if he got up to any mischief in his time outdoors. But again, my sweet girl has not a pedigree to her name, not even a mother. She was found sick and all alone. Everything before I found her is a mystery.

 

[TobiDaDog]

I saw the picture and laughed! Three cats snuggled up in front of the heater vent!

Our eldest, Casper, knows the sound of the thermostat clicking on. When he hears it, he'll get up from wherever he is, stroll straight to the nearest vent, lay down and wait for the heat to come up. He knows the location of all the vents in the house and he can hear the thermostat from just about anywhere.

In the winter, he lays by the vent to get warm. In the summer, he goes for the air conditioning.

You've got three kitties, all snuggled up by the vent. It's hasn't quite been a month, yet, but two little kittens have already started figuring out where all the warms spots are!

Haha I know, we've been amazed with how quickly they've molded themselves right into our lives. They made themselves right at home and I love it. Just today we were talking about how it feels like they've been here so much longer. They're perfect!

 

[TobiDaDog]

On a side note, I have to wonder if I spotted the kittens' father yesterday. Our neighbor across the street has...a lot of different cats. It's become a bit of a joke in our household because every time she opens her door to let her cat out, it's a different color. I've seen eight or nine totally different cats that belong to her. A tuxedo, a dark "siamese" type, grey tabbies, brown tabbies, tabby and white, black...the list grows all the time. All unaltered males as far as I have seen. I've never seen a female over there.

Anyway, early yesterday morning we saw a big, stocky colorpoint and white cat sneaking from our front lawn, then across the street...straight into her house. Pure speculation, but again we joked that she needed to deliver us child-support in way of a bag of kitten food.

 

[Sarthur2]

Any clue why she does not neuter those male cats? And of course, letting them out usually results in impregnating unspayed females who are allowed outside.

 

[Kflowers]

Tato is an adorable addition to the others, so glad they've all curled up together. That was a bit of a scare with Reese, not ashamed to say, glad it was over when I picked up the thread again.

I was thinking since he seems to have a little trouble hearing which may get better or might get worse, you might consider this. Now I was told to train the dogs from the beginning in case they lost their hearing, to come to vibrations. That means when calling them, or shaking the treat bag, thump a good solid cane/walking stick/ umbrella on the ground. It will probably work better with cats since they are so sensitive to every sensation. Once he learns this you have a chance of getting him to come in an emergency. Hint - leave a cane/walking stick/umbrella by each door to the outside of your house.

 

[catsknowme]

K Kflowers is spot on with excellent advice on supporting deaf pets. My adult disabled daughter has a beautiful flame point SiameseX named Joe who is deaf. We use vibrations and gestures to communicate and he communicates remarkably well. The only real difficulties are with the other kitties because Joe doesnt respond to growls and hisses so they tend to fear him even though he is tolerant and gentle. He is also more calm than average & tolerates machinery noises like blenders and vacuum cleaners.

 

[catsknowme]

Peculiar the pet shop had such an irregular goats milk!

Any clue why she does not neuter those male cats? And of course, letting them out usually results in impregnating unspayed females who are allowed outside.

I was wondering the same thing myself. I had irresponsible neighbors whose cats would come to my yard and whoever got trapped was TNR'd. I had checked with ACO and lawyers & they advised me that should any owner confront me, I could get their information and sue them in small claims court for the costs of surgery, the overnight stay at the vets & vaccinations. No one ever came forward and the cats continued to visit my feeders for years.

 

[Caspers Human]

I had checked with ACO and lawyers & they advised me that should any owner confront me, I could get their information and sue them...

Don't forget that most municipalities have leash laws or "animals at large" ordinances which say that people aren't allowed to let their pets run around, freely, without their owner's direct supervision. Most of these ordinances also apply to cats. My town has such an ordinance and it does, specifically, call out cats.

So, if you've got cats running around lose, falling down your chimney or crawling out of your woodpile, somebody is definitely not obeying that ordinance!

If anybody ever gives you trouble about it, just tell them that they can pay you for care of the cats or they can pay the fine for violating the animal ordinance... longstanding, repeat violations, I might add!

 

[TobiDaDog]

We don't have leash laws in our city. It is a rural farming community. We have a law that states that dogs must be under verbal command, but that's it.

We also have TNR programs but the community generally fights against them on the grounds that the cat is their property, therefore it should be their choice whether to spay or neuter.

That said, I don't know why she hasn't had them neutered. I don't think she actually sought to "get" any of them. I think she just sees herself as feeding and sheltering the neighborhood strays. So they aren't "her" cats, just ones she's helping.

If they were sleeping in MY house though, I'd be claiming responsibility of them and getting them snipped.

My boys will hopefully be neutered in January.

 

[TobiDaDog]

Eyes are looking better! The Terramycin unfortunately wasn't working so we had to go with Bacitracin. It pretty much cleared overnight and now we're dealing with only a little bit of redness. No more leaky eyes!

This wild child is getting long and lanky! He can be the sweetest, most snuggly boy when he is sleepy. When he's awake he's a blur thundering back and forth through the house.

He's still a little bit of a bully with his brother when they play together, but he's slowly getting better. He's just so much bigger, stronger, and faster. I've been separating them for a "time-out" whenever he starts making Tato cry. Although I'm starting to doubt if Tato is really hurting or if he's just REALLY dramatic. The other day we all heard him yowling his little head off in the basement...and Nikolas was upstairs. He sounded like he was in real trouble. I raced downstairs and found that he was just yelling at a toy at the top of his lungs, happily playing all by himself.

Tato is VERY loud. He yells at everything. Hungry? Yell. Scared? Yell. Lonely? Yell. See Mom waking up from a nap? Run over and yell at top volume. He is constantly using his voice. Quite often he chatters himself to sleep, even.

I love that I have a very long kitten and a very short kitten. As long as we can get the "beat the crap out of your brother" under control.

 

[sidneykitty]

Ahh I am so in love with Tato and I've never even met him! and the fact that he is a little cross eyed is special because I had amblyopia (lazy eye) as a child and had to to vision rehab and whatnot. he is an adorable little munchkin and so lucky. Glad his eye and energy are improving and that Nik is slowly learning!

 

[TobiDaDog]

His eyes are turning sort of sea green! We were supposed to make an appointment this week to get both boys their final set of shots but unfortunately I'm pretty sick right now with the flu so it will have to wait another few days. They're both growing very fast now though and totally healthy. They never stop running and playing. It's so much fun to watch them romp.

Well...they ALMOST never stop, I should say! Niko loves dropping by for a cuddle when he's tired. His favorite thing is tucking himself into our clothes to nap. He is turning out to be such a sweet little guy.

Now, I need some advice regarding collars. These two will get micro chipped when they're neutered, but we had a little scare last night when we thought they snuck outside when I called the dogs back inside. Turns out they were just napping together in a dresser drawer, but we searched frantically for about 45 minutes thinking they were lost. They're always trying to dash past me when I open the door.

I started thinking that they need a little tag on their collars or something if they get lost...but I don't know if they're old enough for an ID tag. I worry about them catching their tags on something and just yanking their collars off or getting hurt, but I also want them to get back home safely if they accidentally get outside.

Tag or no tag at this age?

Bonus pic - Tato adores our dogs. Our senior lab is finally starting to warm up to him but our collie thinks that we got Tato just for him. They're always cuddling and grooming together.

 

[Sarthur2]

I would make sure you know where the kittens are before opening the door to call the dogs. Put them in a room with door closed long enough to get the dogs, especially until they are chipped.

In the meantime, kittens need breakaway collars because they get into all sorts of things and places. They can just as easily get hung up in the house as out right now, and need to be able to break away. A tiny tag with a phone number would suffice for now.

Hope you’re feeling better soon!