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On Monday morning I very unexpectedly trapped a young kitten.
This is a kitten our cameras had only seen once about 4 weeks ago, and who hadn’t showed up since.
Fostering and socializing him myself (like I would normally do) is off the table right now.
Because rescues are slammed as usual, they are essentially only taking the kittens who are the best candidates for socialization/adoption. Generally this means kittens under 6-8 weeks if they’re feral. And because I have a lot of kittens I need to try and place with rescues, I have to be selective, as well.
I left the little guy alone Monday, but I’ve spent the past two days trying to better gauge this his temperament to get an idea of whether he’s be a good candidate for socialization (especially for an inexperienced foster, as that’s primarily the type of foster the rescues I’m talking to have available right now).
The good news is that there’s no hissing, spitting, or signs of “aggression” whatsoever. He also squints the longer I’m there, and he’s blinked maybe twice.
But otherwise, he’s just frozen. He won’t react to food (he is eating, but will not react at all to enticing treats in front of me), toys, or other cats or kittens whatsoever. He just hides motionless and keeps his eyes fixated on me no matter what I do.
In the past, I have noticed that single kittens are much more likely to shut down like this compared to a kitten that has its Momma and/or siblings, so I suspect that has a lot to do with it. Sometimes single kittens will come around with one of our friendly cats or kittens, but this kitten has no interest in our friendly guys here.
Now, it’s only been three days. If I had the time/resources/intention to socialize him myself, this lack of progress wouldn’t concern me at all. The problem is that I need to make a decision ASAP about whether he’d be a good candidate or not.
The only thing I haven’t tried yet is “forced” interaction by handling him. I’m really not a fan of that approach, but it’s of course something in the table to see if he responds to that...
So far, he is doing very poorly with confinement and being on his own, so I don’t want to keep him like this much longer. But I’ve never released a kitten anywhere near this young before, so I’m having a hard time with that thought too.
The other issue I have, is that when I picked him up at the spay/neuter clinic, they told me to bring him back in two weeks (even though they were well aware he was brought in as a TNR...) because they didn’t give him a rabies vaccine since he is too young.
On the relatively rare occasions I have brought kittens younger than 12 weeks to be neutered and vaccinated, I’ve take them to a different clinic and they always give them rabies anyway. So I was a bit sidelined by this.
Either I release him without rabies, or I release him and try to trap him again sometime in the near future (which is very unlikely given that this is only the second time I’ve even seen him in the area), or I keep him for two weeks until I can bring him back to vaccinated, then release him.
I’m concerned about whether he will be okay and have his bearings if I hold him here for two weeks and then release him. I’m already concerned he isn’t familiar with the area as is, let alone after being away for two weeks at his age.
Even if I try to get him into a rescue (which is ideal for so many reasons), I need to figure out a back up release plan in case I can’t.
But the rabies really messes up any approach to release him now, so I’m not sure what the best way to go about that would be. (I should mention that we live in a high rabies area, so it’s definitely an important vaccination for him to have).
Sorry if this isn’t completely coherent. This has been a rough year and I’m completely overwhelmed.
In sum -
How do I decide whether he’d be a good candidate for socialization when he isn’t giving me anything right now? Should I try forced handling? Any other ideas or suggestions?
Whether he’s not a good candidate for socialization or I just can’t find a rescue that will take him, how do I go about a release plan given the rabies situation?
Thanks everyone. Here’s some photos of little Taco.
This is a kitten our cameras had only seen once about 4 weeks ago, and who hadn’t showed up since.
Fostering and socializing him myself (like I would normally do) is off the table right now.
Because rescues are slammed as usual, they are essentially only taking the kittens who are the best candidates for socialization/adoption. Generally this means kittens under 6-8 weeks if they’re feral. And because I have a lot of kittens I need to try and place with rescues, I have to be selective, as well.
I left the little guy alone Monday, but I’ve spent the past two days trying to better gauge this his temperament to get an idea of whether he’s be a good candidate for socialization (especially for an inexperienced foster, as that’s primarily the type of foster the rescues I’m talking to have available right now).
The good news is that there’s no hissing, spitting, or signs of “aggression” whatsoever. He also squints the longer I’m there, and he’s blinked maybe twice.
But otherwise, he’s just frozen. He won’t react to food (he is eating, but will not react at all to enticing treats in front of me), toys, or other cats or kittens whatsoever. He just hides motionless and keeps his eyes fixated on me no matter what I do.
In the past, I have noticed that single kittens are much more likely to shut down like this compared to a kitten that has its Momma and/or siblings, so I suspect that has a lot to do with it. Sometimes single kittens will come around with one of our friendly cats or kittens, but this kitten has no interest in our friendly guys here.
Now, it’s only been three days. If I had the time/resources/intention to socialize him myself, this lack of progress wouldn’t concern me at all. The problem is that I need to make a decision ASAP about whether he’d be a good candidate or not.
The only thing I haven’t tried yet is “forced” interaction by handling him. I’m really not a fan of that approach, but it’s of course something in the table to see if he responds to that...
So far, he is doing very poorly with confinement and being on his own, so I don’t want to keep him like this much longer. But I’ve never released a kitten anywhere near this young before, so I’m having a hard time with that thought too.
The other issue I have, is that when I picked him up at the spay/neuter clinic, they told me to bring him back in two weeks (even though they were well aware he was brought in as a TNR...) because they didn’t give him a rabies vaccine since he is too young.
On the relatively rare occasions I have brought kittens younger than 12 weeks to be neutered and vaccinated, I’ve take them to a different clinic and they always give them rabies anyway. So I was a bit sidelined by this.
Either I release him without rabies, or I release him and try to trap him again sometime in the near future (which is very unlikely given that this is only the second time I’ve even seen him in the area), or I keep him for two weeks until I can bring him back to vaccinated, then release him.
I’m concerned about whether he will be okay and have his bearings if I hold him here for two weeks and then release him. I’m already concerned he isn’t familiar with the area as is, let alone after being away for two weeks at his age.
Even if I try to get him into a rescue (which is ideal for so many reasons), I need to figure out a back up release plan in case I can’t.
But the rabies really messes up any approach to release him now, so I’m not sure what the best way to go about that would be. (I should mention that we live in a high rabies area, so it’s definitely an important vaccination for him to have).
Sorry if this isn’t completely coherent. This has been a rough year and I’m completely overwhelmed.
In sum -
How do I decide whether he’d be a good candidate for socialization when he isn’t giving me anything right now? Should I try forced handling? Any other ideas or suggestions?
Whether he’s not a good candidate for socialization or I just can’t find a rescue that will take him, how do I go about a release plan given the rabies situation?
Thanks everyone. Here’s some photos of little Taco.