A few days after Christmas, I was out on my balcony having a cigarette (I know they're horrible for me, no need to remind me) and I heard a kitten crying. She was meowing with an almost desperate tone constantly for about 20 minutes (probably longer but that was when I went back inside). At the time, I couldn't quite make out where it was coming from but it sounded close.
About an hour later, I went out again for another cigarette and was surprised to hear the kitten still crying. I went back inside and got a portable spotlight and returned to the balcony to see if I could figure out where she was. It sounded like my neighbor's yard, but after about 30 minutes of looking, I gave up and just figured that the mother would come back (we have lots of feral cats in the area).
The next morning I got up and went outside and she was STILL meowing!
I felt terrible because the meowing had such a tone of desperation and despair that it made me feel horrible. All in all, about 36-48 hours passed and the kitten was meowing for the entire time.
I work in criminal law right now as an intern as I await starting law school this fall, so I had been hesitant to jump my neighbor's fence as I know the trouble one can get in (and have seen it plenty of times). I couldn't ask my neighbor if I could go back there as they aren't living in the house right now and only come to check on things once a week or so. However, at this point I had to make an ethical decision. It was clear that this kitten's mother was not coming back.... so it was either A) Let the kitten die... or B) Break the law and save the kitten.
I decided that if I went with A, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, so I grabbed a family member and we hopped the fence. Almost immediately, we were able to locate where it was coming from, and after a while, we managed to get the kitten. She was teeny, and could easily fit in the palm of a hand. I took her in my house and quickly tried to figure out what to do. She looked almost dead. Malnourished, dehydrated, and one eye had a horrible infection and she couldn't even open it.
I knew nothing about cats, so I went with the stereotypes. I grabbed some milk and a small plate and tried that..... she started to drink it, but after a moment of thought, I decided that skim milk wasn't going to give her any nutrients. I wouldn't learn for another day that milk was HORRIBLE for her. So I grabbed a can of tuna. She quickly ate the WHOLE CAN (she was hungry!)
I quickly built a makeshift shelter for her to live in until I could read more on what to do.
My mother and I both got online and started reading everything we could. We have a 17 year old dog, so we know plenty about dogs, but neither of us have ever had a cat so we knew nothing.
After some reading, we made an emergency cat formula as per a recipe online and fed that to her via syringe.
The next day we took her to an emergency animal clinic since everything else was closed (it was new years day). The vet determined that she was about 4-5 weeks old. We got some meds for her eyes (the infection had now spread to the other eye) and some medicine for her stomach as the bacteria in her stool was off the chart. The vet wrote down the diet to feed her for the next few days until she was a little healthier.
We decided to take care of her until she was healthy and then get her adopted.
Well, it's been a week since we found her now. She is healthy, and seems very happy. She's also surprisingly affectionate and likes to be with me, which is contrary to what I've read about feral kittens. She purrs when I pet her or when she cuddles up with me and goes to sleep. I've set up the bar area in the living room to be her area and she has her own bed and blanket, food, water, toys, and a litter box.
After talking with some friends at work, I revised the litter box to have wheat based litter instead of clumping clat litter. I didn't know of the dangers of clay litter, and especially clumping clay litter. I also didn't know that tuna was bad for her too. She now eats Science Diet kitten food (canned, not dry) and while I tried KMR kitten formula, she didn't like it as much as the Science Diet kitten food.
She uses her litter box... she plays a lot.... and I think she's happy.
More importantly, I scratched the idea of getting her adopted. She's too sweet. She is now a member of the family. The dog doesn't mind her at all, in fact when he sees her he wags his tail and goes up to lick her (even though he's super old at 17). I think he's adopted her as his daughter.
I've decided that she's going to come with me to law school and live with me wherever that is.
Anyways, that's her story. My only questions now are:
1) How do I make sure that she is getting everything she needs to make her happy and to best socialize her?
2) Why doesn't she drink water? I haven't seen her drink water once and for the first few days I had to force feed her water from the syringe. I decided after that not to force feed her water as I read that cats can get all the moisture they need from wet food.
3) Why is my dog interested in her poop? A coworker told me that he is going to start eating it.... what do I do about that?[
4) Should she be sleeping with me in my bed, or downstairs in her little area? I'd be happy to have her sleep with me, but I worry that it's too cold for her in my bedroom at 67 degrees.
5) When should I introduce dry food? 8 weeks? Later?
and lastly
6) I've read just about everything I could find on the 'net about cats, but wouldn't mind getting a book. Are there any good books on raising a feral cat out there?
About an hour later, I went out again for another cigarette and was surprised to hear the kitten still crying. I went back inside and got a portable spotlight and returned to the balcony to see if I could figure out where she was. It sounded like my neighbor's yard, but after about 30 minutes of looking, I gave up and just figured that the mother would come back (we have lots of feral cats in the area).
The next morning I got up and went outside and she was STILL meowing!
I work in criminal law right now as an intern as I await starting law school this fall, so I had been hesitant to jump my neighbor's fence as I know the trouble one can get in (and have seen it plenty of times). I couldn't ask my neighbor if I could go back there as they aren't living in the house right now and only come to check on things once a week or so. However, at this point I had to make an ethical decision. It was clear that this kitten's mother was not coming back.... so it was either A) Let the kitten die... or B) Break the law and save the kitten.
I decided that if I went with A, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, so I grabbed a family member and we hopped the fence. Almost immediately, we were able to locate where it was coming from, and after a while, we managed to get the kitten. She was teeny, and could easily fit in the palm of a hand. I took her in my house and quickly tried to figure out what to do. She looked almost dead. Malnourished, dehydrated, and one eye had a horrible infection and she couldn't even open it.
I knew nothing about cats, so I went with the stereotypes. I grabbed some milk and a small plate and tried that..... she started to drink it, but after a moment of thought, I decided that skim milk wasn't going to give her any nutrients. I wouldn't learn for another day that milk was HORRIBLE for her. So I grabbed a can of tuna. She quickly ate the WHOLE CAN (she was hungry!)
I quickly built a makeshift shelter for her to live in until I could read more on what to do.
My mother and I both got online and started reading everything we could. We have a 17 year old dog, so we know plenty about dogs, but neither of us have ever had a cat so we knew nothing.
After some reading, we made an emergency cat formula as per a recipe online and fed that to her via syringe.
The next day we took her to an emergency animal clinic since everything else was closed (it was new years day). The vet determined that she was about 4-5 weeks old. We got some meds for her eyes (the infection had now spread to the other eye) and some medicine for her stomach as the bacteria in her stool was off the chart. The vet wrote down the diet to feed her for the next few days until she was a little healthier.
We decided to take care of her until she was healthy and then get her adopted.
Well, it's been a week since we found her now. She is healthy, and seems very happy. She's also surprisingly affectionate and likes to be with me, which is contrary to what I've read about feral kittens. She purrs when I pet her or when she cuddles up with me and goes to sleep. I've set up the bar area in the living room to be her area and she has her own bed and blanket, food, water, toys, and a litter box.
After talking with some friends at work, I revised the litter box to have wheat based litter instead of clumping clat litter. I didn't know of the dangers of clay litter, and especially clumping clay litter. I also didn't know that tuna was bad for her too. She now eats Science Diet kitten food (canned, not dry) and while I tried KMR kitten formula, she didn't like it as much as the Science Diet kitten food.
She uses her litter box... she plays a lot.... and I think she's happy.
More importantly, I scratched the idea of getting her adopted. She's too sweet. She is now a member of the family. The dog doesn't mind her at all, in fact when he sees her he wags his tail and goes up to lick her (even though he's super old at 17). I think he's adopted her as his daughter.
I've decided that she's going to come with me to law school and live with me wherever that is.
Anyways, that's her story. My only questions now are:
1) How do I make sure that she is getting everything she needs to make her happy and to best socialize her?
2) Why doesn't she drink water? I haven't seen her drink water once and for the first few days I had to force feed her water from the syringe. I decided after that not to force feed her water as I read that cats can get all the moisture they need from wet food.
3) Why is my dog interested in her poop? A coworker told me that he is going to start eating it.... what do I do about that?[
4) Should she be sleeping with me in my bed, or downstairs in her little area? I'd be happy to have her sleep with me, but I worry that it's too cold for her in my bedroom at 67 degrees.
5) When should I introduce dry food? 8 weeks? Later?
and lastly
6) I've read just about everything I could find on the 'net about cats, but wouldn't mind getting a book. Are there any good books on raising a feral cat out there?