New cat Lolli, FIV positive, and our other 2 cats. Now what?

Meowmee

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Wow, that is fantatstic news about Lolli’s progress😻 I am very happy to hear he is doing so well... i think in time he will become more tame as well hopefully. That is great he enjoys his walks so much. Maybe one day he can even be with Junebug & Ember but if not you have a great set up and routine for him.

What happened to lollis mother and the mother of the current kittens? I hope you can trap her or him asap so she can be tamed and get a great home. And all of the kittens, as well as tnr the mom so there won’t be any more kittens and cats out there trying to fend for themselves. I recently helped an old friend whose friend had a mom and kittens in his yard but a relative was threatening them. I was not in any condition to help but I found someone on a Fb feral stray cat group who helped them, trapped them all, mom and some other adults were tnr and kittens were adopted etc.

It’s a lot easier to get help for adoption and for everything for kittens, I basically got 0 help for Merlin, but in the end fortunately he is with us and he is so happy. He and Quinn get along very well now although Quinn can get too aggressive and annoys him at times M is very mellow about it. Quinn turned 4 last week and we had a big pawty😻

I hope you catch her soon and look forward to pics. 😊
 
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Norachan

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Great news about Lolli!

I hope you can catch any remaining kittens that are out there. Do you know how old they are? Even if they are too old to socialize, as I'm sure the mother will be by now, getting them spayed or neutered will save a lot of lives in the long run.

Good luck!
 
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bikeman

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About 5 weeks old, and that's a guess, and skinny as all get out. We didn't see the kitten today at all. Put food out in the morning, but took the food away in the evening so predators don't associate the food with a kitten and hang around. It is a dicey time with its age so low, and we fear it won't make it.

Haven't seen the mother or the other 3 kittens, although some neighbors have seen the 3 together with the mom down the street a bit a few days ago.

Lolli's mom was about 5 or 6 when she disappeared. Probably died from FIV related disease or something else got her. Really really worried for the new kitten. Saw it the last few days but now who knows. I can't imagine something that weak and small could roam very far unless it went looking for its mom. That's why we put food out, so it would stay put. It ate a bowl of dry kitten food completely a couple days back. It was also screaming extremely loudly - and it was the "help mom" scream.
 
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bikeman

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He's (or she's) still there. Lolli's nephew or neice. From 20 feet away.
 

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Is that the kitten you saw alone the other day? The one in the picture looks a bit older than 5 weeks, but is probably young enough to socialise if you can get him/her indoors.

Do you have a humane trap you can use?
 
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bikeman

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Is that the kitten you saw alone the other day? The one in the picture looks a bit older than 5 weeks, but is probably young enough to socialise if you can get him/her indoors.
Do you have a humane trap you can use?
It is. He was there again today and I fed him/her. Yes, I am believing now that we're looking at about 8 weeks. That's good, since it doesn't need mother's milk. We have debated the milk or water issue with something this young. Is water OK at 8 weeks?

We don't have a trap. We borrowed a friend's trap a year ago and it failed badly while attempting to trap this kitten's mother, the black cat we called Inkdrop. Might have even injured her. She stopped coming around to our porch after that. I don't blame her. If it had worked properly, we wouldn't be looking after this kitten. :cringe:

The working name for the kitten is Lil' Inky. We can't take L.I. into our home. There's no room left. Lolli occupies the upper floor while Junebug and Ember live downstairs. The neighbor who's porch the kitten lives under might try to take it in temporarily, but her kids are allergic to cats. The shelters around here are completely full. This is like Lolli's situation all over again, including the same porch this kid lives under. Lolli lived in there too for a while when he was this age. However possible, we will try to get L.I. help to facilitate a permanent home. Crossing fingers.
 

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It is. He was there again today and I fed him/her. Yes, I am believing now that we're looking at about 8 weeks. That's good, since it doesn't need mother's milk. We have debated the milk or water issue with something this young. Is water OK at 8 weeks?

We don't have a trap. We borrowed a friend's trap a year ago and it failed badly while attempting to trap this kitten's mother, the black cat we called Inkdrop. Might have even injured her. She stopped coming around to our porch after that. I don't blame her. If it had worked properly, we wouldn't be looking after this kitten. :cringe:

The working name for the kitten is Lil' Inky. We can't take L.I. into our home. There's no room left. Lolli occupies the upper floor while Junebug and Ember live downstairs. The neighbor who's porch the kitten lives under might try to take it in temporarily, but her kids are allergic to cats. The shelters around here are completely full. This is like Lolli's situation all over again, including the same porch this kid lives under. Lolli lived in there too for a while when he was this age. However possible, we will try to get L.I. help to facilitate a permanent home. Crossing fingers.
Have you trapped her? I hope so. There must be someone who can foster her for a group If you can’t until she can be adopted.
 
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bikeman

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Well.... unfortunately, it has been 10 days or more since we've seen the kitten. It might still be somewhere, and hopefully safe. Not much we can do at this point.:(
 

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Have you gone out to search for him/ her? I would do that asap. You can end a lot of suffering by rescuing him💕
 
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bikeman

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Bit of an update. Unfortunately, not a sign of the kitten. We did search for a while, but being a highly urban area, major searching would also mean tresspassing so we had to limit that to a few parcels. The neighbors were alerted a while back to keep an eye out, but nothing. Just an unknown for now.

Lolli has graduated away from his chill pills at night and is continuing to be noticeably more calm when he's in my room all night. He has learned to rub his whiskers on my whiskers at about 6am when he becomes hungry. Annoying but cute at the same time. While he respects sleep, hunger seems to negate that respect. This is a constant in cats, so not surprising behavior at all.

We need a much stronger and secure harness for his outings. He has slipped out of his a couple times now, despite it being tight around his neck and torso. I've been to several pet supply stores and can find nothing more secure. Anyone have suggestions for a style or brand?
 
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bikeman

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Well, the bi-fold door at the top of the stairs is finally installed. We still need to find a way to fill the 1 to 1.5 inch gap at the bottom so errant paws and arms don't stick out from both directions and to find a solution to locking it from both directions as well.

We're thinking a sliding squared off u-shape tube of metal that slides from the top of one door and over the middle of both will do the trick. I've seen those for sale on Amazon, but they're made out of plastic and that isn't going to last long before he cracks those. And it would need to last weeks so we could go away and not worry. Plus the cat sitter needs to use it and trust it. Just spent two hours walking around Mennards in every aisle, and could find nothing to do the trick. I think I need to hire a sheet metal expert to make something strong and indestructable. Lolli is too strong and clever to leave the job to a 6" pice of thin plastic.
 
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bikeman

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One-year update. Lolli is still going strong. Goes outside wearing a harness once or twice a day in nice weather on a 6-foot leash, and is a wonderful cat except he still can't mix with the other two, soon to be other one (new thread today :bawling: ). When Junebug goes out on the screened-in porch, Lolli can rome downstairs for some R&R and exploration after he comes back in from his stroll outside and imagining hunting every creature out there. Otherwise he still lives upstairs behind the stairway door. Needing vibes in that other post, though.
 

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That is great❤ Is he still biting etc. ? I am so sorry about your poor girlie… will try to find that thread..hugs
 
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bikeman

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That is great❤ Is he still biting etc. ? I am so sorry about your poor girlie… will try to find that thread..hugs
He isn't, or hardly ever. He fake bites every now and then to make a point, but hasn't broke skin in maybe 6 months. He's capable of getting pissed off and really laying in a good bite, and he knows it, but hasn't. He's probably figured out that there isn't anything positive going to happen if he does.

The vet (or vet tech?) is coming over at 11am Thursday to put Ember down. I hardly have any tears left in me to spill out. But I'll find more tomorrow, for sure. I hate times like this. But we still have the other two to love and will cherish their every moment, like we did with Ember.
 

Meowmee

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He isn't, or hardly ever. He fake bites every now and then to make a point, but hasn't broke skin in maybe 6 months. He's capable of getting pissed off and really laying in a good bite, and he knows it, but hasn't. He's probably figured out that there isn't anything positive going to happen if he does.

The vet (or vet tech?) is coming over at 11am Thursday to put Ember down. I hardly have any tears left in me to spill out. But I'll find more tomorrow, for sure. I hate times like this. But we still have the other two to love and will cherish their every moment, like we did with Ember.
That is fantastic! I am so happy to hear that... you persevered and it worked.

I am so sorry about poor Ember, I guess she is at the bridge now... Run free sweet Ember ❤.. it always hurts so much.. try to let the other two help you through it and they will be grieving as well and will need xtra cuddles... Even Lolli prolly too.



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bikeman

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One of the most difficult emotional situations for us cat lovers with multiple cats is in monitoring the other cats following the death of one of them. Not understanding the details of why their friend is missing, but fully aware that they are in fact missing, and us watching the other cats (in my case just Junebug the only other downstairs cat) walking everywhere very slowly and doing the quiet chirp chirp sound while searching for the missing cat -- is very very difficult to watch. The missing litter box, the shrunken feeding area, some missing or empty sleeping spots must all add up. And watching their people mope around crying doesn't help either.

Junebug went through all those motions and emotions once before when she was much younger following the death of Mitty a decade ago (I wonder if that thread is still there?). We're experiencing a repeat of all that again in Junebug. Many of you others with more than one cat must know what I'm talking about. It just sucks, for everyone.

And I've been to two people funeral events this week just following the death of Ember making this one of those weeks. I'm spent.
 

Meowmee

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Yes so very sad😿 maybe a new friend for jb but mostly cuddles for now. So sorry you r going through this. We r too, been in hospital for 3 days now solid, and mostly more than 2 weeks with a virtual nightmare. My por kitties don’t understand. We are switching out to feed them etc.
 
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