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- Jul 30, 2020
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On July 26th at 12:30am I woke up to the sound of scratching at my front door. I checked the security camera and saw a tiny starving kitten desperately digging through birdseed for something to eat. I've been wanting to adopt a new kitten, so this seemed like an ideal opportunity. I managed to catch her humanely using tuna and a stray cat trap and brought her inside. I pegged her at 5-6 weeks old by her looks but I think she's just small because she's underfed.
Week 1:
First I placed her in the bathtub of my spare bath while still in the cat trap cage. I ordered a bigger cage on amazon which arrived 2 days later. After that I moved her to the newer bigger cage and let her chill in the bathtub with food/water and a little litterbox. I placed a towel over the cage for optimum privacy and checked on her twice a day. She seemed to be potty trained right out of the gate and quiet which was great. She's also completely weaned and on solid foods.
Week 2:
I moved her whole cage downstairs into the living room with me so she could be around me 24/7 with the blanket over the cage. She bore it for a day and a half but then started wailing in fear, so I moved her to the guest bedroom and let her stay in their still in the cage for the rest of the week. She seemed to do well, she stayed quite, and even let me pick her up in an old shirt and purred as I pet her. If I held her too long she jumped for a hiding place though.
Week3:
It exactly 2 weeks, I fixed up the guest bedroom with no hiding spots I couldn't reach and then let her out. I started by putting her in a carpeted cat tower with a nice enclosed nook for her to feel safe. She took right to it and stayed in their all day, only coming out to eat/drink/potty. I have a webcam in their and monitor her 24/7 so that I know she's safe, and I come in twice a day to change the litter, refill the water and food, and reach in to wherever she's hiding and pet and scritch her. She hisses a little as I approach, but once my hand is touching her she immediately purrs and enjoys the petting. The only problem is she's still terrified of open spaces and will attempt to flee if you pick her up without a towel over her.
At the end of the week she discovered the guest bed and decided to spend all her time under the covers. I would pet her through the covers and occasionally reach in and pet her directly and she seemed purry and happy. However today I walked in and noticed a giant wet spot on the bed where she clearly wet the bed. I pulled the covers and found no feces, but it worries me that she'd make such a silly mistake. I've pulled the sheets off and put her back in the cat tower, and am now washing all the sheets. I've tried to clean the mattress and have placed it on its side so she can't hide under the bed where I can't reach her.
As I moved her to the cat tower I finally managed to weigh her on a kitchen scale and she weighs 1670 grams (about 3.6 pounds). So now I know she's a lot older than I thought. According to the age/weight chart she's actually around 11 weeks old now (almost 4 months). So now I'm afraid I adopted her too late. She had no human contact until she was about 9 weeks old, so I'm afraid she might not be domesticate-able.
What should I do now? I figure I have 4 options:
1) Get her shots, have her spayed, and then keep trying to domesticate her. I'm not sure if she can be, but if there's hope I'll try.
2) Get her shots, have her spayed, and then release her back into the wild. I don't like this idea but if she's never going to be a real house cat I don't want her and me to be unhappy.
3) Give her to an animal shelter, but I'm not sure which one since the humane society doesn't appear to take feral kittens. I'd have to find some Washington County OR animal services organization to drop her off.
4) Just let her go free. If I hadn't caught her she'd have lived the hard life she was meant to on the street. This just seems to cruel though.
Here are some other questions I have:
1) is wetting outside the litter box a common thing or a sign of a hopeless feral?
2) How many times a day should I pet this cat to get her socialized? Right now it's twice a day because I'm incredibly busy.
3) Where in Portland OR is the best place for me to surrender a feral kitten for the most affordable and humane treatment?
4) Is skittish behavior like I've described common for feral kittens at 12 weeks? At what point should I consider her a lost cause?
The image attached is from the day I caught her. She seemed really small.
Week 1:
First I placed her in the bathtub of my spare bath while still in the cat trap cage. I ordered a bigger cage on amazon which arrived 2 days later. After that I moved her to the newer bigger cage and let her chill in the bathtub with food/water and a little litterbox. I placed a towel over the cage for optimum privacy and checked on her twice a day. She seemed to be potty trained right out of the gate and quiet which was great. She's also completely weaned and on solid foods.
Week 2:
I moved her whole cage downstairs into the living room with me so she could be around me 24/7 with the blanket over the cage. She bore it for a day and a half but then started wailing in fear, so I moved her to the guest bedroom and let her stay in their still in the cage for the rest of the week. She seemed to do well, she stayed quite, and even let me pick her up in an old shirt and purred as I pet her. If I held her too long she jumped for a hiding place though.
Week3:
It exactly 2 weeks, I fixed up the guest bedroom with no hiding spots I couldn't reach and then let her out. I started by putting her in a carpeted cat tower with a nice enclosed nook for her to feel safe. She took right to it and stayed in their all day, only coming out to eat/drink/potty. I have a webcam in their and monitor her 24/7 so that I know she's safe, and I come in twice a day to change the litter, refill the water and food, and reach in to wherever she's hiding and pet and scritch her. She hisses a little as I approach, but once my hand is touching her she immediately purrs and enjoys the petting. The only problem is she's still terrified of open spaces and will attempt to flee if you pick her up without a towel over her.
At the end of the week she discovered the guest bed and decided to spend all her time under the covers. I would pet her through the covers and occasionally reach in and pet her directly and she seemed purry and happy. However today I walked in and noticed a giant wet spot on the bed where she clearly wet the bed. I pulled the covers and found no feces, but it worries me that she'd make such a silly mistake. I've pulled the sheets off and put her back in the cat tower, and am now washing all the sheets. I've tried to clean the mattress and have placed it on its side so she can't hide under the bed where I can't reach her.
As I moved her to the cat tower I finally managed to weigh her on a kitchen scale and she weighs 1670 grams (about 3.6 pounds). So now I know she's a lot older than I thought. According to the age/weight chart she's actually around 11 weeks old now (almost 4 months). So now I'm afraid I adopted her too late. She had no human contact until she was about 9 weeks old, so I'm afraid she might not be domesticate-able.
What should I do now? I figure I have 4 options:
1) Get her shots, have her spayed, and then keep trying to domesticate her. I'm not sure if she can be, but if there's hope I'll try.
2) Get her shots, have her spayed, and then release her back into the wild. I don't like this idea but if she's never going to be a real house cat I don't want her and me to be unhappy.
3) Give her to an animal shelter, but I'm not sure which one since the humane society doesn't appear to take feral kittens. I'd have to find some Washington County OR animal services organization to drop her off.
4) Just let her go free. If I hadn't caught her she'd have lived the hard life she was meant to on the street. This just seems to cruel though.
Here are some other questions I have:
1) is wetting outside the litter box a common thing or a sign of a hopeless feral?
2) How many times a day should I pet this cat to get her socialized? Right now it's twice a day because I'm incredibly busy.
3) Where in Portland OR is the best place for me to surrender a feral kitten for the most affordable and humane treatment?
4) Is skittish behavior like I've described common for feral kittens at 12 weeks? At what point should I consider her a lost cause?
The image attached is from the day I caught her. She seemed really small.
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