Winky The Feral.......

[FflurCadwgawn]

Winky, my brother's barn cat, may be pregnant. I've been able to get her to the point where she's..........ok.........about me petting her but she is absolutely not a lap cat yet, she doesn't purr, and she won't stand for me picking her up (enter the full suit of Kevlar enforced Carhartts and the impossibility right now of getting her and her male toms vetted; she's the only one who will even remotely let humans close. Still working on taming male om Bullseye, and male tom Goose belongs to the neighbors).

Tonight I finally managed to get her used to rubbing her belly, and I felt a bone there. It's definitely not a rib. I also thought I felt movement that wasn't her muscles.

......help? As soon as I can get it done she's going to get vetted and spayed but right now that's not possible with the collective behavior.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
Are you looking for a way to confirm that she is?

If so, maybe this will help;
How To Tell If My Cat Is Pregnant?

 

[Jcatbird]

Hmmmm. Sounds like she could be. You could try getting her in a trap to get her vetted. Unless you want babies, it would be advisable. Once you have her it sounds like she is an excellent candidate for socializing if you desire to do that. She sounds like she would love the human contact if she is allowing petting. If she does have babies then having them in your custody would prevent them from being born as ferals. Once a Mom has babies, everything can change. She may not allow you near at that time. She could revert to more feral and the babies could be totally feral. It’s a cycle that is much easier to stop now than later. You’ve made great progress with her. I hope you can get her and continue to socialize her. It’s so wonderful that you care and are gaining her trust. Bravo! I think Winky is an adorable name! Good luck to you and Winky! Please post with updates. I’d love to hear more about you and Winky.

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

Winky always greets us at the barn door with Goose and doesn't mind the heavy equipment going by her (one time she completely ignored my brother's tractor and I had to get her out of the way......eep!). She pays attention to any noise I make but doesn't really care about the equipment AT ALL.

I'm going to be watching her this month and keeping an eye on things. I'm plotting mentally the best way to do everything but it all hinges on whether Winky actually is pregnant.......

 

[Jcatbird]

I guess the equipment in the barn are just part of what she is used to. Eek! Tractor! She sounds like a really neat kitty! Miss Personality. Or Mrs? If you are watching her over the next weeks you should have a better idea if she is pregnant. It isn’t always obvious. It depends on the build of the cat, how she carries the babies, how much weight she gains and even the size of the babes. I’ve been fooled until late in pregnancies before. I’ll be hoping for all good things for you and Winky as the days go by and I’ll be waiting for the news! Best wishes for you both. Give Winky a belly rub from us if she’ll let you!

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

Winky with one of the toms:

 

[Jcatbird]

She has the sweetest face! She darling. I can see why you are loving on her. The Tom is a beautiful color. I wonder is he would be the Dad?

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

I'm not sure if the Tom in the photo is the dad. He's an Amish kitty and they don't really vet them to non-Amish standards. I have been calling him Goose (he looks and acts exactly like the cat in Captain Marvel). There is a deeper orange cat we call Bullseye and Winky, Goose, and Bullseye share a dog house in the barn we furnished with some old comforters and fuzzy blankets.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

I gave Wink a belly rub today and her nipples are definitely big for a cat her size. My brother said she was scrapping with a new male last night (he called it the horizontal hootchy cootchy. Don't ask but we both read a lot of Tamar Meyers). She's also ravenous for the 9 Lives wet food; they have free range dry food.

So..............humane society is doing a clinic on the 13th (ten days). Or our livestock vet might be able to do thingz. Either way............hopefully the weather is warm enough if she winds up with kittens.

Bullseye let me scrub him down when he was eating but he runs when I approach without food. +1 for getting him to stand for loving when I have food, but oooh, he was glaring!

 

[Furballsmom]

he called it the horizontal hootchy cootchy.

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

Coincidence........??? I counted back the days and she probably got pregnant right around the day I lost Jackie. Weird............

 

[Willowy]

Outdoor cats are always pregnant this time of year if they aren't spayed. There's like a 0% chance of her not being pregnant, unless something is wrong internally. So, yeah, get ready for kittens.

If you don't want to have lots and lots of kittens, you have to figure out a way to catch cats for spay/neuter before they're tame. A raccoon-size live trap works great .

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

I can handle Winky

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

Bah, double post necessity because Libby started a fight with Heidi on my lap. Anyway.

I can handle Winky and now I can at least pet Bullseye during meals. He has an agreement with me: If I stay put, so will he. He decided to kip for a bit the other night within three feet of me while I sat and studied in the barn specifically for the purpose of cat socializing--I had some social work homework to read.

I gave Winky a belly rub today and she has enlarged nipples I didn't notice before my last post about her. I also found two circular scabs on her--one on her back and one on the inside of her leg. They seemed pretty superficial so I'm not sure if they are mating war wounds or ringworm. My brother said there was a strange cat hanging around and they were scrapping a bit together. Either way, I came home and promptly changed my clothes and used alcohol to disinfect stuff I had touched in my car and my cell phone before I went near my kitties.

Guess we find out by Memorial Day!

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

Soooooooooo.

Garfield, the pale orange cat Winky is buddies with.........isn't a Tom! Garfield is actually a Gertrude (my dad came up with that name). I was checking everyone the other night and discovered it. Guess she's getting renamed Aunt Gertrude (from the Hardy Boys books).

She also bites on a regular basis, which means Aunt Gertrude suits her just fine. :lol

 

[Willowy]

Haha! Orange females are somewhat less common than orange males (but not super rare; about 75% male/25% female) so it's pretty usual to assume an orange cat is male.

If she's not spayed she's almost certainly pregnant too :/.

 

[Furballsmom]

Orange females are somewhat less common than orange males but not super rare (about 75% male/25% female)

Interesting factoid, I didn't know this

 

[FflurCadwgawn]

Haha! Orange females are somewhat less common than orange males (but not super rare; about 75% male/25% female) so it's pretty usual to assume an orange cat is male.

If she's not spayed she's almost certainly pregnant too :/.

More than likely she is if she didn't come from the humane society to begin with. We're *pretty* confident that Aunt Gertrude is an Amish kitty, because the neighbors on all sides except for us are Old Order Amish and they definitely don't have the same vetting ideas the rest of America does by way of house pets.

My brother and sister in law both are of the agreement (as are the rest of the family) that if there are cats hanging around the barn they are getting treated to a round of TNR regardless of where they come from. Hmpf.

(I just realized we named the cats after two very significant but oft overlooked characters from major classic book series!)

 

[Willowy]

My brother and sister in law both are of the agreement (as are the rest of the family) that if there are cats hanging around the barn they are getting treated to a round of TNR regardless of where they come from. Hmpf.

Yep, if you live in a rural area that's really the only way to handle things, or you end up being up to your ears in kittens .