Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with kittens

One abandoned cat, four nursing kittens, and a billion fleas... Help!

stefanie — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:41:58 -0800

I need flea advice for a momma kitty and her 3-week-old kittens. I've just taken in an abandoned cat and her four kittens (probably about 3 weeks old at this point; their eyes are open and they waddle around fairly unsteadily) and although they seem healthy, friendly, and nourished, they are covered in fleas. Huge ones.

I understand it's ok to give Advantage to nursing cats, so I'll look into doing that for the momma, but the big problem is the kittens. I'm told it's best not to bathe kittens when they're so young, so instead I went to work with the flea comb. Hours of combing later, I'd estimate that I've only got half of them. Every time I look at their bellies, I see at least three monster flees running away.

So what are my options now? Is there a safe way (or safe age) to bathe them? Can I just dunk them in tepid water and drown the fleas, without using soap or detergent?

I haven't seen any evidence of worms (yet) but one of them has massively stinky farts and super runny poo. Is this normal for kittens of this age?

Clearly, I've never dealt with kittens before, so any other important advice I'd need for nursing kittens would be welcome. (Also, if you know of anyone in San Diego who wants a kitten or a super-friendly (and soon to be spayed) young cat, please MeMail me.)

Kittens, vaccinations, etc.

ndicecco — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:34:59 -0800

What is the best/cheapest way to get shots / spay and neuter 4 kittens and a mother cat in Toronto? No father to worry about... he left shortly after the young ones were born. The kittens are 8 weeks old. The mother is quite young... but we're not sure how old she is. As far as we know, it's her first litter.

We're just concerned for the well-being of the kittens but can't necessarily afford to do everything through a vet.

The whole situation caught us a bit off guard... when the mother cat first started coming around, we thought she was a he. Then he got fat. Now there's kittens.

Two Cats are Better than One?

By The Grace of God — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:17:55 -0800

I want two kittens. My husband wants one. Help me win this argument. I think:

The cost of having two kittens/cats isn't much more than one (barring vet bills - is this the case? We're in the UK.)
Mess from shedding, hairballs, stray vomit and poop, etc. isn't much more from two than one.
They will be indoor kitties and will be fitter and healthier with playmates.

Husband thinks:

It will be spendier, messier, etc. by a factor of two if we get two kittens.

Looking for an explanation behind the steep "rehoming fee's" for adopting pets.

ShootTheMoon — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:37:38 -0800

Looking for an explanation behind the steep "rehoming fee's" for adopting pets. Can anyone explain the reasoning behind the "rehoming fee" when adopting animals. This seems to be extremely popular on craigslist. I understand covering the cost of younger animals, and would not mind paying $25-$50. But many of these people want 200-300+ for puppies that have not even been spayed/neutered or given all of their shots.

Additionaly, it appears that some of the people doing this may be doign this as a business. Adopting pets from the shelters, and turning around and selling them for a couple hundred in "rehoming fees".

Anytime anyone tries to ask this kind of question on craigslist, it is quickly flagged for removal, making me further believe something unethical is going on.

Do cats have the "terrible twos" phase as well?

jlweber — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:14:33 -0800

CatFilter: I know there are a lot of posts on weird cat behaviors, and I understand cats will be cats... but WTF how do I correct some of these problems? I have two growing healthy kittens that are 10 months old now, brothers and neutered. They live with my roommates cat, female and about 3 y/o. We also have one other roommate who doesn't have a cat but loves the ones we have.

The boys are very active and acting very much as I would expect toddlers to. Most of the time they are well behaved, they even come or stop what they are doing when I call them. They do have some weird habits at the moment and I'm completely unsure of how to break them.... For example (and what prompted this post) Sammy for the past 4 days has started screaming at 8 am at nothing in the living room. I thought it was food, but there was plenty in the dish. He also has access to my room/bed so if he wanted attention he could try a more focus approach.

Secondly, Carmicheal, likes to dig in the groups water dish cause it makes a cool sound. We have one of the watercooler water dishes so there about half a liter of water on the floor some mornings.

Other things: Jumping and scratching the shower curtain, begging for table scraps. Probably least stressing, Carmicheal likes to suck on his tail. When he is done there is about 3/4 inch of slick wet tail flipping around the house. Its more gross than anything else, I've very careful to check hes not hurting himself.

We do use the water bottle method but its for behavior that we can catch and really want to discourage. Are these all just things cats do? Is there any other way to curve their behavior?

What are some non-English words meaning "bastard"?

UbuRoivas — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:18:54 -0800

What are some non-English words meaning "bastard"? This is for the purposes of naming my kitten.

I mean "bastard" literally. I had no luck with sites for foreign-language swearing - none I could find allowed me to input a certain word & get its translation in multiple languages.

Stop molesting my nose!

qz — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:22:31 -0800

Why is my kitten so hell-bent on pestering me when I'm trying to sleep? How can I get him to calm down? I recently adopted two 12-week-old kittens - a Siamese and a Maine Coon. They both sleep with me. Recently, the Siamese has developed a pathological desire to lick the tip of my nose in the early hours of the morning. At precisely 4 a.m. every day, he will start maniacally trying to get to my face. Attempts at fending him off and hiding under pillows usually fail, as he tends to sink his claws into my head to prevent me from escaping his ritual. After a five-hour, stop-and-go battle with him this morning, this is no longer particularly endearing. Much to my dismay, he lets my boyfriend snooze away undisturbed during all of this.

First of all, is there any way I could encourage the kitten to sleep peacefully? I usually pet him and hold him for a bit when he does this, as it makes him settle down for a while. I have a feeling I'm reinforcing the crazed nose licking. The obvious answer is to not let him sleep with me. However, if I close the bedroom door, he'll start meowing hysterically and scratching to be let in. It's as disruptive as the nose obsession and I feel bad. So I'm kind of at a loss. If he's just being annoyingly affectionate, I don't want to harshly reject him and scar him for life or anything. I've made both cats their own little beds, but they prefer sleeping with me. Should I bother buying a proper cat bed?

Secondly, out of curiosity, any thoughts on why a kitten would be so eager to do this? I figure it's simply a gesture of affection or a grooming thing. Why only in the wee hours of the morning? I don't use any creams on my face at night, so I don't think he's attracted to a scent, and it's not a matter of begging, since I leave food out for both of them 24/7. I've never owned cats before this, so perhaps this is less mysterious than it seems to me.

Ukelele joke goes here.

dhartung — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:36:22 -0800

Two apartments. Three kittens. And a whole lot of fleas. No, it's not an MTV pilot ... We have a tenant whose cat had kittens. Of the brood three remain (one of them is to be mine), but they are just 9½ weeks. The mom and the kittens have fleas, but she has been trying to manage by combing and bathing until they are old enough for flea treatments (nominally 12 weeks). Unfortunately, the tenant above is getting fleas in her apartment now, and as a non-pet owner is freaked out.

I've bombed before (for this tenant and others), and it's a nuisance to prepare and clean up but it generally works pretty well. But we've never had to deal with kittens before. (I've had cats, but never a kitten.)

Also, both these tenants go back a long ways and it would be socially awkward to favor one or the other or put the hammer down on the cat-owner. The cat-owner is already on discounted rent and paying for the bombs and/or kitty kenneling is not feasible.

* If I bomb just the upstairs, some will survive but hopefully stay out of there for a couple more weeks. Due to the porous walls (renovated building), I think maybe we should get the kittens out of the downstairs, but for how long?
* If I then arrange for a full building bomb (four apartments and a crawlspace), is there a way we can do this before the end of October? If we do it, how long do I have to keep the kittens out of the apartment?
* Kitten-safe flea sprays. Do I need a vet scrip, or what can I get? We have a pet "outlet store" in town.
* Alternative medicine. I've read about alcohol baths, tea tree oil, and stuff like that. Any recommendations that will get us through this while keeping both human tenants happy and all non-human tenants healthy?

Is the way I'm feeding my cats making them sick?

Deathalicious — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:51:57 -0800

How can I avoid killing my friend's cats? I'm taking care of them and I'm terrified that I'm doing a very bad job. Sorry for the length, but I want to give as much detail as possible. Clues and key facts are in bold.

Okay, so I agreed a month and half ago to take care of a friend's 9-10 month old kittens while he was away. Mostly they've been great, although they were serious scratchers for a while and still are occasionally.

The thing is, I am worried that I am doing something wrong when feeding them. I was trying to feed them kitten food since apparently they need different nutrition. However, they would not eat it and occasionally puked it up, so I gave up on trying to get them to eat kitten food and have been feeding them normal cat food instead.

About a week and a half or so ago, I bought a bag of high quality cat food that they seemed to like very much, and so I was able to go through the whole bag (on the kitten food I fed them 1/4 of the bag before I gave up on it. So, they seemed to really love it. The thing is, when I went back to the store to buy some more, the bag said it was supposed to last for 30 days. With the two cats, it lasted maybe 8 or 9 days so I think I'm overfeeding them? They poop a lot -- more than I remember my cat back home pooping. They can completely fill a kitty litter with poop in 2 days.

They really really love carob, so sometimes I add a few pieces of carob to their food (crushed pod pieces, not processed carob) to induce them to eat it I read somewhere that carob is what's used for pet treats, so I assumed it was okay, and they've eaten it in the past with no ill effects.

The Problem:
Okay, so now one of the cats is puking. I don't know if it's because of the new cat food (When I bought the new bag, I switched from "Active" to "Housecat" since they're indoors all the time), the bug spray (see below), or if the cat is just sick. His eyes look sort of red (as if they were irritated) and he seems unhappy.

There was an ant infestation (the ants decided that cat food was some kind of highly desireable commodity and both bowls were swarmed over by ants) so I washed out the bowls, moved them elsewhere, and I sprayed their old eating area with lots of ant killer. The spray floated a bit but the cats weren't close to it at all -- the one who got the heaviest dose was me, and I'm fine.

Another possibility is plastic. The one who's sick now loves to chew on plastic and is a master of finding it in the house, even when I put it inside of boxes high on shelves. Is it possible he's ingested plastic and this is what has made him sick? Again, he hasn't seemed to get sick from it in the past, and indeed recently I did a "sweep" of the apartment and threw away all of the bottles, etc littering the floor (I'm something of a slob, especially with the cats around).

Is heat a factor? I'm in Cairo and it's in the low to mid 30s C (Around 90-90F). But they're Egyptian cats and they've gone through much hotter days without a problem.

Finally, they have only ever used clay kitty litter without scent, and yesterday I put in Fresh Scoop kitty letter which is scented. I assume that they would make it safe for cats to ingest accidentally, right?

The other cat appears healthy and also seems to be a less voracious eater.

I will head to the vet tomorrow if necessary, but it's something of a risk since I don't actually know if the vets here (in Egypt) are any good, how much it will cost, or if they will be able to help or will just say I'm imagining things.

Please, hive mind! Help me regain my cat sanity.

I've lived with cats most of my life, but never had to take care of kittens. Maybe that's the problem.

Will these allergies get worse?

daisyace — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:55:05 -0800

I’ve heard that people with allergies become acclimated to their own cats, but I’ve also heard that cats produce more allergens than kittens, and that allergens build up in the home over time. On balance, will allergic skin reactions to our kitten get better, worse, or stay the same? We have a kitten who is 13 weeks old, and we’ve had her for 5 days. The kitten is a Siberian, which are said to trigger less Type 1 allergies: runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, irritated eyes, and wheezing. They don’t moderate Type 4 (skin) allergies as well, such as itching and hives.

We spent an hour on each of two separate days at the breeder’s, testing my husband’s allergies with adult cats and kittens galore, and then brought this kitten home. He hasn’t had any Type 1 allergies, which is amazing given his usual response. But he has had some itchy skin and an occasional small hive or two. He is willing to bear that amount of a reaction, but we don’t know if it will get worse.

Yes, it is this kitten, and yes, she turned into a people-loving sweetheart hours after we got her home. (Thanks for reassuring us that she would!) We’re enchanted, and we don’t want to give her back if we don’t have to, but it would be awful to find out months from now that my husband would have to constantly be on medication to co-exist with her. So, we have to decide within the next few days whether we’re giving her back -- it's part of the breeder's standard agreement that we still can. I’m particularly interested in hearing any stories about how skin-related allergies evolved from kittenhood to adulthood.

(We know about air filters, cleaning the house, cleaning the cat, staying hydrated, etc.)

Should we adopt two adult littermates or two kittens?

Braeog — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:53:38 -0800

We are adopting two cats, but can't decide whether to adopt a pair of kittens or a pair of adult littermates. Could you help us weigh which pair will be helped more if we adopt them? We have decided to adopt two cats. As we are impartial to cats or kittens, we want to make the adoption choice that will most help the cats we adopt--the most ethical choice. We are looking at two pairs from two different rescue groups: one pair are five-and-a-half year old sisters who have been together all their lives and were dumped by their owners. The other pair are two kittens between the ages of two and three months from the SPCA--and one of the kittens has only one eye (the other was surgically removed for medical reasons of some sort). All four cats are sweet, adorable, and playful. The adults have lived in a home and are well-treated in the shelter, so we're not worried about them being neurotic. The kittens are kittens and haven't had enough time to develop any bad habits. We want to adopt the pair that seems to most need it, but we aren't sure which ones. All of the cats have had their vaccinations and have been spayed/neutered. So please--could you go through this list and offer your input?

Adult Cats
- Adult cats are harder to adopt and the shelter has stipulated the sisters MUST be adopted together, which will make it even less likely others will adopt them. They've been up for adoption since March.
- The shelter, however, is no-kill, so they are ensured a safe place to stay until they are adopted. The shelter also has foster homes where potential adoptees can stay until their adoption
- Each cat will be $85 each

Kittens
- Kittens are easily adopted. However, one of the kittens has only one eye. This may make it more difficult.
- Despite the best efforts of the volunteers, the nursery of this particular SPCA has been ravaged by colds recently. It's possible the longer the kittens are in there the more likely they are to die of disease.
- SPCA is NOT no-kill, so if these kittens aren't adopted for whatever reason they'll be put down.
- We can get both kittens for $75 total since the SPCA is having a "cat sale" because they're getting so many in this year
- The kittens will have identification tattoos and possibly microchips included in the fee, which is not the case for the adult cats.

Of course, the ideal situation would be adopting two adult cats from the SPCA, but we're worried they could not get along or may have individual personality issues. The cats at the no kill shelter are allowed out of their cages to run around the tiny shelter room (it's in a Pet Smart), interact with other cats, and are placed two to a cage if they get along with the other cat and the cage is a big one. So we know that the two adult sisters get along from watching them, where it's hard to tell at the SPCA, since they're not allowed to interact much, in a cage or otherwise.

Anyway, the point is, we're choosing between two adults that are less likely to be adopted but are in a slightly better shelter situation, and two kittens that may be more likely to adopted (not sure about the one-eyed one), but are in a more dangerous shelter situation. Money is an issue, but not a big enough one to dictate our decision. Who should we pick?

Will this kitten like us?

daisyace — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:21:21 -0800

We're thinking of adopting a particular kitten who we visited today. She's living with her littermates in a good home environment, but they didn't seem too interested in being handled. Is it realistic to expect that a kitten in this situation would approach us, or at least enjoy being handled when we approach her? Or do they tend not to until they're away from their littermates? I poked around online, where I read that you should pick a kitten who likes being handled. The kitten we're considering wasn't fearful, and she played a bit with her littermates, but mostly she preferred to chill out under the couch, and she'd gently squirm away if we tried to hold her or keep her near enough to pet for a few seconds. We first visited her a few weeks ago, when she was very playful with her littermates, and somewhat more patient with being handled. The breeder says once we get her home, she'll be more apt to seek affection from us to replace her littermates'. She's almost 12 weeks old. Her littermates didn't seem overly interested in handling, either. Her mom was laid back, and ok with patting (though she's not a lap cat, which would be ok).

We're considering this particular kitten because she's a Siberian (a breed thought to be less allergenic) who barely triggered my husband's allergies this time (there are individual differences). And yes, we did try rescues first, but because of the allergies, we need a purebred Siberian with at least a several-day guarantee, and despite establishing several contacts, that hasn't worked out.

Did I just acquire fleas?

Locative — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:24:17 -0800

Did I just acquire a infestation of mites and fleas and god-knows-what-else from a wild kitten? I picked up a feral kitten and petted it for awhile before realizing it was teeming with fleas and maybe other bugs. Once I saw the disgusting bugfest on the poor thing's tummy, I put it back with its siblings. The kitten is part of a litter I've been getting together resources to trap and spay, but they are only about four or five weeks old and still nursing (their eyes only just opened), so I can't do anything yet.

The litter lives under my porch, so it is protected, but within reach, which is how my stupid self came to pick it up and foolishly bring it in my apartment for about a minute.

My worry now is that I just caught myself a case of the same bugs that are afflicting the kitten and his siblings. I checked my body repeatedly and found a flea on my calf which I quickly killed, and now I'm all freaked out that I might have caught any and all of the following: fleas, mites, ticks, or lice.

I washed the clothes I was wearing in hot water and took a long shower, shaving my legs and armpits. I haven't seen any other bugs since the flea I killed (pre-shower) and I'm wondering about the following:

Could the bugs I saw on the kitten be living on me, bugs not visible to my eyes? What can I do?

How many cats?

BorgLove — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:29:59 -0800

Should we get one cat, or two? We're getting a kitten, a Bengal, in a little while (he's staying with his mother until he's 12 weeks). Should we get him a companion?

Reasons why: they'd be the same age; they'd keep each other amused; they could hang out together while we're at work. Endless amusement for all.

Reasons why not: space (we live in a 2-bedroom apartment); extra vet bills; since the 2nd one would be a rescue cat, they might not get along. The apartment might smell like extra cat.

We're not cat noobs, but it's been a while. We got some great pointers from this thread, but do you have any other advice or opinions on the 1 vs 2 issue specifically? What else do we need to think about?

Thanks!

Will someone be missing breakfast?

Optamystic — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:23:43 -0800

As I type this, my lovely cat is having kittens (literally). I am having a few myself (not literally). I'm a little worried because... ...she only has four, um, mature (?) nipples, but she just had her fifth kitten. And I think there's at least another one in there. Should I be worried about the cuddly little bastards?

Feral Kittens--What to Do?

mixer — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:34:08 -0800

I have five kittens living with their mom in my backyard. They're old enough now that I want to trap them and find homes for them. But I need suggetions on traps (they're very wary of humans) and suggestions on where to go to get the mom fixed (I plan on releasing her back into the yard and provide her with shelter and food). I'm in Red Hook, Brooklyn, without a car, so any extremely cheap vets and/or cat rescue groups nearby would be great. Thanks! (Yes, I already have two rescued beasts that live with me, so I'm not keeping any of the new kittens--although I'd like to.)

Advice on a young pregnant kitty.

killThisKid — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 21:15:32 -0800

We've adopted a stray kitten. I took her to the vet 2 weeks ago and yep, she's pregnant. I'm actually quite excited! I couldn't find a ask-mefi thread on pregnant cats, so I thought I'd ask for advice. She's a young one. She's a sweet little grey kitten with the most awesome white markings about her body. Very loving and our hard-ass old male cat has excepted her quite well. She stays indoors almost constantly. She's in the kitchen right now batting around a pen on the floor =).

Anyway, while I have been around cats since day 1 of my existence, I've never actually been through a birthing, so I want to query for advice.

She's been to the vet, she's very healthy, she's on kitten food, plenty of water, a good place to give birith, all the standard stuff... what I want is the deep insight mefi often gives.

So let me know: what advice would you give for a soon-to-be pseudo-father of kittens?

I'm honestly a bit nervous about the actual birthing process and what part I should play. I have read many an article on what can go wrong and how to react, but, once again, I'd love to hear some real-world experiences.

man is this long and man am i tired. trust me i’d rather be asking about linguistics.

jessicapierce — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:57:18 -0800

Feral kittens 95% to being perfect housecats... but the last 5% is killing me. Advice? (& not to beat 32589 of you to the punch, but yes, I’m going to ask the vet about this asap and no I would not like a lecture about letting the cats outside.)

Earlier this year, I started feeding a feral cat in my yard. Soon figured out she had two nursing kittens, not quite old enough to wean. The cat was very wary of people; the kittens were completely wild. My plan was to slowly tame the mother and then start working on the kittens - but she disappeared.

I bought kitten food and started the months-long process of getting the kittens to trust me. They were too young to catch their own food, so I quickly became their sole food source. This helped a lot in the socialization process, but it still took forever.

Now they’re good house cats for the most part. They understand “NO” and stay off the furniture, counters. etc. They (mostly) don’t beg for treats, are affectionate and snuggly, are completely litterbox-trained, and, best of all, almost sleep through the night. They are not fully indoor cats - they spend most of the daylight hours playing in the yard. They are let in at random times during the day, and when it’s dark.

In the beginning, they were hesitant to come into the house. Then they’d come in if I left the door open, but wouldn’t allow anyone to get between them and the door. Then I could close the door if I was quick, but it would cause a major freakout with scratching at the door crack. Finally we had a few weeks of calm acceptance, where they would trot confidently inside and eat, play, or sleep, and wouldn’t care about the door being shut. When they wanted out, they’d skulk around the door, maybe make a few peeps about it, nothing frantic or annoying.

This does not apply to their overnight time though. Everything starts out fine, we have calm dinner, playtime, and cuddling, and then go to bed. When they first started spending nights indoors, at 6 or 7 am there’d be a lot of traumatized yowling and clawing at the door. This is not the same thing as the “midnight crazies” all my previous tame-from-birth kittens have had. They don’t play, run laps, or attack me - they just freak out about that door being shut.

I interpreted this as just another step in their adjustment to housecat life that we would have to work through. Up until a week ago, their night behavior seemed to be progressing the same way their daytime behavior had, with a general calming down. They still wake up at 6 or 7, but there’s been a reduction in crying and they hardly ever claw at the door under any circumstance.

So that’s all good, and was continuing to get better. However, while one of the cats has continued to relax, one of them has suddenly gotten more anxious. When I shut her into the house now, she immediately starts yowling like her heart will break. She doesn’t scratch at the door, but will cry and cry. She follows me around the house and tries to lead me back to the door. Eventually she’ll settle down, but it takes a LOT of crying (10-30 minutes) before she’ll get to that point.

So what’s going on here? Is it just anxiety? She used to be fine with the closed door. What could make her regress?

I can’t decide whether this is separation anxiety, as she’s totally fine with being on her own for most of the day. However, when she’s inside, she can’t stand to be in a room by herself. How do I get her to become more independent?

How should I respond to the yowling? I’ve done a lot of reading on this, and some people say I should soothe the kitty, some say I should treat the yowling as any other bad behavior and give a sharp NO, some say to ignore her. I would LOVE to put in earplugs and go back to sleep, but I’m concerned about sleeping through smoke alarms and burglars.

I hate to punish her for a “bad behavior” when I know it’s just about fear. It seems like scolding her would only make it worse, and my goal is not just to quash a behavior, but to grow an emotionally stable cat. I’ve been splitting the difference between ignoring her and occasionally calling her back to the bedroom. After a while, this works, and she’ll settle back to sleep.

However, to do so, she usually wants to knead some part of my body. I trim her nails but it’s still painful after 20 minutes. This is something she does when she’s very happy or very afraid - it’s a comfort. Which I hate to deprive her of, but damn, I have bruises on my shoulders and I can’t stand it anymore. Last night I refused to let her knead me when she came back to bed, and was treated to a full two hours of the cycle: run to kitchen, cry, come back to bed, frantically search for any exposed flesh, cry, run back to kitchen. I can’t think of any other ways to soothe her other than petting and soft talk, which do calm her down and make her purr, but only in the very short run - and then she’s up again, with a broken heart over the damn door.

My boyfriend and I both work from home, so she has sporadic human contact throughout the day, as well as hours of play/lovin at night before bedtime. This cat is not in any way starved for attention. Working from home allows me to put her through several “tolerate the damn house” training sessions every day, when I shut her inside and try various ways to distract her or calm her down. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better, and it’s been over a week. It will take as long as it takes, I know - but all the other baby steps of progress with these cats have been faster, and I feel like we’re stuck on this one. I’m not convinced I’m handling this part of the challenge the right way.

How can I get to the point where I can leave the cats inside alone, when we’re gone? The weather’s getting colder, and sooner or later we are going to have to go to the store after dark.

Leaving them outside at night is not an option. Cold weather and raccoons. We have no room which will work as a “cat room,” and I think that would be a disaster anyway.

Any insight or references will be helpful. I’m having a hard time even coming up with phrases to google, as this isn’t exactly “midnight crazies” or separation anxiety. And I’ve read the Cat Wants Out thread - but that wasn’t about a (former) feral, which is a whole different trial. Ideas?

Kittens playing favorites

Saucy Intruder — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:56:00 -0800

Our kittens adore me but merely tolerate my wife. Why? And can we do anything about it? We adopted our two little boys a couple of months ago. They are now six-month-old healthy, happy, rabblerousers who run us ragged. But their affection is limitless - toward me, anyway. They run to me, purr at me, climb on me, and generally make it known that they love having me for a daddy. But their attitude toward my wife is distinctly "meh." They will pay attention to her if they want something when I'm not around. When I am around, they will ignore her. They aren't mean to her, just indifferent. And it's bumming my wife out since she loves them to pieces just like I do.

We divide chores between ourselves pretty equally. She feeds them in the AM; I feed them in the PM. She has a nontraditional schedule and is home more; I have an office job. Strangely, before I started working everyday and I was home most of the time, they actually split their attention between us fairly equally.

I have been reassuring my wife that they are just being kitty-teenagers and will grow out of whatever phase they are going through. Am I right? Is there anything I can do to spread the love more evenly?

sick cat

josher71 — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 22:23:48 -0800

I have a kitten diagnosed with pneumonia. Treatment? I have a kitten who is approximately 10-12 weeks old (I've had him since he was about 1 week old, along with his surrogate lactating mother). The vet did an x-ray to make sure it was actually pneumonina (one lung is completely filled with fluid), but he cannot tell what kind, because the kitten is way too young for the anaesthesia required to get a culture. Therefore, finding the right combination of antibiotics is tricky. The kitten is now on 2 oral meds, baytril and amoxy. He's also been on clavamox before for a different URI. We bring him into the bathroom for hot steam 3 times a day, for five minutes. Is there anything else I can do to help him? Any supplements to know about? His appetite is very good still.

Where can I find cat images that are both free and royalty-free?

troybob — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 18:21:57 -0800

Where online can I find pictures of cats to use in an amateur music video, without worrying about permissions and legal mess? My favorite band on earth, Grandaddy, is allowing its fans to make music videos for their next (and, sadly, last) album Just Like the Fambly Cat. The projects might never go anywhere beyond the Grandaddy fan community, but there is a small chance they would become part of a later DVD video collection, or maybe placed as a video on a CD single, or made available some other way that might be considered commercial.

For my project, I would like to use hundreds of images of cats (cut-out, without background, in various sizes) superimposed on landscapes and cityscapes. I don't think I'm allowed to just go to Google and take all the images I want; I mean, maybe I can and get away with it, considering I would be stripping all the background, and some of the images might be too small to be recognized by the owner/photographer. But of course, I would not want some owner out there just happening to recognize a candid shot of their Fluffy and calling a lawyer or putting a fatwa (catwa?) on me or the band.

I've checked out royalty-free sites and CD sets, but the price is way high...and it's not like the pics have to be such great-quality poses or anything...just like everyday kinda cat pictures...the less polished the better, even...but if i could even find some kind of deal under $100 (for hundreds of pics) i think i could go for that.

Why are my feral cats so wily?

joaniemcchicken — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 22:38:53 -0800

My recently rescued feral kittens keep trying to climb into the drawers above the Air Conditioning intake vent. Why? A month ago, one cat twice succeeded in using this drawer to escape to the outside. He's now a permanent outside cat. The other two though, seem to prefer the inside. Still, they are basically unapproachable by humans, except through tremendous patience and a willingness to sit and wait for them to come to you. The thing is, they both still try to get that drawer above the vent open. It has linens in it, and they claw them out of the drawer. Are they trying to escape? Or do they just like the linens? And, if they are trying to escape, how come they all know that's the secret way out?

Hurrah for kittens!

nelleish — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 08:59:25 -0800

Name our kittens! We have just brought home two entirely black boy kittens from the shelter and they need names. There really isn't any way to tell them apart yet, beyond one being somewhat "fluffier" as they are just 3 months old. It would be fun to have some kind of dynamic duo names or something related to their colouring, but we need ideas because we keep vetoing each others' (What exactly is wrong with Jake and Elwood, eh?) In the past we have had cats named: Merlin, Gandalf, Seal, James, Mariel, and Theo if that helps. Thanks!

The Final Kitty Solution

aburd — Fri, 27 May 2005 08:34:27 -0800

So I am trying to get rid of some kittens. My cat became pregnant soon after she came to my home. These are black long-hair kittens in Nashville TN. I have tried the kitty adoption centers and everyone I know but had no luck. Now these kittens are a week away from going to the Humane Society. Do any of you know any novel ways to dispurse the kitties so that I can avoid sending them to the kitty concentration camps? On a side note: Black kittens are apparently the most difficult to get rid of because of superstitions. This is what the kitty adoption people say. Just thought this was an interesting bit of trivia to add to things.

Question number 8543

amandaudoff — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 19:39:39 -0800

Help me name my new kittens! (More inside....)