to give him some worm medicine. I know dogs just gulp their food and wouldn't care what you feed them , but because a cat just sort of laps at their food, I don't think I could hide any worm medicine it - or not???

I cannot get anywhere near him, so it would have to put in his food and get him to eat it. By the way, he eats tuna. I have tried other things and he would not touch it.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Patricia

I'm looking for some OTC worm medicine for the kittens. When I bring Gwyn in, as soon as he's settled we're off to the vet. But the other two, and their mom - I'd love to get some medicine into them.

I don't see why putting it into the food wouldn't work.

When I give the boys their flea treatments, I hide the pill in some 'lickable treat'.

nutritional yeast to the small medicated portion to insure that it's eaten. Keep the medicated amount as small as possible to insure kitty eats it all.

I mix it into her food. If it's a capsule, I open it and mix the powder very thoroughly into about a teaspoon of wet food. If it's a pill, I crush it first, then mix it into 1 teaspoon of wet food. The reason for using just 1 teaspoon of wet food is to make sure that she eats all of the medicine. Afterward, I give her a little more to eat.

That’s awesome understanding between the species makes life much easier. Some animals are very empathetic perceiving our emotions and responding in kind. A loving pat or a stern voice can have positive results. You laid down the law Spooky appreciated it and showed you he does.

I’m greatly enjoying these reports of yours, Siwsan! Almost feels like I’m getting to know these kitties personally, too.

Please keep ‘em coming!

A friend will be visiting from Humboldt County and she's a VERY experienced cat rescuer.

She's never met the boys so I expect a lot of 'SQUEEEEEE'. It's going to be interesting to see how long it takes Gryff to warm up to her. He's pretty shy, at first, but seems to be able to sense cat lovers.

Ferals learn fairly quickly when an area is safe or not, but I think it takes longer for them to decide about humans.

Tone of voice and general demeanor do help to make them feel safe, or less threatening.

I love the photos.

I rescued an orange feral kitten that has been living with me for over 2 months now. Sometimes I feel like a tiger tamer in the circus and have to be careful about turning my back on him. Other times he'll jump on my lap and cozy up to me for petting. Usually if I put the hand that feeds him anywhere near his head, I lose some blood for my misplaced trust.

He likes to hide and pounce on me as as I walk past, wrapping both paws around my arm and attacking. It's usually just love bites, but he often gets carried away. Maybe as a inner city Youngstown feral stray he likes to play rough. I'm ready to take him on Springer as an abusive relationship. "But I love him".

My arms and hands are scarred to the point I joke that I was repairing my garbage disposal.

This is Sparky in the police car where he was found at the scene of a road rage shooting. After some questioning the police released him to my friend who works for ODOT and ended up on my lap.
[img][/img]

I can't get close to her or Skittish without enduring spits and hisses unless I am offering a bowl of food.

Any of the other ferals will either wait patiently or hide until the bowls are filled. They will hiss and spit at each other to clear a path to the food, but never at me.

Scooter, the mom of the 3 kittens, lets me get close but unless she's eating she doesn't allow me to give her pets or scritches. BUT she and her kittens spend pretty much the entire day in my back yard, very close to the house.

But I figured a kitten that wasn't set in it's wild life would acclimate and be a housemate. Maybe I'm wrong. Though we've became friends, I wonder if the feral ever leaves them. I added a picture when he was in the police car

You're correct about the kitten adapting, many adults will too but it takes a lot of dedication and patience.

Your little guy looks like a feisty, wild-beast, aka - male orange tabby. He'll always be feisty and a bit aggressive, perhaps a bully to other cats, definitely alpha type personality. Just remind him of the parameters and you'll get along fine. He's really smart and you can train him to do things like walk on a leash and he'll probably come to love it in a short time.

Have fun with it, and patience, it'll be worth it.

The outdoor cats do seem to have a good sheltered place to hunker down. I just bought some straw and will work on getting a couple more shelters in my yard. Of course that will now entail more snow management, but that's OK.

One of them is Scooter's sister and one is her mother, right?

Ferals can’t speak English. But they see a friend who slow blinks.

Not just ferals!

I have kitty-sat for a bunch of years for both of my sisters' cats and I do that all the time with them if I have them and/or if they are out and about when I visit, and are sprawled on the floor - and especially if I see them start to do it. It's sortof a signal (hard to describe) like "It's all good. We are both content and at peace".

And I often get a blink back, especially from the Scooter. I know she trusts me since she brought her kittens to my yard and shows no concern when I'm outside getting them to play.

to give them a hint that it is "nap time".

I call it the non-aggressive stance because I figured it out with wildlife in the field. But it works with nearly every species I have tested it on since I discovered how it works.


Simply tilt your head slightly, like you're curious, and blink slowly. This body language indicates to the animal that you are probably not a predator, predators stare and rarely blink during the time the animal is sizing it up before it runs. A steady stare will spook them every time, even predators though their response might be entirely different by seeing you a a challenger or threat.

I use it when I go to an animal shelter, it calms the caged cats. You can see their pupils shrink when they recognize that you aren't a threat.

Anyway, the blinks and tilting your head is what does it.

the call a mama cat made to call her kittens. We were at a roadside park and heard a kitten crying in the grass. He called her out with his mama cat voice, and she was confident enough to let him pick her up. We took her home and we kept her.

He could also mimic the shift whistle at work, and fooled his coworkers into heading for the door several times. lol

Last edited Thu Oct 6, 2022, 10:56 AM - Edit history (1)

I was, in one neighborhood, often called to help coax strays out of sheds or drain pipes and trees. I used a series of techniques but was always successful within a half hour. The mom call always gets their attention for good or ill. I can purr at them too. I learned cat techniques as a kid and they can always tell that I am a cat person, makes them more willing to come to me.

The cat in mu home currently, Mikey, is in rehab/training to be more accepting to being an older cat who needs to stay in the house at night. He already does that in winter but he needs to learn that he should do that in the new locations his two humans now inhabit. (I rented an apartment in a larger house and he never saw the partition once it was in place, he was sure that my place was part of his house but I didn't mind. He even moved in with me for a while to avoid his mom's new puppy.) She sold the farm and we all had to move. Mikey trusts me more so after trying to survive in a much wilder environment, because he's a jerk about going outside before dawn, he ended up full-time outside at her new place. He had too many predators after him and no good shelter. After seeing how beat up he was getting, when I went to visit, I brought him to my place to heal up and learn to be an older cat with benefits.

We're working out the new routine, he's adapting, somewhat reluctantly but we're making progress.

We moved our current house kitties back and forth, and they had no qualms. Only one liked to ride in the car, but thankfully it was a short trip.

Good luck teaching your kitty the guidelines

We had a routine at the old place and, fortunately, some of the same conditions exist here, we're only two miles from where we were, his mom is now an hour away and out on the range.

It's going better than I expected, because he loves me and I soil the shit out of him, how can he argue with that?

I know you and so many others are the "pros" at this and I have been following your updates the past year.

But one thing I have read (that I used as good info when I was first cat-sitting and needing to research since we never had cats growing up) was that normally, cats are not really vocal except for certain instances, and as kittens, the mewing was mainly to get their mother's attention. But after that, they don't really "talk". But with humans, they discover that we respond to audible vocalizing (like how their mothers would) so they learn to do that to us.

One of my sisters has a feral tuxie who "adopted" them almost 2 years ago and the past year, I had the opportunity to take him here at home and watch him a few times while my sister went away. And over those times, I observed how his vocalizations evolved. The last time I had him back over the summer, he finally meowed, and would do it as soon as I brought out his treat bag and put some in his bowl. He would meow again right before eating them too. He never did it when I gave him his regular dry and wet food. Just the treats.

I also know the previous 2 times I had him, I experienced what was a wild low register growl that he would do when upset, but he didn't do it that last time I had him. He got spoiled when I bought him a nice pet step ladder thing that would let him be able to climb up to perch and look out my back door's storm door window. In fact, as soon as I opened the door to set the ladder up, he would come running between my legs and up the little steps while I was trying to move the thing in place (me trying to move heavy ladder thing with cat attached - ).

still very rarely meows, like maybe 4 or 5 times in a year. She definitely knows that human words are for communication. She understands several words and listens attentively when I talk to her.

But, she does not communicate vocally to me. She does several things to get my attention, like knocking things to the floor, or rubbing my face nonstop, or tapping me with a paw. Once I am looking at her, she stands under the cupboard area where her food is and looks at me expectantly.

She slides her head under my hand when she wants to be petted. She dives into her tunnel when she wants to play hunting games. (I dangle something near the tunnel entrance and she swats at it or rushes it in a pounce.)

She does do trills sometimes, and purrs lot, but the only times that she meows are when she really, really wants to play and I have been busy or not responding to her body language. Never for food or to wake me up.

She does do a mournful howl sometimes when I am in the shower. But she doesn't do it if I get her attention as I get into the shower and say, "It's all right" several times. Same with leaving. If I don't let her know that I'm going out the door, I will hear her howl as I go down the hall to the elevator.

She does do the eye blink in response to me and sometimes initiates it herself. But meows just are not her thing.

isn't much of a vocalizer either although when I first started watching her, she would "whine" at the door to the basement hoping I would open it so she could go down (that didn't happen until a few more "stays" here).

But the sister who has the tuxie previously had a puffy himmy - OMG she was mouth almighty. I used to have a coworker who had Siamese cats and he would describe how "vocal" they would be and I had read that although Himalayans are their own breed now, some time ago there was Siamese bred into the line to introduce color points. So my sister's cat would literally pace back and forth and just run her mouth when she wanted something and would literally purr like a loud motorboat.

The tuxie who is now about 3, does the repetitive paw lift if he wants to play and he purrs with and vibrates his paws (which was cool to see for the first time). My sisters' other cats never did that although they kneaded.

It took me a bit to not only get used to a short hair cat believe it or not, but a young male too. All 3 cats did mark territory by scenting objects and all did some sort of equivalent of a (insert appendage) "bump". The himmy literally would do a "head bump", the tortie did an "arm bump" and the tuxie a "hand bump". The tortie would also present her butt with tail up to blow on.

half Siamese and half domestic shorthair. His coat was tabby stripes, but his behavior was very Siamese. Used to have some long conversations with him.

I bet there were some noteworthy conversations!

"You don't say!" Or, "And then what?"

He would answer every time. We could keep it up for very long periods, with my husband laughing all the while.

that I forgot to mention. She growls, quite fiercely, at anything that she perceives as dangerous or threatening to her or me.

So, when she sits at the window on holidays and sees colorful sky monsters bursting into the air with loud booms, she growls until they finally get scared off and stop.

She is equally hostile to street monsters that roll past my building in winter with red and green flashing lights. Ember growls fiercely until they finally obey her and move on.

and that was the first kitty that I ever heard that kind of sound from - and usually if he kept going underfoot and got accidental knocked. It wasn't loud but it was like my other sister's black lab who will do a low growl if you reach over to playfully try to take his bone away while he was chewing on it. I would occasionally mess with the lab to hear him do that. It was like a "warning" growl even though he was happily chewing and scraping his bone that I certainly did NOT want!

is not loud. The fierceness comes from her body language in combination with the growl. Her body goes taut and she stretches her neck forward, with her eyes glaring at the scene. Every inch of her says, "Cone any closer and I will slay you."

She saves her loud growl for the vet's office, where they violate her dignity by poking and probing her body, then sticking needles into her. It is the ultimate insult to her feline superiority and she makes sure that the vet and staff know it.

when confronting her "room mate" - a young male black lab. And she is a big puffball (although really doesn't weigh much but has a lot of fur), so when she would rear up and hiss at him when he wanted to "play", she became a gigantic thing from hell confronting him and then would take off upstairs. The two of them never got along although the past year, things have calmed down considerably and they will now actually lay on the floor in the living room together without the stare-downs - but only a respectable distance from each other.

When they say "torties are temperamental" I have seen it first hand! I think that is why we get along. I leave her be and let her come to me if she needs something, where my niece always wanted to pick her up and carry her around and play with her, etc. Bzzzzttt... not happening. She does give me the deep long stretch greeting when I pop by my sister's house and she is out walking around... and she was a prolific kneader when she was younger.

having 1/4 Egyptian Mau and 3/4 domestic shorthair (street cat) ancestry.

Tortie is just a coat pattern, not a breed, but occurs almost exclusively in females. Male torties are very rare.

know about the tortie (tortoise shell) coloration (as a genetic calico variant just like you have the tuxies that have their own variants of black/white coloration). But that "genetics" often also ties into other traits like behavior. Have no idea the parentage of the tortie or tuxie but my sister's earlier himmy DID have "papers" from a private breeder and was a blue point Himalayan. She had the short hind legs and smooshed-in face and was a giant puffball, but only weighed about 10 lbs. LOL

accidental pregnancy due to a careless breeder. Her mother's coat was calico. Actually, Ember has a torbie coat - black and gray striped with random streaks of red.

I never thought of color influencing behavior. Ember is the first female cat that I've had. All my previous ones were male. So I wonder if the behavior that people associate with torties and torbies is due to gender and hormones instead of color. But I have not had enough experience with female cats to know if there are gender differences in behavior. Certainly females behave differently than males if they have a litter, or when they come in heat if they are not spayed. But after being spayed, I don't know if gender affects behavior in cats.

was the first male that I was exposed to for an extended time and had wondered if the "growl" was something that the males did more than the females... And there was something "puppy" about him too! When he wasn't napping, he was always following me around right on my heels.

I used to have a neighbor years ago when I was in an apartment with balconies and she had a female short hair (white and ginger) who was not spayed, and she would let the cat out to wander from balcony to balcony. She would visit me often and chill out by my balcony plants and was very friendly. But there was one time when she wandered down while in heat and the howling was unnerving. She even tried to get in from outside while howling, after climbing up and down the screen door.

a litter after that howling? I've read that howling is common with cats during mating.

My cat before Ember was a ginger and white male. He was the most affectionate cat that I've ever known. He never met an animal or person that he didn't like and greeted everyone by rubbing up against them. I've heard that gingers are supposed to be very affectionate and doubted that color would affect behavior, but that cat was love incarnate.

Ember was growling as a 2 month old kitten. Not much of a growl at that age, but she gave it all she had, along with hissing and spitting. I got her from a coworker who said that she was the runt of the litter. The coworker mistreated Ember when she was not neglecting her. The day that I went to pick up Ember, she told me that Ember had been attacked by her older brother from an earlier litter. The family dog rescued Ember from that attack and protected her after that.

While I was there, the coworker put Ember on the couch, flipped her onto her back, and very roughly jiggled Ember around with her hand on Ember's belly while the poor kitten tried to struggle free. As soon as she got loose, Ember scuttled over to the dog and hid under its ears.

So Ember had no human socialization, and some mishandling. She lived in fear of both the older cat and of the people in the house, which included visiting grandchildren who were not taught how to behave with pets. In the beginning, her default greeting with anyone but me was hissing and growling. She allowed me to pick her up, but cringed and ran away if I tried to pet her. Human hands terrified her. Add to that the fact that Egyptian Maus are usually aloof with strangers until they know them and require a lot of socializing as kittens.

Two years later, the coworker asked if she could drop by to see how Ember looked as an adult cat because she had such interesting markings. By that time, Ember was a happy, playful, affectionate cat. But the minute that the coworker walked in the door and Ember picked up her scent and heard her voice, she leaped onto the kitchen counter and growled loudly and very threateningly. When the coworker approached her, Ember added hissing, spitting, an arched back, and a paw raised to hit. She never calmed down until that woman left. I've read that Maus are known to have very good memories and Ember's memories of that woman were obviously not good ones. I regretted letting her come into my place.

I hadn't seen the cat for awhile and asked my neighbor how the cat was and was told the bad news (this was a high rise apartment building with connecting balconies and the cat named "Princess" liked to walk along the rail to go from apartment to apartment outside) - she fell 18 stories.

And I don't think the "memories" of certain events/people are restricted to that breed or even genus. I know my sister's black lab just loves attention when he is out for a walk but there were at least one or two neighbors (one of them who was a jogger who regularly ran along the route where the dog was walked), where the lab would just go ballistic with the growling and barking. My BIL would say that he had to literally use all of his strength to hold him back. Everyone else, no problem.

So animals definitely sense and will react when exposed to something or someone they feel is "danger" (and I'm thinking it's pheromones or other scents that they can detect that we can't, and that triggers a fight or flight response).

after all that time. She was only 2 months old when I took her home from the coworker's house and was 2 years old when she saw the coworker again. But, from her instant reaction, she apparently did remember. Ember had become affectionate, playful, and friendly during those 2 years, but she reverted back to hyper defensiveness immediately when that woman walked in my door.

He saves his meows for when he really wants my attention. He always lets me know when he's going to jump up on my lap.

Arthur sometimes meows when he's melting from scritches. Arthur just occasionally wants to chat.

And it's strange, for me, because Sophie Stinky Toes was a chatter box.

The kids told her you're alright. That is a major breakthrough!

Something came to mind while reading your post... have you tried sitting down where they can approach you at their leisure? Can you sit on the porch step and let them come up and approach you while you are relaxed and sitting? that may move thing along too. By not standing you are showing an attempt to see them on their level, it's a body language thing.

Some time ago I had the opportunity to "meet" some half wild wolves, they were ambassadors who toured the country helping to educate the public about their species. It was a well conceived and conducted program and I approved funding for it more than once with my org. Anyway, I had the opportunity to visit the tour bus and meet these beings. There were two, glad my fellow org officer was there with his camera, but what I was instructed was to squat so that I was at face level and they could look at me eye to eye. It was fantastic, I had to win their trust but once they decided I was okay it was kisses and snuggles. I fed them some cooked meat and if I hadn't held my hand flat, I would might have suffered some injured fingers. The point being, sitting down and letting them come to you on their terms on occasion can move the trust needle in your favor in a hurry, especially if you offer them treats.

Just a thought.

A feral tabby now approaches and sits on the deck, about 5 feet away from me. Yesterday I engaged this beauty with the kittens while I was having them chase a stick I was waving at ground level.

Scooter sits pretty close. The two white kittens come right up to me but the gray one is still cautious.

Today I'm taking the old cat teaser that has fish on the end of the line and see if I can get this kitty to play. I also gently touch them with the end of the stick, hoping that they see it as an extension of me, and I'm very gentle.

That they come to hang around while you are there shows they have a level of trust in you. They know you feed them and put up shelters...

You should have the success your catch/release/find homes plan you are going for, probably from days to a week or two.

You've come a long way since last year.