Just when you think you're out of the game...

The Sweeper

...of fostering and rescuing, and you have enough of your own pets, and life's good, some bugger catches one of these in a feral cat trap and it ends up in your bathroom.

(I swear I don't know how it got there, yer honor)

Meet the most feral kitten I've dealt with in a long while. Am desperately hoping to have a home lined up for him in the next four weeks (am in Australia before anyone offers - you're very sweet, go visit your local rescue! )

Softly softly we go - he wants to kill me, but we'll get there.

PurplePrincess

Awww aren't appearances deceptive!!!. I fostered a similiar one about two years ago, absolutely tiny with the face of an angel and the temperment of a psychotic axe murderer!! Any opportunity he got he went for me but eventually he came around and by the time he was ready for rehoming he was sleeping in our bed and I cried a river of tears when his new owners picked him up.
Hard work but very rewarding

Xiney

awwwww lookit that face of evil

morganafay

He's adorable, even if he's feral

I took in two feral kittens and it took a few weeks, but they were really nice cats afterwards. I still have one of them, she's 7 and such a sweet cat.

The Sweeper

He's actually hilarious - goes mental when I go near him, but as soon as I have a hand on him, he calms down and I can stroke him and sit him in my lap. Facing away from me that is - if he's not looking at me, I'm not there, and he's not scared. He'll come good though - the difference even a single week will make will be considerable.

Calhoun

The Sweeper wrote: »

He's actually hilarious - goes mental when I go near him, but as soon as I have a hand on him, he calms down and I can stroke him and sit him in my lap. Facing away from me that is - if he's not looking at me, I'm not there, and he's not scared. He'll come good though - the difference even a single week will make will be considerable.

You need to buy him a little hat with a feather in it and a pair of leather boots because he reminds me of puss in boots .

blondie7

The Sweeper wrote: »

...of fostering and rescuing, and you have enough of your own pets, and life's good, some bugger catches one of these in a feral cat trap and it ends up in your bathroom.

(I swear I don't know how it got there, yer honor)

Meet the most feral kitten I've dealt with in a long while. Am desperately hoping to have a home lined up for him in the next four weeks (am in Australia before anyone offers - you're very sweet, go visit your local rescue! )

Softly softly we go - he wants to kill me, but we'll get there.

i feel your pain sweeper, i had three cats up to last week (all rescues) and i was finished felt i done my part for a while. Then on Thursday was in work when this little kitten came running up to me and he was the most friendly little thing, i picked him up and realised he was skin and bones. So now ive a forth cat in the house. IM DONE THIS TIME I MEAN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mymo

I have thought of fostering but I'd want to keep them all!
I really can't afford any more mouths at the moment.....but one day.....


Good on you sweeper, you'll have the little cutie tamed in no time:)

The Sweeper

How much time? No time you say? Heheheheh... He's doing really well for less than 48 hours in the house and not handled by humans before, but there's still a couple of weeks of intensive work to go in. Am plastering him all over my facebook account and asking friends to ask friends to ask friends regarding a home. All fingers crossed that this will be a happy ending. I woke up this morning to the most incredibly severe frost - the world is white outside. If he hadn't been snaffled when he was, he could have spent the night out in that...

Instead he spent the night in the spare room with me, annoying the bejebus out of me.

mymo

How old is he? Looks no more than 7 or 8 weeks, but hard to tell from pic.
I'd say less than a week will have him fairly tame, do you hand feed the wild ones?
My nanny (always took in strays) always hand fed the wilder ones, reckoned it was the best way to get them to associate people with good things.

The Sweeper

He's about 5 weeks. No handfeeding - but will stroke and handle, then put down to a dish of appetising food, and stroke while eating. He came good last night, was stroking his head and neck in circles, never taking hand off kitten but keeping a steady sort of, three circles of the head, two under each ear, three on the head, two under the ears, then three on the head, and he started to rub his head off my hand. Breakthrough - this morning he approached me with his tail up. Not bad going from seriously feral to making headway after two days.

It wouldn't be this quick if he still had his mum or siblings with him.

mymo

Its such a great feeling when they're happy to see you:D
It always amazes me the damage such a cute little ball of fur can do!
I'm not going to look at that pic anymore.....Its a good thing you're so far away:p

magnumlady

awww he's so cute.

The Sweeper

Best news ever: local no-kill shelter have a foster mum (a cat with a strong maternal instinct and a couple of kittens around his age already) they think will take the little guy.

This is very important - because he wasn't caught with his mum or his siblings, he gets extremely lonely at night on his own. I've been taking him to the spare room with me and working with him to tame him at night - which means I've had three nights of crap sleep, but he's coming along a stormer.

If I leave him on his own he just cries and cries - which is bad for kitten of his size and doesn't help with his socialisation. If he had a friend in there he wouldn't be so anxious, but without a friend it's not good.

I also can't bring him out of the bathroom and into the rest of the house, because I have adult cats. There's a quarantine requirement, but also there's the disturbance to my own cats to consider. This restriction means I can't get him used to things like the washing machine, the vacuum, the TV, so on. This isn't such a big deal, but it would be better if he could get experience of as many sights, sounds and people (to look at, not to handle him without handwashing precuations because he's not vaccinated) as possible.

So I drive him down there in about 2.5 hours and it's onwards and upwards from there for him. I think the shelter are only really taking him for me because they've dealt with me on numerous occasions before. (They put me through the wringer a bit before capitulating.) I'll keep in touch to see how he goes and will keep trying to find a home for him (and generally send people to the shelter for other cats and kittens).