Degrees of Diffidence

Gwenith, my shy pink floofy kitteh, is even now sitting on my lap, kissing my chin.

Gwenith, my shy pink floofy kitteh, is helping herself to the Cheez-Its in the bowl on my computer table.

Gwenith, my shy pink floofy kitteh, tries to help herself from my plate at the dining room table, practically every time I sit down to eat.

Gwenith, my shy pink floofy kitteh, pounces on me every night after I've pulled up the covers and turned out the light, stalks up my body, finds my face and kisses me goodnight, then curls up next to me and settles in to sleep.

Gwenith, my shy pink floofy kitteh, blocks my path in the morning as I come up the stairs from the shower in the basement, insisting I pet her every three or four risers.

Gwenith, my shy pink floofy kitteh, has learned the word "Treats!" and comes running to join her four-legged siblings wherever the goodies are on hand.

Gwenith, my shy pink floofy kitteh, is currently lying over my left wrist as I type, wondering why I ate all the Cheez-Its and didn't save any for her.

She still runs and hides when any visitor comes; except on the stairs she still won't let me reach down and pet her; she still insists that any advance she makes be at her own initiative and while I am sitting, lying down, or otherwise restricted. But considering where we were a few months ago when she'd run if I barely looked at her, I'd say this was progress.

We Have Company

About two or three weeks ago, I returned home to find a neighbor from the other side of the street in my side yard, peering into my bushes. When I got out of my car, she approached and said, "Sorry about traipsing all over your yard. But our little gray kitten has gotten out and I saw her run through here."

Oh! no problem at all! She was on the search, her teenage son was on the search, and now I joined the search. In people's front borders we looked and along the back alley. The man on the corner, scraping his porch, agreed to keep an eye out. The lady on the other side of me, just pulling into her garage with her two small children, promised to keep watch. I came out with a little dish of kitten food, to see if the creature could be lured.

I saw nothing of the illusive little feline. Her owner spotted it a time or two, but it always ran away. Maybe, she figured, it hadn't bonded with the family yet-- it was only about five weeks old and they'd only had it a week.

We moved the hunt further down the alley, where we encountered another neighbor. She said, "Yes, I've seen a gray kitten like that around the neighborhood, but it can't be yours. It's been hanging around for a month."

"Really? It looks just like our new kitten!"

"I'm sure the one you saw out here is a stray. Have you checked everywhere in your house for yours?"

So the kitten-owning neighbor and her son went home to make sure. An hour or so later, she appeared at my door. "I was wrong. That wasn't my kitten I saw. My own gray kitten was curled up on the rug in the spare bedroom."

That's a relief, but what about this other tiny catkin? In the following days, I began to see it myself. Standing in the street when I got into my car in the morning. Stalking through the bushes across the alley. And carrying itself always with a massive self-assurance all out of proportion to its infinitesimal frame.

Other neighbors saw it, too. "Have you seen the little gray kitten?" they'd ask. "I set out some cat treats for it the other day."

This evening from next door other side it was, "That kitten was on my porch today. It touched noses through the storm door with one of my cats."

Two evenings ago, it favored me with a visitation, taking up position under the weeping cherry in my front border. I lay down in the grass about five feet away, and tried to get it to come to me. Wasn't interested, but wasn't afraid, either. Just crouched there, staring at me.

It is still so little! So . . .

So I fed it. Correction, I've been feeding it. With some canned kitten food my own year old kittens are too old for. Always in the same place, under the arbor vitae in the side yard. I think it's figured out that's a good place to look for food in the morning.

Me, I'm trying to figure out what's best for it, considering there's No Way I can afford to bring another kitten into the House of the Flying Furballs, let alone another feral one.

The three-year-old next door announced this evening that The Little Black (he thinks it's black) Cat had been in their yard again and his dad is allergic to cats and if they see it again they're going to catch it and take it Far Away Where It Really Lives or something of the sort-- what exactly, I couldn't tell, since yelling over the fence, I can't always hear or understand what the kid is saying.

Does this mean I need to do something right away, whether I really can or not?

Or maybe should I tell myself there are thousands, millions, of abandoned and stray kittehs out there, and if I can't keep this one healthy and happy, that's just how it goes?

Meanwhile, we have company.

The Invaders

The kittens went to the vet's this afternoon.

They don't know about the vet's, yet. And so they were out to take over the world.

It was all I could do to keep Tiger's little paws out of the used needle hazardous waste bin.

And Fluff ("Cream o' Wheat" is just too much of a mouthful-- so to speak) made a thorough inspection of the examination table, while Tiger was out of the room getting blood drawn.

But they behaved themselves very prettily when they were getting their eyes and ears and hearts examined, and they thought the worming medicine was nom nom nom.

More to the point, they tested negative for worm eggs (but I'm to watch their stools for dead spaghetti-looking adults--feh!). And negative for feline leukemia. First stage of the distemper vaccination today, but the vet told me they can't have their rabies, etc., shots till they're twelve weeks old or so. And he estimates them at about eight weeks now.

So despite what the Internet feral cat fostering advice sites say, I can't let Rhadwen near them in only two weeks. I have to wait four.

That is, of course, if they're still with me at that time.

And in case you were wondering, Tiger, the brown tabby, is a boy, and Fluff/Cream o' Wheat, the pale ginger tabby, is a girl. I'm glad of that. Sounds silly, but looking at her little face the past couple of days, I'd been thinking she made an awfully off-key boy cat. But as a girl, she's adorable.

Fostering Service

The kittens are presently with me, enscounced in their wire kennel in the guest bedroom.

I spent the afternoon preparing the room, covering up a duct opening I'm sure they'd be thrilled to explore.

Well, sorry, kiddos, you can't.

When I came over to my friend Hannah's* house this evening, the kittens were taking the air on the side porch, out of the way of the last of the moving operation. As we shifted food bowls and prepared to dismantle the cage, I asked Steve* what their working names were.

"Oh, the striped one we call 'Tiger,' and the other one is 'Cream o' Wheat, because of his color.'"

Good enough handles, if you don't know yet if they're boys or girls.

He said, "I've got somebody who'll take Tiger, here. Think you might like to take Cream o' Wheat?"

And the wheels are going in my head: Rhadwen is almost nine years old. I'd hate to be without a cat when, God forbid, she goes. If I'm going to bring a kitten into the house, I'd better do it soon, while she can still keep up with it. But I was really hoping there would be a calico. Do I want a pink cat that looks like Puff in the Dick, Jane, and Sally books?

Oh, well, I'll think about that later!

Once everything-- including the surprisingly docile kittens in their carrier-- were loaded into my car, I drove to my place, quickly set things up in the guest bedroom (No, Rhadwen and Llewellyn, you mayn't come in and see!), then ran up to the PetsMart just before closing time for Science Diet kitten food and some kitty toys they might like. Hannah gave me what's left of the food she was feeding them, but I think it might be the adult cat food they had for their older cats, and there's not much left of it, anyway. I'll blend it with the Science Diet as prescribed.

Thursday, they have an appointment at the vet's for their initial checkup and shots. At that time we should find out what sex they are. I hate guessing.

I've put baskets with towels in them in the kennel for them to sleep and feel secure in. Hannah told me she kept finding them curled up together in the litter pan. I'd say that's because that's the only thing they had with a semblance of walls or shelter, there in the desolate family room with the debris of moving all around. I seriously doubt it's because these kittens like sleeping in sh1t!

(Yeah, that's a very Lutheran way to put it. But the alliteration is wanted.)

They really are sweet. I didn't bother them this evening by holding them much, but when I did, they were both very good at keeping their claws in.

This looks promising.

I Think of Something Useful

Today I brought my shop vac over to my friends' Hannah* and Steve's* about-to-be old house, for them to use when they finish getting their goods and chattels out.

And I got to see the kittens.

Turns out, the calico isn't a calico. It's a brown tabby. He and his pinky-yellow brother (or sister? We don't know yet!) have been moved into a large doggie kennel borrowed from Steve's parents.

I saw them hunkered there in the middle of the family room floor, and I thinks to myself, I thinks, "Gosh, they really must be in the way with all this moving going on. And the new house isn't ready yet and Hannah and Steve and Stevie* and Letitia* are living with the grandparents until it is. How can they manage the kittens as well?"

So I've offered to take the kitties home to my house, at least until the family gets settled out in the country. And Hannah* has gladly agreed. Their two grown-up cats are enough to think about at the moment as it is.

Minding Other People's Business

Yesterday, I got a call from my friend Hannah*.

"Steve and I came home yesterday, it smelled like we had a gas leak in the basement."

"Oh, no! That's the last thing you need! The closing with the new owners' is next week, isn't it? Is the house ok? How are the kittens? You called the gas company right away, didn't you?"

"Yes. They came out and it wasn't a gas leak. It was the kittens, peeing all over the basement."

"That's terrible!" And helpful me, I repeated what I'd read about how if you have feral kittens loose inside, like in a basement or whatever, they'll just become indoor feral cats . . .

Yes, maybe, but at the moment they'd had to trap the kittens all over again, and what were they going to do about the smell?

Good luck to them for it. I couldn't think of any sure-fire cures for cat urine stink when we were talking yesterday. But today I minded my friends' business royally by slipping an Internet printout on how to domesticate feral kittens into their mail slot when I was on my way home from church. They were still at their own church and I had to run off to an afternoon get-together at another friend's. So I have no idea if they've found the advice useful or not.

Wouldn't blame them if they pitched it in the nearest black garbage bag. Heaven knows, packing and moving and renovating doesn't leave them much if any time to attend to prescribed methods of feral cat taming.

Home Wildlife Preserve

I've heard from my friend Hannah* about the feral kittens they rescued from the barn on their new property.

The other day, she and her four-year-old daughter Letitia* took the fluffy pinky-yellow one to the nursing home where her mother lives to show her the new kitten. It got loose and it took six people to catch it. But other than that, it was perfectly sweet: bright-eyed, willing to be held, and purring like a blender on "puree."

This is not what I read on the feral kittens websites. They all say, Go slow. Wrap them in a towel to keep them calm while you pet them. One person handling the kittens at a time. No sudden moves or loud noises. No small children within ten miles. I keep my mouth shut about the feral kitten websites. If they're doing all right while breaking all the "rules," more power to them. I'm interested the kittens' welfare, but it ain't my house, it ain't my family, and they ain't my kittens.

But then she told me that they'd decided to just let them run loose in the basement. Um, well, I suggested, they might not want to do that . . . "I read something on line that said if you do that, they'll just be indoor feral cats. They need to be around people to get tamed."

Hannah said she'd keep that in mind, but her husband Steve* thought the basement was a good idea. Keeps the kittens out of the way while they're packing upstairs.

No luck yet capturing the gray kitten, she told me.

"Are you sure it wasn't the calico you got already and just looked gray in its hidey-hole in the barn?"

"No, we're pretty sure there's a third one."

If there is, time is running out. I can't go help look: too much that simply has to be done the next couple of days.

Tooth and Claw, or Dying from the Kyoot

The ending of my last entry was really lame, wasn't it? All that sentimental tripe about the poor rescued feral kitten going home with my friend to be pampered and loved.

Will you forgive me if I plead that by the time she took the kitty home and I finished the blog entry, I was hopelessly, brainlessly shattered?

And that hey, the kitten did allow us to pick him up and hold him, purring away like a BMW the whole time?

But since then, I've been online, looking up the care, feeding, and domesticating of feral kittens. And oy vey, have my friend Hannah* and her family taken on a task! And right in the middle of trying to pack up and move.

A double task, too, since Monday or Tuesday, they trapped and brought home the pinky-yellow kitten's littermate: a calico, they say.

And there might still be a gray kitten hiding out in their barn. They're trying to trap it, too.

Two, even three feral kittens? In a disrupted household with a six-year-old and a four-year-old? Oy vey, again.

Everything I read on the Web tells me that feral kittens can be extremely dangerous. That they should be handled only with armpit-high welder's gloves. That they're like little animated cacti and harder to control than the Main Stream Media sniffing out a possible Republican scandal.

What on earth could possibly be going on in Hannah and Steve's* household? I haven't heard from Hannah since late Monday. She said she'd call me when they captured the gray-- maybe I'd like to adopt it, she said. I've called and left messages but I haven't heard back. Are all the family lying on the floor, ripped to shreds by the Killer Kittens? To hear what the feral cat sites on the Internet say, nothing's more possible!

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*Fake names!

Going on a Mission

This evening around 8:50 PM when I was home listening to The White Horse Inn and eating my dinner, my friend Hannah* showed up unexpectedly at my door and said:

"I came to ask if you'd go on a mission with me."

Both of us being Christians, she says "mission" and I immediately think Brazil! Mexico! West Virginia!

But for that, she wouldn't appear unexpectedly on a rainy Sunday night. It must be something more immediate.

"Sure," I said. "What is it?"

"Remember those kittens in the barn at our new house? The ones whose mother we found dead? We caught one and put it in a room in the house till we can take it to the vet's tomorrow."

Yes, the house they're working on, the house that at present has no interior doors. So they put a piece of drywall across the opening to the cat room for a baby gate to keep the little one in.

"But Stevie* [her six-year-old son] brought his little friend from across the way in to see the kitty-- and they forgot to put the drywall back."

And the kitten escaped and disappeared, most likely down a hole in the floor in a neighboring room.

"We're afraid it might be trapped down there and die. Steve* [her husband] is home at the old house with the kids. I got one of those cage traps earlier and baited it with tuna to see if it'll get the kitten to come out. I need to find it tonight: I'm afraid it will starve. But I don't want to go out there by myself in the dark. Will you come with me?"

I was game, but not optimistic. I refrained from telling her the story of that cat that got stuck in the wall of that shop in Manhattan a year or so back, where it took everything short of the Army Corps of Engineers to get the moggie out. Would tuna work for a kitten that might not even be weaned? Would a feral cat let itself be caught, no matter how hungry it was?

I foresaw a long vigil. Near misses and clever if panicked feline escapes. Weariness and scratches. Frustration and lost hope.

I kept my mouth shut.

We packed up the flashlights, a splash of cream in a plastic container, and the freeze-dried salmon treats, and off we sallied through the fog and the pouring rain to undertake the Great Kitten Rescue.

By the time we arrived at the farm, the rain had slackened. But it was still dark and uncertain outside, and even darker and more uncertain within-- somebody had turned off the electricity at the mains.

Upstairs we ventured by the beam of our flashlights. Who knew what long search lay before us? Never mind, we were On a Mission.

. . . Well, actually, no long search lay before us. The mission was accomplished: the tuna had done the trick, and the dirty but fluffy little mog was hunkered down in the humane trap, probably thinking, "I were has tuna-- too I can has cheezburgr?"

We took the little one back to my place, where we decanted him out of the trap into my bathtub, and thence into my own cat's carrier, to be taken home to be cleaned, deflea'd, vetted, and loved.
But not before the kitten indulged himself in the cream we'd brought, while my own mog and dog kept curious and whimpering watch outside the bathroom door.

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*All names changed!