A very interesting article on the lives of feral cats.
Today is Day 44 in
my feral kitten adventure. Today I will try to honor Yajing's three siblings
and his Mom and all the other ferals living out in the cold today. It has been
very cold here. Today 7 degrees F feeling more like -13 degrees F. cold, really
really cold.
I have not seen
Yanjing's siblings since I took their photos through the kitchen door on
December 31st. It has been a long time. I am very lucky to have my boy, to have
noticed that he had a bad case of round worms, to weigh him and get him
medicine, and to watch him grow. His other siblings would have had worms too
and with that and the very cold weather things are not looking good. I can only
hope for the best.
On the brightest
side of the news I am typing this in Yanjing's room. He is snoozing in his condo. He did come to
check me out and to see if I had any treats for him. I did and he is now even
when he is hissing at me will sit for a treat or his food.
Yesterday and today
I have been introducing brushing. I am using a soft back brush because it has a
nice long handle. He is the hungriest in the morning so that is my best chance
to introduce anything new to him while he eats. The brushing went much better
today. That makes me very happy. My hope is that I will be able to shorten up
my grip on the brush handle and in a few weeks substitute my hand for the
brush. I want to make this transition so smooth that he will be fine with
either.
Now on to the
darker side - Yanjing is still hissing and spitting at the oddest times. He
will be a large male cat so I want to hopefully change this habit into purring.
I do not need my own personal attack kitty.
I have decided to
try feliway. I sent away for an infuser and also the spray. Supposedly it does
not have a smell or people will begin to sniff the air around me avoid me. For those of you new to the feral cat world (which
would be me) feliway is "a synthetic copy
of the feline facial pheromone, used by cats to mark their territory as safe
and secure".
I
brought a few kitty treats in today and Yanjing quietly came up and put his
paws on my leg looking for more treats.
This is another first. That makes me a happy camper.
If
I don't get to see the kittens again I will always be haunted by the very brief
opportunity I had to look into Fuzzywuzzy's eyes before she ran away. I do have a heated water dish now so no more kitties standing on frozen water.
More
to come, please spay and neuter your pets, and if you have a chance take in a
stray, or contribute to trap, spay, neuter, and release programs.
Thanks for reading.
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| Fuzzywuzzy |
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| Stripe and Spots (spots is the |
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| Stripe |
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| my feral cat food station |
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| sadly only one set of cat tracks |
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| Yanjing's first brushing experience |
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| Checking out the brush - yes he is also teething |
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