I've never heard the phrase before and knew nothing about it although I've been a cat lover all of my life. Mom trained us well when she welcomed a plethora of stray cats into our home during my lifetime with her. I was hooked.

I married a proper, staid, self-controlled, quiet Englishman who had no wife, no children, no plants, and NO pets. So I, out of the great kindness and generosity of my heart, gave him a wife, five kids, a grandchild on the way, four plants, and three cats. He has shown no regrets so far! (Phew)

Pete and I got this brilliant idea to give kittens to our kids for Christmas. Since we have three children in the home, we decided on three kittens! We talked to an animal adoption agency here in Utah called New Beginnings. We were told about a lady who was not able to have children - she had cats instead. She had so many cats that she and her husband did not have the time to socialize with these cats. The last time the owner counted, there were 35 cats and still mating. The cats are all different types of Siamese - chocolate point, ragdoll, seal point, lynx (or tabby) point, blue point - to name a few. I had no idea there were so many Siamese types around.

New Beginnings is working with the owners to get them spayed, neutered and adopted out. That's how it all began. Michelle at New Beginnings, was able to tame a couple of kittens which is where we got our two lynx points - they are siblings and are three months old. They've been unanimously voted as the best cats you could own!

However, we couldn't decide on the third one since there weren't any more adoptable, younger kittens. Our idea was to go to the cat owner's house and choose one. This would possibly save a cat's life.

They were all there, I think - we just couldn't see any of them. Only a couple cats stayed around to visit with us. The owners brought out canned food for the cats and then they all came out. That's when the conversation started about "feral." I had no idea what it meant nor why a cat would behave that way.

Oxford Dictionary defines feral as "untamed, in a wild state after escape from captivity or domestication." We could not get close to any of them. I was able to get a few to play with my necklace but I couldn't touch them at all.

We decided on Tabitha, a gorgeous six month old seal point ragdoll. Christmas morning was delivery day. Tabitha would not let us touch her. She would sit under my son's bed (unfortunately, it's a queen size so it's quite a reach to grab her) and not eat for days. She would hiss, bite and scratch if we tried to hold her. We had no idea what to do! We tried coaxing her out with toys, canned food, treats, etc. Nothing.

After a few days, I was able to get her to eat a little canned food from my hand. I was also able to hold her a bit, but she trembled like crazy and would be curled up in a fetal ball the whole time. You could almost mold her like playdough!

A week later, she would purr when I scratched under her neck, but only when she was in her "safe" place - a little cat house/scratching post combo. If I pulled her out, she would growl. She did come out to play when we brought her into the fun with the other kittens. But she would play from her position of sitting down royally, with her long, fluffy tail draped daintily around her feet. She wouldn't budge but her front paw once in a while. She is nicknamed Princess Tabitha now.

This is the end of the second week now. We despair sometimes and want to give up. I'll call New Beginnings and, and due to their excellent advice, we end trying some more. Today we hit the website that they recommended: Alley Cat Allies. A lot of information and directions for taming a feral kitten in addition to information about how they are working to help the feral cat population. There is hope again. The alternative could be putting her down if we send her back. We don't think we could handle that one.

One thing the site said was that feral cats usually need to be tamed while quite young. This one is already past the five month mark; that part was a little disheartening. But since she has shown signs of liking to eat from our hands, purring when touched and playing with the other kids, err... kittens - who knows?

We'll keep you posted...

In the meantime, here is some great information about Feral Cats from Alley Cat Allies. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. You can download a free version from the Adobe website.

All About Feral Cats (View or download PDF)

Cheers! (as my hubby is fond of saying)

Labels: Cats, Feral Cats, Siamese Cats, Taming Feral Kittens