So, how goes our feral taming experience? Patience - we have to remember patience.

We never realized what we were getting into when we got this 6 month old cat. Tabitha is an absolutely gorgeous seal point ragdoll siamese cat. But she is terrified of humans.

When I first got her on Christmas day, she smelled so much of urine and her beautiful coat was so dirty and ragged, that I had to give her a bath. She trembled in my arms afterwards for about an hour until she was dry. I had no idea that she did not like to be touched.

We got her home and kept her in a large cage for a few days in an area where she could watch our interaction with the other kittens. Once in awhile, I'd open the door and stroke her. Sometimes, we'd pull her out and hold her. We realized later that this was not the way to train her.

After a few more days, we let her roam the house. She would always find a place to hide and not come out to eat or drink. I would put moist cat food on my fingers and reach under the bed so she could eat out of my hand.

This worried us, especially when she started not using the litter box again, even when it was right next to her. I checked out the Alley Cat Allies site and did some research. I also called Michelle at New Beginnings because we were at our wits end with this situation. It seemed to be getting worse instead of better.

Following advice, and newly armed with knowledge, we put Tabitha in a little bathroom downstairs; we removed everything and left a food dish, a water bowl, and the litter box. A radio was tuned to a talk show channel and kept low. The cupboard doors under the sink were left open which left open access to the drawers on the sides. In the largest one, I place a little rug so she had a private place of her own.

Several times a day, someone from our family would go in and talk to her, reach a hand in to try and pet her, coax her into coming out. She was not coming out, she was not eating again, and not drinking any fluids.

Day two of bathroom confinement was pretty much the same as day one except that she would purr when I pet her. The concern over lack of food and water increased. I again offered moist food by hand. She would eat a bit and then turn her head.

Day three - when I fed her in her drawer, I slowly pulled my hand away so she had to stretch her neck to eat. Then she had to step out of the drawer. The last thing she did was sit *in* the cupboard, but her dainty little feet were not going to touch that floor! She also let me pet her quite a bit. She would not stop purring. I got her to play a little with a feather toy. When she had enough, Tabitha went back into the drawer. I had been dismissed! :)

Day four was a huge improvement. She came out onto the floor to be pet. She went to the bowl and ate food. I noticed that it seemed like her gums were sore, which explained why she probably would not eat the dry food. So, the food is now moistened with water which adds the benefit of fluids going down her throat. The litter box was showing signs of enough food and fluids now.

We tried to let her out for awhile, but she got that hunted (and haunted) look again, so we immediately put her back into solitary confinement.

Today is day five. Yesterday, I tried putting her on my lap to pet her. She seemed a little tense, but still purred. I made sure that I put her down and not let her decide when to get down. Today, she put her paws on my knees and settled into my lap when I put her on. She will walk by us now without looking scared. We opened the door again today and let her come out just into the hallway. She played with the other kittens a bit, played with the feather we dangled in front of her, but was still a bit spooked. After five minutes, I knew that it was time to put her away.

When I put her in, she went straight to the drawer and wouldn't come out for awhile. I stayed with her until I could coax her out. We parted on good terms.

All this extra work for a cat has brought on some side effects - we've all fallen hopelessly in love with Miss Princess Tabitha.

Concerns to bring up to the vet tomorrow - when she purrs, she does an awful lot of swallowing, almost gaggy. She did the same after eating. I know her gums are sore, but the gagging? We'll have to get her in for a good checkup.

More to come, I'm sure!

Labels: Cats, Feral Cats, Taming Feral Cats

As a response to a flood of requests from readers (thanks, Mom!), here are some pictures of two of our Siamese cats; Gabrielle and Tom.

To the left is Gabrielle (previously Gabriel, until we looked more closely...). For some reason, she was called 'Fuzzy' by the adoption agency (and the kids) when we first got her on Christmas Day. She's not really fuzzy, she just has lots of bad hair days!

The second photo shows Tom (on the left) and Gabrielle (to the right), having a full and frank discussion about which of them would sit on Pete's laptop keyboard whilst he wasn't looking. Pete claims that the cats have actually *improved* his coding in PHP...

Labels: Cats, Family, Siamese Cats

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