Question:
Amber - this kitten was taken in by my mother after we retrieved Tiki from her temporary care (the rest are one litter, Amber is from a separate litter).
Last edited by Scott99999 on Wed Sep 10, 2003 4:25 pm; edited 1 time in total Back to top Scott99999
Kitten
Audrey is the calico longhair. She was part of the original litter and taken by a family separate from the two boys.

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This really highlights how much better Tiki's eye(s) got...

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Hello Scott,
I am so impressed with your work. So much caring and patience! The kitties look wonderful!
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Scott, let me commend you for your wonderful work! Just one question---poor puppy----aren't you afraid that monster kitty will beat him up? Our 75 lb. collies used to just stand and look helpless while kittens clung to their legs--and wrapped themselves around their long noses. (Our collies raised two abandoned kittens.) No damage done, though!
Jeanie
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com
A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem. ~JB
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Thanks,
We have two Great Danes at my mother's house - if they get too playful, the kitten lets out a spit and a swat. They back off pretty quick, and 10 seconds later, she's stalking them again and attacking their tails.
It hasn't been a problem. We keep an eye on them - but the dogs have little or no interest in harming the kitten and you're right to suggest that they're the likely victims. Since they're about 160 lbs., we watch them to make sure she doesn't get accidentally stepped on by overstimulated dogs. One dog patently ignores the kitten - "Kitten? What kitten?" The other is pretty good. The kitten is about twice as fast as both put together.

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Congratulations on looking after those kittens. They look so much happier and healthier in the 'after' photos.
'Even the smallest feline is a masterpiece' - Leonardo da Vinci
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Isn't it funny to watch a few ounces of fluff push around a huge dog? I love big dogs. As a rule, they're very gentle. : )
Jeanie
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com
A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem. ~JB
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Scott--I think what you have done for these kittens is wonderful. They are so lucky to have you. May I ask where you live? I was just wondering why there seem to be so many neglected animals in your area.
I have seen so many people decide to get a cat and then leave it outside without getting it fixed. It makes me so mad because they never know what to do with the kittens once their cat gets pregnant, but still they don't fix the cat after she has those kittens. It is a continuous cycle--and I wish that something could be done. I loved that article that Bean posted awhile back about the kitty birth control shot, which may be approved for use very soon. I wish they would make a huge batch for free, and let people bring in their pets so the world isn't over-populated with homeless animals. That is such a wonderful thought....going to a shelter and finding it empty!
~Cary~
I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.~Jules Verne
A meow massages the heart.~Stuart McMillan
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We live in Nyack, NY. The scary thing is that there was actually an article in the local paper (I'm attaching a link to the online version below) for a woman who is handling lots of ferals and strays, completely unrelated to our situation:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/081603/b0316cats.html
So obviously it's a problem. I'm guessing we've got about 20 cats floating around. I started taking pictures to document them and separate who-is-who, with this grand idea of having them all neutered and released, but we live in a one-bedroom apartment with two cats and a rabbit, so there's no place to keep them. I also am out of the house 12-14 hours a day for work because I commute to Manhattan. I started taking time off work to deal with the cats, but I am officially freelance - so I lose money every day I do and management really doesn't want to hear about it.
Here's some of the pictures from earlier this summer:
The litter before the litter we rescued (different mother):
Pigpen seen here before rescue:
I think this tortoiseshell is now a grown cat which still hangs around:
There's others that I have pictures of...
One woman basically offered to help us catch the animals, but since she's already taking care of many others, she won't (or can't) take them until they're already neutered, for recovery. That doesn't do us much good, since we burned through around $700 on the first group of cats and we only have a small balcony on which to put the ferals while doing rescues.
We intially kept the kittens on the balcony with fans, etc..., and we'd change clothes every trip because we didn't know if they were diseased and didn't want to infect the other cats/kitten. It's such a small space they'd get into their litter box, the food, UGH....
We eventually split them between two residences - some at my mother's place, but she's two hours away, so my girlfriend would do four-hour round-trip visits to care for them, take them to the vet, etc...
The only positive aspect of that is now Tiki is excellent about riding in the car.
I'd like to help the other cats (there's one old grandaddy or very sick male who is wasting) but there's no straightforward solution in our scenario.
When you speak to people, they say, "Somebody [i.e., somebody ELSE] really needs to do something about that..."

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Here's a movie of Tiki (11MB download, less than 1 minute on high-speed Cable or DSL) - right-click on the link and select "Save Target As...."
http://www.pictureeditor.com/kitten/tiki/tikimovie.AVI
You can see she was still playful from the start. This was after she was rehydrated at the vet.
(of course we don't use our fingers for playing now....)
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I totally agree with the article that we need more education and tougher laws to prevent overpopulation. There is no way that a few people can fix this problem. I feed every cat that comes near my apartment--but I can't afford to spay/neuter them, unfortunately. I hate to see animals that are neglected and in need of homes--I wish that there was something we could do to help solve this problem. It is such a terrible thing when people have outdoor cats that aren't fixed--then they complain about the strays that hang out near their house. I hear this all of the time at work. I just want to grab these morons and ask them if they have any clue how and why this happens.
If they could get this kitty birth control shot approved and make it affordable (or in my opinion--FREE), the heartbreaking over-population of cats could be ended. Wouldn't it be wonderful to no longer see homeless kitties?
~Cary~
I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.~Jules Verne
A meow massages the heart.~Stuart McMillan
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Oh those poor kitties! They looked just horrible What was wrong with their little eyes?? You are such an angel, if only there was more people out there like you! Feral cats are hard to deal with (ive caught around 7 feral kittens, and 2 stray cats). Was the kittens feral or stray??
Emily
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Well, I don't know that we got a formal diagnosis, but I guess it would be considered an upper respiratory infection combined with an eye ulcer, either from being poked in the eye, a symptom of the virus or maybe feline herpesvirus. We talked more about the ulcer itself with the vet than the underlying cause.
The kittens were feral - we have many cats around that are feral or stray - it's hard to say which-is-which at this point, but I think it's safe to say that this generation is fully feral.
Thanks for the kind words....