cmanning Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Found this little guy hiding in the shed by the firewood. He/she looks about 3 months old and just skinny as it can be. You can't tell right off....since this little thing has lots of fur and is long. I just couldn't leave him/her outside with these cold nights we're fixing to have....And yes, I know once you feed a kitty, it becomes part of your family. Our little girl is holding the kitty---she's wearing gloves just to be cautious. And the next step is rabies shots and other series of shots it might need. Later, we'll fix this kitty so it can roam around outside in our yard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 AAAAWWWWW!!!!! I fed a baby kitty outside my home once...we could not bring her in because we have asthma....SOOOOOO.......Samantha has been living on the porch for 14 YEARS!!!!!!! She has never been sick, hurt or injured....I really will feel bad when she goes over the rainbow bridge...she has been greeting us for so long....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 AWE! Poor little kitty ( She is lucky you found her Cindy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I want a cat to catch the mice in the compost pile, but the wife won't let me as she says cats aren't meant to live outside b/c they will get "splatted" by cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad and Belinda Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 That is a beautiful kitty!! If you happen to find another, I'll take it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I want a cat to catch the mice in the compost pile, but the wife won't let me as she says cats aren't meant to live outside b/c they will get "splatted" by cars. Oh man, your wife is awesome! Did she really say "splattered"? I love jokes like that. I want a cat but the mister won't let me get one either. Dang spouses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 What have you guys named her? She's adorable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisfowler99 Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I want a cat to catch the mice in the compost pile, but the wife won't let me as she says cats aren't meant to live outside b/c they will get "splatted" by cars. Might want to explain to her that cats pre-date "indoors". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Might want to explain to her that cats pre-date "indoors". Oh I pointed out that fact that cats have been around for thousands of years. Her response is that cars haven't and cars always win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KeeperOfTheZoo Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 What a pretty baby! Might even be younger than 3 months if those eyes are still blue and aren't gonna change. We have a whole colony of barn cats. When we moved onto our little farm 6 years ago our one neighbor down the way had a ton of cats. All but one of mine (a very young male kitten) were fixed. Well, needless to say if you put out better (or any!) food than the neighbors the cats will come... and they will multiply. Most are so wild we can't touch them. Every once in a while I find a baby that's been abandoned and that one becomes a pet. We go through a lot of cat food <I can't see not feeding them, a lot of folks don't feed their barn cats but I can't bring myself to do that>, but I can't complain. We very rarely see a mouse (which is saying something because I live very rural, we don't even see mice/rats in the feed room) and better yet no rattle snakes! All our neighbors have found rattle snake nests, not us. So far anyway. Not sure if it's the cats or my large flock of chickens/turkeys/peahens. We see adult snakes from time to time (so far just big rat snakes in the chicken coop), but no nests and no rattlers. Our last neat rescue was a baby possum that had fallen off its momma into one of our water troughs. I'd never raised a possum before, truly neat critters. I carried him around in a pouch until he got old enough for me to feel comfortable leaving him in his cage alone. Now he's all grown up and likes to raid the chicken coop for eggs. Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I love cats! They taste like chicken! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted January 7, 2010 Author Share Posted January 7, 2010 I love cats! They taste like chicken! GABE!!! LOL!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted January 7, 2010 Author Share Posted January 7, 2010 What have you guys named her? She's adorable. Can't tell if it's a girl/boy.....this kitty has way too much fur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted January 7, 2010 Author Share Posted January 7, 2010 Keeping the cat population under control is hard but not impossible. I always recommend people who had found a feral kitty/juvenile cat.....to take it down to Emancipet's mobile unit. If they can't afford their fees, there's always an option to get it services for free or to minimal cost. 7 yrs. ago...we found 3 litters of kitten, within a month a half between litters. Made me wonder where all this cats were coming from. So once I pleaded with neighbors, friends and family members to adopt these kittens.....I referred them to Emancipet. The cat population---as far as I seen in the neighborhood is low...just recently I've seen a young cat here and there and of course the ones they ended in our home. Now I have a total of 3 cats--- Jeffrey 11 yr. orange tabby----one of the sweetest cats I've known, Roscoe---he's about 5/6 months old----he has the sweetest disposition for a young cat. My son (6 yrs) carries him over his shoulder...like a baby being burped----and the cat just goes along with it and then there's the new addition. Mark---I think if you ever get a cat, just keep it feed and it won't wonder around. Mine seem to stay within our area or the neighbors yard but Jeffrey is older and wiser---he's street smart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Our cat, Hobbes, thinks that the new 90g is specifically there for him. He sits on the back of the couch in front of the tank and he and the two flame hawks constantly taunt each other. It's so entertaining we don't even watch tv any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 We very rarely see a mouse (which is saying something because I live very rural, we don't even see mice/rats in the feed room) and better yet no rattle snakes! All our neighbors have found rattle snake nests, not us. So far anyway. Not sure if it's the cats or my large flock of chickens/turkeys/peahens. We see adult snakes from time to time (so far just big rat snakes in the chicken coop), but no nests and no rattlers. Be careful with rattlesnakes. My cat lost his tail to one. He got bit, and was such a macho kitty that he didn't complain a bit, so we didn't see it right away. A few days later his tail lost it's fur and turned green. The vet had to amputate. It was really funny to watch him the first few weeks without his tail. He seemed drunk since he couldn't use his tail to balance! That's when he and his sister became house cats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KeeperOfTheZoo Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Population control with feral cats is actually a real challenge, much more so than with pet cats. I really like the trap/neuter/release policy that many of the rescue groups in Austin have adopted w/ regard to ferals <I worked with TX Siamese rescue, Travis & Williamson County animal control for years before getting burned out on the politics). A lot of people don't realize is that if you keep a population steady (ie- release fixed cats vs. just removing cats) it tends to be a much healthier and more stable population overall. Catching cats to fix them isn't easy. I have several feral cats that are totally trap shy. Not only that, but even in a trap a feral cat can be incredibly hard to handle. Pounds for pound cats are one of my least favorite animals to deal with. Give me a horse or cow any day!! Is the Animals Trustees of Austin clinic still up and running? I've literally run hundreds of cats through them (didn't cover all of it financially myself, but did the leg work hauling to and from) and never had a single problem. They will do other minor vet work pretty cheap too. In my case, nature tends to even the balance. We neuter & spay our 'pet' cats, even though there isn't a low cost option close to me (I live N. of Lampasas about an hour and half N of Austin). The ferals we don't mess with. We've had a few times where it seemed like the population was getting a little high, then it would even off. There are predators out here and these are not pet cats. We have one indoor/outdoor cat that we rescued as a tiny baby. He was so sick I thought we were going to loose him. He had a broken tail, horrible ear mites and a massive URI. He's just about 2 now and the most spoiled rotten lap cat there ever was. We have 4 tame outside cats that can be pet. Our ferals are in the low teens. I just lost both my old girls this past year. Miss Kitty was 13, had her since she was an itty bitty baby. I'm not sure how old Jasmine was, she came to me as an adult but I had her for 11 years. The rattlesnakes really do worry me. More for my kids than the cats. I'm really surprised our livestock guardian dog hasn't been bitten by anything. He has no sense of self preservation at all. Doofus. Folks down a ways found a nest of 20 something baby rattlers a year or so ago. Yikes. Course, the most worrisome thing was when we had mountain lions coming right up into peoples barns and pens in my area and killing calves, goats, sheep... anything little and easy. Had the game warden show up one day and tell me the mountain lions were so bad that I shouldn't let my kids out to play alone at dusk and dawn (prime hunting times). For a while I'd sit outside and watch the kids play with a gun in my lap. When it's 110 out the only time the kids can play are mornings and evenings, and you can't keep 4 kids penned in the house all day. Thankfully we never saw a big cat (see bobcats here and there). They rotate their territories and move on after a while. We didn't loose any of our animals, though our neighbors lost several sheep and a friend lost her calf and a goat we'd given her. I still look up in the trees on occasion though when I go out to feed. I've heard so many stories out here of people getting ambushed by mountain lions up in trees. Ah the joys of country living. Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Yes Animal Trustees of Austin is still up and running, and is great for low cost neuters/spays for your own new pets. http://www.animaltrustees.org/ATA/site/index.asp The Austin Humane Society also has a Trap, Neuter, Release program to help with any feral colonies you may encounter. They loan out the traps for free, and you just bring in any cats you trap on the designated days, and they neuter/spay and give the cats shots. You then pick them up and return them to their feral colony. It is a great program for population control, and to keep them out of the local kill shelters. http://www.austinhumanesociety.org/services/FeralProgram/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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