Barn Kittens in Southwest Missouri

[dressagetraks]

One of my aide clients has had a cat with 5 kittens show up in a box of tools on her porch. There is a long-abandoned house on that street that has just been finally knocked down, and she thinks the cat had a kitten nest in there. Kittens are pretty unsocialized but young and I'm sure will tame down with handling. Mother is a street-wise cat who would take her bread buttered on any side she could find it.

I'm going to trap them and bring them to my farm. The client isn't a cat person and absolutely can't physically deal with taming kittens. I needed a couple of barn cats anyway, but I don't need 6, so anybody could have their pick of these. They will be on my place for a few weeks growing, and I will keep working on socialization. I was making progress just in 1 hour on Friday. Kittens are maybe 4-5 weeks. No idea on mamacat, but she is full grown.

Mamacat - I'm told the technical term is dilute calico. Gray/white/rust. She's streetwise, wary but pettable, I'm sure is a great hunter. Obviously needs to be spayed.

5 Kittens:

1 tuxedo
1 buff
1 orange with "glasses"
1 orange without "glasses"
1 calico

No idea on sex of kittens yet, although the calico has to be female.

If anybody needs barn cats, these will be available in 3-4 weeks. I really don't need to keep them all, but they have to get out of their current situation.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/kittens/Kittens8.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/kittens/Calico3.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/kittens/MamaandBuff.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/kittens/Tuxedo2.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/kittens/OrangewithGlasses.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/kittens/OrangeSpitfire.jpg

[dressagetraks]

Bump for the kittens. I have managed over the last two days to trap 4 out of 5 kittens plus the mother. The black-and-white is being a stubborn little wild thing, but I'm hoping time all on his lonesome might make him more receptive to the bait, and I'll try again tomorrow to get him.

4 kittens safely moved to my farm, though, and having fun playing in the hay bales. The little calico is hunting junebugs, and all of them are hunting hay string. Future mousers in training here!!!

They do need a few weeks to grow some more and settle down. I'll keep working on getting them handleable. They are young, just totally unsocialized. They will tame up nicely with some time and attention, I think.

[starrysky]

BUMP for some super-cute mouser kitties!!!!

[dressagetraks]

Bump for the kittens! Doesn't anybody in Southwest Missouri have mice? Save me! I'm getting attached to them.

Mama has been fixed and is the most grateful thing alive. Her name is Hope. (Yes, I've named them. Bad sign there, I know). Hope is going to stay with me. She is a tired, old street cat who has earned a happy retirement to nice, warm hay for her final years.

The kittens per my vet when I had to take one a week ago are about 9 weeks old. They are semiferal at this point. Pettable with slow approach except for the tuxedo, and more on him below. I'm having to conduct this rescue in my hay shed, with all sorts of get away spaces and free access to the great outdoors, so it's going more slowly than in an enclosed room. But I can't bring them in. For one, they're going to be barn cats, assuming they stay, for another I can't isolate them due to my old house on the project farm (no working interior doors), and for another, my indoor Siamese would flip. HRH does not associate with those plebian and pedigreeless mongrels.

We have:

Hannibal. Spunkiest, ringleader. Named after the general of Carthage. Hannibal is the most tame at this point. Would hiss at me regularly while being petted until recently. But he is FIERCE and lets the world know it. He would stand right up to me and let me know that even if he was petted to death, he would not yield. Extremely soft and plush kitten. Saw him last week with a lizard, a large lizard, which he was dissecting (UGH!). First of them to be touchable, first to be seen hunting. A true character.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Hannibalmeetsthebigguy.jpg

Vivace. Calico with gray instead of black, so she's gray, orange, and white, and the gray patches have tiger stripes. The only female. The name says it all. Vivaceous, a spitfire, only pettable when SHE chooses to be, and it ends when SHE chooses it to end. We have a chestnut mare personality here (and I have two chestnut mares, not dissing them, but they do have their moments). Cuteness off the scale.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Vivace3.jpg

Julius. One of two nearly identical oranges. Cautious but frisky, chases anything that moves.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Julius2.jpg

Clarence, the other orange, named for the cross-eyed lion. Clarence, unfortunately, hurt his eye a week ago, some sort of trauma, the vet thinks a hard whack. No globe rupture, but he got seriously banged on the head, either ran into something or fell off something. The vet thinks he will recover and have a usable eye. He is currently on meds - and thus, he is most skittish and I am most unpopular right now. Eyes do not match at the moment due to the blood filling one. He's going to be okay, though.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Clarence.jpg
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/ClarenceandVivace.jpg

Longfellow, named not only for my favorite American poet but also for the famous TB sire of the 1800s, who himself was named for his long legs. Tallest of the kittens, by far the most skittish. Longfellow was left behind for 3 weeks after I had trapped everybody else. He obviously decided that the trap, the implement of their departure, was a Bad Thing, and he wasn't having any. I spent hours and hours over those 3 weeks getting this kitten. He's delighted to be reunited, but he had those 3 weeks of solitary freaked-outness, and he is coming around very, very slowly. Cuteness off the scale, though. Not yet touchable, not even by stealth, but I'm getting closer.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/Longfellow2.jpg

Please save me and my hay shed from these kittens! They are too cute to have around! When I look out the window at night and see them playing leap-kitten in the grass, I start reassessing whether I might actually need 6 more barn cats after all.

HELP!!!!!