Hello! So I’m my neighborhood there’s a lady… She’s constantly bringing in stray cats that also vanish on a startlingly frequent basis. She doesn’t take that great care of them; they are left outside 24/7 , their food is sprinkled over the sidewalk and attracts raccoons etc, not nearly enough water you can find them drinking from neighbors fountains, none of them are neutered, they’re covered in fleas… etc etc etc.
The lady genuinely doesn’t even know the genders of her dogs. One of which is a an unspayed female who goes into heat every six months and is let out of the house completely unsupervised and l have picked the dog up from a couple streets down and delivered her back home. And the inside of her house is COVERED with animal poop and pee and I almost threw up for the smell alone when I went in there.
Basically y’all get the picture.
One of these cats had a litter of 5. And due to local coyotes, there’s only one kitten left that’s about 2 months old.
I want to help this kitten.
But the issues are:
1. I have never had long term interaction with a cat before.
2. I’m highly allergic to cats. To the point where if I don’t wash whatever body part interacted with the cat immediately, I get a nasty rash.
3. The cats are all sick and I can’t risk spreading anything to my dogs.
4. I called 8 local shelters and not a single one of them were willing to take them.
But at the same time I can’t just do nothing, ya know? At the very least give the kitten a flea and tick bath (I actually found a dry shampoo flea spray which I grabbed) / take them to get neutered WHICH IS A FREE PROCEDURE in my area.
I set up an area in my garage where the kitten would be able to at least spend the night safely until it’s big enough to escape predators better. It’s got a fabric mesh cage that’s pretty big, a bed, small litter box, crinkle balls, catnip mice, and food/water. Issue is getting the kitten.
Today is the third day since I’ve started trying to befriend the kitty but I honestly have no idea what I’m working with.
The first day I tried to trap the kitten by tying a string to a pet carrier door and putting food in the carrier. The adult cats came and went and ate everything…. So no luck there. Had no interaction with the kitten. They didn’t get close at all.
Second day the kitten let me pretty close but with a fence dividing us. I mixed some food grade diatomaceous earth into some wet cat food and smeared it over my fingers. The kitty ate from my fingers which o figured was a good sign. I didn’t try anything else. But eventually the kitten decided enough was enough and hissed and swatted at my hands without claws. So I backed off. Put some food on a napkin and slid it under the fence because the kitten was clearly hungry. Some construction workers that saw me heading there tried to warn me away actually because of all the fleas and rank smell of the property.
Third day, today, the kitten allowed me close again with the fence between us, but did not want anything to do with me. I tried spreading the food in my fingers and got hissed at and swatted, with claws this time. I tired to slide food under again just to feed it but it darted away a bit. So rather than feed it, I just sat down in its line of sight and fiddled with my phone for awhile, trying to adjust it to my presence without acknowledging it. It watched me but never came any closer. The one female dog was out though and also trying to get pets/cat food so that definitely didn’t help. The dog is super chill around cats but the stray cats keep their distance from anything that isn’t another cat.
So I’m just looking for tips. I know it’ll probably take a lot longer but I’m just taking shots in the dark here so I’m not sure if what I’m doing is effective. I don’t wanna train it to “I hissed so now the food will be put on a nice and safe napkin so I don’t need to get accustomed to the hooman”.
The lady genuinely doesn’t even know the genders of her dogs. One of which is a an unspayed female who goes into heat every six months and is let out of the house completely unsupervised and l have picked the dog up from a couple streets down and delivered her back home. And the inside of her house is COVERED with animal poop and pee and I almost threw up for the smell alone when I went in there.
Basically y’all get the picture.
One of these cats had a litter of 5. And due to local coyotes, there’s only one kitten left that’s about 2 months old.
I want to help this kitten.
But the issues are:
1. I have never had long term interaction with a cat before.
2. I’m highly allergic to cats. To the point where if I don’t wash whatever body part interacted with the cat immediately, I get a nasty rash.
3. The cats are all sick and I can’t risk spreading anything to my dogs.
4. I called 8 local shelters and not a single one of them were willing to take them.
But at the same time I can’t just do nothing, ya know? At the very least give the kitten a flea and tick bath (I actually found a dry shampoo flea spray which I grabbed) / take them to get neutered WHICH IS A FREE PROCEDURE in my area.
I set up an area in my garage where the kitten would be able to at least spend the night safely until it’s big enough to escape predators better. It’s got a fabric mesh cage that’s pretty big, a bed, small litter box, crinkle balls, catnip mice, and food/water. Issue is getting the kitten.
Today is the third day since I’ve started trying to befriend the kitty but I honestly have no idea what I’m working with.
The first day I tried to trap the kitten by tying a string to a pet carrier door and putting food in the carrier. The adult cats came and went and ate everything…. So no luck there. Had no interaction with the kitten. They didn’t get close at all.
Second day the kitten let me pretty close but with a fence dividing us. I mixed some food grade diatomaceous earth into some wet cat food and smeared it over my fingers. The kitty ate from my fingers which o figured was a good sign. I didn’t try anything else. But eventually the kitten decided enough was enough and hissed and swatted at my hands without claws. So I backed off. Put some food on a napkin and slid it under the fence because the kitten was clearly hungry. Some construction workers that saw me heading there tried to warn me away actually because of all the fleas and rank smell of the property.
Third day, today, the kitten allowed me close again with the fence between us, but did not want anything to do with me. I tried spreading the food in my fingers and got hissed at and swatted, with claws this time. I tired to slide food under again just to feed it but it darted away a bit. So rather than feed it, I just sat down in its line of sight and fiddled with my phone for awhile, trying to adjust it to my presence without acknowledging it. It watched me but never came any closer. The one female dog was out though and also trying to get pets/cat food so that definitely didn’t help. The dog is super chill around cats but the stray cats keep their distance from anything that isn’t another cat.
So I’m just looking for tips. I know it’ll probably take a lot longer but I’m just taking shots in the dark here so I’m not sure if what I’m doing is effective. I don’t wanna train it to “I hissed so now the food will be put on a nice and safe napkin so I don’t need to get accustomed to the hooman”.
