Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

I have just adopted an abandoned kitten from work. She is now 4 weeks old and I am bottle feeding her. I bring her to work every day but I can’t keep bringing her, so I wanted to know when it’s safe to leave her home. When she’s 6 weeks old, will I be able to leave her alone for 9 to 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, with a bowl of food, water, toys, scratch mat and litter box, or will she still need to be fed three to four times a day? I love my little angel and I don’t want anything to happen to her!

~ Amanda

Siouxsie: First of all, Amanda, thank you for taking on the care of this little one and helping her grow up to be a strong and healthy cat.

Thomas: If this kitten were still with her mother, she would start becoming interested in solid food by about 4 weeks old, but she could continue to nurse for 6 to 10 weeks. But the good news for those humans raising bottle babies is that kittens can be started on weaning at about 3-1/2 weeks of age.

Dahlia: So if you aren’t already doing so, we’d recommend that you start giving her regular cat food for some of her feedings. Be sure that when doing so, you give her kitten food; she needs the extra nutrition it provides.

Siouxsie: This will be easier if you start with canned food, because at her age, she’s still much too small to manage dry kibble. Mama adopted my sister Sinéad and me when we were 6 weeks old (it was a long time ago, and she didn’t know better back then), and when she fed us dry food we couldn’t eat it!

Thomas: The authors of the Cat Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook say to begin with two parts of canned food to one part of water or kitten milk replacer. Stir it together and let it warm up to room temperature (cold food will shock your kitty’s tummy and might maker her vomit), then put it in a shallow saucer and dip your finger into the mixture and let her lick it off, in order to get her interested. This mixture should be offered three or four times a day.

Siouxsie at 6 or 7 weeks old, investigating her kitten replacement milk and gruel dinner.

Dahlia: Or you can do what Mama did for Sinéad and Siouxsie, which was basically the same procedure as above, but she mixed one part dry kitten kibble with three parts water or kitten milk.

Siouxsie: Most of the sources we’ve seen say that kittens should be offered food three to four times a day until they’re 7 weeks old. By that time you should be able to offer them two feedings a day.

Thomas: Cat rescue groups in your area might have some good advice, learned from experience, on how to wean bottle-fed kittens in the healthiest possible way.

Dahlia: You’ll find a good collection of advice about feeding, developmental milestones, and vaccinations online at the Kitten Rescue site.

Siouxsie: Rose Hines, a veterinarian, has written a guide to hand-raising and bottle feeding kittens. This starts with the assumption that you’ve found an infant kitten, but it does go on to provide advice about the later stages of your kitten’s growth, too.

Thomas: One thing you’ll find is that these resources often offer conflicting information about when to vaccinate, what to feed, and so on. So we have one more recommendation for you: If you’re not already working with a veterinarian, you should.

Dahlia: A vet will be able to give you the best instructions for making sure your kitten gets the best possible nutrition. Because the vet will actually be able to see and examine your kitten, he or she will be able to tailor advice just for your kitten, as opposed to the general information we’ve given you here.

Siouxsie: Your vet will be able to help you keep your kitten healthy in all kinds of other ways, too. Vaccinations, deworming and spaying (when she’s old enough) are only a few of the things vets can do.

Thomas: Vets love to help people understand the best possible ways to take care of their pets, and if you’re really lucky, you’ll get a vet like our Doctor Jim, who’s glad to answer any questions Mama has about how to take good care of us — and even the random nerdy questions she comes up with from time to time!

Dahlia: Good luck, Amanda. Please let us know how things turn out with your sweet little angel!

Hi everyone. It’s “Mama” here. Siouxsie, Thomas and Dahlia have let me have the Paws and Effect podium today to honor Thomas on his adoption anniversary. Amidst all the sadness, grief and chaos in Japan following yesterday’s earthquake and tsunami, we here at the Paws and Effect Palace have a reason to celebrate.

On March 12, 2004, I signed the papers officially welcoming Thomas into our home. This is a note I wrote to Thomas on the first anniversary of that auspicious day:

Dear Thomas,

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I brought you home from the shelter! Today, as we celebrate your A-Day (the anniversary of your adoption) with yummy food, catnip, toys, and of course, the obligatory and joyfully given loving petties, I want to take a look back and remember how you came to be a part of my family.

I’ll be eternally grateful to the managing editor of the newspaper where I worked at the time, who, knowing that I had a “thing” for cats because of the weekly advice column I published on the paper’s website and my ability to answer just about any cat-related question in the known universe, asked me if I knew anyone who’d be interested in fostering a cat. It seemed he had a friend who was on the board of directors at the Camden-Rockport Animal Rescue League. This friend had recently brought three cats into the shelter; they had formerly lived with an employee of hers at her “day job,” but the employee had needed to move into a long-term care facility due to health problems. The cats were siblings — two females and a male — all of whom had gotten sick when they came to the shelter, probably due to the stress of the huge change in their lives.

Even though you were a very sick little kitty, you were still delighted to greet visitors.

You were in isolation because of your upper respiratory infection, and so you didn’t have any other cats to keep you company. The shelter staff tried to give you love and affection as much as they could, but they were very busy too, and they couldn’t take the time to hold you and love you and soothe your pain. I visited you as often as I could, but I had to leave too — I had to go back to work — and when I closed the door of the isolation room, your cries of loneliness just about broke my heart.

One day when I came to visit you, I found out they’d rushed you to the vet, where you were on IV fluids and barely alive. I had all I could do not to cry when I thought you might not make it. I sent you Reiki and I communicated with you, and I promised you that if you survived, you could come live with Sinéad and Siouxsie and me. (Of course, I had discussed the whole possibility of adopting another kitty thing with them and gotten their approval first.)

You survived that crisis and actually made a full recovery. The next time I called the shelter to check in on you, I found out that someone else had adopted you and your sisters. I was saddened that I wouldn’t get to see you again, but I was happy for you because I believed it would be good for you to be reunited with your siblings and live together with them again. I was happy that there was a human family willing to adopt all three of you and keep you together.

I made my peace with the fact that you wouldn’t be coming home with me. I told you that I loved you and that if you ever needed a home, the Ladies and I would be here for you.

Three weeks later, I got a call from the animal shelter director asking me if I was still interested in fostering you. “Absolutely!” I said. I asked what had happened with your previous situation; after all, it had seemed so perfect. The shelter director told me that you and your sisters were fighting constantly, and that your new humans were having a lot of trouble dealing with you. I said that given your brush with death and the resulting isolation and massive amounts of vet care, I wasn’t surprised that your sisters didn’t recognize you anymore, and I’d be more than happy to take you home and see if you’d get along with the Ladies.

Oh, Thomas, I felt so sad for you! You’d been through so much trauma and change, and you were still grieving about your human. The vets and shelter staff got you physically healthy again, but your emotional wounds were just as raw as ever. Not only that, but the trauma of getting “kicked back” to the shelter after thinking you might have a home only served to cause you even more grief. Sinéad and Siouxsie told me they were still fine with letting you live here, so I set you up with your own private room with a litter box, dishes, bed, etc., in my office.

I went to the shelter on my lunch break, signed the foster papers, and put you in the kitty carrier. You visited my work with me for a while, and then I drove you home with me. You cried all the way. When I got you home and opened the door to your carrier, you huddled miserably inside it. I don’t think you even left your carrier, except to eat or go to the bathroom, for a couple of days. I spent a lot of time sitting quietly in the room with you, stroking you as well as I could while you hunkered down inside your carrier. After a couple of days I gave you some Ignatia, a homeopathic remedy that helps to heal grief and trauma. Less than an hour after getting the remedy, you were out of your carrier, exploring the room, eating, drinking and peeing, and sniffing under the doors to find out more about those Other Cats who lived here.

Soon, you came out of your shell and started enjoying sunlight and love.

It didn’t take you too long to make friends with Sinéad. I figured she’d be your first “buddy” since you are so similar in temperament. In fact, when I caught you snuggling with her, I knew that everything was going to be OK and that you had absolutely made yourself at home here.

Snuggling with Sinéad

Thomas, you’ve utterly won my heart — and the hearts of the Ladies, too. Siouxsie likes you, even though you still growl at her sometimes. You’re one of maybe three good things that happened to me during my tenure at that newspaper job. You’re a blessing and a joy, my little stripey bandit. Thank you for becoming part of my family. I love you to pieces!

Sincerely,
Mama

Paws and Effect is teaming up with Petfinder and a bunch of other awesome cat blogs for Adopt The Internet Day on March 15. In celebration of Petfinder’s 15th anniversary, we cat bloggers are going to take over the internets with our stories about adoption and happy endings.

We want to share lots of happy ending stories, so we’re asking you to participate! Please write a comment to this post and tell us your adoption story. Three commenters will be picked at random to win a Purr More, Hiss Less coffee mug from the Paws and Effect Boutique at Zazzle.com! And on March 15, we’ll write a post featuring some of your stories.

To kick off the celebration, we’ve got a special treat for you! We found Mama’s diary and we’re going to share some of her entries about Thomas and his adoption. His adoption anniversary is March 12, so the timing is just purrfect!

Feb. 4, 2004: I’m going to be temporarily boarding a sweet boy cat named Tom for one of the local animal shelters. It’ll be a couple of weeks before I get to take him, though, because he’s sick with an upper respiratory infection right now. I hope I’ll be able to go over and visit him on Friday, but I called the shelter today and they said Tom is still in isolation and I probably wouldn’t be able to see him because of that. I’ll still go over there and fill out the fostering paperwork and stuff, and maybe I’ll at least catch a glimpse of him so I have an image to share with Sinéad and Siouxsie. Meanwhile, I’ll send him some Reiki in hopes of helping him heal.

Feb. 6, 2004: The high point of my day was a trip to the animal shelter to visit with Tom. He’s a really sweet boy, but he’s still pretty sick. He’s got a serious upper respiratory infection, and he snots all over the place, but he still knows how to cry and purr and be a loving kitty. I think he may have an abscess somewhere, too, because I smelled pus when I was in his enclosure. Well … he’s on antibiotics, and they’ll help with any abscess, too. He’s a tabby-and-white kitty, with a cute little tan spot on his chin. I borrowed a digital camera from work and took a few pictures of him while I was there.

Feb. 7, 2004: I went to visit Tom at the animal shelter after work today, and I found out that they took him to the vet this morning because he’d gotten a lot sicker and wouldn’t eat. So he’s on IVs and major antibiotics in hopes of getting him better.

But Tom’s core problem, in my opinion, is that he has a broken heart. And his broken heart is keeping him from healing. Tom’s original human had to go to a nursing home, so he and his two sisters were given up to the animal shelter. All three of them got sick, but the sisters recovered more quickly, so they were moved back into “regular” cat quarters, while Tom remained in isolation. So not only was he “abandoned” by his first human, but now he’s all alone without his two littermates, who he’s been with since the day he was born. Even the people at the shelter believe there’s a connection between these traumas and Tom’s failure to recover.

Of course, I fell in love with the little guy the moment I saw him, and I’m so sad to hear that he’s gotten sicker. I communicated with him and asked him to hang in there. I did say that if he really felt he needed to die at this time, I’d let him go, but if even a little part of him wants to hang on, I’d be there for him.

Feb. 9, 2004: I called the animal shelter today to see how Tom is doing. They told me he’s still at the vet and they still have him on IVs. The lady I talked to agrees that Tom’s depression is making it hard for him to get over this infection.

Thomas at the shelter, rubbing on a cage and purring with joy. You can't see it here, but his nose is covered with snot and crusties.

Feb. 19, 2004: I stopped at the shelter to pay a visit to Thomas the Cat. I’m glad I did, because I found out he’s been adopted! A really wonderful family adopted him and his two sisters, which is the best possible outcome for this kitty. I got to visit with him a little bit and say goodbye and congratulations. He’s completely recovered from his respiratory infection, and he’s raring to go live with his new family. Although the Ladies and I won’t get to foster him, we’re so glad we had the chance to get to know him and send him love and healing energy and prayers and Reiki so that he could heal not only his respiratory infection but his broken heart as well. Now he and his sisters are on their way to a new chapter in life, full of love and joy. Good for them!

Feb. 27, 2004: The shelter called and asked me if I was still interested in Thomas. “Of course!” I said. “What happened?” Apparently the little guy was fighting with his sisters and the owners couldn’t deal with the constant hostilities. I think they had just been separated for so long that they’d forgotten they used to be siblings.

March 4, 2004: I brought Thomas home today. He’s hiding in his “safe room,” a.k.a. my office. I’ve only seen him twice all day — and that was just his tail as he went flying behind the bookcase. I sure hope the poor little guy comes around soon!

March 6, 2004: Thomas is slowly coming out of his shell. I dosed all the cats with Rescue Remedy again last night, and then I got to thinking about homeopathic remedies. I’ve learned a lot about homeopathy from a good friend who’s a veterinary homeopath, and I started recalling our discussions and listening for a whisper from my intuition. As I started going through the homeopathic apothecary I have here in my cabinet, I came across a packet of remedies I got from my vet homeopath friend the last time I visited her in England. One of these was Ignatia 200C–as soon as I picked it up, my intuition went dingdingdingding, so I took one pillule out of the packet and gave it to Thomas, who was very good about taking his medicine.

Once I’d dosed him, I went to look up Ignatia in a basic homeopathy book to see what the Ignatia constitutional type is and what it’s used to treat. And there it was in black and white — Ignatia is used to treat grief and depression resulting from a major emotional shock.

An hour later I was in the kitchen refilling my water glass, and there was Thomas, sitting right by the French door that leads from the office to the kitchen, looking out curiously at me and the Ladies. Two hours later I went to bed, and as I was falling asleep, I heard Thomas scratching in his litterbox. When I went to give him breakfast this morning, I saw that he’d eaten every kibble in his dish.

It wasn't too long before Thomas and Sinéad started snuggling together.

March 13, 2004: The sweet little stripey-guy, Thomas, is officially a member of the family. I signed his adoption papers yesterday. He seems to know it, too; now he’s venturing into the living room and even sitting on Sinéad and Siouxsie’s kitty condo (with their permission, of course).

Awwwwww! Isn’t that sweet? *purrrrr*

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

We have a feral cat who has been injured. Looks like something took a big bite out of his neck. We cannot get him to a vet; he’s still very wild. He will allow my husband to pet him and come to him, but we can’t pick him up. What can we do for him? I tried to spray some peroxide on his wound, but that’s it. I’m sure he’s tried to lick it off. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Hate to see him in pain and die from the wound. He lives in our garage in the winter on a heated bed and we feed him, but that seems to be all we can do for him.

~ Kathleen

Siouxsie: Kathleen, thank you for caring so much about this feral cat and doing all you can to keep him warm, safe and healthy. Because of his injury, he obviously does need to be taken to a vet, and we have some tips that we think will help you to get him there.

Thomas: First, call your vet and tell him or her that you have an injured feral cat. Describe what you see, and your vet will tell you whether or not he needs treatment. The odds are very good that they will say he does need to see a vet.

Dahlia: Then ask them whether they have experience handling feral cats. Special tools and protocols are needed because feral cats will obviously be terrified of being around people. If your vet clinic doesn’t have the necessary equipment and experience, they can refer you to one that does.

Siouxsie: This groundwork is especially important because you’re going to need to trap your feral guy in order to get him to the vet. Once you do have him trapped, he’ll need to be seen pretty quickly, since hanging out in a trap for a long time will severely stress him.

Thomas: The way to trap a feral cat is with a humane trap, sometimes called a Havahart® trap. Your local animal shelter, your veterinarian, or animal control officer might have one you can borrow. If not, they can be purchased at home supply stores and other such outlets.

Dahlia: Once you get the trap, be sure to assemble and/or prepare it in a place where he won’t hear the noise and commotion. Be sure you know how to use the trap and that you’ve got it set properly. Line the bottom of the trap with newspaper to protect his paws, and then place it in a secluded location.

Siouxsie: In your case, since you’ve been feeding your feral cat, we’d recommend that you put the trap where his usual feeding station is. Instead of putting out his usual food, bait the trap with about a tablespoon of a very tasty treat.

Thomas: Alley Cat Allies recommends smelly foods such as tuna in oil, sardines, or baby food (without onions). You can also drizzle some of the juice from the food in a zigzag pattern along the floor of the trap toward the entrance. (Here’s a detailed guide on how to trap a cat.)

Dahlia: When the cat goes into the trap, he’ll (hopefully) step on the trigger plate, which will close the door of the trap behind him. However, some cats can be quite clever and get the food without tripping the trigger.

Siouxsie: Be sure you keep track of the trap from a distance. Check it every 15 minutes to half hour. You don’t want the cat to be sitting in the trap for too long because of the stress level and the fact that he won’t be able to find shelter if it’s cold or rainy.

Thomas: Once you’ve trapped him, put a cover over the trap (this will lower his stress and make him easier to handle, call your vet, and get him to the clinic as soon as you can. It’s normal for feral cats to thrash around inside the trap, and this sounds a lot worse than it actually is. Don’t open the trap or try to pet him.

Dahlia: While the cat is at the vet for treatment, have them check to see whether he’s male or female, and have the cat vaccinated against rabies and spayed or neutered if necessary. He should probably also be tested for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia (FeLV).

Siouxsie: When the cat is under anesthesia, your vet may also snip the top off one of the cat’s ears to show that although he’s feral, he has been fixed and vaccinated. This is called “ear tipping,” and it’s a standard procedure in feral cat trap-neuter-return (TNR) operations.

Thomas: During the course of treating this cat for his injury, you may find that what you’ve got on your hands is a scared stray, not a feral cat. We think this may be the case because this cat will let your husband pet him and will go into your garage to sleep and eat. Very few feral cats would let a human touch them at all.

Dahlia: Learn more about how to tell the difference between a scared stray cat and a feral cat with Alley Cat Allies’ comparison of the behaviors of strays and ferals.

Siouxsie: If this cat turns out to be a stray that’s had no human contact for a long time, you may be able to acclimate him to a life indoors.

Thomas: Here’s some information on how to soothe a scared stray and help them relax into an indoor environment.

Dahlia: If your vet is interested in learning more about the protocols of feral cat care, Alley Cat Allies has a whole section of its website devoted to information for veterinarians.

Siouxsie: Good luck to you and your cat, Kathleen. We hope he turns out to be a scared stray who can eventually have a good life in a home — perhaps even your home! And if he is feral, we’re glad you and your husband care enough to take good care of him and keep him safe and healthy.