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Franny, Saved from a Life as a Breeding Feral Cat by Margaret Schill
Franny lived with us from the time she was a 7 weeks-old feral kitten, until she was nearly a year old. Franny and her three brothers were found in a bucket by my husband, Jim, in an old shed next to our house while he was helping to tear down the shed on April 10, 2003. He thought they were rats at first. The bucket was hanging on a nail in the wall, above a floor cabinet of sorts. It would be a tight fit for the mother cat to get in there with her kittens to nurse! But, it sure was a secret, safe place. The kittens’ eyes were not yet opened and their ears were still folded down. But, one kitten’s ears started standing up the next day, he had some teeth buds, and combined with their size, indicates that they were around two weeks old. So, one could make Franny’s birthday at the end of March 2003. Franny’s mother, Penelope, was a homeless cat we were feeding, after having found footprints in the snow in February. (Though, it turns out there were other cats besides Penelope coming to eat, including her mate, Bruce.) We put food out and would sometimes see her from the window at dusk eating, but she was very scared then, and would run off if she saw the curtain move, let alone one of us going outside. At the time my husband found the kittens in April, Penelope was just starting to trust us, not running away if we came outside, but was still too wary to let us get closer than about 12 feet near her. She was clearly a scared, homeless, hungry little momma kitty. On the afternoon the kittens were found, we put them in a box in our yard, hoping Penelope would come and that we could perhaps catch her and then bring them all inside. Here are their first pictures, and Penelope at that time (Franny is the kitten with two dots on her head):
Penelope came around about two hours later and ran off with one of the kittens, when I just had to go inside for a minute. As it was getting dark and cold, and Penelope did not come back, we took the remaining kittens inside, which included Franny, and tried bottle feeding them. They didn’t get the hang of sucking on a bottle, so the time consuming slow drip method had to be used every few hours. I was going to have to go back to work in a few days, and didn't know what I would do with these infants then. Fortunately, Penelope was waiting by the back door the next morning, come to fetch back her kittens. She knew they were in the house, or maybe just hoped they were. One by one I set out a kitten for her take back, which she did at about two hour intervals. During the next few weeks, Penelope became less wary, until that wonderful day when she fully trusted us, becoming a lap cat! She couldn’t get enough petting and loving from then on during her visits to our yard. She obviously was a very tame, former pet cat who had be lost or abandoned to the streets for many months. Getting the Kittens Weeks were going by and we still could not locate where Penelope had stashed her kittens. Time was running out before they would become too feral to catch. One night, May 30th, Penelope let Jim follow her to the old garage/junk storage building of a neighbor, where the kittens were hidden. We got permission from the owners to go in their garage/junk storage building, to try to get the kittens. The neighbors knew they were there, but couldn't catch them. Penelope came up to Jim and I, greeting us by rubbing on our legs and making a murmuring friendly noise, as if saying, “It’s about time you came to take us all home.” The kittens were hiding under and behind all the junk. I sat nearby on a stool with a top opening carrier next to me. Penelope rubbed on me, sat on my lap, purred, did the happy murmuring noise, and also the special calling “It’s ok” noise to her kittens. I was able to quickly pick them up and put them in a carrier. The second kitten I picked up screamed, which caused Franny and the fourth kitten, who were making their way slowly towards Penelope and me, to scurry back behind the junk. They were too scared to be coaxed out, even with their mother calling them, so I took the first two kittens back to my house to give the scared kittens in hiding time to relax. When I went back a while later, Penelope really upped the "come over here kittens!" calling, really wanting them to come to me. It was really amazing and wonderful that Penelope trusted us so much and wanted us to get her kittens. The kittens obeyed their mother so I didn't have trouble getting Franny and her brother. Penelope happily went in the carrier with them, and we all went home. It seems to me that Penelope was confident that she and her kittens would be living with my husband, me and my other cats in the house. It actually seemed to have been her plan. I think her seeing my cats from the windows and in our outdoor enclosure made her think it was a safe, good place for cats to be, especially with the "food lady" living there! The kittens were about 7 weeks old by then, and never having seen a human, were very scared. Here they are below, the first night and following day, set up in the bathroom. The kittens and Penelope don’t look as white as they really are due to being dirty from the dirty garage they lived in at first. That’s Franny with the two small dots on her head. She has one blue eye, and one gold eye. (Her blue eye often comes out red in pics- there was nothing wrong with her eye.)
They all had round worms, including Penelope, so had to have that bitter tasting worm pill. Franny fought hard about getting it shoved in her mouth. They had fleas too, not surprisingly, but were healthy. Penelope got her kittens all cleaned up, so the three white kittens now looked white. We expanded their horizons by letting them in the two bedrooms that had connecting doors between them. The kittens' main room was the guest bedroom, but they had time each day in the larger bedroom. They loved going in there, and would race in like kids let of school for recess when we opened that door. Of course, we kept our other five cats separated. Here is Franny with her siblings over the next few weeks:
Just before we got Penelope and the kittens inside, we took in a homeless male cat, Bruce, whom we are sure was the father. He and Penelope would hang out together outside, call for each other when the other was not in sight, and one kitten was the exact same color as Bruce. Bruce was kept in a separate room from the kittens, except for canned food time while we supervised. We would have let him have more access to them, but he had Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and we were being very cautious with the kittens. Their mother, Penelope, did NOT have FIV as per testing, and the kittens wouldn't have it either, since the FIV virus is not in sperm cells, making it impossible for them to be born with it, and since their mother did not have it.
That turned out to be the day that two of the kittens were also rehomed. Shortly after that, the last of Franny's brother's was rehomed. A possible home had been found for Franny, but the people changed their minds. Franny took to sleeping cuddled with Jim, not having any other cats in her room left to snuggle with, so he decided we would keep her. The Integration of Franny It's never really very predicable how each cat will react to a different new cat. I was rather surprised that Galen was afraid of kitten Franny at first. He's pretty laid back. I didn't think he'd be eager to have another cat in the house taking my attention, but I didn't think he'd whine and cry in baby cat fear and hunker to the back of the cat carrier when I put him in it and took him in the bedroom for a look at little Franny when she trotted up to him all curious. You'd think it was a snarling, spitting, large tough street tomcat that was looking at him.
That could be because of the great "horrific", unimaginable shocking experience he had when, previously, I put him in the big carrier and set him in the room with all four of Penelope's kittens, before Franny's three brothers got adopted, in preparation of integrating them in case we couldn't find homes for all the kittens. At first, they were all hidden under the bed. Then one by one they crept out and came near the carrier enclosed Galen. His eyes couldn't have gotten any bigger. I thought he'd have a heart attack when one crawled up on top of the carrier and peered down at him. He started whimpering and crying pitifully after the fourth kitten came crawling out from under the bed and crept towards him. I suppose he thought it would never end; an invasion of millions of little furry monsters from Mars! So I had to take him out the room after a few very short minutes so he wouldn't have a nervous breakdown. Galen and Sumner didn't take long at all to accept Franny. By the end of July, they were fully integrated with her, and got to be companions for her for those times when we had to shut her in her room, Franny not being integrated yet with the other three cats. The bad thing is that Galen and Sumner may as well have been statues of cats at times. Galen would wave a paw for 1/2 a second as he continued resting, in a less than half-hearted attempt to give Franny some sort of acknowledgement when she tried to play with him. Since Galen and Sumner would just mostly lie around, hardly moving, little Franny did that too, next to them, all content. Instead of her getting them more playful, they were getting her more sedate! Jolie growled at the totally SHUT door Franny was behind most of the time for a MONTH. She would make it point to go growl at the door a few times a day, giving that dreadful kitten-creature a piece of her mind. Jolie also growled and hissed at me if I had been in the room with Franny and had the kitten's scent on me. But Jolie cried a lot in distress too, coming up to me in such despair, and needed lots of holding and hugs. She would also hiss at the other cats while she was in a hissy mood over Franny, from having smelled Franny's scent in a room we had let Franny visit or from having had a peep at Franny. If we had Franny out of her room for some short, supervised minglings, Jolie would make spitting noises at her, worse than growling. We knew things were improving with Jolie the day she passed by the door to Franny's room and forget to hiss until she was two rooms away, turned around, and went back to give a hiss at Franny's door. Jolie wound up being the first of the other four cats to hang around and play with Franny, when Franny was finally out for some mingling. The other cats, who did not get as upset as Jolie did about the kitten being in the house, never did have anything much at all to do with her. Minerva actually was more upset than Jolie. At least Jolie was able to go near the door at all. The first time I came out of the room carrying Franny, 12 weeks old, and sat down on a chair, Minerva came up to see what I had. Then she stood frozen in stunned horror a few seconds when she realized I was holding a horrible little living creature. She recovered her ability to move, and ran the heck out of the house into the enclosure. Minerva lived outside in our cat enclosure (that has free access into the house) for a month. She only snuck in at night if the weather was bad in order to sleep on the high shelf over the clothes dryer, or snuck in at night to eat some dry cat food that was just by the laundry room door, and probably snuck around sniffing to see if the monster kitten was still in the house. In nice weather, she stayed outside to sleep. The pet flap was in the laundry room, so Minerva made sure to never be far from being able to zoom back outside if that very scary kitten might make an appearance. She banged the cat flap repeatedly like she was knocking on the door when she wanted us for some reason, sometimes just for us to visit a spell with her outside, or to bring out some food for her. She just was not ready to even breathe in the same air that kitten exhaled. But, she got over it and finally moved back into the house and was able to deal with Franny being around. We had been concerned with how our territorial cat Simon might act towards Franny, as he fought with a previous adult female cat we had to the point we had to rehome her. We did a very protective introduction at first, hovering over little Franny, to make sure he wasn't of a mind to attack her, and he wasn't. So Simon was the next cat to become fully integrated with Franny and actually seemed to like having her here. Franny made cute squeaking calling noises to the other cats, but they didn't always pay attention to her. Simon tried playing chase with her, but he is so big, and ran so fast, it scared her. She got "big", with all her hair standing on end and made that moaning, rowling scared sound. That confused and disappointed Simon, since Franny asked him to play with the special kitten "let's play" call, and none of the other cats would play with Simon. She did feel comfortable to eat next to him, though. Below are Franny with the boys and Jolie during the early days of integration. At this point, Minerva still tried to avoid being around Franny, preferring to act like Franny simply didn't exist.
Franny developed into a beautiful young lady. We had her spayed when she was 5 months old, not waiting for the traditional 6 months. Our cat Minerva went into heat at 5 months old, so we didn't want that to happen with Franny. She recovered from her spay faster than any other female we had spayed. The younger cats really do have an easier time of it. Below are pictures of Franny from between about 4-6 months old. Once
Franny bonded with the other cats, she tended to avoid us humans, except for her
once a day petting session that she initiated. She really, really insisted
on that once a day petting session, and would purr and purr. Then, that
was it for the day. Though, she did like being petted when she was curled up snoozing.
And then came Marty, in
late October 2003. Marty was a lost Persian
cat I found on the streets and took in. See his story in the Rescue
section at Marty. Franny and Marty
became fast friends. My father died in April 2004, and then my mother had a heart attack. She could not care for all five of her cats, so we were going to take two of them. That would really make too many cats, and too many cat complications in our home, so my husband found a great home for Marty and Franny together. We didn't think we ever could rehome Franny, with her trying to avoid humans most all the time, having a touch of feral in her, so it was an opportunity not to be missed. The new people were fine with having a cuddly pet lap-cat, Marty, and having Marty have his pet cat, Franny. Here are Marty and Franny together:
My last pictures of Franny, full grown and beautiful:
I am so glad my husband and I took the time and effort to find, take in, socialize and care for, and then find homes for Franny and her siblings. If we hadn't, they all would have grown up as feral cats, reproducing new generations of feral cats. |
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