Infant Kittens Make Big Cats Tense
Infant Kittens Make Big Cats Tense
March 24, 2003, 1:00 AM
My big cats are tense. I have the kittens in their little nest box inside a large carrier here next to me by the computer. I’ve been hearing hissing, growling and warning whining noises (those are from Simon). I found a little puddle of blood- can’t tell from whom, but Minerva was hiding under the bed for a while, which she doesn’t usually do, so I guess it was hers. She finally came out and I got to do a brief check with all looking well- she won’t let me hold onto her. She played with an interactive toy, though, and seemed ok. And who would guess, but little meek Jolie has been hissing at Galen, and also at the kittens whenever she passes the carrier they are in. They’ve still been sleeping, not making a sound. But of course the big cats can smell them.
There are other cats outside, judging from how my cats are acting. Poor guys. Likely worried that the mamma cat will try to get inside to get her babies. Then there is Stumpy, a big tom cat who comes around sometimes, plus the invisible black cat, whom one gets a brief glimpse of now and then. I have all the lights on now, except in the room my husband is sleeping in, so they can clearly tell who is who, and that the outside cats have not gotten in. Porch lights on too.
I finally decided to treat them all to pure Halo chicken treats. Even though I don’t believe it works, I did put a drop of Rescue Remedy on the treats. Guess what, the cat’s can tell and won’t even eat them!. Not eating Halo chicken treats!?! Not even Galen, who was so addicted to them!?! Maybe it takes a long time for the alcohol smell to go away.
Thank God I am on vacation this week. I don’t know what I would do otherwise. I suppose I would have just let the mother cat move the rest of the kittens to who knows where. I still wonder if maybe I shouldn’t have taken them in, but when she didn’t come back for the rest of them after three hours, and it got breezy with a cool breeze, I thought it would be best. I feel sorry for that one kitten by itself, but maybe the mother will stay longer with it. Hopefully, she will bring it my way in a few weeks and I’ll be able to catch it, to socialize it and find a home. I sure don’t want a whole colony of semi-feral cats to start growing. I need to do trap her so she won’t have more kittens, but that will have to wait for several weeks.
Simon’s asleep now! Too bad Minerva and Jolie are facing each other off and hissing. As soon as Jolie falls asleep, I’ll try to sleep too. Jojo is taking this very hard. She keeps running past the carrier with the kittens hissing and growling. She’s a little territorial thing after all. Ooops, Simon’s awake now, due to hearing Jolie growling.
4:00 AM
I woke the kittens up again to try to feed them. I don’t know why they don’t wake up meowing to be fed. Two of them “chewed-sucked” and did intake some KMR by doing so! : ) I think I need to put the nipple further in their mouths, but one of them got upset when I did that, pushing my hand away, twisting it’s head around, and mewling. I got some more drops into the third kitten. For one of the kittens, it seemed to work better if I held it’s body more upright, with my finger keeping it’s head by the nipple. Otherwise it wouldn’t keep it’s head near the nipple. But progress is being made. They urinated again from being rubbed, then cuddled up and went back to sleep. So surely they will live several more hours until the vet opens. At least they won’t die from uremic poisoning from not urinating. I did find out from an article on the internet not to worry if they don’t have a bowel movement for up to two days. So that’s one less thing I have to worry about, since they haven’t had one yet.
My cat Jolie was really freaked out. She was even hissing and growling at me, but of course, I had the “aliens” scent on me. But then she seemed sorry, and made the baby meow at me, and let me hold and hug her. I finally closed her up in the bedroom with my husband (who was trying to sleep) as she kept going around growling at all my other cats, and getting big Simon agitated. That is a bad thing, as when he fights, he is vicious. At first he seemed scared of her, then started to take it personally and started to move towards her, so I put her in with hubby. Everyone is sleeping now, except me. I guess I can safely take a nap now.