Worth Fighting For

Ferals do a lot of "fighting".  My ferals have been fighting constantly since they came to me.  

They fought:

* To get to the back of the cage and be the kitten the furthest from me at all times.

* To get away and avoid being picked up and handled.

* To be the first gobble down the food and retreat to a hiding place.
* To overcome their fear.

*  To be the one who gets the most of the baby food.

* To see who could get the most toys.

* To overcome their illness.

* To allow themselves to relax enough to start to trust me.

Every single feral kitten that comes into a shelter and successfully goes through the socialization process has to be a fighter.  Even though they are still just babies, they fight through illness, fear, malnutrition, a lack of trust, and so many other challenges that many of us humans would find overwhelming.

And as we approach the New Year, I am happy to say that Frankie and Hyde are still fighting. But now, instead of fighting to get away from me, they fight to push each other out of the way so that they can be the one to get the most petting from mom. 

I have so much respect for all of the feral kittens I have been lucky enough to foster.  They are the epitome of the fighting spirit that is in some many shelter animals and show me time and time again that some things are truly worth fighting for.

Happy New Year Frankie, Hyde, (and Twyla in your forever home),
Love,
Your Fighting "Coach"
Mom

And the Walls Come Tumbling Down!

Sometimes you just never know what is going to help you make progress with your feral fosters but you are sure glad when it happens.

Frankie has been stuck on a plateau in her socialization for about two weeks now.  She has not regressed, which is good, but she has not moved forward at all.  All I could do was keep trying to chip away at the wall she had built up between us and hope that she would one day stop being afraid of me and start wanting my company.  The usual tricks of food, baby food, toys, and petting were not working.  She was still too frightened and insecure to open up to me.  She pretty much would rush to eat her food and then find a corner to hide in until I left the room.  She would tolerate me picking her up or touching her but she did not like it at all.

I wanted to give her a place that she could feel like she could "get away" from me without cramming herself into a little dark corner.  But I had been forced to throw out all my cat climbing trees earlier in the year due to possible contamination with a mysterious virus that was fatal to two kittens in a litter of five.  Thanks to the generosity of people donating their unwanted cat furniture to the shelter rather than tossing it or selling it and because two wonderful staff members remember I needed cat trees, I was able to put both a shorter cat post and a tall climbing tree into my foster room late last week.

At first both Frankie and Hyde were afraid of the trees, but after about a hour and some exploring they were two happy climbing kittens.  Then something wonderful happened this weekend.  Frankie was able to look at the world from an up high perspective and it helped her find her confidence.  She could be away from me with out being cornered in a small dark place.

She stopped bolting right away after eating her food.  If I put her on my lap, she did not like it, but once I let go, she just walked a few feet away and calmly sat down rather than freaking out.  And today there was even more progress!  I went into the room in between feedings to give Hyde some attention and cuddling.  She watched for 2-3 minutes from her perch on the smaller cat post yawned and then came down to join us.

For the first time ever, she allowed me to pet her without food to distract her.  And when I stopped petting her, she looked at me like she was enjoying it.  She watched Hyde come up and hit my hand to get me to pet him again.  She was not brave enough to try that, but she did come closer to me.

I did 3-4 short sessions with no food in the room with them today and by the time I turned out the light to put them to bed, she was coming right up to me and even climbing into my lap.  She is still very nervous, and not yet ready to head butt my hand to ask for petting, but I can tell by her expression that she likes it and is actively seeking out affection from me.

That stubborn wall had finally came tumbling down and allowed me to see the real Frankie hiding behind all that fear.  I now can finally see that someday she will be a good companion to an experienced cat lover who can appreciate her shy, feisty, sweet personality.

So, Frankie, my little girl, it it nice to finally meet you.

Wait...Where Am I?

Twyla has become quite the traveler in the two months since she came into the shelter.  She started out with me, then went to another foster home and just this Saturday, she went to the shelter...to go up for adoption! 

That's right folks.  She is happy, healthy and social enough to go up for adoption.  So here she is in her cage at the shelter waiting to meet that special person who will be her forever home.

Most kittens that come out of foster for adoption are adopted in 24-48 hours.  Former feral kittens often take a week or more to find the right home.  This is because feral kitten often need quiet, adult only homes with experienced cat owners.  And those adopters need to be willing to work with a shy kitten because they will regress a bit when they change locations.  Our shelter has very good luck in finding people like this for our feral babies but it does sometimes take a little bit.

However, sometimes the stars align and the right home for a former feral kitten shows up right away.  I am thrilled to say that is what happened with Twyla.  Twyla came into the shelter for adoption Saturday morning.  Volunteers were cleaning a cage for her to move into when the foster coordinator and I were talking with another foster mom.  She had a friend that expressed an interest in adopting one of her foster kittens, but for a variety of reasons her kitten was not the best match for her friend.  So we suggested Twyla.

The foster mom came with me to meet Twyla even before she made it into her cage.  She spent some time with her, took some pictures and sent the information to her friend.  It was a match!  The friend came up to meet Twyla as soon as we opened to the public and I am thrilled to report that Twyla is ADOPTED and already in her forever home!

So it was a great weekend for this Animal House.   If Twyla had never been trapped, brought to the shelter and sent into foster, this little sweetie would have likely already gone to the rainbow bridge either from the cold or her illness.  Now Twyla will spend her life inside as a well loved member of a family and will likely have a long wonderful life.

Happy endings like this are why I do what I do.  So as I say to all my fosters as they go up for adoption - "Bye, Twyla.  Good luck in your forever home.  Mommy loves you."  And that is why this blog is called "Always in our Hearts".  Because our fosters may only stay in our homes for a little while, but they are in our hearts forever.

p.s. - Don't worry, this is not the end. Twyla's siblings Hyde and Frankie are still with me and I will be back with updates on their progress soon.

Yeah...That's the Spot

We are now in a good spot here in the Animal House.  I am happy to report that everyone is improving in both health and socialization.

Twyla is doing very well in her new foster home.  Her health has improve quite a bit on her new medication.  And she is snuggling with her new foster mom.  So things are actually looking good for to go up for adoption once she finishes her medication without needing to come back to me for more socialization.  While I will miss not seeing her back with me again, the sooner she can get to a loving forever home, the better.   I will let you all know how she does as I get updates from her new foster home.

Frankie and Hyde are also basically recovered from their health issue and we are now actively working on socialization again.  They are both loose in the room and learning to be more normal kittens.  We are going full force with them only having yummy wet food when I am in the room and it is making a difference.

Frankie is still very nervous about coming near me, but with the benefit of the food she is coming closer and closer to me every day.  She comes right out as soon as I come in the room and some where inside her, she does want to be with me.  Her new habit is to find a blanket or pillow about 3 feet from where I am sitting and sit there.  It allows her to be close to me, but not so close that she is nervous.  I can pet her during eating and even a stroke or two after she is done eating.  Today I pushed her boundaries even more by making her eat her food while in my lap.  She was nervous about this and kept moving away, but allowed me to pick her up and move her back to my lap to eat each time.

Hyde is enjoying petting and will walk right up to me to ask for it as long as I am sitting down. I have found a spot on his chin that he loves having scratched and that was the key to getting him to not just tolerate affection but to actively seek it out.  He now meows at me in greeting when I come into the room and follows me to the door when I leave.  I can still see that he is nervous and he does get freaked if I move too fast or if a strange sound startles him.  But now if he bolts away when startled, he turns around and comes right back to me once he settles down.  I can pick him up and hold him for short periods of time.  I am working with him to increase the amount of time he is OK with being held and also working to get him to be comfortable with being carried around the room while I am standing.

Why am I working on that?  I could just tell an adopter he does not like to be carried, but the reality of shelter life if that he needs to be taken out of his cage and carried to a visiting space in order to meet an adopter so he needs to be safe for non feral experienced volunteers to handle him.

The biggest stride that Hyde has made was actually today.  He discovered my lap and realized that it is a nice place to take a rest.  Of course I have had him on my lap before.  I have forced him to be on my lap, encouraged him to crawl into it to get baby food and tricked him into running across it to chase a toy.  But today he crawled up in my lap to get some petting and then sat down.  He was very stiff at first but I started petting his favorite spot and he slowly relaxed and realized he was very comfortable.  So I spent a few minutes with this little feral guy sprawled in my lap.

As he sat there trying not to fall asleep he looked up at me and made eye contact.  And for the first time he looked at me and actually connected with me.  Instead of nerves and stress in his eyes, I saw acceptance, affection and a desire to bond with a person.

So I can say, yeah, that's the spot.  And what a good spot it is.

Lessons Learned

Dear Fosters Kittens:

When I decided to become a foster parent, I did it because of my love of animals and a desire to help.  I quickly knew that each and every one of you was going to touch my heart and that fostering you was going to be fun, challenging, heartbreaking and a wonderful experience for my whole family.  What I did not realize is that while you really needed my help, I really needed you too.

You have changed me as a person and I will be forever grateful.  So on this day of Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a minute to just say thank you for the life lessons you have taught me. 

To Sadie who we adopted at age 11 - you taught me that love has no age.

To Doyle who I just could not let go - you taught me that a forever connection can be made in an instant.

To Charlie who stopped moving for a week from unknown reasons and still has balance and allergies issues - you taught me that your don't have to be perfectly healthy to be a perfect match for the right little girl.

To Nigella who is still learning to be social - you taught that you do not have to be "typical" to inspire love in those around you.

To Abner who is our first small animal foster - you taught me to not get too set in my ways and always be open to new things.

To Ali who was too weak to stand - you taught me to never give up and always keep fighting. 

To Gus who was scared, cold and alone - you taught me that a little love can make a huge difference.

To Christopher, Pluto, Savvi, Glory Eddie, and too many others who went to the rainbow bridge - you taught me to put others first and know when it is time to let go.

To Neko whose leg swelled up three times its normal size - you taught me that weird things happen, but just go with the flow and things will turn out OK.

To Victoria who was too feral to touch for a month - you taught me patience and persistence does pay off.

To Neptune who was so sick you were not expect to survive the weekend - you taught me that miracles do happen.

To Jude who spent her entire 6 month long life with us - you taught me that it does not matter how long your life is, it only matters what you do with it.  Use whatever time you have in this life to share your skills and talents with others. And most importantly, reach out to touch others hearts.  The love you share will come back to you.  Anyone can make a difference in this world if they just try.

So to all my fosters, the ones listed here and the many, many others, I am thankful for the life lessons you have taught me, the love you have shared and the difference you have made in my life. 

I will never know all the details of  your life before me or the road you will travel after you leave me, but in the words of the band Rascal Flatts, I will always be thankful for the "Broken Road" that led you to me.

Love,
Your Foster Mom
Michelle

The Grass Isn't Always Greener

The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.  Sometimes it is just scary.  At least that is what my kittens are feeling right now.  For over a month, Frankie, Twyla and Hyde have been in my house.  They have gotten used to the room they are in and to me.  Twyla was progressing well with her socialization.  Frankie and Hyde were not. 

But then, as I mentioned in a previous post, they got sick.  Twyla actually had already been sick, but this week she got much sicker.  And Frankie and Hyde started showing odd symptoms too.  So on Friday it was off to the shelter to see the vet to try and figure out what it going on.

The news is mixed.  Twyla is definitely getting worse.  Her congestion is concerning and it is time to get more aggressive with her treatment.  She will now be on an oral antibiotic, SQ fluids, force feeding as needed and an injectible medication.  I am happy that she is social enough to tolerate this sort of treatment.  But I am sad to say that I had to send her to another foster home for her treatment.  While I have no problem with the level of care she needs, one of the medications (the injectible medication called Penject) is something that I am dangerously allergic to.  Even just getting it on my skin can cause my throat to swell.  As much as I love Twyla, it is not safe for me to give her the treatment she needs.  So she has gone to the home of an awesome foster mom who is amazing with feral kittens but just does not have the time to socialize on a regular basis anymore.  She is also a vet tech so Twyla is in very good hands until she is off the Penject and can return to me.

Frankie and Hyde are also on medication.  Their vet exam was inconclusive, mostly because they are still so feral it was difficult for the vet staff to handle them.  But given the symptoms I was reporting seeing in my house and the fact that Frankie's lungs sounded a little harsh, they are now on meds.

Because of a lack of an available car, Frankie and Hyde had to spend the night at the shelter Friday night.  I was not able to pick them up until almost 1pm the next day.  They were well taken care of by the wonderful staff at the shelter but for them, this was definitely NOT fun.  They were in a strange place, being poked and prodded by strangers, and just where did they think they were putting that thermometer?!  They were in a strange cage, the smells were different, they could hear dogs barking and there were just SO many strangers.

When feral kittens experience a stress like this they can go two ways.   They can either regress and act more feral or do what Frankie and Hyde have done.  They have decided the grass was not greener on the other side of the fence and are very happy to be home!

Hyde has suddenly started purring very quietly at me, is enjoying and occasionally even soliciting attention with a head butt.  This is a huge step forward for him.  He is in the odd stage where he wants this attention, but at the same time, it makes him nervous.  So the trick right now is to keep the interactions short.  The old saying applies here:  Always leave them wanting more.

As for Frankie, she has not has such a dramatic leap in her socialization, but she has improved.  She still hisses if startled while in her crate.  But she is now allowing me to pet her without the distraction of food.  And for the first time ever, I was able to pick her up and move her a few feet without having to scruff her.  Frankie actually would probably make faster progress if she was not crated but since I need to be able to get my hands on her to medicate them, both remain crated for the time being.

I have actually consulted with some other wonderful feral foster people regarding Frankie and Hyde and everyone pretty much has the same thought that I did.  They need to be uncrated and learn to want to come near me, but first I need to get them healthy.  Right now, I am avoiding the stress of giving them medication by mixing it into their baby food.  I am hopeful that I will continue to be able to trick them into taking the medication this way.

In the mean time.  They have decided that I am not so bad in comparison to the world out there.  And I am enjoying the extra one of a kind affection type of affection that comes from a feral kitten who is starting to really enjoy being with me.

No Photos Please!

Do you know who hates cameras almost as much as a drunk celebrity sneaking out of a club after doing something foolish?  Feral kittens.

You may have noticed that there are not that many photos in this blog even though I truly do think that pictures help tell a story.  But the well being and stress level of my kittens has to come first.  And feral kittens do not like their picture taken.

When you think of it from their perspective, they are just getting used to how you look and the room around them.  Now all of a sudden there is a strange device blocking their view of your face.  Then the device makes odd clicking noises and often flashes a bright light in their face.  And it happens again and again.  Or even worse than blocking your face, that strange item get put really close to them and really freaks them out.  So I usually hold off on the photos until they are much more comfortable with me and I usually let them sniff the camera to see it is harmless first.

That being said, we are not likely to have an updates on progress in terms of socialization for a while.  Twyla is very sick and as of today Hyde and Frankie are both limping for no known reason.  At this point it is unclear as to whether they are limping due to injuries of some point, or if it is a side effect of a virus.  I will have to monitor them and see how it goes.

So to hold you until I can do a true blog update, here are some faces to put to the names you have been reading about for over a month now.

This is Twyla, my sickest little girl.  I am happy to report her hydration is starting to improve.  She continue to be the most social of the group.

Twyla

This is Frankie, the most feral of the group.  She is really not fond of people or other animals, but she will come around eventually.

Frankie

This is Hyde, my only boy.  He was the one who was initially in bite quarantine because he bit a staff member for vaccines.   He still struggles to be OK with being touched but is better than Frankie.

Hyde

And just for fun, this is my cat, Charlie, lounging in one of his favorite spots - Paige's pajama drawer.  At one point he was sicker and  more feral than all of this litter.  Whenever I get discouraged, I can look at him and see that there is always hope.

Charlie

SICK is a Four Letter Word

What does every feral foster mom fear the most?  Getting bitten?  Nope.  Having a socialization set-back?  Nope.  Getting too attached to a foster?  Nope, that happens all the time.  What I (and most feral foster moms) fear more than anything is their feral fosters getting sick.  And I am sad to say that we have been struck by illness here in the Animal House.

Twyla, my dilute tortie girl is not feeling well.  She was doing well right after I released the litter from their crate.  All three of them were very happy and acting as expected for their individual personalities (a topic I will cover at a later date).

But then on Sunday I noticed that Twyla was not playing as much.  And as the week progressed, she got more and more lethargic, lost interest in playing and in her food.  She was dehydrated and had lost weight.  I tried different foods and offered her more baby food.  By Wednesday she was weak and no longer even showed interest in baby food, which she LOVES.

So yesterday she had a vet check.  She did not really have any obvious easy to read symptoms.  Her eyes were a little watery, but not full blown upper respiratory infection discharge.  Her stool was a little loose and smelly but that is common of a kitten eating a lot of baby food.  She just did not want to eat and was dehydrated.  Because of this, the vet check did not find anything really concrete.  But it did rule out some pretty serious issues like distemper or pneumonia and such.  She falls into the nebulous category of failure to thrive.

What is failure to thrive?  Failure to thrive (also known as fading kitten syndrome in very young kittens) is not disease.  It is a name given to a group of symptoms that don't seem to have an easily found cause.  It is usually a combination of lethargy (reduced energy), lack of appetite and not eating, dehydration, and diarrhea.  Since these symptoms can be caused by infection, parasites, birth defects and a whole host of other diseases, it is often hard to narrow down exactly what the problem is with a kitten showing signs of failure to thrive.  It is a serious matter because many kittens can and do die from failure to thrive.  It is usually treated with a combination of medications in case of infection or parasites and supportive care such as force feeding, fluids under the skin (Sub-Q fluids) and making sure the kitten stays warm.

Thankfully, I have a lot of experience with failure to thrive kittens.  It is actually my other specialty.  Kittens in my home are usually feral, failure to thrive, or both.

So Twyla is now on an antibiotic twice a day, a dewormer once a day for three days and SubQ fluids once a day (or more if needed).  Treating any kitten for an illness like an upper respiratory infection (URI) or failure to thrive can be hard.  But treating a feral kitten brings with it its own set of challenges.  The most obvious being that it is hard to treat a feral kitten.  They just barely trust you.  Now you start shoving syringes with yucky tasting medications in their mouth, jabbing them with needles and putting fluids under their skin and sometimes even forcing food into their mouth when they don't feel like eating.

They do not like it.  At all.  They will probably try to bite you.  And I don't blame them.  When your feral gets as sick as Twyla is right now, you can pretty much kiss any of your socialization progress goodbye.  And that goes for any siblings too.  If you think that Frankie and Hyde do not understand that Twyla does not like me pinning her down and sticking her with a needle, you are kidding yourself.  Frankie and Hyde want nothing to do with me right now.  At all.

So for the time being, everyone is back in a crate.  Twyla is in her own to give her space and hopefully to keep her siblings from getting sick.  Frankie and Hyde are crated so they can get some preventative dewormer and so I can try and get them to trust me again.  But the reality is that just giving Twyla the care she needs to pull through this will probably take most of my time for the next week and none of the litter is likely to make any progress while I am medicating.

The other major factor in treating a feral kitten is stress.  A stressed kitten does not recover as well or as quickly as a calm one.  That is part of the reason sick kittens are sent into foster rather than staying in a stressful shelter environment.  So when treating ferals you have to maintain a balancing act.  ANY medical treatment is extremely stressful for a feral kitten.  Always work with your vet (or foster coordinator) to be sure that whatever treatment is being done is worth the stress it is going to cause in an unsocial animal.  It can be a hard balancing act.  Twyla is at the point that she needs the treatment to survive.  And she is social enough that she will likely be able to handle the stress.  I have unfortunately in the past, have had two ferals that were so sick that any treatment was a long shot.  One kitten named Pluto was still dangerously feral and had lost the will to live.  I realized Pluto was unlikely to be able to tolerate intensive supportive care he needed to have a chance at survival and with the help of the staff/vets made the hard decision to euthanize him so he would not suffer.  His brother Neptune was actually even sicker, but much more social and after a long hard road, he did pull through.

Neptune staying warm in my arms.

This is why I say SICK is a four letter word and am annoyed that illness has once again visited our foster home.  But while this is a discouraging set back, I will just have to grin and bear it.  I am putting all my thoughts and hopes into helping Twyla recover from whatever has caused her to go failure to thrive.  When she is better (knock on wood), we will likely be back to square one on socialization.  I will take a minute to rage at fate or the gods or whatever force sent this illness to my babies and then take a deep breath, grab the baby food and convince these little ones once again that they can trust me.

Moving On Up

In a previous post I mentioned that sometimes, after a feral has settled in and starts showing you their true personality, you may find that your foster home is not the best place for them.  I that happens, the best thing you as a foster mom can do is let them go.  With that in mind, I wanted to let everyone know that Abbey, my youngest feral has moved on to another wonderful foster home.

Why did she leave, you may ask?  She is not feral anymore.  But she is feisty.  She is also at least a pound and a half smaller than my older ferals.  Typical of single kitten, she has issues with play biting and being too rough.  Up until now, the older ferals have tolerated her jumping on them and biting them but as she gets bigger, the biting gets harder.  And as they get more comfortable in my home, they become less tolerant.  The writing has been on the wall for a few days now, but yesterday they finally started to fight back. 

Normally, I am all for letting other kittens teach a fresh kitten boundaries and manners.  It is the best and quickest way to eliminate mouthy biting kitten behaviors and it is what nature intended.  But since Abbey is so much smaller than her foster siblings and was just not getting their more gentle corrections, I was becoming concerned that she was going to get hurt.  She did get into a tiff with Frankie, the least tolerant of the litter yesterday.  I was able to intervene before it got bad because I never let the groups interact unless I am in the room with them.  But it became clear that Abbey would not be able to be unsupervised with Frankie, Twyla and Hyde and that she was starting to get annoyed about being in a crate. 

Luckily, when I took her into the shelter for her routine vaccines last night, another wonderful foster mom who has tons of experience with feisty, mouthy kittens offered to take her and let her more gentle foster (and adult cat) teach her the manners she needs to learn.  And I have already gotten a report that she is running, jumping and playing with her new siblings and enjoying life outside the crate.  So, even though I will miss her cute little face, I am happy for her.

As for my other litter, they will be going through a change very soon too.  They have reached the point that it is time to give them more freedom.  They are too big for the crate and are getting more and more used to me reaching toward them in the confined space of the ring pen.  All will come toward me for baby food.  So it is just about time to take a deep breath, jump off that cliff and let them out of the crate for good.  They will have the freedom of the entire foster room. This is always a hard step because in some ways, it is like going back to step one. 

There is a concept in special education that is called generalizing a skill.  It means being able to perform a skill or task in multiple different settings, at different times, with different people.  This is not an automatic accomplishment.  It needs to be taught.  It is why your toddler can say trick or treat at home, but not when actually out trick or treating.  Or the dog who aces the "sit" command stares at its owner in confusion when asked to sit in training class.

My kittens have not yet generalized their social skills.  They are OK with being petted, picked up, eating baby food and playing with toys - with me.  In the ring pen.  When I am sitting in a certain place.  Change any of those variables and they are no longer OK.  Once I let them out of the crate for good they will have to "relearn" these skills in the new setting.  It will challenge them and make them nervous so we will have to take it slow.  This can lead to frustration on the part of the foster mom because in your mind they are regressing.  But in truth, they are learning to generalize skills they have already learned and you need to give them as much time as they need to learn.

This "setback" will happen anytime you bring a new location or person into the mix.  But if you are prepared for it and understand why it is happening it makes it easier to deal with without getting discouraged. 

Just keep in mind - you are expanding their world and that can sometimes be scary for them.  Give them as much time as they need and you will see that as their world grows, so do the rewards.  The first time a feral kitten approaches you in the cage is a great feeling, but the first time a feral kitten crosses a room to be with you is amazing and I can't wait to get there with my current babies.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

One of the most important things that anyone working with feral kittens needs to spend some time on is actually thinking about what the word "feral" means.  There is an assumption that the word feral can be interchanged with aggressive which is not true and paints these animals in the wrong light.  The definition of feral is actually very simple.

Feral means to exist in a wild or untamed state.

Think about that for a minute because it perfectly describes what you are dealing with when working with a feral kitten.  It is existing in an untamed state.  A wild untamed animal is not instinctively aggressive.  In fact, if you see them interacting with each other, wild animals can be sensitive, kind and loving.  It is only when they are faced with a potentially threatening situation that a feral animal is likely to become aggressive. 

In a feral kitten the flight or fight response is very active.  If given the choice, the majority of the kittens will choose to flee rather than fight.  But in a shelter or foster setting, we take that choice away from them so they are left with no other choice than to fight.  From their perspective, it is truly a matter of life and death.  So next time you see a feral kitten hissing or swatting in a cage, keep in mind that while it is definitely dangerous in its current cornered, untamed state and should be approached with caution, it is not a naturally aggressive or mean animal. 

Even when my feral babies are hissing at me or trying to bite me,  I know that it is a product of their untamed state and do not take it personally or think it implies anything about their personality.  The good thing is that they do not have to stay untamed.  And at one point in the socialization process, you will see a subtle shift in the kittens' behavior.  It is when they take that first step away from being untamed and cross over that fine line into tame territory. 

For me, as a feral foster mom, I see that step as the light at the end of the tunnel.  It is a glimpse into the future of my babies lives.  The first time I can look at them and see the loving house pets they will eventually become.  The road is still long, and there is still tons of work to do, but the end is in sight.

How did we get to the point where I can see that light?  I knew I was going to be tied up all weekend at an adoption event at the shelter I foster for, so I decided that this weekend was a good one for some tough love.  At the stage they are at, my kittens have gotten used to the baby food and the play time out of the cage.  And they have definitely made the connection that these fun things come only when I am around.  So although they may not want me to touch them, they do want me to come around.  This weekend, when I "went away" so did the fun treats and play time.  They got dry food and water and were kept crated.  The only time I spent in the room was to check on them early in the morning and before bed be sure they were physically OK. 

Today, after a long night's sleep and working on the good vibes of having watched 122 adult cats find homes over the weekend, I went back to being "mommy" and bringing fun things - with one major difference.  No more free rides.  If they wanted the yummy baby food or the play time out the cage, they had to let me pick them up and handle them first.  Before they could come out of the cage, each kitten was picked up, put on my lap and petted whether they liked it or not.  If they fought too much, they went back into the crate to watch their siblings run around.  Baby food would no longer come to them, they had to come to it.  And it was in my lap. Of course, they were not happy with this change at first, but after a few short sessions, I am happy to report that they have all crossed that fine line on the way to being tamed. 

The baby of the group, who is now named Abbey, is actively snuggling and just need to get big enough for adoption - and learn not to bite while playing.  Twyla continues to be the most social of the older group.  She will meow to come out of the cage and climb all 4 feet on me to get the baby food.  She is almost to the point that she actually enjoys the petting and will purr for me occasionally.  Her siblings, Frankie and the newly named Hyde, both made the huge step of willingly putting both paws on my leg to get to the baby food in my lap.  And while that may not seem like a big deal, it is the first time that they have willingly touched me with anything other than the tip of their nose.  Yes, the baby food is the incentive, but they had the option to move away from me and instead chose to stand on me to get their treat.  So today is a good day.

Don't get me wrong. There is still a long way to go.  My roommate happened to open the door to the room at ask me about dinner and all three kittens bolted like the feral kittens they still are.  But there was even a positive in that too.  The path to their "safe" crate was blocked and they felt threatened.  But rather than trying to jump the ring pen and bolt for the corners of the room, they hid behind me.  I have been accepted as something that will keep them safe. 

These small gestures of trust are the first signs of the light at the end of a long, dark, twisting tunnel.  And let me tell you, its a beautiful thing to behold.

And Baby Makes Four

Most rescue and shelter groups never have enough feral foster homes because of the time and patience required to foster feral kittens.  The tips on how to socialize them and on how to handle kittens that might bite can be taught and in some cases the patience can be learned.  But it is a lot harder to create time.  Most people just don't have the lifestyle that gives them the time needed. Due to multiple medical conditions, I can not work full time and will likely never be able to do so again.  However, rather than dwell on the fact that I had to leave the work force in my 30s, I have chosen to do what I can with the time fate has forced on me.  Fostering higher risk kittens like ferals and sick failure to thrive kittens allows me to give back and feel like a productive member of society.

Because there are so few feral foster homes out there, it is not unusual for a feral foster mom or dad to have kittens from more than one litter.  And as long as you have the time and space to give them each the individual attention they need, there is nothing wrong with having more than one litter.  But I do suggest you keep in close contact with your foster coordinator and be honest with yourself as to whether they are making the progress they need.  It is better to ask your coordinator to move them to another foster home than let them get older and older under your care while they make no progress.  Switching kittens to another better suited home is not a failure.  Putting the kittens needs above your own desire to be the one to socialize them is what a good foster mom does (in my opinion).

Twyla, Frankie and their brother have not made much progress in the last few days but that is mainly because I had an asthma flare up and could not spend much time with them.  But they are still making a little progress so they are  OK to ride out this flare up with me.  And they are no longer alone.

And with that, I would like to introduce you to our newest little girl:

She is about 4 weeks old.  She was not really eating on her own when she was surrendered because she was too scared.  4 weeks is border line for eating wet cat food out of a dish on their own.  She probably would have eventually figured out how to eat out of a dish when she got hungry enough but she was a little dehydrated and pretty hissy, so I chose to syringe feed her for the first 24 hours.  Syringe feeding is basically mixing very soft wet cat food with water (and sometimes kitten formula) and using a medication syringe to put the food into their mouth.  When I first started syringe feeding her she was starving and ate so much that I had to cut her off before she made herself sick.  There were multiple benefits to syringe feeding her.  The most major was getting calories and hydration into her quickly so that she would get healthier quicker.

The seconds is that young kittens are simple.  They want to feel safe, warm and full.  At first she was very hissy, spitting (a noise scared kittens make) and popcorning (suddenly jumping up in the air to make herself look bigger and scary).  I picked her up by the scruff of the neck, wrapped her in a fuzzy blanket to get her warm and fed her.  By the time her belly was full she was pretty sure that I would do OK as a substitute mom and was cuddling in my arms struggling not to fall asleep.  Don't get me wrong, she still has a way to go and is not completely social.  I do have to reestablish that I am mom and she is safe with me each time I approach her cage, but it only take a minute or two.  And in the few days she is with me, she has already blown past her foster "siblings" in the socialization process.

Although this quicker socialization process is common for younger kittens, do not assume a kitten is going to be easier just because it is young.  Look at every kitten as an individual.  One of the most feral kittens I ever fostered was a 3 week old, 12oz kitten who was so feral that for over 3 weeks I had to wrap her in a towel to even pick her up to feed her without getting bitten.

As for where my newest little cutie came from, she was found in the wheel well of some one's car.  She is lucky to be alive.  Feral mom cats often walk away from a litter of kittens when they go back into heat which can be as early as 4 weeks after they give birth.  Those kittens get cold and go looking for someplace warm to sleep.  They will often crawl up into a wheel well or car engine because even after you park your car for the night the engine is warm for a while.  Many cases of kittens (or cats) found in cars do not end as well as this little girl's story did so please, please, bang on the hood of your car if it has been sitting for an hour or two before you start it in the fall/winter.

I know this might mean running out in the cold to bang on the car rather than using the remote car starter from the warmth of your house or office.  But isn't the life of a cutie like this worth it?

Feel free to steal this image and share it with friends and family to help spread the word.  Thanks!

What's in a Name?

You may have noticed at this point that I refer to my ferals as "my ferals" or "my girls."  You might be wondering what their names are and why don't I use them when writing about my kittens.  I do not use their names because they don't have them yet.

Many foster families use themes to name their kittens like characters on a TV show, colors, flowers, states, etc.  After you have had over 100 kittens come through your house it starts to get hard to think of new original names and themes just help get the ideas flowing.  Other families just pick random names they like.  We use a combination in our home.  Usually there is one name that seems to "fit" a kitten's personality or looks really well and we will name that kitten.  The rest of the litter will get names that go along with that name.

But I am one of those people that believes I need to have an idea of a kitten's personality before I give it a name.  To name a feisty, hyper kitten that does not like to be picked up something like Snuggles is false advertising and just annoying in my opinion.  So my family and I usually take a few days to get to know a new foster litter before picking names.  The problem with a feral kitten is that they are so scared and shut down when they first arrive they are not showing their real personality.  A feral that is initially really swatty and "aggressive" might turn into a real sweetheart once that initial fear passes.  Just like an extremely shy feral could turn into a cuddler.  So we wait until they start to show at least a little bit of their true personality before trying out names until we get that fits.

So what did we decide to name our current ferals?  Well, since it is close to Halloween, we decided on names from a kids TV show, Monster High.  If you are not familiar with Monster High, don't let the fact that it is about monsters fool you into thinking it is not a good show for your tween.  Don't get me wrong, it is silly and annoying at times just like all kids show can be, and the characters sometimes act in ways that we don't think are all that great.  But we just use that as an opportunity to explain to Paige (my 8 year old niece) what the character should have done in a given situation.  The reason her parents and I are OK with this show is that it is a relatively benign way for a tween to experience the paranormal craze that is currently in fashion.  And because the tag line of the show is "Be Yourself, Be Unique, Be a Monster."  And that is a message that we can support. 

So here are the Monster High themed names for our Halloween ferals:
 

The dilute tortie girl will be named Twyla (the boogeyman's daughter and instead of scaring humans like her dad she snatches humans bad dreams so they won't be afraid.) 

The long hair tortie will be named Frankie Stein (the frankenstein monster's daughter). 


What about the newest arrival I mentioned a few posts ago?  Their sibling who had been waiting out a bite quarantine at the shelter?  Well the quarantine is up and we are happy to announce - it's a boy!  We did not know the sex of the kitten until I picked him up yesterday because he was just too scared to handle.  The girls were as well, but since almost all torties are girls, it was a pretty safe bet they were girls.  Their black and white tuxedo litter mate was a mystery.  But the foster coordinator and I took a peek "under the hood" as we were using a towel to safely get him out of his cage at the shelter and into a crate to come home with me.  Yup, we have one scared little boy.

I have some ideas for names for him that fit the Monster High theme but none of them fit because I do not know him yet.  So only time will tell what his name is going to be in the long run.   He is settling in well right now so I will give you an update on his integration process soon.

And if at this point, you are wondering why I took on Twyla and Frankie when socializing ferals is so much work, let alone added another one - well what can I say?  I love my little monsters.  :o)

Are You My Mommy?

Many people that foster kittens also have adult cats of their own.  Often they are "failed" fosters (fosters that the foster family decided to adopt for themselves).  If you have adults cats of your own that are well adjusted, social cats that actually like meeting your foster kittens, you can use your cats to help you with the feral kittens.

I use my adult cats with my feral kittens in a few ways.  I never let the kittens meet my cats until they have been here a few days.  I have multiple reasons for that.  First I want the kittens to be settled in and comfortable in their crate because not all kittens actually like seeing an adult cat.  Most do, but you will come across that rare kitten or litter that hisses and gets upset at the sight of an unknown adult cat.  So I want to be sure they feel safe in their "den" before I push them at all.  The second reason is purely personal.  My adult cat, Charlie, has a severe flea allergy.  I want to be sure the flea treatment on the kittens has had more than enough time to work before I let any foster, feral or not, near Charlie and he is usually the one clamoring to meet them.

If you decide to use your cats to help move your ferals socialization along, be sure you pick the right cat (assuming you have more than one).  In my experience, my neutered male cats have been much more nurturing and tolerant of foster kittens than my spayed females.  My current female, Nigella, is OK with the fosters but really does not want that much to do with them.  My two boys, Charlie and Doyle, will clean them and play gently with them and pretty much mother them to a point.  That point is usually when a very young kitten decided to "nurse" on a certain inappropriate piece of anatomy.  Sorry kiddo, you are not getting any milk from there!

I will say that it does help to have your scared feral kittens see you interacting in a positive manner with an adult cat.  Kittens take their cues from the adult cats around them so if they see an adult being petted and showing no fear of you, it helps them to relax.  But beware:  depending on where your ferals are in their socialization process, showing them an adult cat can also make them try to bolt out of the crate to get to the cat.  That is what happened today when Charlie decided to visit the foster room.  My long hair tortie tried to bolt out of the crate past me to get to him.  I caught her but she was not happy about it.  This afternoon I will let them meet Doyle with the cage door closed.  He will actually go right up to the cage to meet them and since he loves his "mommy" to snuggle him in my arms like a baby the kittens will see that he is fine with me touching him and picking him up.

Once the kittens are social enough to let loose in the foster room, I will use my social cats to encourage the kittens to approach me on their own.  That is not something they will be comfortable with at first.   In fact, it is usually the last step they take before adoption (and sometimes after).  But my own guys don't want me taking two steps without them being right next to me, so they are a good teaching tool.  And I am a firm believer in using what ever tools life hands you.

The other way you can use a social cat to help you is for those rare litters that are so feral they refuse to eat in front of you for an extended period of time and will only eat overnight.  It is very important that your ferals eat in front of you because cats are motivated by food.  Once I know for sure that my kittens are healthy and eating, they do not usually get wet food unless I am in the room.  They never get baby food unless they are actively interacting with me.  This teaches them that humans bring yummy stuff and are good.  In this case, bribery is a good thing.

But to start this bribery, you need to be sure that the kittens are eating.  That is easy enough since if the food is gone in the AM, they ate overnight.  If they are not even eating overnight, call your foster coordinator because they might be sick or too scared to eat and will need syringe feed which believe me, if you do not have experience with syringe feeding a kitten that wants to bite you, don't attempt it.  You will get bitten.  You need expert advice for this.  You will need to be taught how to safely scruff the kitten and get the food in its mouth with out getting bitten.  (Hint: when the mouth opens to hiss at you, squirt in food.)  Thankfully this is rare.  What is more likely to happen is that the kittens will be too scared to eat in front of you.  They don't trust you enough to let down their guard enough to eat.

This is where the social cat comes in.  Grab a wet food that your cat loves and does not get all the time.  Put some in a dish for the ferals and put it in their crate.  Now place the rest of it in a dish for your cat and put in right outside the crate, as close to where the kittens' dish is as you can.  Your cat will gobble up the food with a "yeah, mommy is giving me a treat" attitude and hopefully your kittens will realize it is safe to eat the food with you in the room.  It might take a few sessions to get them to eat in front of you consistently but I am willing to bet your cat won't mind.  ;o)  And you can phase your cat out once the kittens are used to eating with you there then bring your cat back into the picture when you need to teach the kittens to approach you.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you should always be in the room when your own cats are interacting with your ferals.  This is for safety reasons and because you want the kittens to realize that you bring this fun adult cat in with you.  All good things come from you.  Food, soft blankets, warmth, baby food, companionship of an adult cat, toys, treats, and affection.

It will take a long time, but this fact will sink in to your ferals minds and they will begin to want you to be in the room and will start to return the affection.  And the first time your feral solicits attention from you or headbutts your hand . . . I can't even describe how wonderful that feels!  I am not there yet with my current girls, but taking it day by day and step by step, we are on our way.

One of my favorite quotes to keep in mind when working with ferals is from Lao-Tzu.  "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

There's a World Outside of Yonkers, Barnaby!

When you are fostering feral kittens you need to learn to live in the moment and think to the future all at the same time.  Everything you do is going to have an effect on how a kitten turns out in the end.  That's a lot of stress isn't it?  Yeah, I am not big on stress.  I like things simple.  So here is how you do the seemingly contradictory act of living in the now and thinking to the future.

Right now my kittens are in a crate.  I am enjoying each tiny little sign I see of their improvement...and they are tiny signs.  If you did not know what to look for you might not see their improvement at all and get very discouraged.  The progress my girls have made in the last day or two are as follows:  They will now both willing come forward about an inch to sniff my outstretched finger.  Any time a feral kitten willingly approaches you, even if it is an inch is a huge step.  They only stay hunched down and freaked for a few minutes after I open their cage.  They are quickly up on their feet and over to the food dish or spoon of baby food.  They are playing with the toys in their cage when I am in the room.  Both will allow me to pet them.  One does not like it, but allows it to get the baby food.  The other one tolerates it enough that I can get in a few strokes even after the baby food is gone.  All of these are awesome signs.

The major breakthroughs they made tonight is that both kittens were not only playing with a toy, they allowed me to reach into the cage and pick it up and play with them!  And finally, the braver of the two actually crawled from the cage onto my lap to get the baby food.  She bolted back into the cage once she finished the food and realized where she was but she willingly climbed on to me.

This is where the thinking to the future comes in.  As the girls have gotten more comfortable and more playful, a light has gone on in their head.  They are realized there is a world outside of their crate.  Right now they are torn between it being scary and wanting to explore it.  I can see them pushing their noses up against the crate and looking at the room beyond.  The one kitten getting brave enough to step on me to get to something outside the crate in a sign that they will soon want out of the crate.

But here is the thing - they are not ready.  They are not social enough to come out.  If I let them out they would bolt to the corners of the room and come no where near me.  To get close to them I would have to chase them which will set them back way too much.  So they will stay in the crate.  But I understand they need exercise so at least once a day I take the litter box and water dish out out the crate and give them the whole crate to run and jump and play without fear of making a mess.  I sit right next to the opening of the crate so I can stop them from getting out and so they realize the only way out is over me which means being touched and snuggled. 

A few volunteers at the shelter I foster for have mentioned that my socialized ferals seem really friendly in the cage, soliciting attention to get out but are more nervous once out.  This is true of most socialized ferals, but mine learn from day one that if you want out...you have to let mom cuddle you.

Of course, escapes are inevitable, especially if you have more than one kitten.  They are small and they are quick.  Which is why I am now starting to play with my girls with a laser pointer.  I run it all around their cage and they chase it like mad.  They are not quite ready to try and bolt out of the cage, but if they develop a fondness for the laser pointer (or wand toy) now, it will be a huge help when an escape happens.

I mentioned above that chasing a feral kitten should be avoided at all costs.  But what do you do when your feral kitten has made a jail break and is lose in the room other than chase it?  Easy.  Make it chase something.  Once the kitten has explored the room enough that it is calm enough to try to play, start having it chase the laser pointer all over the room while you sit near the crate (or a carrier if needed).  The kitten will get wrapped up in the game of chase and at some point you will be able to get the kitten to chase the light right back into the crate where you can quickly shut the door.  One feral kitten safely confined with out being terrorized and without a bleeding foster mom.  Mission accomplished.

This will not work all the time.  Some kittens don't like toys.  Those kittens I would lure close with baby food and then grab by the scruff.  Others catch on really quickly to the laser pointer trick and will chase it everywhere in the room but slam on the breaks if you get close to the cage.  But all in all as long as you use a little forethought and get the kitten to like the laser pointer BEFORE it starts trying to escape this trick works well.

As for the next challenge - what happens to the process when you suddenly toss another kitten into the mix?  Stay tuned to find out.

p.s.  Bonus points to anyone who is old enough or geeky enough to get what the title is a reference to.  :)

How Dirty is Too Dirty?

A feral kitten running loose in the house, or even one room, has very little desire to interact with the scare person, so you do need to practice a little tough love and limit their space.  You want them to be able to feel like they can get away from you if they feel overwhelmed, but not be able to get where you can not find them or get your hands on them.  So most people who socialize feral kittens start off with them crated in a medium or large dog crate.  How long they stay in the crate varies between foster homes and depending on how "bad" the litter is to start.  I usually keep mine crated until I feel like I can approach them to pick them up without them trying to bite or totally freak out.

Crating feral kittens actually works well from a socialization standpoint and a safety standpoint.  The one draw back being - the crate has to be cleaned.  Now any shelter volunteer and many foster families are familiar with the concept of cleaning a crate or cage.  You scoop or change the litter box, give them fresh bowls for food/water and replace any dirty linens with clean ones every day.  That brings me to the title of this post - How Dirty isToo Dirty?  It doesn't seem like there should be degrees of dirtiness.  Something is either clean or dirty.  But as most feral socialization foster people (and many teenagers) will tell you, sometimes things are clean enough.

You may remember from my previous post that any change in the environment can make a feral kitten nervous and cause a set back in socialization.  This includes cleaning their cage.  It can take a feral kitten a few days to get used to the sights and smells of their crate, so just imagine what sort of stress it causes them to have you constantly changing what is in their crate.

So I will let you in on a secret that will probably appall a lot of typical foster moms.  I do not clean my ferals cage every day.  Yup, I said it.  Don't get me wrong, they get fresh water and food, sometimes multiple times a day.  But in the same dishes.  I scoop their box when it is messy but keep that same box unless it gets really gross.  If that happens I wash it and put the same one back in with them rather than using a new one.  And their blankets?  No.  They do not get new ones everyday.  In fact, I only replace their blankets if there is dirty litter or water or wet food spilled on it.  If they kick clean litter or dry food onto the blanket, I scoop it off the and leave the blanket in there.

Why do I have these lousy housekeeping skills?  Am I just lazy?  A neglectful foster mom?  Nope.  I will tell you why.  Cats in general, but feral kittens especially operate by scent.  It takes a day or two for their scent to get on their blankets and bowls.  When they are surrounded by their scent, they have claimed their territory and feel more calm.  If I am constantly changing their blankets out every day, they never get that chance to "settle in" and relax.  To me, a little clean litter dust or a few kernels of dry food on the blanket is a small price to pay for that relaxation.  There is also the more practical reason of feral kittens do not like you in their cage, get nervous when you are cleaning and are more likely to bite during cleaning than any other time other than vet care.

Today my girls' cage was a mess.  It had to be totally stripped bare and set up again.  It happens.  So you are faced with a trashed cage and scared feral kittens.  What now?  Well it depends on how feral the kittens are.  If you know you can safely scruff them and move them, get a carrier and transfer them to the carrier.  Put the carrier on top of the crate (most cats feel more secure up high and you will be moving around a lot on the floor to get supplies which will likely to freak them out.   You are very big compared to them). 

Slowly strip the cage, set it up again and transfer the kittens back.  Ideally, there will be a small extra blanket or bed from the "dirty" crate that is clean enough to put in the newly cleaned one to transfer their smell back, but today, I had to start from scratch.  Do not try to interact with your ferals right after you cleaned their cage, they are too nervous.  Make sure you put some food or treats in the cage before you move them back and walk away.  Give them a few hours to settle back in before approaching again.

What do you do if they are too feral to move to a carrier with out concern of being bitten?  If they are too feral to move out of the crate you are going to have to clean around them, which can be dangerous.  Well here is where some planning ahead comes in handy. You will usually know they are that bad the day you bring them home.  When you first set up their cage, rather than placing one blanket or towel on the bottom of the crate, put three or four.  It gives them a nice comfy place to rest and makes it so that if the top blanket does get too dirty to leave in the cage, rather than having to pull it out and them get a new blanket in and spread out underneath the freaking out kittens, you just pull the top one off to reveal the clean on underneath.  (This also works for social kittens with diarrhea by the way).  The less disturbance to the cage means calmer kittens and less chance of getting bitten.  Pull the litter box and food dishes out of the cage to scoop and fill then put them all back in at once.  Again, the less you are reaching in and out of the cage the better.

In general, all of us foster moms want our babies to have the best, most comfortable, most pristine living environment at all times.  But you might need to suppress those over active foster mom hormones for your feral babies.  Unless the kittens are sick or dealing with a heavy parasite load, a little dirt won't kill them.  But reducing the level of stress they experience could mean the difference between living the life of a pampered house cat or having to be placed in a barn or feral colony.

Set backs happen - roll with it.

One of the most important things for anyone who is thinking of fostering feral kittens needs to know is that setbacks happen.  You did not do anything wrong.  You are not bad at fostering.  You should not give up.  In fact, YOU have nothing to do with it.

Feral fostering is sort of a two steps forward, one step back process.  You are dealing with young kittens who see you as a predator that wants to hurt or kill them.  It will take them time to trust you and realize you truly do not mean them any harm.  Everything in your home is foreign to them.  If they have been living in the wild, they have never seen your glass of soda or that book or even a blanket or cat toy.  Every single being and item around them has to be evaluated as a possible threat.  As you can imagine, living in that state of hyper vigilance makes it hard for the little ones to relax. Think of it this way - if a wild tiger came up to you in a safari park and dropped a Big mac at your feet, rubbed up against you affectionately, purred and walked away, you might be confused, relieved to get away safely and maybe even happy.  But if you went back to the same park the next day and a tiger approached with a McDonald's bag, you would still be instinctively concerned about a wild predator approaching you.

This instinctive distrust is why setbacks happen.  I had a minor set back with my two (as of yet unnamed) feral girls today.  Last night when I left them, one was purring hesitantly at me.  This morning both were in the far corner of the cage making it clear they did not want to be touched.  Now, I rarely try and interact with my ferals during morning cage cleaning.  From my point of view, I am reaching into their cage, moving stuff around, making noise, and in general messing with their stuff.  I don't like when people wake me up and mess with my stuff, so why should they?  If one approaches me for attention, fine, but I do not initiate it.  (Have I mentioned I am not a morning person)?

When I went back in the afternoon, the girls still clearly did not want to be touched.  Why?  I don't know and don't really care.  All I care about is that I respect their desire not to be touched. Something changed in their environment and made them more nervous.  It could have been a loud noise.  It could have been the fact that I was in different clothes and smelled different.  It could have been the two year old having a temper tantrum or the heat turning on.  There are so many possibilities that it is a waste of time to try and figure it out unless the behavior continues for a couple of days.

They clearly told me that they did not want to be touched.  So I did not touch them.  That does not mean that I did not interact with them.  I let them smell my book to determine it was not a threat and then sat next to their cage and read my book.  After about 15 minutes, I offered them some baby food and the braver of the two came forward to eat it.  By the time I left about 15 minutes later, both kittens were up and running around the cage chasing toys  - as long as I did not try to touch them.

So the moral of today's posts is set backs happen.  Don't take it personally.  Respect their need for boundaries and understand that there are days that you can push those boundaries and other days that pushing them will actually cause more harm than good.  Remember, you don't need to win every battle to win the war.

From Feral to Friendly - a journey of baby steps

This information was originally posted on a volunteer only Facebook page as a celebration of National Feral Cat Day.  But since I truly do love the feral kittens I foster, it quickly got to be a lot of information.  I decided to transfer it to the old blog that I have not touched in a year so that I would no longer be clogging up the volunteer Facebook feed but that anyone that wanted to follow this litter's journey would be able to see how they are doing as they go from feral to friendly. 

So the first part of this will just be cut and paste entries of the first Facebook posts.  I will add more updates as they progress.  Enjoy!

October 17, 2013 Facebook Post:

Many volunteers have asked me about how I socialize feral kittens. Since yesterday was National Feral Cat day and I picked up two new feral fosters, I thought I would share with you my (admittedly crazy cat lady) take on the steps of socializing feral kittens.

Step 1: Feral kittens trapped and safely surrendered to the shelter - check!
Step 2: Staff vaccinate and test the three kittens without getting bitten - eh, two out of three ain't bad. (Don't worry girls, we will pick up your sibling when it is out of quarantine.)
Step 3: Kittens will eat but only when alone - check!
Step 4: Safely get kittens into a carrier and then in to a crate in the foster home without getting killed - check!
Step 5: Bribe kittens with baby food - check!
Step 6. Kittens relax enough to eat while you are in the room watching them - check! (as long as I do not move). Step 7: Attempt to pet kittens while they are distracted eating - check...wait, random loud noise in house. Go back to Step 5. Step 5 is good - it is hard to bite with a mouth full of baby food. Boy that was a lot of work - time for all of us to take nap. Never underestimate the power of napping. 

Information from questions in the comments - Seriously though, if you want to learn more about the intricacies of cat body language, watch a feral kitten during the socialization process. The tiny changes that usually go unnoticed are key to know whether to go forward a step, stay where you are, or take a step back. And not watching those signs can get you bitten. The two in this photo appear relatively relaxed, but they are in fact very scared. I would be ok trying to slowly reach toward the dilute tortie in the front but would only touch the tortie in the back if I really had to. What is the difference? They both are very alert with their eyes open and ear up searching for any sound that might concern them. But the dilute tortie has relaxed enough to be at the front of the cage even though the door is open, break eye contact and put her head down. The tortie in the back is curled as small as she can get, with her head pulled back close to her body and she is too frightened to not watch the our every move. She is also trying to hide behind her sibling. When we did try to move these two, the dilute was scared but was easily moved. The tortie hisses when we reached toward it, grabbed onto the bars to try to stop up and hissed for a few minutes once in the carrier. Their sibling (not in photo) was at the very back of the cage with its face in to corner and its eyes closed, basically playing "dead", so scared it is trying to shut out the world. This is a kitten at high risk of suddenly turning and biting. In fact, this kitten did bite a staff member and will need to wait out its quarantine before I can begin working on it.

 October 18, 2013 Facebook Post:

Morning post - Kitten socialization improvement for this morning: After 15 minutes of quiet interaction and a liberal application of a baby food bribe, one kitten relaxed enough to stand up and move around in the cage rather than slinking around low to the ground. The second more scared kitten allowed me to clean around her with out hissing. And as I was about to close their crate, I extended one finger to each kitten. Instead of hissing and backing away, each took a small tentative sniff of my finger. Their way of saying hello. This afternoon's socialization goal: decrease the amount of time it takes to get them comfortable enough to move around and sniff to around 10 minutes. The key word in feral socialization is baby steps...and baby food.

Evening post - What is the best present to get a feral foster mom who is feeling down?  A tiny, hesitant, first time purr from one of their foster kittens. 

Questions/Information from comments - this type of hesitent purr is an idication that the kitten is looking for something or someone to replace their mom as a source of comfort and safety and is considering if that could be the foster mom.  It does not necessarily mean they have made leaps and bounds in the socialization, just that they instintively need that source of comfort.  It is definitly a good sign though.  I do not consider a kitten to be truly purring for me until it continues to purr as I move it around on my lap and don't have to make my movements so slow and deliberate in order to not spook the kitten.

Two questions regarding the sibling still in bite quarantine at the shelter were how to integrate that kitten back into the litter and bow to use a wand toy to safely offer baby food from a distance.  They baby food is easy.  Use a good quality baby food like Gerber Stage 2 chicken and gravy and stick the end of the handle of the toy into the baby food to get just a little on it.  What you are trying to do, more that actually feed the kitten, is get it to realize that humans coming into the cage brings good things.  It also allows them to engage the sense of smell without the pressure of you being in their cage.

As for intergrating the siblig back into the litter, I would normally crate the sibiling in a seperate crate for a few days and observe to see if the kittens are wanting to be back together or if they no longer recognize each other as litter mates.  If they are doing well, I would put them back together.  If I felt (or saw) that putting the "new" more scared kitten back with its litter mates was setting them back, I would keep them apart and attempt a reintroduction at the point that all the kittens are social enough to no longer need to be crated

That is all for now.  I will try to post updates with the progress (and inevitable set backs) that this litter makes as they take their journey with me.  :)