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.  :)