h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are feral kittens in my neighborhood again.

Yesterday morning I heard some *very* tiny kittens crying, and it was loud enough that my two jumped in the bedroom window to look out. Sigh. I couldn't see any obvious source, just someplace across that street from me. I took a look-see when I went out yesterday but no luck; I'll try again tomorrow.

SC

Last summer when Nog and I were doing our morning park and river walks it was definitely 'kitten season' in the park and we found it very hard not to take at least one of them home.

Tons of cats in that park - especially next to the little square that is stocked with white pidgeons. Kind of like one of those all-you-can eat buffets, I should imagine.

SC, I just remembered that I didn't try testing the Sunster to see if he is right or left pawed. Will do this over the weekend and get back to you with my results.

az

Well, no joy on the kitten hunt -- but I did get yelled at by my neighbor across the street, as I was poking about in his shrubbery.

Probably thought I was a shady character, casing the joint.

SC

Spacecadette, I don't know where you livek but around here we have a bird called (amazingly enough) a catbird. A very shy, elusive grey bird with a black cap and a rusty colored tail. And when it calls it sounds EXACTLY like a kitten crying. I have been fooled by it more than once. Maybe you are hearing a catbird?

Hi HMH,

I'm not positive, but I don't think we have catbirds in my area.

I live 4 miles as the crow flies due north of Downtown Los Angeles; I can see the highrises the other side of the hill when I look down the middle of Glendale's main drag...

I just heard the kittens again! It's 5 pm, the first time was about 5 am on Friday, before the birds started squawking. I'm going out now to see if I can find them. Wish me luck; I've already told my friends at Pet Orphans, to see if they have the room.

SC

Good luck. I heard a kitten on the corner of my property 5 years ago. He was screaming for his mama, and when I picked him up he was a little black thing that fit in the palm of my hand. I ended up bottle feeding him, he was so little. How can people abandon babies like that??? Anyway, his name is Mike and he is 15 pounds of long haired green eyed attitude and I love him to death. Hope you find them.

Thanks, HMH, I hope so too.

The last time I found feral kittens, in the front bushes of my apt. bldg, it was March -- California may be frequently sunny, but usually pretty chilly then.

At least this batch will have the advantage on temperature; if I can find them, they should be healthy.

SC

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What a great description. I remember when Sunny used to fit into the palm of my hand - if I didn't have photo evidence I would scarcely believe it now.


What's Pet Orphans, SC, an adoption service?

az

Pet Orphans is a non-profit group in Sherman Oaks which takes in the (mostly) adult dogs and cats turned in to the shelters as strays or "unmanageable". They then retrain them, make sure they're neutered/spayed and then adopts them out again, more along the lines of what the UK does in checking for compatability. My friend and her daughter volunteer there on Sat and Sun each week.

They also take in puppies and kittens when there's a surplus that the shelters don't think they can place. My friend's family just adopted a 3 month old black lab themselves.

SC

Hurray for people like Pet Orphans
Did you find the babies yet?? Around here we have too many predators and little kittens don't survive long without their mamas.

Here in Illinois, we have a state-funded trap/neuter/release program for feral cats, which is hopefully helping to reduce the number of orphans out there. Poor little kittens!

Can't remember if this was where we shared the gatito photos or not, but I've uploaded a few more photos of Herman (and relocated most of them to Flickr). http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyrdsister/

I haven't heard the kittens since the day before yesterday.

This morning, I talked to my neighbor; seems his english isn't that good, but his wife's is, and when I explained what I was doing the other day, she said she'd heard the kittens too. Now they're going to check their bushes/backyard if they hear them again, and call me so I can call Pet Orphans.

SC

Good news! My neighbor's wife had been looking for the kittens, and hadn's found them. BUT as we were discussing it yesterday, *her* neighbor across the back alley came over and told us she'd found the litter and taken them to the Humane Society on Wednesday. She said there were 4, but thinks that there might have been 5 at first. She also said they seemed to have been left alone for a day or so, as they were "starving". I hope they're doing well and can be adopted. At least, they're being cared for and fed.

Meanwhile, Rocket is cranky with the heat and keeps misbehaving for attention. I've squirted him with the CCD so many times, I'll have to get him little swimming trunks...

SC

CCD?

Sunny and Azar don't get cranky in the heat - they just turn into little fur rugs, lying on their bellies with legs splayed out. They much preferred the marble floors where we lived next door - and so did I! Here we have some sort of hardwood stuff that Spanish friends love, but hell, everyone has hardwood floors in Canada, so they're nuthin special for me.

And besides, marble is so much nicer when it's 45º . . .

az

Marble flooring sounds fantastic, except I wonder how nice I'd think it was during winter?

Herman doesn't seem to be having difficulty with the heat... but I kinda spoil him, and have kept the thermostat set to no higher than 76 F when we're not home. If it gets *really* warm, he'll have to deal with 80. Unless he'd like to pay his share of the electric bill.

When he is on the warm side, he also becomes a furry rug, splayed out so his tummy can be properly ventilated. Sometimes he sleeps in our bedroom closet during the day, as it tends to stay on the cool side.

CCD = Cat Control Device, otherwise identified as a spayer bottle...



SC

a sprayer bottle, a sprayer bottle!

As far as I know you can't spay anything by dousing it in water !!

SC

Heck, if you could come up with a spayer bottle you could make a fortune!

I have to admit that Azar is totally impossible to *discipline* - he either just runs away or looks at me like - 'Oi, you talkin to me???'

Sunny the dog is much easier. I only have to clap my hands together or make a sound like SSSHHT! to make him stop dead in his tracks and look all sheepish (the SSSHT sound also works a bit with Azar, though not always). Also, snapping my fingers at Sunny is a way of showing I'm *less than pleased* with what he's doing - and he also recognises that one.

But it turns out this is a typical way for Spanish people to call a cat over to them - they snap their fingers. So I always have to explain to my students that they shouldn't do this because they are inadvertently telling Sunny he is doing something BAD.

Think I'll now post something about 'cat disciplining' on my blog. See you all there?

az

The water sprayer bottle doesn't work with Herman. He just hisses at it and then goes about whatever he was doing. I'm definitely going to read that cat discipline blog, because I'm out of ideas of my own!

As far as I know you can't spay anything by dousing it in water " well think utrasound surgery is just that.

Pleased to say all my cat responded so well to CCD therapy training, that I rarely needed to use it, a lot of the time's a hiss or slihgtest thought of picking the bottle up, did it.

You can use sound for training *dogs Az and some cats use to call some rescue cats in for night feed by throwing keys on the floor.