My Second Feral Kitten Rescue
There is a colony of stray and feral cats living in our neighborhood. About six weeks ago, Jared and I rescued three feral kittens from our yard. We took them in, because we wanted to socialize them, spay/neuter them and adopt them out to permanent homes. All of this is in an attempt to minimize the number of unwanted kittens in this world. Every day, shelters put perfectly healthy and friendly cats and dogs to sleep for a lack of loving, permanent homes. Not spaying/neutering can only add to the problem.
Our neighbor graciously offered to adopt one. One of them had an injured leg, and she took him in. Unfortunately, he died just a few hours later. She then adopted another kitten, leaving us with just one. It’s much easier to socialize a single kitten, because then all it knows is humans.
It took about two weeks for the kitten to let us pet her and hold her. After that, though, it was extremely easy. She let me pet her belly and lift her up without clawing or biting me. We kept her for another four weeks just to make sure she was friendly and tame.
A couple days ago, I posted an ad on craigslist.org with some photos and the response was overwhelming. I am so thankful that there are so many people out there willing to take in a kitten. Overall, it was a very fulfilling experience, despite the numerous scratches, two bites, and many cat/dog fights.
Here she is! (Click the photo to be taken to my Flickr page, where you can see more.)
