These little ones are feral rescue kittens, approximately 6 - 7 weeks old, and currently roaming around my bedroom. They were very scared at first (who wouldn't be?) but now it has been three days and they are settling in nicely.
The one on the left is a girl (who has been named Coraline -- yes, like the Neil Gaiman character, as she's very brave and very clever!), and the one on the right is a boy (who has been named Brodie, just because it seems to suit him). They moved in with me this past Friday (I'd been intending to trap them for a while and finally got the time and materials to do it), and my hands have been quite full (sometimes literally!) since then.
Anyway I know not everyone agrees with the notion of "keeping pets" to begin with but frankly I don't think anyone who has ever lived with a cat (or two, or five...) could claim to be keeping them in the manner one might keep a couch or a stamp collection. I don't consider cats (or dogs, for that matter) to be anything anyone owns, but I do think different species can coexist happily so long as there's respect.
And for kittens like Coraline and Brodie, being adopted is the best chance they have of living long and happy lives (which they hopefully will, as now they're on their way to being vaccinated, spayed/neutered, etc.). On that note I am very happy to offer them a place in my home for as long as they live and I hope I can manage to do right by them.
14 comments:
Warning! Warning! Extreme Cuteness Alert :-)
Yes, our cats are free to leave at any time, perhaps not surprisingly they keep hanging around
You're absolutely right about the concept of ownership where pets are concerned. Anyone who has ever lived with a cat knows that they own you.
Are they hanging out in what you caught them in?
In my home we've always had dogs and cats sleeping together. How liberal is that? ;-)
Michael wrote:
You're absolutely right about the concept of ownership where pets are concerned. Anyone who has ever lived with a cat knows that they own you.
Hehe, precisely. :P Or at least something along those lines. I've read that cats may have domesticated themselves, and I'd definitely believe it!
In any case, I've always felt sort of a kinship with cats (well, aside from the fact that I doubt I'd enjoy snacking on mouse liver) because of the way they do things (including interact with humans) on their own terms. That's sort of how I've always operated myself, and I can't speak for anyone else but I find it all the MORE meaningful to know that when someone comes to sit with me, etc., it's because they want to and have their own reasons for doing so, rather than because they somehow feel obligated or forced.
Of course that doesn't mean kittens, or human children for that matter, don't need to be taught certain things and put in situations they don't enjoy once in a while...but I think there's a difference between, say, giving a cat a much-needed bath to help get rid of fleas, and forcing a reluctant cat to wear a sweater just because the human thinks it looks cute. And I know parts of the socialization process -- especially the initial trapping -- can be utterly terrifying for feral kittens, which I feel bad about, but at the same time I know that the fear is due to seeing us as big scary monsters that might eat them, which they generally learn isn't true fairly quickly.
And I'm rambling a bit now, but really the scariest thing in all of this for me is just knowing how vulnerable they are and how powerful I am (as a much larger creature who right now has total control over their environment) relative to them. In situations with this kind of power differential, I think it's critical for the more powerful party to avoid abusing their position or carelessly doing things that stress or harm the less powerful party "just because they can". Every decision I make about them seems to take tremendous deliberation, and I have to constantly be on watch to make sure I don't end up doing things just because they're convenient for me as opposed to putting the kittens first and doing what (to the best of available knowledge) is best for them.
Thankfully that sort of thing seems to be overlapping somewhat (e.g., by getting rid of their fleas I assure that I don't end up itchy and they don't end up anemic, by getting them spayed/neutered I help reduce certain health risks for them and make it so I don't have to deal with spraying and fighting, etc.) but it's not an easy process figuring stuff out by any means.
Anyway, the most useful principle I've identified in at least helping with this is just the acknowledgment that it's inappropriate either to "over-anthropomorphize" cats or treat them like objects. I do believe them to be sentient, and to be very intelligent in their own feline way, but the key is that they're feline and not human. It's a whole different way of thinking and being, not an absence of those things, and not a pale copy of what humans experience. When you come to that realization, you may become able to better perceive the complexity in cat-activity. And I think that this really needs to be understood and appreciated by anyone who wants to coexist with members of another species.
Martin wrote:
Yes, our cats are free to leave at any time, perhaps not surprisingly they keep hanging around
Hehe yep. I've noticed that once cats feel safe somewhere, they tend to figure that's their "home base". My kitties will be indoor cats for the most part I think (especially while they're young) but still, an unhappy indoor cat will usually find some way to get out, and I am definitely compelled to make my home a place where they are happy and feel like staying.
Lactarius: No, they're hanging out in the kitten-pen we built for them out of storage panel thingies. Initially that was needed to contain them (as they were really scared and liable to hide under/behind things we wouldn't have been able to get them out of), but now the door to the pen is open and they just go in there now of their own accord because that's where their bed is. They've got free run of my bedroom at this point.
The thing I trapped them with was a drop trap, which is definitely not something you'd want to keep anyone in long-term. (And btw, mine wasn't nearly as pretty as the ones in that link -- I didn't have any mesh so I used part of an old blanket along with some cardboard and PVC. Mine was really only good for catching kittens and other small, light animals, as an adult cat would have been able to tear his/her way out of it pretty easily).
Jef: Mass hysteria? :)
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Kittens!!!!!!!!!!!!
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Kittens!!!!!!!!!!!!
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
(excited finger-wiggle)
Aaawwwwww, how cute!!
The names are wonderful, too.
About the morality of keeping animals, I think that at least in the case of rescued animals (all three of my cats were adopted from a shelter), taking them in is the best thing you can do. Shelter cats' lives often depend on their ability to be adopted by a human within a certain timeframe, and certainly a house with just a few people/animals the cat knows well, and a lot of space to roam around it, will better serve their catly needs than a cramped cage in a crowded, noisy animal shelter.
With feral cats, it's a little trickier, since they can sometimes feed themselves just fine and have nice lives independently of humans, but even there, they're a lot safer in someone's home.
(I also totally agree with your long comment about how you think of cats, especially the part about minding the power gap, and trying to make sure that whatever your doing really is in the cat's best interests, and not just easiest for you).
Amanda: Hee, yes, kittensquee!
Lindsay: Oh cool that is neat you adopted shelter cats. When I decided to adopt cats I figured I would either take in feral kittens or go to a shelter (or both depending on how many cats I ended up with), and it just happened that Coraline and Brodie came along first.
I couldn't really see myself going to a breeder (even though I am sure plenty of breeders treat their cats well, I think it's much more important to take better care of existing kitties than make more), and I figured from the beginning that any cats I adopted would be ones that might have difficulty being adopted or cared for otherwise.
So that pretty much meant shelter cats, feral cats, or cats other people couldn't keep for whatever reason. And the way things are looking now, I may end up with a third feral (Cora and Brodie's still-at-large sibling if I can catch him/her), and in addition to them, one of my parents' cats (a 6-7 year old Siamese lady who is having territorial disputes with their dog, but who has never had a problem with other cats). So that will mean a 4-kitty house, which sounds just about right.
Also, regarding feral cats in general (and today Oct. 16 is apparently "National Feral Cat Day"!), I have actually recently been trying to help out with a local feral colony. I adopted Coraline and Brodie of course, but I also trapped a very sick older kitten (she's about 7 months old) who, thanks to my SO's mom, has been to the vet now and is taking antibiotics for her pneumonia.
When she's well enough we're going to get her spayed and return her to the colony, as I can tell she would be happiest outside.
And there are a few other "young adult" cats Matt and I are aiming to trap-neuter-return. We would REALLY like to catch Coal (Cora and Brodie's mommy) and get her fixed, but she's very cautious and wily (and a very very good mom, though one I feel bad for -- it can't be fun being pregnant so often!).
But in any case, I am definitely glad we brought Coraline and Brodie in, as kittens like them would probably be killed almost immediately in a shelter since
(a) a lot of shelters don't want to bother with "unsocialized" kittens, and Cora and Brodie were about 3 weeks beyond the "easy socialization period", and
(b) they turned out to have coccidia parasite, which they are now being treated for (and doing fine -- they didn't have a bad infestation, but still, a lot of overcrowded shelters will just "put down" ANY cat that comes in sick all).
And, occasionally Animal Control will be called if some neighbor decides there are "too many cats", and the ferals will end up taken to the pound or shelters, where often they will just be killed after being deemed "unadoptable". I think that's horribly cruel and stupid myself, which is why lately I've gotten really interested in feral colony management -- humans have lived alongside colonies of outdoor cats for generations, and really they can do quite well if they're spayed/neutered, provided with fresh food and water, etc. While some cats will end up being housecats (and quite happy for that fact), not all of them will, and it seems ridiculous to stick essentially wild kitties in shelters where they will almost certainly be executed, rather than have them fixed and returned to the outdoor colonies they know and are comfortable in.
I think there's a direct connection between treating cats with respect, and the sort of comments people make about Fey. (That either they've never seen a human and cat communicate that well (or extensively) with each other, or that she seems unusually self-respecting, or to have an unusual amount of agency, or something.)
Too much of what passes for wisdom in raising cats seems to me more like "Get them used to being picked up and carried around, and just about anything else, at the whim of humans regardless of what their own plans were at the moment. And get them used to this as early as possible so they won't have time to develop any self-respect."
I don't know (and from some of the habits she came with, don't want to know) what kind of household Fey came from (she was a 6-month-old shelter cat when I brought her home), but I am certainly glad that she has learned to see our relationship as a two-way negotiation more than a species-dominance situation.
Of course, this sometimes gets her seen as "unfriendly" too, because she will react if you treat her disrespectfully (which it seems like 99% of people do unless specifically instructed on how not to), and she doesn't usually come running the moment she sees a new human (although she seems to prefer autistic humans, possibly out of familiarity with the body language).
Oh, that's neat that you spay/neuter and then return the older feral cats! Best of both worlds, there: the life they like, without the profligate breeding.
I also totally agree about the "adopt already-existing kitties in need of care, rather than ordering from a breeder" thing.
Amanda wrote: Too much of what passes for wisdom in raising cats seems to me more like "Get them used to being picked up and carried around, and just about anything else, at the whim of humans regardless of what their own plans were at the moment. And get them used to this as early as possible so they won't have time to develop any self-respect."
Yeah, exactly, and that's pretty much all the advice I've been ignoring. I mean I am picking the kittens up occasionally (at the very least so they know that being picked up doesn't always mean they're going to get medicine or a bath or a thermometer in the you-know-what!) but I'm not forcing them to cuddle when it's clear they aren't enjoying it.
Like if their muscles are all tensed up ready to spring, I don't see the point of, like, squeezing them so they stay with me. And if they've recently had a lot of overwhelming stuff happen I will leave them alone until they feel like coming out so long as they haven't gotten anywhere dangerous (and the part of the house they've got free run of right now has been pretty well kittenproofed).
I am not always choosing the best times to approach them and say hi (e.g., tonight I got some arm-scratches when I happened to interrupt someone's climbing expedition on the bedroom dresser -- I didn't pick her up or anything but apparently I moved a bit too fast and she grazed me a bit when she was jumping to the floor) but I am learning their ways as much as they're learning mine and above all I want them to not be afraid to be themselves. I would much have a relationship based on mutual respect than on the cats "submitting" to me.
Yeah, that's exactly how I am with Fey. I still screw up enough to get bitten or scratched periodically, but I know that she knows I'm making the effort. (And I do pick her up occasionally -- especially to put her in her Pet Pocket, which she loves despite hating being grabbed -- but not the way people who think of cats as walking stuffed animals do.)
The whole "walking stuffed animal" thing makes me physically ill, actually, to watch people act like that. I see so many cats who go limp and their eyes glaze over when picked up on a whim that it's really disturbing. And people take the fact that the cat has learned not to fight, as a sign that the cat likes it. And just... ew. ew. ew. Cats are not toys.
Plus, I just don't see the appeal of treating a living being as if they are an object. Where's the interestingness in such a relationship (if it can be called a relationship)? I personally happen to love having a complicated, back-and-forth relationship with someone of another species, I think it's really cool to always be finding out new things about them, and never being complacent or assuming I know everything there is to know about them.
(And they say autistic people are the ones who have trouble with that sort of thing...)
Kittens! And one of them is named Coraline! Eee!
We have five cats; four came from a shelter, and one was a feral kitten whose mom lived in my aunts' yard.
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