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Thu 6 Nov, 2003 09:23 am
Yesterday, E.G. arrived home from a trip and said, "I hear a cat meowing! I swear I hear a cat meowing." He is always hearing weird things, and while he is occasionally actually correct (there really were a flock of parrots in our oak in Pasadena) he usually just dashes around for a while, with a look of high concentration, and then gives up. (I of course can't be of any help, though the sozlet is starting to get in on the act.)
So, went into dashing around/ concentration mode, and after about 45 minutes figured it out... a little black cat was cowering in a complicated place in the foundation of our house. I'll see if I can make a picture work:
House wall
|
|Cat
|_ _[size=8]basement stairs wall[/size]___
|
|[size=7]Outside opening[/size]_______________
Outside
The only way to see it is to lay down on the ground, reach in the outside opening, hold a mirror at the end of the board/wall, and shine a flashlight to see a reflection of the cat. It is impossible to reach the cat... the intervening board/wall is about 3 feet long, and because of the placement of the outside opening, it is not possible to get more than your forearm (past the elbow) into that area.
I saw the cat pretty clearly, it's a little kitten, 8-12 weeks old, black, fluffy, scared. I lay down on the ground amidst the chipmunk poop and talked to it for a long time, but it wouldn't budge. I warmed up some milk and left it at the end of the basement stairs wall, and the kitten gradually drank all of it when I left it alone. So it can move, and hopefully isn't desperately hungry (the gradual part... over about an hour, with me checking every 20 mins.)
I don't know how long it's been there, though... E.G. was gone for 2 days. It was warm on Monday and Tuesday (high 60's), then rained Tuesday night and has been cold since... was 36 when I woke up this a.m.
I gave it some water, and put a cardboard box near the opening with newspapers and several clean cloth diapers for overnight. Haven't given any food yet. Will try tuna fish? Should I go buy regular kitten food?
We called Humane Society, police, etc. The police have a stray animal holding area, in case the kitten belongs to someone, but they won't come get it. Same with humane society.
My plan now is to provide essentials, build up trust, and try to coax out the kitten. We briefly thought about trying to prod it out with a long stick or something, but there are deeper, darker recesses under there and we don't want to scare it into an even less accessible area.
Also doing my very very best not to think of the kitten as mine. Just ain't gonna happen... allergies, and if we maybe possibly got a cat, this wouldn't be the way. But it's tough when I see that poor scared little face and see the whole body relax and sigh when I speak soothingly.
Anyway, ideas/ advice much appreciated.
Soz.....
You're doing just the right thing. And that cat chose you.
You know what this means, don't you....???????????
(edited to cover my inability to read....sorry, Soz!)
Keep up what you are doing. The cat more than likely will respond. If not, it eventually will move off to spend its life as a ferel cat.
If it chooses to adopt you -- get it neutered.
Re: Poor Little Scared Kitten -- Help!
sozobe wrote:
Also doing my very very best not to think of the kitten as mine. Just ain't gonna happen... allergies, and if we maybe possibly got a cat, this wouldn't be the way. But it's tough when I see that poor scared little face and see the whole body relax and sigh when I speak soothingly.
quote]
oh Soz it IS the way!!! I'm with Osso
Our 2 previous cats arrived in similar ways - I used to tell them when i was cross that next time i was choosing - but along came Rosie!
Are the allergies really that bad?
is there no sign at all of the mother? you seem to be doing all the right things and once it associates you with food, comfort and calm I'm sure it will come to you
As for food - it should really still be on kitten food at that age
Good luck
Maybe put a little piece of string into the spot and lure the kittem out. It's natural tendency would be to play.
The Humane Society doesn't do nuthin' but complain about hunters. I personally think they're afraid of animals.
You might consider a Havahart trap, which you might be able to borrow from a local animal shelter or vet.
Oh Soz, the poor thing. You're doing the right thing and I agree that the kitten needs kitten food. As long as you continue to feed it and talk to it, I'm sure it will eventually trust you and come out. You've got a beautiful heart ;-)
Quote:The Humane Society doesn't do nuthin' but complain about hunters. I personally think they're afraid of animals.
As someone who spent a year volunteering with the Humane Society -- bullshit. But, anyway, they're all indpenedently run and vary widely.
As to the kitten -- just keep with what you're doing. I'd try wet kitten food -- dogs go crazy for it, and sometimes will even try it before people food. They're usually well on their way to being feral or domesticated at 8 weeks or so, so the animal's fear of people may be a great hurdle to overcome in terms of getting it to come out. I'd echo cj in maybe trying a live trap -- and staying away for long enough that the kitten gets brazen enough to venture into the trap. (A clue as to whether it's gone feral or not, though you'll have to get it out first: if it plays dead when you handle it -- goes rigid and pupils remain dilated -- it's feral.)
Patiodog, you may want to read the HSUS's official position on hunting before you completely dismiss my post. I don't have a link but I can post it or PM it if you'd like. Seems odd to me that they are unwilling to help.
Anyway, I'm not promoting cat hunting, unless it's feral.
If I could talk you into NOT trying to trap the kitten, I would.
Let it do what it wants to do.
Don't scare it.
If you continue as you are -- you may make a friend -- and despite your protestations to the contrary, may be adopted by it.
Kittens have a way of winning those kinds of battles -- and allergies are almost always part of the losing team.
(cj -- i'm responding to "don't do nuthin." anyway, HS contracts to do a great deal for the public, but they are a private non-profit and frequently don't have resources to go out and pick up anything. Now, if Chicago or Cook County Animal Control won't do it, I'd say they are falling down on the job.)
Soz, Doesn't your city have an Animal Control officer? Try calling city hall.
Sounds like lots of good advice, but I can't see Osso's post.....
Good luck Soz - I strongly support using wet kitten food.
Haven't been able to get in all day -- might have just been my computer. Acting strange, just rebooted and several things are better.
Anyway, went out this a.m. and the kitten was gone.
I am not entirely sure in what sense. The area is much rougher and weirder than in my diagram -- my house was built in 1900 and there is all kinds of strange crumbly old rock and dirt stuff down there. (A largish vertebrae and ribs turned out to be a tree root... I think. This was all at a weird angle, my glasses slipping off my nose, bad light, dead plant slime seeping through my pants, etc.)
The intervening board is mostly just wood, but everything else is uneven rocks and dirt. What I represented as the house wall is actually, on closer inspection, just a higher bunch of rocks.
So, the kitten was definitely not where it had been, and the feeling we have is that it was bolstered by the milk and then ventured out once we stopped hanging around. Maybe hopefully it went to it's own home... that's what I have decided to think. It didn't look to be in desperate enough shape that I think it just laid down and died right after we saw it.
So... hopefully it is someplace warm and comfortable now.
Thanks for all of your ideas and good wishes.
(Can't see Osso's post either...?)
perhaps it'll be back? Maybe it's mom came for it after you all stopped fussing?
That's one thing I wondered too, littlek, if it was part of a kitten transfer, either from or to. (Born there, being moved away, last one, or being transferred there from where it was born.) It seemed a little at the old range of age for that, but who knows.
Osso is seeing this thread for the first time right now...
I was looking to see what I might have said too!
Hee hee!
I think margo may have been addressing me and called me osso.
But there were two osso references.... oy. Well, glad that it's not my computer gone wrong.
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