Taking In Our 6th Stray Cat

We have 6 stray/feral cats and only 1 is a female. When we got 5 & 6 at
the same time she went ballistic and started spraying but after
isolating her in one room for awhile and visiting several hours a day,
she rejoined the family and is getting along well with the kittens. We
have 1 male who bullies everybody but the kittens have brought him down
several pegs and protect the female from him but drawing his attention.
Personally I think several females would have a harder time integrating
than a single female with several males. Best of luck!!!

On Wed 15 Mar 2006 05:49:02p, dnr wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav
):

I still feel
bad about this: back in early 80's, I had a feral male cat in my
apt. and the room he was in shortly after we got him had a tiny
window about 6 feet off the floor (a bedroom). Some time while I
was watching a noisy football game in l.r. nearby, he actually
jumped up and broke through the screen, escaping through the
bars on outside of window......never to be seen again. Since
then, I have never left windows entirely open anywhere in home
unless I am in the room. When I leave room, window gets closed
except for opening much smaller than a cat head (few inches).
Talk about guilt.


Aww, don't feel guilty. It was not expected, and certainly not
intentional. But I understand. I've had screens pop out, and now
my windows aren't opened at all except for when a guard that I
found that fits in the window is in. And, like you, only if I'm in
the room. I had the reverse, weird thing happen when I first
bought my house. My bedroom window (1 level up from ground level)
was open and sometime during the middle of the night I was woken up
by the sound of shreaking cats. A stray or a neighbors cat was
hanging on the screen, and it had half pulled out, and my cats had
apparently run from the room. I even got scratched trying to pull
the screen back in! For a while I didn't know if one of my two
cats had fallen out, and searched the house until both were found.
Since then, the bedroom windows are never opened.


--
Cheryl

On Wed 15 Mar 2006 12:26:45p, Arubalisa wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav
oups.com):

snip
When I bring Whitey home I will set her up in our smallest spare
bedroom. For some entertainment, she will have a beautiful
window to view her old stomping grounds bird feeder and all.
Knowing that she is scared, except for food and water what else
can we do to comfort her and not make the situation worse? No
way will we even consider introductions to the 5 gentlemen until
she feels comfortable in her new environment. That hurdle we can
tackle when the time comes. Just need some ideas on how to make
her feel most comfortable, less frightened. Any suggestions?
Thanks all in advance


Bless you for taking her in because she surely needs you. Best
wishes, and your approach sounds great. You have lots of good advice
here.

--
Cheryl

"Matthew AKA NMR ( NO MORE RETAIL )" 10 points a troll
@linethetrollsup.com wrote in message
...

"Phil P." wrote in message
news:N51Sf.13009$o41.6909@trnddc06...

"Buddy" wrote in message
oups.com...

What about naming her Sugar?

Sugar is a great name for a white female:


http://maxshouse.com/Ours/sugar-5-12-05-4.jpg



She is beautiful Phil she has a look at royalty



She is a knock out, isn't she? She does think she's royalty- a Princess. I
happened to think she's right!

Can you believe she was dumped at a shelter and returned twice- a declawed
biter. Took some time but now she's a sweetheart.

"Phil P." wrote in message
news:Bb4Sf.13814$o41.12423@trnddc06...

"Matthew AKA NMR ( NO MORE RETAIL )" 10 points a troll
@linethetrollsup.com wrote in message
...

"Phil P." wrote in message
news:N51Sf.13009$o41.6909@trnddc06...

"Buddy" wrote in message
oups.com...

What about naming her Sugar?

Sugar is a great name for a white female:


http://maxshouse.com/Ours/sugar-5-12-05-4.jpg



She is beautiful Phil she has a look at royalty



She is a knock out, isn't she? She does think she's royalty- a Princess.
I
happened to think she's right!

Can you believe she was dumped at a shelter and returned twice- a declawed
biter. Took some time but now she's a sweetheart.


I am glad she found someone who cared. You can tell from the picture you
love her dearly

DNR, please don't feel bad. Thanks for the suggestion.

Unfortunately due to my horrible allergies, we rarely open our windows.
Living here in Georgia, mid-March and we already had our air
conditioning on last week :-( Every once in awhile on a beautiful day
some open windows are a really great treat for the kitties. My dh
taught me to always check the screen first thing after opening a window
and we are for the most part in the same room.

Thankfully after just having been retested, I am NOT allergic to cats
:-)

Here we are day two with our new addition :-)

First thing dd did was change Whitey to Snowy. Thank you for all the
suggestions. I liked Blanca, but with RockY, MickeY, BlacIE, TiggY, dh
and I agreed to keep harmony in the family's names :-)

The room I have Snowy set up in has a trundle bed. To give Snowy a
place to "hide out" when I brought her home from the vet, I just took
her carrier and all and placed her in a corner of the room. The bed is
on one side of her and the wall is on the other. Just steps out of the
carrier are her food (the same dry food she was eating outdoors), water
bowl and then her litterbox. She used the litterbox twice during the
night, but did not touch her food :-(

This a.m. I put down some wet food, right outside the door of the
carrier. Went back 20 minutes later and it had not been touched.
Returned a little over an hour later and she had finally begun pecking
at it, so at least that was a relief.

Snowy is very very scared. I can go into the room and sweet talk her
into allowing me to get within a foot of her crate, although this a.m.
when I went in, my initial greeting were a growl and a hiss. Dh steps
in the room and Snowy growls big time at him. It is hurting his
feelings, but I keep telling him that she saw him setting the trap so
she is entitled.

Understandably she is also very, very tired. She looks at me through
half open eyes and then finally gives in, closes her eyes and lays down
her head. Definitely not the always alert kitty we saw roaming around
outside. I at least take comfort in the fact that after the growl and
or hiss, she is comfortable enough to close her eyes to sleep.

As a funny aside, when the boys used to see her outside, they would get
a little annoyed as I am sure most cats do. Mickey though knew where
her food bowl was on our front porch. From the windows in the front of
the house, when Snowy was around, Mickey would run back and forth
between all of the windows trying to get a good look at her. Boy was
hee was very interested in her! Last night poor Mickey kept peering out
the window looking for her in vain. He is the only cat who so far has
figured out that there is another cat in the house, he just does not
know who it is :-)
__
http://www.hoosierkitties.com Resource Links for You About Your Cat

One word...WOW! What a gorgeous kitty!

__
http://www.hoosierkitties.com Resource Links for You About Your Cat

"Phil P." wrote in message
news:N51Sf.13009$o41.6909@trnddc06...

"Buddy" wrote in message
oups.com...

What about naming her Sugar?

Sugar is a great name for a white female:


http://maxshouse.com/Ours/sugar-5-12-05-4.jpg

Except for the blue eyes, she looks just like my Demi.

http://www.possibleplaces.com/CatNip...PrettyDemi.jpg

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/





I think she will get along fine with the
boys!


I think you're right. I don't think sex makes much of difference when all
the cats are neutered. When there's no sexual competition or competition
for food, they seem to develop their own little community. I think the
cat
hierarchy is more like a wheel- rather than like a ladder as with dogs.
There's really no alpha cat- they just seem to time share the hub at the
center of the wheel. lol


The soft music idea is great! My kitties always relax to
classical music! Just doze right off!


My cats are partial to Beliotz - "Requiem" in particular, probably because
the soft kettle drums sounds like cats purring.




She will probably hide under
the bed. Some nice soft, gentle petting never hurt either!


..or treats-- a lot of treats.

Phil

Phil

She is beautiful! How old is she?

What about naming her Sugar?


Sugar is a great name for a white female:

http://maxshouse.com/Ours/sugar-5-12-05-4.jpg


I think she will get along fine with the



boys!


I think you're right. I don't think sex makes much of difference when
all
the cats are neutered. When there's no sexual competition or
competition
for food, they seem to develop their own little community. I think the
cat
hierarchy is more like a wheel- rather than like a ladder as with dogs.

There's really no alpha cat- they just seem to time share the hub at
the
center of the wheel. lol

The soft music idea is great! My kitties always relax to