Hiss

The employees at the animal shelter have been asking me to foster a litter of kittens for the past several weeks, but because of all the noise and mess of the home improvements, I had a good excuse to refuse. (It's not that I don't enjoy fostering kittens, it's just that I have the tendency to fall in love with them and keep them, and at this point, I need another pet in the house like I need a hole in my head!) Unfortunately, on Monday, the landscaping crew packed up their tools, so I no longer had a valid reason to say no. In the past, I have fostered mother cats and their kittens, but on Monday I was asked to take a litter of 4 feral kittens who were found inside a pipe at a construction site. They are probably about 5 weeks old and have never had any contact with humans before...you can imagine how terrified they are.

When I first brought them home, they sounded like popcorn popping, hissing and spitting and hopping in the air whenever I dared to peek at them.

It has been 3 days now, and they are already so much better. Instead of wearing leather gloves to handle them, I can reach in and pick them up. They will accept a bottle of KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement) while I hold them, and they will even lick Gerber's chicken baby food off of my finger. They still don't enjoy being held and petted, but as long as I keep the food coming, they will sit quietly and tolerate the handling.

This little girl is the kitten who is the most social. When I am feeding another kitten, she will creep out of the cage and sit by me, trying to score more snacks.

This kitten is also coming around pretty quickly and will let me pick her up and pet her with few protestations. She seems very curious about coming out of the cage too, and if I sit very quietly by the cage, eventually she will sneak out and look around.

This little girl is a bit shyer than the first two, but she has made a lot of progress since Monday too. She still flinches and squeezes her eyes shut when I try to pet her...I really hope that she will mellow out a lot more.

And then there is this little spitfire. She is a tiny ball of fury and rage and will growl and try to smack me every time I put my hand in the cage. Even when I am holding her and feeding her, she growls and snarls the whole time she drinks the milk from her bottle or gobbles the chicken. I guess she has made a bit of progress...a couple of days ago, she wouldn't groom herself or play or eat in front of me, but now she will do all those things in my presence.

I am still worried, though. I only have a small window of opportunity to socialize them before they get bigger and not so attractive to potential adopters. In addition to hand feeding and cuddling them 4 times a day, I have been hanging out in the room by their open cage for a couple of hours a day, just reading or checking email, so they get used to human activity. I also turned on a radio in their room. (I have heard that animals are soothed by classical music and also by country, but I couldn't find a classical station with good reception and I hate country music, so instead we are listening to 40's and 50's lounge singers--these kittens are very familiar with the smooth sounds of Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Sammy Davis Jr. by now!) I even have tried a new-agey tactic--I have been squirting a couple of drops of Bach Flower Essences "Rescue Remdy" into their water dish every day.

I can't think of anything else I can do to socialize them, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would be most appreciative. And of course, if anyone is actually interested in adopting a feral kitten of their very own, let me know!