Meet the new boss

Just when we thought we couldn't handle one more thing, our neighbor informed us she had been seeing 2 new small kittens in her yard. Since we had already taken 5 kittens from her I couldn't think of a way to refuse. So I went and get them. These kittens are much younger than the first batch, probably just over a month old. But they are already rather feral.

They hiss and spit at us when we first approach, but unlike the older kittens, they seem to relax when we pick them up. They are small and fragile-feeling, with worm-bloated bellies and blue eyes. Their appearance has made taming the first group a little harder, but also sheds a light on the fact that this problem will not go away on its own. We need to get this colony fixed and fast.

We have inquiries in to the two main spay clinics, the ASPCA and The Toby Project. We also have a friend who has connections who will split a spay van with us if it becomes available. The whole thing is exactly the sort of slow-burning stress that I was really hoping to avoid this summer. But we don't always get to pick our battles.  There are some 15 cats across the street who need fixing yet, they range from mostly feral to hardly feral; I was able to pet several of them while I was trapping the kittens. That means against all odds these street-born cats have learned how to tame themselves, at least when food is around. It's kind of depressing when you realize how intelligent an animal is, and what it means for the hardships they've had to endure. You just think, they know how bad they have it.

Anyway, the real crux of the biscuit right now is that we are on the eve of our first out-of-town trip in over a year. To bring about such a momentous feat, we needed the help of lots of people. We not only have a sitter for the cats, we have one for the house (and birds, and plants) and one for these kittens. Not to mention all the great advice we've gleaned from other friends who are way more knowledgeable than us on kittens. It's been years since we've had kittens in the house and these are tougher as they're already somewhat feral. And there's SEVEN of them.

So thanks to all our sitters and fosters and advice-givers, I sort of wish all of this work was going to a more exotic trip. But in reality we will be attneding the 100th birthday party for one of Jeannie's aunts, in Northern Minnesota. Rock on!

We'll also be visiting Jeannie's old haunts in Minneapolis, my first time there, so that will be pretty cool, too. At any rate it's 7 days of Super 8 Motel continental breakfasts and cable tv! But when we get back, it's right back to kitten-taming and cat fixing business as usual.

We've hit the one-week mark with the kittens, but it feels like it's been months already. For a week, they've come along very well, but they mostly aren't ready for prime-time yet. We decided to separate two of the kittens from the group, as their aggressive antics were having a negative effect on the progress of the other kittens. There was an unmistakable cone of ignorance developing that we had to nip in the bud. Thanks to a friend with some crates to spare, we have them sequestered so we can work on them individually. Here's how they're faring:

1. Littlest kitten: She was already basically tame and she continues to be at the head of the class, showing enthusiasm when we enter the room and being tame enough to be let out to roam around during feeding/play times. She loves to climb her cage and chase the string-on-a-stick toy. She still hisses occasionally but can be held and petted. She could be adopted out immediately.

2. Tuxedo: We think she is female and she too can be held, as long as food is offered. She is over most of her fear yet still hisses frequently and still tries to knock food out of your hand, which is really annoying. If she continues down this path, she should be mostly tame soon.

3. Gray tabby: Also presumed female, she has recently become aggressive, growling more and getting greedy with food. But she is also getting tamer, allowing us to pet her while eating and even allowing brief moments of holding. Still, she is quick to hiss and growl and run away. But this is a marked improvement over her initial behavior (hiding even when food is offered).

4. Biggest kitten: He seems like a boy to us, he has been separated from the girls because he was very hissy and bossy. Alone, he is still stand-offish but is making slow but steady progress. He lets us pet him when he is eating (although it can be slow going each time we approach). The rest of the time he hisses constantly and hides in his box. But he is bright and showing signs of getting tamer.

5. Orange kitten: He quickly became the worst of the group, freaking out when we were around, growling and spitting and striking at the cage wall when we were near. He has been placed in his own cage and continues to be a terror. We assume this is because he is actually the most scared of them all. Last time, however, when presented with Gerber baby food, he calmed down and actually purred while eating! During this time he could be petted with abandon, and we were even able to lure him out of his cage to sit on my lap! This behavior ends abruptly when the baby food runs out. When not being sweet, he continues most of his bad behavior and also whines in his cage loudly. Although a little disturbing this seems to me a good sign he can be turned to the Tame Side in time.

Of course all this work overshadows the fact that there is still a yard full of cats across the street who will produce more kittens soon if we don't put a stop to it. I have calls into both the ASPCA and the Toby Project, who both maintain mobile clinics for TNR work. However, both are overbooked and riddled with logistical issues, so I have no idea if they will ever come through. I am now toying with the idea of booking a mass appointment with the ASPCA's Bergh clinic, trapping the cats and renting a uhaul to haul them all up there one day. It would suck to have to do all this extra work, but I am not super optimistic about our chances of getting a spay van without many inside-track connections to these groups. And sometimes if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.

3 of 5: note the size difference of the big black kitten

While we made plans to get the neighbor's cat colony TNR'd, other issues began to surface. Namely, there are several kittens in the colony who may be young enough to be tamed. We discussed what to do and consulted our friends who have way more experience with kittens. The consensus was that we should nab the kittens and see how wild they were. We approached the neighbor to ask if we could go in back and get them and she said okay, so we took a couple carriers and some cheap mackerel cat food and some paper plates. The kittens (and the rest of the cats) were so hungry that they came right up to get the food. Two were trapped by simply putting the food inside the carrier and opening the door. We caught the others as they came up to eat just by grabbing them and putting them in the carriers as well. I got a little scratched but they were no match for my brawn. All told we had 5 kittens. We gave the leftover food to the rest of the colony, noting that many of these 'adult' cats (none of whom could be older than 2) also appear to be tame, since we could pet them while they ate.

We set the kittens up in our trusty crate, which turned out to be so big they were able to slither through the bars at the bottom. Whoops. I cut strips of cardboard and taped them around the perimeter to contain them. The kittens were understandably freaked and tried to hide in their box or behind it. We got a good look at them, resulting in this inventory from biggest to smallest:

1. Black, probably male: he is clearly larger than the others and is most likely from an earlier litter, he is the bossiest and hissiest of the group
2. Orange tabby, probably male: also fairly hissy and assertive, he may have a slight upper respiratory infection
3. Gray tabby, probably female: the most reticent of the group, but looks very healthy
4. Tuxedo, probably female: looks healthy and generally fearless
5. Black, probably female: the tiniest kitten, she is either a from a different litter or a real runt, she is totally unafraid and doesn't mind being handled, she has a minor eye infection (possibly from a URI).

Wild-wise I think we will be able to tame them.They vary from avoidant to nonplussed, but I guess we want them to actively like us, right? They are all eating well except possibly the gray tabby, who doesn't attack her plate with the same vigor as her siblings. The one thing she (and all the rest) have been responding really well to is licking baby food off our fingers. They love that stuff! Now if we could just get them to do it without hissing at us on the approach. Of course we expect even more hissing when we start handling them on a daily basis, but judging from their behavior so far I think it will be an easy transition from feral to lapcat.

The next steps are to get the van booked. Once that date is set we can mobilize everything else (securing enough traps, preparing the recovery space, making sure we have enough food and supplies like newspapers!) I'm a little annoyed because if I had found out about this 6 months ago I could have focused all my attention on it. But now I'm employed again so my time is limited. Which sucks, but my job doesn't give me a hard time if I have to take a day off here and there. More info as the plan progresses!

To lighten the mood, here's a parable: We were playing host to Jeannie's nephew again this past week, culminating in a trip to Manhattan on Saturday to ostensibly check out some colleges. We went up to the NYU area first, checking first to see if there were any 7-Elevens around the campus. Jeannie and her sister were big on Slurpees and kept talking about how much they wanted one, so we looked online but there weren't any in the vicinity.  We went up to Washington Square Park and watched some chess hustlers, as well as a contortionist who spent so much time leading up to his stunts he lost half his audience. We went uptown and stopped off to wander through Central Park, and get tickets for the movies (yes again). Seeing as how we had limited time before the film, we stuck around the theater, first wandering aimlessly at the Mac store, and then camping out at the Barnes & Nobles cafe.

We saw the movie and then set about getting back to Bushwick. Easier said than done, every train we needed was doing something wonky, whether scheduled or not. Though it had cooled nicely outside, the subway station was superheated and miserable. We waited and waited. Finally our C train showed up and took a slow route to West 4th. There we moved to the F/M platform to get a train down to Delancey Street to get the J. Again we waited and waited in the stifling heat of the station, realizing after a while that the M train didn't run to Manhattan on weekends. Still, the F would get us where we were going. It finally showed up and brought much-needed air conditioning. It stopped next at Spring Street.

The F isn't supposed to stop there. We quickly realized the F was traveling on the A line, which takes us nowhere near Delancey. If this had been a weekday we could have taken it to Fulton to transfer to the J. But on weekends the J only goes to Chambers Street. We tried to figure out some other connection but by then we had lost all faith in the transit system. We decided to exit at Chambers Street on the A line and walk across to the J Chambers station (though on the same street, they are on opposite side of the neighborhood, one far west, the other next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

We exited the station and came up to the street. And what should await us above, one of the few lighted storefronts on the block? Why, a 7-Eleven, resplendent in its fluorescent glow. Slurpees were acquired and we made the not-too-bad walk over to the right station. The J train showed up with due haste and spirited us home. So sometimes things work out, even after you've long since given up.