Every morning, no, every time I enter the room, I’m greeted by hissing from Samantha. The hissing and animosity has increased with each passing day. Clearly, she isn’t happy being confined.
Samantha is still feral, despite having lived in the room since 27th January 2023 when I caught her so that she would have a safe space to deliver her kittens. That’s coming to three months already.
When she was with her kittens, she let me touch her and medicate her, especially when she had that crypto scare which turned out to be a minor skin problem. I could even pill her.
I helped her handfeed all her kittens since Day 3 until they were weaned off milk because she either did not have enough milk or she didn’t quite care, especially for Indra.
This morning, she hissed at me again. But this time, I hissed back. And that gave her a shock. Yes, I hissed back at her. I’m only human.
I discussed with our vet yesterday when I took Gerald and she felt that perhaps it is better to return Samantha to the colony. Clearly, she isn’t happy being confined. Perhaps she is not meant to be an indoor cat.
If she is not happy being indoors, so I shouldn’t force her.
But I cannot release her yet until she fully recovers from this flu that she had contracted from her kittens. Or rather, she is probably a carrier of the flu virus, which was passed onto her kittens while they were still in the womb. Now, it manifests as a mild flu in them, and the kittens gave the flu back to her. It’s all mild in them because Samantha has been vaccinated and also has street immunity while the kittens were raised with good nutrition (this was what the vet said).
There are two issues in releasing Samantha. (1) Can she get back a space in our porch with Misty around? (2) Misty is FIV+. I raised my concerns to our vet and she said that the chances of contracting FIV in an adult is much smaller than in a young kitten. As a cat grows, there will be fewer receptors for the FIV. (3) Cmpl – will he tolerate another CNRM cat?
Well, Creamy doesn’t come much anymore now. He has a home in the back street. Misty and Gerald sometimes know how to “disappear” after meals, so that’s good too. But usually, Misty and Gerald lounge in our porch. So where will Samantha go? Can Misty and Samantha be friends? Or will Samantha take back her place in the porch and Misty goes back to the RYABK?
Samantha had been forced to vacate her spot in our porch (by me) for too long now. It was either I let her give birth in the bedroom where her kittens can survive (as they have now) or I leave her be and let her give birth outdoors and probably lose all her kittens again. And get pregnant again and again and again.
I made a no-brainer judgment call and took her in.
Yes, I interfered.
I still feel really sad thinking about the kittens that we assume Samantha had lost in the previous litter. I hoped she did not give birth outdoors and maybe by some chance, she delivered in another house, maybe one of the RYABKs and her earlier kittens are thriving in that house. Who knows?
But whatever it is, we are where we are now.
A decision has to be made regarding Samantha’s future. Does she want to go back out? A resounding YES, definitely. She’s not happy being indoors. There’s no point living an unhappy indoor life all your life, right?
I could see from yesterday’s short time that Gerald was caged in Indy’s cage that Cow, Indy and Cleo also don’t like their place being infringed by yet another adult cat. They just have no choice with Rey because he parks himself there every day….until we get our new Stargate.
Maybe Cow, Indy and Cleo will accept the Blondies since they are kittens. Or maybe not. Cleo is not a friendly calico at all.
Samantha’s a calico, so can you imagine what can happen if I put Samantha there?
Fireworks.
My decision now is to release Samantha once she recovers from the flu. But I may change my mind later, depending on her behaviour and the vibes I get from her.
Meanwhile, the headache continues….
One of the kittens pulled out this litter box to pee on the floor. Look at the lengths they would go to just to pee on the floor. I don’t know why they like peeing on the floor.
I’m hoping they can be litter box trained so that I can release them out of the room too and they can explore and live in the rest of the house with Riley and Tabs. All girls. The kittens will be raised indoors, definitely.
Indra, was it you who pulled the litter box out?
I need a better plan to litter box train them. But I truly think it is just one kitten who is being untrainable.