for the first time in my life, i have kittens, a brother and sister from a church member that has a
cat colony in her goat barn. cute little things. they look like ragdoll cats in that they will have longer hair,
white body with light gray markings, and blue eyes. thats what they look like so far.
after sharing most of my life with dogs, there is a learning curve with the cats. for one thing, i did not know
they were contortionists. the church member advised me to keep them confined for a short period until they
became familiar with me, as a bestest buddy. i have a pen in the barn someone built out of small diameter
saplings maybe three inches or so in diameter. the pen might be 3ft x 6ft in size. field fence type wire is attached
to the frame, and there is a top hatch that opens. looked perfect. i got all my supplies from the feed and seed, and
picked up a couple bales of old hay from the church family when i got the kittens. i had the thought that the openings
in the fencing might be too large and the kittens would slip through, but after placing the kittens in the pen, they seemed
too large to escape. i went in the house, and maybe three hours later went to check on them before calling it a night.
i look in the pen, and there is one kitten looking back at me. maybe the other one is burrowed in the hay. nope, not there.
shoot. now i have to find this little creature, in the barn, if its still inside, and amidst all the stuff thats in the barn, and
how did it get out??? i am trying not to panic. what a lousy cat owner i am. three hours i have had the kittens, and i've lost
one already. here kitty, kitty, here kitty, kitty. i start looking around the barn, shining a pretty strong flash light. no sign of
kitty. i look outside the barn in case it crept out an opening. no kitty. i go back to the pen and look at the kitten still in there,
trying to collect my thoughts, and as i am there, i see the kitten in the pen push its head into the fencing, do its contortion
thing and slip out of the pen. so, now i know the pen is going to need some additional work, but its late, i am going to need to
come up with a temporary solution. i see a rabbit pen that i got from a friend. he wanted to get rid of some clutter. i took it,
with the intent, we might get rabbits in the future, but it was just part of the clutter in the barn. i got that fixed up. a couple
holes needed to be blocked. mean while, the kitten still there took off, and came back with its sibling. oh happy day its still
alive! i managed to grab them both and placed in the rabbit pen. they stayed in there a day until i could attach some small
opening chicken wire to the pen. that took awhile using zip ties. it works. the kitties are safe inside, and are staying inside
the pen. sometimes you have humbling experiences in life. for me, it was being outsmarted by six week old kittens.

now its the naming game. we have been giving our dogs finnish names. the copper country has a large finnish population.
my wife is finnish, so there you go. we need a finnish boy name, and a girl name. see what you come up with, and i will
pick two favorites.


keith

Are they not allowed in the house? That would be safest. They sound adorable. I hope you share some kitten pics.

I think that perfect Finnish name for your kittens are Miina (girl) and Manu (boy). There is a very popular children's book series in Finland with those names. https://miinajamanu.fi/ When our son was little relatives from Finland used to send us those books and those were our favorite bedtime reading.

I agree with Sue that safest would be to keep them in the house. Also if you want to get them to familiarize with you, it would be best to have them in the house. You should now get them to be used to be handled by people, by lifting and holding them, so you do not end up with cats which scratch you when trying to catch or pet. Since you have a boy and a girl and if you are going to let them go outside freely I hope you are going to get them both neutered.

Cats are smart and can do amazing tricks if they want to. Our younger cat knows how to open doors and we have had to make them secure so that he does not get them open. Our cats are not let go outside freely, because it is not safe in the city so they can go to the back yard on a leash. It took some time to find harnesses, which are comfortable, but still secure to keep the little Houdinis from escaping. Both of them have done vanishing acts few times, but luckily have found a way back home safely.
When I grew up we had a dog and I never considered myself as a cat person, until we adopted our first cat. Cats behave a bit differently as dogs and do not follow orders so well, but they do bond with people and I have found that we can understand each other pretty well. They seem to understand meaning of some words and I have learned meaning of some of their vocalizations, but a lot of their communication is non verbal.

Please share the pictures of the new additions to your family.

Welcome to the amazing world of cats! I have a ragdoll. My wife was agitating for a cat 8 years ago, and I was actually for a cat, but she wanted a 1) white cat, 2) with long hair, and 3) she was adamantly against declawing. I Just wanted a regular old short haired cat. I resisted for several months but my wife had her heart set on this and to force the issue one day my wife brings home "Princess", the most adorable kitten with long white hair ever. Of course I immediately fell in love and can happily report I was flat out wrong on all my hang-ups above, especially declawing. Never declaw your cats. The slightly funny thing is that Princess decided that I'm her hooman and mommy is just back-up hooman, lol. The tables were turned several years later when I got Charlie, a big grey British Shorthair, who is the cat I was hankering after for years, and then Charlie decides my wife is his hooman and I'm back-up Hooman. And that's cats, they do want they want, and I love them for it.

I've had a cat most of my life. One once that I went 6 months without a cat in the house; couldn't stand it and adopted 2. They were feral kittens but lived out their lives as indoor only cats.

Yes, kittens in the house, exposure to people and noises and lots of loving on so they are well socialized. Starting now, get them accustomed to having their feet played with, toes separated and nails clipped. I have a huge cat tree, but like this scratching post
https://www.amazon.com/SmartCat-3832-U ... 876&sr=8-8

Once or twice a day, bring them to the scratching post and scratch with them until they get it themselves. Then if you see unwanted behavior, you say no and bring to the scratching post. Our cats are taught from a young age what is good behavior and that prevents the bad stuff. Our youngest cat who is almost 2 knows the word no, is super smart, doesn't extend his claws even in rough play with the dogs. Cats are very trainable depending on their personalities or you may be the one who ends up well trained!

I use 2 very large sterilite storage boxes for litter pans; they each hold 40 lbs. Over the years, the oldest cat has taught the incoming newbie the 'rules' so they consistently pee in one and poo in the other. Cat Attract can help encourage good litterbox behavior when young especially since these were feral; just quit using it after their routine is well established.

i can't have cats in the house.
wife and son are allergic.
my shepherd would treat them like a chew toy.
barn is the safest place.
absolutely no declawing, never was a fan of that. they need their claws.
i handle them several times a day. they seem to like me.
at least the male will be neutered for now. my partner adopted a brother
and sister cat right during covid, vet wasn't taking appointments. momma cat
had six kittens. no mutants apparently. she has them all still.
church member assured me the cats will do well in the barn as outside cats.
life will be good for them, but sometimes uncertain. i am thinking about a heated
hootch during the winter. a tech said insulate a box big enough for the two. pile of
hay that they can burrow into.
i am hoping the kitties will do a number on the mouse population here. they are plentiful.



keith

Imagine getting put to sleep and having your fingers popped off at the first knuckle.
That's how they do it.
I've seen it done.
A horrible thing to do to a cat.
Several places have banned it including Austin I think.

Pickles is the one who has fixed up an outdoor sleeping area for the one cat who didn't want to be an innie-outie cat like the others. She was semi-feral and wanted nothing to do with being inside. Pickles made a "house" from a medium sized Rubbermaid-type tote with an entrance cut in both ends in case an emergency exit was needed. There was straw on the bottom and a self-warming thermal pad to lay on (search online for thermal pads for cats). Sometimes Koonie would lay on the pad and sometimes nestle down in the straw. Search online for houses for feral cats and get a ton of ideas.

You can learn a lot about cats just by watching them play. Toys are cheap; tie something to a long piece of twine and go cat fishing with it. Toss it out there and pull it back very slowly and intermittantly. Watch them plot their attack and then pounce. LOL!

You're in for a fun time with these little ones!

Paper sack on a slick floor keeps them entertained for hours.
They'll run and dive into it and slide across the floor.

A box... my Siberian is obsessed with boxes!

Little ones are so helpful...

And sometimes they get into trouble....


and chew their bed up just because...


Always inquisitive...


It's their job!

Get the girl spayed at the earliest age possible then you can wait a bit if need be for the boy. Yes the boy is cheaper to fix but the only sure fire way to prevent unwanted kittens is to spay the girl. And they can often be spayed at 4 months without problems. AND yep some kittens will have their first heat at that age and can get pregnant that young.
Boxes and paper bags are endless fun for any size cat.

thanks to my ever patient wife who is more tech savvy than i am. we have VIDEO!!!!!!
this was taken shortly after i got the kittens. i have decided on calling the girl miina,
and her brother toivo. both are doing well. they have their purr motors going whenever
i am holding them. they are slowly starting to explore the world outside the barn.



keith

Gosh they are adorable!

I know right. They are adorable. I would be out there playing with them all of the time.

Wow, what pretty kitties!!

What beautiful kitties!!!!

kittens are still doing fine.
the two have very different personalities.
miina the girl is very out going, inquisitive, adventurous, and
likes to figure things out. she has learned how to get out of the barn.
she likes being held, and stroked.

toivo the boy is more cautious. he prefers to hang back, and let his sister
check things out first, and then maybe he will join in. he likes his cuddles
too, but not to the extent miina does. he likes to eat.

this afternoon, i had my dog out while the kittens were out exploring.
miina has no fear. she came strolling up to us, walked in front of the dog
then underneath her, just having a good time. my dog was amazingly pretty
well behaved. i had a good hold of her and was giving lots of praise for being
a good girl. what gets her going is those kittens are quick. they jump, and dash,
and that triggers my dogs prey drive, and she wants to chase them. but, over all
a good experience, just have to reinforce that kittens are friends not food.


keith

One thing about kittens, they will try out their claws on everything and everyone, no matter how friendly. That will provoke any dog, so you're wise to keep them apart except for some supervised meetings until they are a bit older and know the difference between cuddling and making puncture wounds.

bower wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2024 8:04 am One thing about kittens, they will try out their claws on everything and everyone, no matter how friendly. That will provoke any dog, so you're wise to keep them apart except for some supervised meetings until they are a bit older and know the difference between cuddling and making puncture wounds.

We never had that problem with our dogs.
One little rescue kitten used to sleep on top of Bullet.
Bullet wouldn't hurt anything and the squirrels used to share her food bowl.