Our new vocation or Who says you can't herd cats?

In a recent post about our cat family, I must update you! Momsie and her little crew, Roamer, Mr. Big and Frexie have all, happily, been adopted and are already in their forever homes. Sister and her husband adopted Roamer, promptly renamed him and he's now making their lives more interesting, not to mention their dog's life too!

The Shelter's foster coordinator, never one to miss a chance at filling an empty home, quickly loaded us up with 6 more kittens: a male and his five sisters. They were the offspring of a feral cat who was captured, spayed and now is likely on death row as her wild nature prevents her from ever being tamed, poor thing. Her babies had taken up residence in the woodpile in a lady's garage. The kind lady managed to capture them; hence, our new additions. Mission impossible is to tame and socialize these little wildcats so they too can find new homes.

For a week we kept them confined in a carpeted room, complete with ironing board so they could enjoy the window. They were extremely skittish and scared, hiding in anything that even remotely cover their backs. Here's how we found them, their first night at our place...all gathered in a row.

Left to right, they are:

Minnie (Mouse), Blaze (the trailblazer), Hillary (after the mountain climber), Dot-the-Spot, Pinky (ever shy) and Kally (the calico). The two grays have very different textured coats; the others all have calico faces but three are quite white-bodies, while the fourth is very calico.

We had a few worries in the early days as three came down with cat "colds" (upper respiratory infection) but the Shelter provided meds that quickly fixed that. Although it's an airborne bug, we dosed everyone for a week, and managed to fend off more infection. One, Dot-the-Spot, like the meds so much she'd come up to you asking for it! The rest, not so much.

Our next problem was moving the freezer as, being expert woodpiler-hiders, the kits had no problem burrowing behind the freezer! Check out the photos on Facebook to see how we found them. Out of the kitten room and into the kitchen the freezer went.

We have gradually introduced them to more of the house, taking care to eliminate hidey-holes to they can't sequester themselves away from us. We handle them as much as possible, brushing them, checking for ticks & fleas, and of course, just lots of petting so they do get lots of loving. There's nothing like a blanket of 6 purring, warm little fuzzballs on your lap.


When it's feeding time, I call them in a falsetto voice: Here, babies! Here, babies! and they come running. Who says you can't herd cats? But what's funniest is when hubby does the call, imitating me. They still come running and it's a hoot to see them all milling around his slippers! Food is a really big incentive!

Apart from those who've shown potential as computer programmers (a couple are helping me type this very minute), we've also discovered several of the kits aspire to be sanitation engineers. As soon as the scoop starts disturbing matters in the litter box, 2 or 3 jump right in to "assist", and of course, add to the "matter"! It's an unceasingly interesting activity to them, a little less so to us, naturally.

A friend gave them a magic wand, yes, a magic wand which they love to chase. For us, its magic is in the fact that all six will follow it avidly which is how we get them back to their room at night so we can enjoy a night's rest. Who says you can't herd cats?

Our life is enriched by these little comedians in fur coats. Their purring is calming, their antics better than anything TV can provide, and their trusting eyes, as they slowly learn how to handle us (yes, the shoe is soon on the other foot), make this one of the most satisfying volunteer "jobs" we've ever had!