Literally, on my doorstep.
Her name is Hennessey, at least to me it is, and she's a small stray cat. Black with tiny bits of brown like the pattern in marble. Can't be more than a year old. She scrapes out a bare existance in my apartment complex.
She might have belonged to someone as a kitten, but she's utterly on her own now.
I sneak her bits of food when I can, but if my apartment manager caught me, I could get evicted. I can't take her into my apartment because we're only allowed two cats, and I already meet that limit. Not to mention that adult feral cats can almost NEVER be tamed.
A few things make me think the right person MIGHT be able to convince Hennessey to like humans, rumor has it she was handled a bit by a previous tenant (who was evicted for feeding all the stray cats in the neighborhood) in her kittenhood and that Hennessey knows my name for her and turns to me when I call her. She has begun to trust me and let me get fairly close since I've started feeding her.
Of course allowing hunger to override caution is a far cry from adjusting happily to living with humans.
What do you do with a little kidden like Hennessey?
End her 'hard-knock life' in an unfamiliar vet office, surrounded by people she's terrified of?
Let her live out her life, producing dozens of kittens into the same life?
Because that's what brought this problem to a head.
She's pregnant.
If I take her to a shelter, they'll tell me that can't adopt out a wild or even half-wild cat. And what can I expect a from an overwhelmed shelter staff? If they've got the space and time, which is a big if, they'll let her have her kittens before they put her down, kittens are fairly easily adoptable. So I could sacrifice Hennessey for the sake of her kittens.
And no, I can't wait until they're born and just take them into the shelter. When they're born, Hen will hide them away until they're too old to be tamed.
In theory, I could take Hen to a vet, tell them she's my cat, have them help deliver her kittens, dump the kittens at a shelter, and have Hen spayed. This wouldn't really solve the problem of Hen, and would cost quite a bit of money.
So at the moment, I'm pinning my hopes on a no-kill shelter, hoping that their Cozy Cottage, with it's big screened porches and soft cat beds, will have room for her to life out her life, and that she'll adapt to the life.
I'm waiting to hear back from the shelter, to see if they'll take her on charity, as I doubt I can pay what they will ask for their "Lifetime Care."
At the least, her kittens will have a better life, but even if they take her, it's no guarantee that she'll be happy in such a strange new life.
Say a little prayer please, and PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!!
Her name is Hennessey, at least to me it is, and she's a small stray cat. Black with tiny bits of brown like the pattern in marble. Can't be more than a year old. She scrapes out a bare existance in my apartment complex.
She might have belonged to someone as a kitten, but she's utterly on her own now.
I sneak her bits of food when I can, but if my apartment manager caught me, I could get evicted. I can't take her into my apartment because we're only allowed two cats, and I already meet that limit. Not to mention that adult feral cats can almost NEVER be tamed.
A few things make me think the right person MIGHT be able to convince Hennessey to like humans, rumor has it she was handled a bit by a previous tenant (who was evicted for feeding all the stray cats in the neighborhood) in her kittenhood and that Hennessey knows my name for her and turns to me when I call her. She has begun to trust me and let me get fairly close since I've started feeding her.
Of course allowing hunger to override caution is a far cry from adjusting happily to living with humans.
What do you do with a little kidden like Hennessey?
End her 'hard-knock life' in an unfamiliar vet office, surrounded by people she's terrified of?
Let her live out her life, producing dozens of kittens into the same life?
Because that's what brought this problem to a head.
She's pregnant.
If I take her to a shelter, they'll tell me that can't adopt out a wild or even half-wild cat. And what can I expect a from an overwhelmed shelter staff? If they've got the space and time, which is a big if, they'll let her have her kittens before they put her down, kittens are fairly easily adoptable. So I could sacrifice Hennessey for the sake of her kittens.
And no, I can't wait until they're born and just take them into the shelter. When they're born, Hen will hide them away until they're too old to be tamed.
In theory, I could take Hen to a vet, tell them she's my cat, have them help deliver her kittens, dump the kittens at a shelter, and have Hen spayed. This wouldn't really solve the problem of Hen, and would cost quite a bit of money.
So at the moment, I'm pinning my hopes on a no-kill shelter, hoping that their Cozy Cottage, with it's big screened porches and soft cat beds, will have room for her to life out her life, and that she'll adapt to the life.
I'm waiting to hear back from the shelter, to see if they'll take her on charity, as I doubt I can pay what they will ask for their "Lifetime Care."
At the least, her kittens will have a better life, but even if they take her, it's no guarantee that she'll be happy in such a strange new life.
Say a little prayer please, and PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!!
4 Comments:
poor hen.
Sucks. My ferel cat is quite tame, she just stays outside b/c of her inability to use a litter box. We had her fixed when we first adopted her. If she had been pregnant, sheesh. I have no good suggestion. Mebbe post/search on Craig's List? That's my answer to everything. Craig's List is the new god.
I don't have a solution, but good for you for doing the right thing and helping out the little one.
After some thinking I remembered two things. First, my two cats were abandonded and were outside from ages 3 months to 6months before I adopted them. One adapted to me quickly, the other a little slower (medicine helped him --amitriptiline). I now remember reading that the key time in getting a kitten adjusted to humans was birth to 12 weeks. If someone took care of the kitten then, they should be able to adjust. Here's hoping for the best.
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