Advice for looking after a stray kitten.

gazzer

I was playing out the front garden with the dogs yesterday and I heard this meowing noise coming from one of the hedges. I went over and found a kitten hiding. She was very nervous and even more so when my dogs came over to investigate.

I brought the dogs in and then brought the kitten into the utility room. She was a very very friendly cat and just kept jumping on me and running through my legs.

Im not sure where she came from as I live out in the middle of nowhere and there are fields around me which are usually empty (except for when cows are grazing).

My partner went into the shops and brought back some kitten milk and some food for her which the kitten milled into.

Our problem comes from the fact that

1. We have 2 dogs who are very very boisterous and whilst they wouldnt mean to hurt the kitten, I could see injuring her if they think she is a toy

2. When we moved into the house last year we inherited two cats (they arrived at the door one day and havnt left since. We feed them every morning and they sleep out in the back garden in a makeshift sleeping area we made with some wood and blankets. They are no trouble but when we brought the kitten out yesterday the cats were having none of it and were making the strangest noises. Any time the kitten went near them the cats would run off.

We would love to keep the kitten but she apart from keeping her in the utility room at night we are not sure where to keep her. As well as that we both work. There would be nobody in the house from around 9am until 4pm.

Thanks

blondie7

if you dont want to keep the kitten contact your Vets and any animal shelters, they might be able to rehome her. Do you no what age she/he is?? A trip to the vets is needed as she will need a flea and worm treatment. you say you work all day, what do you do with your dogs when you are at work?? Cats are very independent and are quite happy to be on there own during the day

gazzer

blondie7 wrote: »

if you dont want to keep the kitten contact your Vets and any animal shelters, they might be able to rehome her. Do you no what age she/he is?? A trip to the vets is needed as she will need a flea and worm treatment. you say you work all day, what do you do with your dogs when you are at work?? Cats are very independent and are quite happy to be on there own during the day

I honestly done know what age she is but at a guess I would say no more than about 6/7 weeks.

Thanks for the advise on the vets. I will arrange to bring her there in the next couple of days.

We have a run for the dogs and we leave them there during the day and then they get walked and have an hours play with us when we get home and after dinner they stay in the house until the following morning.

The Sweeper

If you're any good at judging something's weight, you might be able to pinpoint her age. Kittens up to about 5-6 weeks tend to weigh about 100g for every week of their age. A 5-6 week old kitten will be about the size of a woman's hand (I know that's SO incredibly vague, but it's the best comparison I can give you). 6-7 weeks won't be much larger or heavier.

If the cat's jumping on your and running through your legs, I'd say it's probably a good bit older than that. Either way, if you leave some food and water out for it, it may well settle in with your cats. If you decide to keep it, take it to the vet, who'll identify its sex; worm it and have it vaccinated, and see how soon the vet will desex it for you.

If it's that friendly, it's had human handling - it could be a dumped pet that someone didn't want and they thought it could fend for itself out in the country.

MsFifers

Would you consider keeping her as an inside cat with the run of your house when you are out rather than just the utility room? Cats are very clean animals and as long as there is a litter tray or two you shouldn't have any problems. (Get some flea drops/worm tablets from the vet asap however!)

Maybe you could put a child-gate or somehow block off one side of the house while the kitten is small, and when its a bit bigger it'll probably be grand with the dogs. Just make sure it has a high shelf or something like that to jump up on.

I work all day and my two cats are perfectly happy inside in my house when I'm out. They have a couple of litter trays and lots of toys - but I think they generally sleep all day.

They go out for a couple of hours in the morning and evening, but as soon as they come back I close the window and now they are used to the routine of being inside and the routine is almost clockwork (touch wood!).