Re: OT: The Kitten Wars

Oh Cyndi, I can empathize. My "kittens" are now 2 years old but my two older cats, the male in particular, have still not gotten used to them. He does not spray but is very nervous and stays inside only long enough to eat. The female went through a long period (probably over a year) of peeing everywhere and I have every pee clean-up concoction in the book, but she finally has settled down in that regard. As you said, the kittens seem to delight in following my male cat around as though on purpose to bug him! My latest tack is to follow the kittens around with a spray water bottle when he is in the house and try to get the message across to just leave him alone! In anticipation of winter, I also have on order some cat pheronomes (spelling?) that come in a diffuser and are supposed to help in calming cats in multi-cat situations, am hoping it works. Good luck -- the kittens sound adorable. --Barb, Grass Valley CA where we are still getting smoky hours from fire near Susanville, getting old ----- Original Message ----- From: "Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT" <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil> 
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 8:40 AM
Subject: [CHAT] OT: The Kitten Wars



I mentioned before we took in a stray cat that had kittens right under
our front windows.  It was pretty fun watching them grow up. My husband
fell for one of the tortoiseshell ones so we figured we'd keep mama cat
and one kitten, which left me the task of finding homes for the other
three. You know that saying about friends and true friends, well, TRUE
friends would take a kitten. Apparently I don't have any of those. I did
get one friend who said she'd take all three because she wanted some
barn cats. Not exactly the life I wanted for them, but I decided it
would give them a marginally better chance than me sitting in front of
the grocery store handing them to strangers, or taking them to the
pound.
But since she didn't care what she got, and my husband was getting more
and more attached to the two tortoiseshells, I decided to give her mama
cat and two kittens with the hope that mama cat would help them learn to
be outdoors-savvy. So we dropped them off Sunday, my friend is keeping
them in her enclosed patio area till they're a little bigger. Now we
have two kittens at home.
We were keeping the family locked in the back bathroom but once they got
older letting them out when we were home. The problem is my other two
cats are deathly afraid of the interlopers. And their food and litter
box is down at that end of the house. So my two scaredy-cats were hiding
in the bedroom all the time, apparently they come out to eat when they
think the coast is clear, but we had to add a litter box near there. I
was hoping once mama cat was gone it would get better but not so far.
The kittens are fearless and expanding their territory, last night they
discovered the bedroom. They were so happy to find out where we went at
night. So now they're romping over the bed and the other two are hiding
underneath. It's kinda sad seeing this big ol' cat hiss at the kitten,
the kitten hisses back and the big cat runs away.
I'm tempted to lock them all in one room together for a couple days, and
if I had a room to do it in I probably would, but I really don't have a
good place for it. Meanwhile one of the older cats, or maybe both of
them, is mad enough about the whole thing she's taken to peeing on the
floor in our master bathroom. Sigh...I wonder how long this goes on?
It's been a good six weeks since we started letting them out.

Cyndi

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