The Not So Peaceable Kingdom

 Allison asked yesterday how many cats we have in the house. Difficult to answer.

I had one cat. Houdi. He is a large chonky orange cat. Born from a feral mother who gifted a kitten to practically everyone on the street. (We still haven't caught her to have her neutered.) Houdi took about 3 months to tame. Grandson William played a big part in his domestication.

In the middle of last winter, a large fluffy gray cat was discovered hiding out on our balcony. He was very wary and frightened. It took months before he allowed me to touch him, although he came readily when I called him. He was hungry.

Once Freddie's backstory was uncovered, I did not have the heart to abandon him to the streets one more time. He and Houdi tolerated each other well enough. I brought him along to the new house.

(And then there were two.)

Now understand that we had quite a clowder of ferals at the new house already. 3 mama cats. We trapped 9 raccoons out of the garage and to be honest, I think they were partially responsible for the fact that Sigh had only two kittens. Tiger had two kittens. I think that some kittens met unfortunate ends. Just before our move to the new house, Possum had five kittens, all of which survived.

If you are keeping track, that is two cats in the house and 12 cats in the garage. (!!!!!!!!)

Something had to be done. Two of the mamas were neutered after their kittens were weaned, but feral cats are hard to catch. They are also hard to find homes for. So Possum's five kittens were taken from the garage and moved to the basement. 

For those of you trying to keep track, that is seven cats in the house, and six cats in the garage. (Don't ask questions).

Now the five kittens were confined to the basement. There was a lot of running around room, it was dry and warm. We called it the kitten kindergarten. There was a recreational area. They were fed 3x a day and there were human beings down there to play and handle them. They tamed very quickly, actually. They figured out the purpose of the litter box immediately. 

Houdi and Freddie have their litter box downstairs as well. It wasn't a problem. As soon as feet hit the floor in the morning, Fred wants out. He doesn't come back until evening. Houdi asks to go down stairs. He runs the gauntlet of kittens, does his business, runs the gauntlet of kittens to get back upstairs. 

At night, the kittens were all caged in a large animal cage for their own protection once Fred was back inside. This allowed us to leave the basement door open so that Fred and Houdi had free access their litterbox.

Although Fred and Houdi got along fine when Fred was an outside cat, once inside, he became a bit territorial, trying to establish himself as the top cat. Houdi and he were warily working things out between the two of them, but we did not trust him around the kittens.

It took a little over a week, but 4 little kittens went to their new homes, leaving one: Maytag.

Again, for those keeping score, that is 3 cats in the house and six feral (but becoming tamer) cats in the garage. 

Maytag was lonely. He was also loud. We began allowing him to spend more time upstairs. Socialization, doncha know.

This sent poor Fred right around the bend. Maytag doesn't help matters. Even if he has been fed 10 minutes ago, when he notices one of the big boys eating, he toddles over with his little tail straight up in the air, as if asking 'what do you have in that bowl for me?' 

Predictably, this annoys the bigs, and Fred began to get very aggressive, which provoked shouts of 'NO FRED!!!' which only served to further traumatized poor traumatized Fred , which made me feel bad. Fred began lashing out at Houdi. Houdi began to lash back. Maytag fled to the nearest lap and watched the whole thing unfold, a feline version of Jerry Springer. 

After two mornings of breaking up early morning cat squabbles, we were at our wits end. We invested in a Feliway Calming Diffuser last night. It is too early to tell if it is working for sure, but there was no cat fight this morning. Fred was waiting calmly at the door to go out as usual.

Anyways, someone has claimed Maytag. However, he has not yet been actually picked up, so we will see.

On October 1st, Possum gets spayed and Tiger Kitty (not to be confused with Tiger Cat, who is already neutered). Adding more math for those keeping score, that is 6 neutered cats.

Once Maytag is finally claimed, the goal will be to trap these two and bring them in. And yes, these are two different cats, both blue eyed. Everyone wanted the two blue eyed kittens from the first batch. We will have them both neutered next month. We are very hopeful that we can rehome them quickly. The fact that they are such pretty cats AND neutered will be quite a selling point for a free cat. They are still young enough to be kittenish, and they are very sweet natured.

Then, for those of you keeping track, it will be two cats in the house, a fact that will please those two cats to no end. In the garage, there will be four cats, all neutered.

I can live with that, although honestly it is 5 more cats than I actually wanted.