When we moved into this house, the previous owner told us he’d been feeding 2 kittens outside that he believed were dumped at some point. I don’t understand how people can just throw an animal out like that.
It has taken time and patience to build some trust with these two. I didn’t even see them the first week or so because they stayed so hidden. The first time I sat a good distance away and waited for them to approach the food bowl, it probably took a good 15 minutes for the bravest to come up and eat. Look at that face!!
At the end of last month, the bravest also sat a good distance and watched me doing some gardening.
Almost a month after being at the house, the bravest let me sort of walk right past him on my way to their food bowl area. This is so far the only time he’s stayed put, but I’ll take what I can get! I had no idea he was there until I glanced back and saw him looking at me. I lingered too long while taking the picture though, so he darted off around the shop building in the other direction.
We need to capture them soon and take them to the vet for multiple reason, the main being I don’t want more kittens if one is a female. Here’s a picture of both, with the more skittish one looking at me. He’s made a lot of progress too, but he will run off if I so much as take a step in the opposite direction. The brave one will look up if I move, but as long as I am not getting closer, he stays put now. You can also see in the picture below that it appears there is some kind of wound above the skittish one’s left eye (sorry it’s not a very clear picture; I had to zoom in). This one looked to have a wound on the side of its neck when we first started seeing him, and it appeared to be shaved and possibly stitched up. That is looking excellent now, but he has another wound above his eye. I hope it’s not from other animals. 🙁
I’m afraid I’ll have to set a live trap (and possible lose the trust I’ve built) to capture them before we are able to handle them (especially the more skittish one) because I have read that female cats can get pregnant at 4 months old. We’ve been here a month already, and I have no clue how old they are. I would think they’re at least 3-4 months old by now. And while we might not mind having 2 outside cats here at the new place, that is the limit! 5 inside and 2 outside already makes us crazy cat people, and while I would love to rescue a lot of animals, it gets expensive. 🙁 I will keep everyone updated on these 2 littles with the blog tag feral cats!
Here’s a video I pieced together of the two with lots of commentary throughout.