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(written March 3, 2003)
 I wanted to write about a great day for my feral kittens and especially one of them, Tuxedo! Today we worked out a deal for the feral kittens that turned up here to begin the final leg of their journey to new families, except Tuxedo, who will be joining the ever increasing “inside feral colony” in my home. The kittens, with some cajoling, were transported to Blairstown animal hospital (where they have been several times in their short lives). With a clean bill of health, they were then transported to the "Cat Chalet," where they will spend as long as necessary, living the life of leisure and learning how to be “inside” kitties, preparing for several prospective parents to view in just over two weeks! (The no-kill shelters around here are full, and it has been freezing outside for so long, were worried that despite the shelters we’ve built, it’s just too much. So we’ve decided to pay to board them until we find them homes). …I feel a little bad that our requirements for these prospects are no less stringent than if they were going to adopt a child (human) and that will include a trip to the prospects’ homes! But in the end hundreds of hours and untold amounts of love have gone into these kittens and though our hearts are being rent open we cannot become hoarders. There is one exception, Tuxedo.
From the beginning (4-6 weeks old), he was a very unhappy little kitten. His siblings loved to play and loved mealtime (3 times a day) and after a short time were easy to handle - but not Tuxedo. No, he did not like me or Laurie! Even just putting down a bowl of food for him, that teeny little ball of fur would arch his back, put his ears back and hiss like a huge cobra snake! If I didn’t retreat right away, he would crouch and wiggle that little butt – and attack me! No kidding! A one pound little kitten attacking a 190-pound man (without my moving toward him and he had no other interactions with people that would cause this behavior). That, however, was not the problem. He attacked the other kittens, was very aggressive against them, and generally was antisocial. On advice from www.TheCatSite.com, we began feeding him alone and further and further away, but that was not an answer (long term). He finally became so aggressive that I took my vet aside and asked him to spend a few days with Tuxedo and help me find a way to socialize him. We X-rayed him, we did full blood studies, ultrasound - everything that we could. After a few days he gave me an option that was TOTALLY unacceptable (putting him down). So we found a new vet. But nothing worked. Finally he attacked me really good (I was putting a bowl of food down and he came at me from behind). Well, he not only scared me (I was Infantry for 6 years and don’t scare easily!) He got in a few really good scratches and a good bite. I just sat down almost in tears and at the end of my wits - in about a foot of snow. All of a sudden he walked over to me and up popped up his tail! I couldn’t move - I was frozen like a statue in amazement. When I did nothing for a minute, he walked over to me and headbutted me in my foot! Well you can fill in the following month and a half, but when we dropped him off today he came running when I called him, tail straight up in the air. I got chastised by the owner of the Cat Chalet for exaggerating the difficult job she was going to have with him! Needless to say, I no longer believe I will be able to let him go anywhere but home to our house, so today was a really good day for my kittens and for me!
P.S. Tuxedo came home and successfully integrated into a family of three cats – now four! He still headbutts me for love… and when he’s asleep on the bed and I lean down to say “hi,” he’ll bump me right on the forehead.
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