Your wisdom required...

[SisterMaryFellatio]

We adopted a 6 week old kitten back in January. He was found abandoned at 2 weeks old with the rest of the litter and we think mum and dad were feral cats. I have always had cats since I was a child....Sean hates them thinks they have an "agenda" but has been good putting up with him for the sake of Pudding who wanted a pet and who absolutly adores him.

However "Mac" has always been a little feisty. I though getting his bollocks removed would somewhat calm him down! I was wrong. Hes a little fucker....he pounces, claws and teeth at me and Pudding for no other reason than this mean streak. hes been smacked on the nose when hes done this and kicked out of the house for an hour.
But he dosn't seem to be learning.

Hes a big cat for 8 months and hes caught Pudd a coupla times off guard and now taken several swipes at Pudds face narrowly missing his eye the last time. Now I don't really want to take him to the pound so he can be rehomed (don't like failing and it makes me feel like I have failed as an adopted mum) and yet, I do not trust him in a room with Pudd alone! It will break mine and Pudds hearts if we have to let him go, yet I don't know what else to do.

Has anyone had any experience with feral cats that have been taken in?
Is it because he was feral or this is just his temperment?
Will he calm down as he hits the year mark?

(Sean I know your answer do not bother replying to this thread )

[Miles]

A feral cat has the same instints as a wild animal. I doubt seriously that you can tame it to a point where you can trust it around a child. In my opinion you should get rid of it now before it inflicts serious damage.

[dales]

Put the cat down.

My sister thought she was doing "the right thing" by "rescuing" a feral kitten.

It turned out that even a kitten can leave scratch and bite marks that require a visist to an MD.

I love cats, but the feral variety are not at home around people.

[Crackpot]

Given the situation (Pudd is a toddler right?) It seems it would be best to let him go.

Cats temperaments rarely change. That being said there could be a few mitigating factors:

It could be seeking feeling out the hierarchy (difficult to sort out with a toddler)
It could just be playing/warning. (My cat frequently swipes and bites but stops short of doing damage but she is also declawed any cat with claws is likely to do a little damage)
It could just want it's space strays are notorious for not being to cuddle friendly and just want to be left alone.

[Lord Jim]

When I first started reading the responses in this thread, about the problems with "feral cats", my first thought was, "well, how 'wild' could a cat become in just two weeks? After all it was a two week old kitten when it was rescued."

But then I realized what you guys are getting at here. This isn't a "learned" behavior, as would be the problem with an animal that had been mistreated or neglected, (which might be corrected, or "unlearned") it's a function of perhaps many generations of natural selection taking place that has reversed the process of domestication. A condition which has favored those cats with more aggressive traits, (needed to survive in the wild) to thrive and breed, passing those characteristics along to their progeny. As opposed to the process of domestication which tends to favor more docile and social sorts of behavior. (Especially since domestic cats never generally develop out of the more social "kitten" phase of development, because unlike cats in the wild they are never forced to fend for themselves.)

In other words, the behavior isn't about anything that this cat has personally experienced...it's about a set of instinctive behaviors bred into it by the experiences of its fore-bearers...

I wonder how many generations of feral living are required to convert the instincts of a docile house tabby into those of an aggressive mini-bobcat?

[Joe Guy]

A kitten abandoned by his mother at two weeks didn't have much time to learn from it's mother how to be a cat. The feral kittens I've seen usually stay around their mother for at least a couple of months before they wander off (or I trap them).

This kitten is not likely to become calm soon. Feral kittens can be tamed but it takes a lot of effort. I'd consider the degree of risk of potential injury to your child and decide what to do based on that.

[Crackpot]

Alot of it has to do with socializing at an early age and often shelters aren't the best at that (especially if they're busy/overworked)

Another thing is New cats (especially kittens) and toddlers are a volatile combination since you have to train both live together and kids are very poor at impulse control at that age.

[Lord Jim]

Another thing is New cats (especially kittens) and toddlers are a volatile combination since you have to train both live together and kids are very poor at impulse control at that age.

That's a very good point...

Little kids can be very rough with animals... You really have to get across to them that they aren't "toys"; but that they are living things that can feel pain just the way they can.

[@meric@nwom@n]

One problem with feral cats is inbreeding which leads to incorrigible behaviors. The cat may not be salvageable as a pet.

[The Hen]

Toddlers can put themselves in positions of great peril with animals, even the best trained animals.

With an animal you have such limited experience with, just ask yourself, could you live with damage to Pud's eye for the sake of his love of the cat?

I owned a Red Heeler for 8 years and had paid out an extraordinary amount of money on a hip reconstruction after it was hit by a car. However, when her behaviour towards the Hatch lead me to consider the consequences, I knew I had only one choice.

She was put to sleep within two weeks. That was the hardest fucking decision I ever had to make, but one I am glad I made.

I found out years later that every dog from her litter had 'gone mad' at some point in their life. She had outlasted the lot of them. That is the problem you get with inbreding dogs. Who knows your cat's parentage?

[Sean]

The board has spoken!

*starts putting rocks into a sack...*

[The Hen]

Nah. Pay for the Green Dream you cheap skate! :-p

Though the cat will know what is about to happen. They always do. You can't mistake the smell of death for anything else.

[rubato]

dp

[rubato]

Where my parents live is on a road up a rocky hillside with few houses, and fewer back in the 1960s-1970s. For a while it we a common place for people to dump unwanted cats most of which just joined the throng they were already feeding and taking care of. One was feisty little tomcat kitten who turned out to be satan in cat form. At first we welcomed him into the fold and named him 'little orphan andy'. But as he grew and matured he became a pure terror. We never allowed him indoors but every once in a while he would rush through the door only to spray pee onto the curtains and claw something. He would come running up the hillside just to claw someone savagely even after we had his balls whacked off. After attacking my mother more than once, who is blind, we had had enough and chloroformed the rotten bastard.

Car exhaust works better, cheaper and quicker and you don't need to find chloroform.

yrs,
rubato

[Sean]

But have you seen the proce of petrol lately Rube?

I'm thinking weighted sack and sling him over the cliff at the end of the road. One for the nature walkers!

[BoSoxGal]

I concur - this animal should be humanely euthanised. You can bond again with another kitty (or a puppy). Plenty at the shelter are looking for a home as we speak.

[loCAtek]

I don't remember how old you may have said Puddin' was but cats in general aren't really a good pet choice for young children.

A good first pet, according to the ASPCA, is a guinea pig. They recommend waiting until the child is 3-5 years old. This is the age that kids start to experience empathy. “Guinea pigs like to be held, seldom bite and will whistle when excited or happy, to the delight of most kids. Your child can also help with responsibilities by filling the water bottle and food dish.”

By age 5-10, a gerbil or goldfish will suit the young one’s limited attention span while allowing for increased responsibility with cleaning. Dogs, cats, and rabbits make good pets for pre-teens. Children between age 10 and 13 have an expanded ability to take on responsibilities and can walk pets or take part in dog-training courses.

Remember that's a guinea pig, not a rabbit. Rabbits actually have complex personalities and might get temperamental, or even resentful of children.

[rubato]

"...
Remember that's a guinea pig, not a rabbit. Rabbits actually have complex personalities and might get temperamental, or even resentful of children.

Fortunately you can tell when a rabbit has 'gone bad' right away. It will start wearing a pancake on its head.

Then you'll have something to stew about. With ?

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Many years ago (back in the mid 1980's) I had a friend who trapped a feral cat.

From what he told me, he HATED this "feral" cat with a purple passion.

He finally trapped it.

Threw it into a canvas sack.

And euthanized the feline via car exhuast into the sack.

He had the cat carcass skinned and made into a wallet.

I've seen the wallet (weird).

Why am I telling you this?



He now has 3 cats living with he and his wife for the last 10 years!

He LOVES cats!

[Jarlaxle]

I don't remember how old you may have said Puddin' was but cats in general aren't really a good pet choice for young children

Glad nobody told my mother that...after about a week of, "What has been brought into my living area, and how in the world does it make all that NOISE?" my mother's cat Oscar seemed to consider me his surrogate kitten. That winter, the power went out on a cold day. With the furnace not working, my mother was worried that I wasn't awake and crying from the cold. She looked into the crib...and I was sleeping peacefully, head resting on Oscar's chest, with the cat curled up against me (he was a big cat), his tail looped over my head and tucked under my chin. She swore he was thinking, "Well, SOMEONE had to keep him warm!"

That day, they stopped worrying how Oscar and I would get along. The fastest way to get me to settle down was to get me to lay down using Oscar as a pillow...his purring usually had me sleeping in under a minute. When I was learning to walk, he was right there and perfectly willing to let me lean on him. I suspect Oscar is one reason I have always liked cats. He died in his sleep when I was about five years old...RIP, Oscar.

All three of my cats were abandoned strays. Vierna was at least a little "feral"...even now, while not at all destructive (except to paper towels in an open wastebasket) or agressive, she's a little aloof.