Neighbours kittens

[ShadowsShadowsEverywhere]

We've recently had new neighbours move in next door. Towards the end of last week two kittens appeared in their garden, I'm not sure whether they'd just got them or had been keeping them inside for a few days.
One of the kittens kept popping its head over our fence and watching DCs playing.

Yesterday when I went to take the bins out the same kitten was sat on my path mewing. As soon as she saw the open door she was in the house. I ushered her out the back door, but she spent the rest of yesterday coming back in, or playing with the DCs toys in the garden. Every time something made her jump she ran to me and hid under my long skirt! By about 6.30 she was clearly hungry, had jumped up and eaten some scraps in my kitchen and drank DSs milk, so I shooed her back out the front door where I'd found her as she just didn't seem to want to go over the fence back to her own garden.

She was v v thin and seemed confused about where home was. Yesterday she was coming in the windows from the garden and mewing a lot. What do I do if she comes back today? It's obviously more interesting here as neighbours are out most of the day and we are home from lunchtime onwards most days and have a garden full of toys and balls etc which she spent hours playing with yesterday. I'm worried about how thin she looked but don't know a lot about cats or kittens so don't know how normal that is. Any advice would be v much appreciated!

hopeful I believe Bengal cats are thought to be hypoallergenic which might be worth looking into?

Buttons had a lovely evening. She followed me from room to room as I was tidying but spent her time whizzing around that room crazy kitten style. She's gone from fairly shy kitty who played close to her hidey hole and ran away at the sight of the kids,to confident bouncy kitten who hares around the whole house at top speed doing kitten things!

The following me about was very sweet, almost like because I stuck up for her when they boys were here she's decided I'm her friend/mummy/ally.

When do you start letting kittens out normally? Is it 6 months or a year? I imagine I've got a while before I need to think about changing the cat flap?

6 months usually after spaying, jabs, microchipping.

Right I've done things a bit differently this morning. It's hot today and we are in and out so the back door is open. When this happens the chickens often wander into the utility room. So the layout is that if the backdoor is open you walk straight into the utility room and from there into the living room. So I've got Buttons shut out of the living room, so she has the run of the upstairs, the hall and the kitchen. Then the backdoor open and the boys have rocked up so they are in and out of garden and living room. They were out there when came down this morning and spent an hour scrabbling at the catflap and crying so I went out and they were practically leaping all over me for cuddles. They've not touched the food, which I swiftly moved so they aren't hungry, just miss us I think.

I've moved Buttons food and litter into the hall so she can still get to everything she needs and I'm in and out the kitchen so she's getting lots of attention still. Boys are playing with DCs.

Much much better shutting off bits of the house and means kids can still potter in and out as they like to without having to keep checking where the kitten is and squeezing through the gap so as to stop her following us out.

It's hard work isn't it Shadows! One of my cats is deaf and so can't go outside, DP says the house is like animal Alcatraz! As the other cats and my dogs need to go out so it's a constant battle of opening and closing the right doors glad that Buttons seems to have settled :)

Has Buttons had her first jabs? Our cats, when we got them as kittens, had jabs at 9 weeks and then 12 weeks. Then they were OK to go outside, as long as we kept an eye out - didn't want males wandering too far, or females impregnated!

Tbh, it's pretty clear when a female is in season, but Buttons won't be for aaaaages yet.

No she hasn't and even if she had I still wouldn't let her out this early. The chickens WOULD attack her, they'd see her as a predator but small enough for them to see off. Tbh they see off great big tom cats and even fox cubs so I really wouldn't risk it with Buttons.

Good idea Shadows! I suspect they all just need a bit of time to settle in. In case the cats don't get on in the future, I find and his youtube video advice really interesting.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten the chooks! We don't even get foxes here; they've all moved to the city.

Hmm. Ended up feeding both boys today because they were yowling at me and sat infront of the kitchen door in a little line looking all hungry and pathetic. I had a good look at them both while they were eating and whilst Merlin is definitely chunkier, Tortie still feels very thin and he ate at lightening speed so I'm wondering whether next door have just been leaving food out and Merlin has been being greedy and eating some of Torties. I did have to watch that when they were living here, in that if I didn't give them a bowl each but in separate places Merlin would sort of make a growly noise and try and eat from both bowls. I then had to shut them out as we had come in from the garden and Buttons was wanting to come in the living room. It was an issue actually as I had to shut the windows to stop boys coming in which meant we were all too hot, and the boys were sat on the outside windowsill with their bloody noses pressed against the glass looking all forlorn and daft.

They are both markedly less playful, could that be because they've been neutered or is it an age thing? They also smelt different. Almost dirty, which could have been them rolling about in mud I guess, but my hands smelt dirty after I'd stroked them, I had to go and wash them.

Buttons is still doing really well, she's eaten better today thank goodness as yesterday she barely ate. She's showing a preference for dry food though so I might swap them round (normally do more wet than dry, just based on what the boys preferred). I bought a reduced price Xmas robin toy on a string attached to a stick for 50p yesterday and she LOVES it. DD has worked out how to use it and they spend hours playing, she literally never gets bored of it. We are still figuring each other out a bit but she purrs at me when she sees me which is a compliment and a half and just as I'm typing she has climbed on my lap without me picking her up, for the first time which is so lovely. She's just still a bit wary so stroking her, she purrs lots but is twisting round trying to look at your hand all the time and sometimes pounces on it which always makes me jump. She's v v good at hunting though. I came down to a collection of two giant dead spiders and a dead moth this morning!

Do they still have Pom-Poms? Cats shouldn't smell dirty, it's a bit odd.

I wonder if they just put one dish of food down?.

by Pom-poms I'm guessing you mean balls? Yes they do.

Yes I thought the smell thing was odd. They used to have this gorgeous musky smell and I used to sniff them all the time but they didn't smell at all like that today. Grubby. You know that smell your hands get if you've been moving dirty bin bags or rubbish about, not a smell of soil from gardening that's different, it was a grubby smell. I guess it's possible they had got into a an old bin or something?? it fleetingly crossed my mind that next door may have a backlog of rubbish in the house? Their dustbins are full, we all notice as foxes get in because the lids aren't on tight and it ends up all over the road. I will sniff them again tomorrow and report back.

The cats have been in for weeks so it's not like they couldn't notice one getting fatter and one staying thin is it?

It's possible, cats are very nosy.

They ought to be neutered really but that's the owners look out.

I wonder if she's really busy with the baby and is perhaps sleep deprived and feeling a bit overwhelmed etc? I knew a lot of people who didn't have as much time for very loved pets when they had newborns. She probably doesn't have so much attention left over as some others would.

I am trying to be charitable here and playing devil's advocate a bit too.

I wonder if there's any possibility of making a peace between you, by dropping over some baby bits or something, and getting into chat. They may well feel less threatened by you once they know you have a kitten of your own and will assume you won't be so interested in theirs.

Yes that's what I've wondered. I will be completely honest though and say that I'm not going to be knocking on their door any time soon, it'll probably be October. Tomorrow is my birthday which is nice but very shortly after that it's the anniversary of my father suicide. Which means the next few weeks are something I have to drag myself through on my hands and knees whilst avoiding contact with the outside world as much as possible, until October when I can throw myself into Halloween and Christmas preparation and forget again for another year.

So please bear that in mind if I don't appear to be doing very much, it's not intentional laziness, just a need to withdraw from everything for a few weeks.

Your father would not want you to plunge so deep into grief. He did it at a really bad time in his life. But thats over. can you instead recall the lovely times with him?

You have that little boy (who hisses like the cats) and little girl (who loves her Buttons) and they need their Mommy (sorry, Mummy. I'm in States) to be operating on all cylinders for them. Because they love you, and you are their everything.

Happy Birthday tomorrow!

Happy birthday, Shadows. You're doing marvellously well. :)

Happy Birthday, Shadows.

I'm so sorry about your father.

Happy birthday to you,
Now three kittens love you,
Happy birthday to Shaaaaaadoooows,
Don't get covered in cat poo!

Happy birthday, Shadows

We are not here to hassle you, but to support you and give our two penn'orth when you want it. Have fun today, and look after yourself and you family (which includes feline/s)

Thanks for all the Bithday wishes! We are having great "fun" (my fun is otherwise known as panic) playing "find the kitten". Yes, we have lost her, I have no bloody idea where she is. DCs think it's hilarious so that's nice. I have wine in the fridge and a huge bought chocolate cake which I will be cracking open at lunchtime!

Thanks for your post Hansie, unfortunately he was an alcoholic so I don't have "nice" memories at all, which makes it all the more of a headfuck.

Right, am off to scour the house for one tiny dark brown cat. Should be easy to find yes?

Shadows - I have two kittens at the moment and I managed to lose BOTH of them this morning: they had managed to open the panel under the bath and crawl underneath. They came out covered in cobwebs, with very dirty paws .

Hope you find Buttons soon.

Food'll do it. She'll come out when she's hungry. It just takes a shake of the dreamies packet to get mine out from wherever she hides.

Found her. With the help of Tortie. He was crying to come in so I let him in and he had his ears swivelling straight away, obviously listening. Ran up to a pile of boxes in the utility room and was frantically scrabbling at them and mewing. So we pulled them all out and there she was, she'd jumped down behind them but couldn't jump back up. The cats had a nice moment where they sort of rubbed against each other, but as soon as we were out of that room it was back to the hissing! Torties gone off in a huff now back into the garden. I do not understand cats!

Mine go frantic over Dreamies - it's hilarious.

Glad you (well, Tortie) found buttons, Shadows.

I mean Buttons.