I do, however, have a lot more free time. On Saturday I went to Walgreens and spotted two little kittens running around the parking lot. Catching them was unsuccessful. They would eat near me but wouldn't let me get too close or pick them up.
I went back Sunday morning intending to trap both of them, and caught their mother instead.
Our city has a feral cat program, so I took her to the vet this morning and had her spayed and vaccinated. Vets that participate in the program can only take five cats a month, and there were three or four other people picking up feral cats when I went to get her this evening. She'll be on my porch the rest of the night and will go "home" in the morning. Her ear has been tipped to identify her as altered and off limits to animal control.
Meanwhile, I went back for the kittens Sunday evening. I just know the people at Walgreens thought I was nuts with the trap set up. I grabbed a book and just waited.
The black and white kitten, who I've decided to call Long John Silver (because of where he was found and his apparent personality), is overall more defensive and cautious.
The calico, who I've decided to call Mac (I used canned Mackerel as bait in the trap...it reeks, so cats love it) got a lot closer to me than LJ did and was the first to show up Sunday night. As soon as they saw my truck, both kittens waltzed right up, but LJ hung back a little.
I'm guessing the kittens are 8-10 weeks old, although they're awfully skinny and dehydrated so I'm not sure. LJ got trapped first and it took another half hour for me to get Mac. After thoroughly sanitizing the bathroom and kitten-proofing it, I let them loose and they both freaked out.
When I got up this morning I found both kittens in the sink.
Note LJ's defensive posture. He's going to be difficult. He also attempts sustained eye contact when I'm trying to avoid contact, which is a threatening gesture. I have to be super careful with him.
Today was rough. Mac goes crazy every time I walk into the room and literally climbs the walls. She even hissed at me earlier! LJ retreats to the sink to plot world domination. Neither will touch any food yet.
So far, my plan is to first get them to associate me with food. Day one consisted of me walking into the room, avoiding eye contact and speaking softly, and putting food very near the kittens but far from me. I'd then sit on the floor and basically ignore the kittens and read or play with my phone. No luck yet, but it's been a full 24 hours now since they've eaten, so hopefully tomorrow they'll come out of hiding long enough to at least get some food. I have canned food, sardines (my cats think they have died and gone to heaven, as they get leftovers), and kitten crack, otherwise known as Gerber chicken and gravy baby food. The goal is for them to be eating the baby food off of my fingers in two weeks. Of course this timeline is dependent entirely on them, so we'll just have to see what happens. It's going to take a lot of patience. In the meantime, the kittens have a radio tuned to NPR constantly to get them used to human voices and to bring them up with good taste in music. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress. Once I get them socialized, they will need homes!
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