Feline Family

                My current feline family, Katie and Bubba, were the kittens of a feral (i.e. stray/wild) queen that I was feeding during her pregnancy when we lived in urban South Minneapolis. She had the kittens under the neighbor’s porch and brought them to the food dish on our front porch when they were about six weeks old.

                “Mama Cat” was feral and the kittens were feral. They were terrified of us and would run for cover whenever they caught sight of a human being.

                Mama Cat first brought them to the food dish on the front porch around Mother’s Day weekend in May in 1994. I spent from that time on — the rest of the spring and all summer — trying to befriend these kittens. Food was the bribe to tolerate my presence. I went through the whole process with them: first putting food on the front porch and leaving them alone with it, then putting food on the front porch and standing behind the closed screen door where they could see me while they ate, then standing out on the porch with them but moving away while they ate, to finally being able to sit down beside them (within four or five feet) while they ate.    I could never get too close, though, or touch them in any way without them becoming frightened and running away.

                   Finally, around the end of August 1994, with cooler fall weather approaching, I moved the food dish from the front porch into the front hallway of the house and left the front door open. They came in to eat and then visited inside the house for awhile. I let them back out for the night. We repeated that for a handful of evenings. One evening, I declared them “my kittens” and they were in for good.

                   It was only after they had been residents inside the house for a week or so that they began to let me touch and pet them. They were five months old by this time. All the authorities on cat behavior say that if a kitten isn’t socialized to human contact by the time they’re six to eight weeks old, there is a slim chance of them ever being socialized to human contact.

                  Katie and Bubba have done exceptionally well. Remarkably well. Bubba loves both Dale and me and is the most affectionate, loving cat we’ve ever had the pleasure to know. He’s my “love sponge.” He’s a wonderful boy! However, he is scared of strangers and will run and sit in the basement if anyone else comes into the house.

                 Katie was a tougher case all the way around. It probably took me a year or more to be able to approach her and pet her without her startling. She was very nervous and skittish about the contact. She finally bonded with me — and me alone — and once that bonding happened, she claimed me as her personal companion. She and I are as close as a human and cat can be now. She sleeps with me, she craves my attention, she gives me the biggest head-butts a cat can bestow. She purrs like crazy when she’s next to me. (She didn’t purr for the first year or so.) Just this past year, she has started to sit on my lap, which she’s never done before. I still can’t pick her up. She doesn’t like her feet out from under her and will struggle mightily to get down if I do pick her up for some reason.

                         Katie doesn’t care much for Dale. She tolerates him living in the house, but just as often as not, will leave the room if he comes in or crawl under the bed. He has only been able to pet her if we’re in bed together and she is settling in for the night next to me. Then she’ll tolerate a pet or two from him. All is well with her world if she is next to her mom in bed!

Note: Katie died on February 19, 2011, finally succumbing to chronic kidney disease that she had lived with for several years.  Mia joined our family a month later, now an active, affectionate 1-year-old.  Bubba is hanging in there and just received the I-131 treatment for hyperthyroidism.  Our feline family has undergone many changes this past year, very sad ones but happy ones, too.