Monday, September 10, 2018

weekend report

**a post from the mom
This is one of those weekends when I wonder if I know what I am doing and if I am doing this right (or should be doing it).

A friend had taken Goldfish about a week ago to help me run a social experiment - see if a change of environment would help her adjustment or social skills. She did....OK. However, she is still growling and scared and will not come forward seeking attention. My friend was headed out of town so I ended up picking her back up on Saturday morning. She put herself in a corner and hissed and spit at me and I had to put a towel over her head to catch her again. It's so frustrating. The problem is if we can't get her social, what are her options?
I ended up setting up a big crate to see if having her in a limited space would force her to interact. She growled at first and then got flirty with Daiquiri and Chanel.

However, things kind of imploded later that night. Carling (the momma cat) figured out how to climb one of the cabinets in the foster room....and escaped. She cornered Chanel and was pretty ornery about it. Thankfully Chanel is so laid back that I was able to grab Carling. The problem is that if Carling could get out, I had to have another solution. She was still be pretty aggressive with the kittens as well.

I made a decision - I pulled Goldfish out of the crate and put Carling in it. Carling was pretty upset overnight, but she had dialed it back overnight. But there is no way I am going to let her out of the crate. I am going to call the clinic today and see about at least getting her into get her spayed. Hopefully it is a hormone thing....

The good news is after 24 hours in the crate, she is MUCH calmer. She does a little growling at Ivy and Daiquiri when they walk by the crate but nothing serious at all.

Here is the other problem - Goldfish is now in the foster room with the beer kittens. She isn't being overly polite either....she is considerably bigger and is kind of pushy. On to of that, a couple of the kittens are pretty friendly and the rest are a little jumpy. Having a growly mom and now a growly kitten isn't helping get them friendly.

It is just frustrating....I don't have an answer as to what to do about any of them and I don't know what the solution is to "fix" them. I'll move forward and figure it out, but it has been a long couple of days.

15 comments:

  1. Oh, you have my sympathy! Sometimes if feels like as soon as you solve one problem - whether behavioural or health -- another one pops up! Hopefully Carling's issues *are* hormonal. Whatever the case, you'll figure it out!

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  2. It is really hard trying to keep so many happy. Those kind of things happen around here some too. Hope things get better.

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  3. We know it's not easy; we appreciate all you do!
    KZK

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  4. Have no words of wisdom to help you, however I have complete faith that you will figure it all out, especially with assistance from the shelter/rescue group.

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  5. that sounds exhausting! Hopefully Carling will calm down once she’s got less hormones running through her. She sounds like she has been ornery to greater and lesser degrees the whole time she’s been there, so she might not have the greatest social skills, either.

    You probably don’t have room for this experiment, but looking back, I wish I had isolated Ashton from the other cats entirely when she was an avoidant, scared kitten. I kind of think her having the other cats as a social outlet allowed her to avoid me a lot longer. I ended up feeding her in my lap for weeks on end so she had to approach me. Would taking away Goldfish’s audience to flirt with/bully for a while help get her focused on interacting with humans?

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    1. we thought about that and it was part of the reason for the crate. unfortunately, the only real place to completely cut her off from the other cats would be the bathroom and mom is afraid that Goldfish would be able to escape

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  6. Man, what a dilemma. I am sorry all of you are going through this. You in particular.

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  7. We agree with getting Carling fixed as a first step. Who needs those hormones, anyway? We'll hope everyone else will calm down with time put all together. We do time-outs around here, but that one cat, Tessa, doesn't seem to get the point. Wishing you good luck!

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  8. Oh boy! We sure hope things settle down soon.

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  9. We hope things settle down, soon. Everything you do for cats is commendable, and you deserve big hugs for it.

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  10. Ugh! That is so frustrating, Jeanne, and we are sorry you are having to deal with all of that. We sure hope getting Carling spayed helps!

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  11. I can sympathise. Sometimes it feels like you're just putting your finger into holes in the dyke, and you're running out of fingers. I am confident that you will figure out a solution, or at least an accommodation. Maybe Goldfish needs to be an only-cat in a foster-home; is there a possibility of that?

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  12. How frustrating that Goldfish and Carling are proving so difficult to socialize. I hope Carling's issues are mostly hormone related because that is easily solved.

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  13. Yikes, not fun at all. Hopefully Carling gets less growly and unhappy after her surgery. As for Goldfish, perhaps John's suggestion would be an option?

    I know that Saku was very stand-offish when he first came to me and it has only been the last couple of years that he's come looking for attention. He's been with me for over 9 years now. He didn't much like the other cats either, still doesn't but will play with Sheldon and I've caught him curled up (actually touching) and sleeping with Sasha.

    Good luck!

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  14. We want to "fix" things so badly - but so much is out of our control. I believe in the power of love - though I certainly recognize that some cats are better as barn cats.

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