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Posts Tagged ‘kitten’


HSUS Feature: Kitten Play

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

KittenIf you recently added a kitten to your family, learn what behavior you can expect from month to month with our kitten behavior basics tip sheet.

The rescue cat who is a recent member of my household is just under a year old, and he was picked up from a nearby apartment complex by volunteers from a nearby shelter. That same shelter would probably not have been able to take him due to space issues. It does look like we’re keeping him. So I’m happy.

We’ve missed out on a lot of his early socialization. So it’s not unexpected that he’s a little bit rough when play wrestling. His bite pressure is a bit too high, although he does seem to understand the fact that if he bites too hard or is too rough: play ends instantly. This isn’t totally unexpected for growing kitten behavior and socialization (he’s less a kitten now and more of a juvenile.)

He’s extremely attentive, always wants to play, and very talkative. Fortunately for us, he’s extremely well socialized, calm, and almost Zen like in his tolerance of being handled. (Flip this cat upside-down and he’ll hang out like a limp spaghetti noodle for minutes on end.) He’s been a good experience.

If people have just gotten themselves a newly minted kitten, checking out the PETS 911 Cat Training section and this HSUS article as supplement could help them set founding expectations for their new family member.

Link, via the HSUS.

HSUS Feature: ‘Tis the Kitten Season

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Tis the Season, Kittens AboundThere are “The Dog Days of Summer,” but did you also know that there’s a “Kitten Season?” Learn how you can help cats and kittens this spring and summer.

Every year, I move between Arizona and Michigan in order to better normalize the heat that I have to suffer through—Phoenix is well known for summer temperatures that exceed 110F—and one thing that I’ve always noticed is that during the Spring months, there are a lot more young cats around to play with. This year, I came home to a rescue that my family is fostering (they’re uncertain they can adopt him, but because they know what I do they decided that they’d try it out.)

During the Spring months shelters suffer greatly under the weight of pet overpopulation, as is discussed in the HSUS article, and a good deal of them could probably use the assistance of able people to take fosters. Neighborhood cats will increase, populations do explode somewhat, and far too many end up getting put down because there just isn’t room.

The article reveals a good many ways for people to help out from fostering (like we are) to volunteering time, energy, money to shelters. Also nudges readers to remember to spay/neuter their pets to help curb this type of overpopulation. And then there are organizations like Allycat Allies who also need help in these times because of the swelling feral colony populations.

Btw, the cat is a gorgeous black cat that my family wants to name Titus Pullo…they’re mostly calling him “Cat” right now just in case we can’t adopt him, but I think they’re becoming rather attached anyway.

Link, via the HSUS.