I Didn't Order a Kitten!

[Folly's place]

Agree that she looks older than your stated best guess.
What's her weight?
Mary

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

I haven’t found that mothers make good mousers either. There is a somewhat feral cat that eats my nice barn cats’ food, and I tolerate her. I need to spay her, but I can’t catch her. (Because of her feral-ness and she’s pretty smart) She kills songbirds all the time, but she ran off when she saw a mouse. What a baby.

As a kid, I used to be the feral cat catcher. (That's where my childhood cat came from.)

I'd set up a large wire dog crate with cat kibble and water inside, and would have twine tied on the open door, and loop through the side of the crate (poor explanation. But basically, once you pull your end of the twine, it slams the gate shut).

The trick is... that gate cannot close or move until you have all the cats you need to catch in (such as, moms and kittens...)
Once that gate closes, if any get out or see what happened, you can never catch them again.

It's like the human-powered version of those live traps.
Takes a lot of patience. But if the door is propped open so it can't accidentally close, they'll eventually feel safe enough to let their guard down. Could take weeks. Or could take one day.

I might have put a couple towels on the crate so it felt less exposed? But they still needed to feel like they weren't walking into a trap.

 

[cassie]

How did it go?

Went fine. Except that free pets end up being very expensive.

 

[Appalachickens]

Bless you for taking care of the sweet little thing. All our cats were not ordered by us - they just appear looking for a home.

 

[cassie]

As a kid, I used to be the feral cat catcher. (That's where my childhood cat came from.)

I'd set up a large wire dog crate with cat kibble and water inside, and would have twine tied on the open door, and loop through the side of the crate (poor explanation. But basically, once you pull your end of the twine, it slams the gate shut).

The trick is... that gate cannot close or move until you have all the cats you need to catch in (such as, moms and kittens...)
Once that gate closes, if any get out or see what happened, you can never catch them again.

It's like the human-powered version of those live traps.
Takes a lot of patience. But if the door is propped open so it can't accidentally close, they'll eventually feel safe enough to let their guard down. Could take weeks. Or could take one day.

I might have put a couple towels on the crate so it felt less exposed? But they still needed to feel like they weren't walking into a trap.

If you are going to set a live trap it is a good idea to leave it open for a few days, so they get used to going in and out of it before you try to trap them.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

If you are going to set a live trap it is a good idea to leave it open for a few days, so they get used to going in and out of it before you try to trap them.

Yeah.
I did have to use some patience. But I couldn't take too long. (I was a kid and don't recall exactly how long it took to catch them.)
I was catching them so they could be neutered, then returned back here.
As soon as the feral momma cat brought her kittens (weaned age) I had to catch them before the kittens started leaving on their own. Because then they'd be hard to catch, and have more kittens.
But if the mom brought them all for kibble at weaning age, I could get all of them together.
Years ago, a some local vet had a "feral cat mom & litter" neuter discount. I don't know if that exists anymore.
But people keep abandoning their cats.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Oooh, poor baby! She's lucky she found you.

no one here ordered a kitten, so the Cat Distribution System is broken.

Nah, that's just how the CDS works. You may not have known you needed a cat, but the CDS knew!

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

How is the darling Cooper?
She started any wild parties?
The chickens getting along without their fluffy roommate?

 

[CascadiaRiver]

Agree that she looks older than your stated best guess.
What's her weight?
Mary

First thing I thought! Looks way more like 8-12 weeks to me. I work at an animal shelter & this looks like the size when they come back from foster once old/big enough to get spayed and neutered.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The CDS is how I got my barn kitty, Princess. Slowly working on the other feral kitty, Jack Sparrow (Jack for short), but he's so terrified of people you can't even see him fully before he's bolted for the next several weeks.