A neighbor of a friend has quite the colony in his barn. There’s a litter that’s about four months old, and I’m thinking about adopting one of them. I only have experience with adult cats.
They’re apparently reasonably friendly towards humans, to the point that they’ll come up on my buddy’s porch for treats and scritches.
Based on this admittedly limited information, do they sound like good candidates for apartment living? I don’t want to get out there, decide it’s not going to work out, and end up bringing one home anyway because I’m a big sucker.
It will be fine. If they are tame enough to be petted, there shouldn’t be any long-lasting problems. The first couple days might be filled with anger and recrimination, but I would expect smooth sailing after that.
Go get the cutest one and post much kitteh pics immediately!
You have barn cats that people interacted with that are OK, and you have barn cats that went feral because the mother cat hid them away. The last ones will rip off your arm. A barn cat can be just as nice as your house cat, it’s all in the upbringing.
I grabbed a truly feral cat (mother was afraid of people, kittens were born under a porch - NOT a stray) from my boyfriend’s yard because it was sweet about scritchins and I thought it deserved a chance as somebody’s pet. Are you ready for this? I actually thought I’d just keep him for a bit, get him healthy and socialized, and then find a home for him.
You can stop laughing now.
I have three sweet cats, of which he is the sweetest. He was a little more than a year old. He loves getting petted so much that when I pet one of the other cats he shoehorns himself in so the side of my hand will pet him accidentally.
Barn cats can absolutely be tamed, and they sometimes make very loving pets. I think it’s because they’ve been short on human attention all their lives, and so don’t get tired of skritching after a while like house cats do. If the kitten will let you pet it and pick it up, it’s totally tameable. Do take it to the vet, though, because there’s a reasonable chance it has ringworm or something worse.
Also, I see no kitty pictures. Nothing. Not one. What kind of weird cat thread is this? This is completely unacceptable. Therefore, I humbly submit two of my own. The cat in the background here is a tamed barncat, and very sweet and lovey when not hungry. This is just cute.
Here’s my tamed barn kitten. Her mother was pretty feral though the barn owner fed her, etc. She kept her distance and hissed a lot at me, and the kitten was a grade A hisser when I first got her. She was about 9-10 weeks old and is a perfect pampered princess now.
Do keep in mind that a shelter cat will almost certainly be cheaper.
My two shelter cats: $50
cat
vaccinations
spay/neuter
microchip
registration with city
bag of cat food
cat toy
As you can see, the cat itself is essentially costing you negative money in this scheme.
Porch cat: $500+ (so far)
cat
neuter
tests for nasty diseases
vaccines
deworming… several times
four different kinds of antibiotics for poop problems
special fancy prescription food that actually fixes poop problems
blood tests for, you know, poop problems
So there’s that to think about. That prescription food, by the way, is 25 bucks for a little tiny bag and since it really works I’m going to have to keep buying it.
So the affection thing isn’t a problem. Tusk fell asleep on my shoulder within two hours.
The litter box thing may be, though. She pooped in her carrier on the way over, and peed on her sleeping pillow overnight. I dabbed some of the urine from the pillowcase into her box, and showed it to her. Maybe that’ll do it.
My barn kitty had one pee accident in her crate (I was kept her in a large dog crate for the first few days because she was so wild); she had never seen cat litter or a litterbox before. I introduced the litterbox and she knew what to do. Her litterbox habits have been perfect since then.
Aww…she’s a tortoiseshell. Be prepared for the tortoiseshell attitude - mine has it in spades.
God, she reminds me SO MUCH of little Stokie when first I snatched him. He was fully adult then and only weighed six pounds and looked so “wild” - dull coat, wild face - but now he’s doubled in weight and his coat is as glossy and shiny as you could ever imagine.
Once introduced to the litter box he took to it immediately - however, he’s the pickiest one of the three about box cleanliness and will go on the floor if he isn’t happy with it. Also, he refuses to even put his nose inside the litter robot; has to have a normal box.
Wow, really? Our local shelter charges $135 to adopt a kitten less than 6 months old. Puppies are $235!
As for taming, the barn cats in the OP sound very tameable. Like Zsofia, we adopted a feral kitten after possums killed one of its littermates, hurt her, and caused Mom to flee. Boo hid in the pool table for a week when we first brought her into the house. Within a few months she was a happy lapcat. (Fortunately, even though she was completely feral, she didn’t have any worm or parasite problems, and was healthy after we got the infected possum bite cleared up.) If a cat that hides in a pool table a week can be made a pet, I think taming ones that already take treats and petting from humans should be a snap.
A number of years ago, I adopted an orphan barn kitty. After an eight mile car ride that had him hurling his kitten chow up, he was examined by the vet, got his shots and drops for ear mites and was on his way home.
Domino was probably the most affectionate, sweet dispositioned cat that ever lived with me. Personally, I think that he was just grateful to have a clean, warm home with plenty to eat and humans to give him scritches on demand.
He passed away a couple of years ago in his sleep at the ripe old age of 18. Happy and sweet to the end. YMMV (but I hope not :))
When I was a kid the first cat we got after our house fire was one of these kind of abandoned/found kittens of around that age. She grew up to be a lovely affectionate cat, mothered a brood, and lived to a ripe age.
You have got to be freaking kidding me! Our city shelter wants those animals OUT of there! Now, the private shelters are more in line with what you quoted (I don’t know about puppy costs), and I have no idea why you’d get a kitten there instead of at the city pound. I mean, those shelters do really good work, but they’re no kill and you can get a really cheap cat that they were going to put down at the city pound - buy the city cat and donate the rest to Pets Inc. or whatever, if you like, says I.
Be prepared for the tortoiseshell attitude - mine has it in spades.
