Feral Kitty And Hyper Dog Dilemna

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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After seeing how many people are on thse boards that are involved in animal rescue, and are just plain animal lovers, I have a few questions to ask. Thankfully, the problem is not mine, but the friend of mine noted in my Dog Adoption Thread.

One of the reasons that my friend took his dog up to the Humane Society (only to have a change of heart and get him back) was because of the fact that they just have too many animals in their house.

Namely cats.

Unfortunately, in what is proof of the need to spay and neuter pets that aren’t being used for breeding, after getting their first cat a a few years back, she got pregnant. At first, it was thought cute. “Aww, kitties!” and all.

But the animals never were fixed, and it kept happening.

The situation isn’t that bad right now, but without turning this thread into a bash-session debating the morals of having your animals fixed, understand that he wants to fix the situation.

Right now, they have one cat, a male, not neutered. The problem is, there are other cats that call the house home, and they most certainly are not pets. They are, for all intents and purposes, feral cats that happen to live there. No one in the house can go near them, and they are destructive (inside and out). It’s not that many cats, something like 2 adults and some kittens. Its a long story, and a few generations of cats since the escapade started, but here is where it stands now.

The local humane society, has a whole lot of cats and kittens. While they probably had around 10 dogs, they currently have something like 50, if not more, cats. Most of which are cute, cuddly, good natured kittens.

The cats that he has though, aren’t. They are mean, people hating, kitties.

Although there would be a chance of adoption, I certainly wouldn’t expect it, and the kitties would probably be put down. When I say they are feral, I mean it. The cats will hide from everybody, usually in the attic, and if you, for example, start walking upstairs, they will all panic and run into their hiding places up in the attic. Even the kittens.

Neither of us sees any other possibilities for the kitties other than taking them to the HS, but if anyone else has suggestions that we haven’t thought of, I’d appreciate it.

Now, about the dog. The dog, Nitro, is a 1yr old lab mix (like my Tasha), loves people, but very energetic/destructive. IMO, the dog’s whole problem, is that he is just cooped up too much, and when given free reign, has so much pent up energy that he just can’t help it. If I go down there for example, Nitro will be jumping all over me trying to get me to play with him, and if I do, is more than willing to spend some serious time wrestling with me. Just a really energetic dog, not at all mean. My friend’s mom wants to keep the dog, since his sister is never home, and my friend is in the Air Force, so Nitro keeps her company. When not kooped up in the basement to prevent wanton household destruction that is.

Wanting to keep the dog, what kinds of suggestions can you offer for them? Giving the dog more freedom to roam around the house and be around people? Getting the dog a crate so that he has a sort of safe place to go, that is kept in a high traffic area? (I should certainly hope not locked)

As for obedience training, any ideas for low cost classes?

Oh, and one more thing, Nitro is not neutered. What kind of personality change can be expected in a male dog by having them fixed? I would imagine he would probably calm down at least a little, but I don’t know.

I’m kind of at a loss for advice on this, and will be giving my friend the link to this thread, so that he can see the suggestions that you have.

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Dogs do generally calm down a little after being neutered, but it takes a while. The more mature the dog, the longer it takes for all those hormones to get out of their systems. It does not make a huge, dramatic personality change, though, in my experience. Young, bouncy dogs remain young, bouncy dogs. Your local ASPCA or Humane Society probably have information on low-cost obedience training.

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The HS is not responsible for their kitten problem. They need to take the cats and have them put to sleep at their own vet, don’t force the shelter to do it. They created the problem, and they need to deal with it.

As for the dog, yes neutering will calm it down. I have seen it take 6 months with a 5 year old portugues water dog before they really noticed a difference. But from my own experience (with Malamutes especially), I noticed a behaviour change withing a month.

But the reality is that labs can be more active than other dogs, and need a way of burning off their energy. Is there a dog park in your area? My sister takes her lab to a dog park every other day, and it has been a great help for calming him down

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As for the cats, it sounds like you need to set up some kind of a humane trap for them and then take them to the Humane Society. It’s sad, but this is what happens when people don’t act like responsible pet owners. Have you suggested to your friend that he/she get the male cat fixed, too, though, so he stops MAKING more kittens??

There’s also often very inexpensive dog training classes available through PetsMart. A well-trained dog is a thing of beauty.

But someone HAS to be willing to devote a few minutes a day to playing with the dog, even if they don’t take it to obedience class. We take our lab mix out in the back yard and throw his kong for him for 5-10 minutes at LEAST four times a day. We run him till he gives up and lies down. Even when it’s raining so hard outside that we CAN’T go outside to throw a toy for him, he gets playtime – during our back-to-back hurricanes last year, we’d toss the toy just a few feet for him in the den. He’s just as happy with that, even if he can’t run as far – it’s more the attention than the exercise, I think, that keeps him happy. It can be done even while sitting in the recliner with my feet up, too. :smiley:

Labs have a lot of energy and need somewhere constructive to focus it. Generally, a destructive dog is a dog that’s (a) not well trained and (b) not getting enough attention. In other words, it’s a human problem, not the dog’s problem. The additional bonus of a good training class is that if the human tries to do the homework, it forces them to spend time with their dog, which also helps solve problem (b).

5

OK, here’s how this goes. This problem has been goin on now for approximately 9 years now, it started with one people hating cat that my sister “lovingly” adopted from a family who had the same basic problem, except they live WAY out in teh country. Now this one cat, who went by the name “simba” started the fiasco by whoring herself to the neighborhood strays before we even had the chance to get her fixed. A short time after getting “simba” my sister again decided to “adopt” another cat. This one was a stray. That was simply a HUGE mistake… After the breeding wars of 95-96, we found ourselves with approximately 15, yes 15, feral cats running rampant in the house. I did teh right thing and quickly eliminated the problem. We were back to 2 cats again.
Lets do the math:
Started with 1 cat - ok
1 cat mated with other cats - uh oh
adopted another cat - WARNING
first cat had litter of 3 - DANGER
litter reproduced in itself - ABANDON SHIP
more little “kitties” - We’re at like 20 cats now
removal process yields -18 cats - ok back to 2 females…
problem: females were reclusive - Here we go again…
more kittens = more cats - DAMNIT
now the count - 1 pet, 8 feral

now what to do with the little feral bastards… i would like to take them to the humane society, but they simply cannot accept any more cats. there are no farms needing cats, and we are pretty much left to the one choice- we all know what that is…

HELP!

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My last cat was feral (her mother used to go and get food from a shop that my dad used to deliver to, and chose to give bith in an outhouse there). She had the usual kitty upbringing with us (one older blind boss cat to keep her in line). Whilst she never became your standard domestic cat, her rough edges were rubbed off. We just knew to leave the room when she began doing “Wall of Death”.

Anyway - I’m saying it might be possibly to domesticate one feral kitten to an acceptable degree, but I think more than that would be somewhere between very difficult and nigh on impossible.

Possibly some local cat lovers might enjoy the challenge? They all need to be spayed/neutered, though. I’m not sure how the Humane Society works, but organisations here (RSPCA, PDSA, Cats Protection League) would arrange for the burden to be shared out among other branches if they were overwhelmed by one “rescue”. They would also be the best judge of whether an animal could be rehabilitated.