Thanks, that’s interesting. It might just be a personal preference/experience (bias) on the part of our vet, then. As I said, financially, we don’t mind waiting at all, so it doesn’t really matter to us (even wrt animal population; both kitties are indoor only!) I think she said that she used to do the surgeries at 2-3 mos, but doesn’t anymore.
It most definitely makes sense to do this young for shelter kitties; especially since they become more easily adoptable if that cost is partially handled already. Our first cat was a shelter cat, and total cost was 180$ for spay, deworming, first set of vaccinations (out of 3), microchip, license and a bag of cat food. We have exceeded that cost in vaccinations alone with the second cat (a farm kitten).
My sister is in her first year of vet school; I’ll be curious to see what she decides!
My advice to all new cat owners is to get them used to not sleeping with you early - you’ll thank god for it later (when you don’t have a cranky cat jumping on your head at 3 in the morning because IT’S PLAY TIME RIGHT NOW!!!). If she’s going to sleep in your room, that will have to wait until you get your own apartment.
Cats will bond with who they bond with. I don’t think we have much say in that. That said, I do think they respond very well to anyone who takes the time to play with them, pat their little heads, talk nicely to them, worship them adoringly, etc.
I never have this problem since I free feed dry food. I do have one cat that we adopted that was used to wet food and I continue to give him one pouch every morning.
He gets it when I get up and that is all there is to it. He never bugs me or wakes me. He does get overly excited though if I get up in the middle of the night. He thinks it is feeding time but I just ignore him and go back to bed.
In fact none of my cats bug me at night for anything. There are times I get up to get some water or use the bathroom and then they might wake and want some pets but it only lasts a couple minutes and then we lay down and go back to sleep.
I can share my recent experience with a new kitten, maybe it will make you feel better.
We already had a 7yr old dog and 8yr old cat. A few weeks ago I brought home ~12 week old already spayed Lucy.
We kept Lucy in our bedroom where she did much hiding under the bed. She came out every time we went in the room, though, as she appears to be outgoing by nature and loves company. Gradually we’d bring her downstairs to play. She’d see the other animals but we kept them away from her. She was terrified of the dog and curious about the cat.
After 3-4 days we started letting her out of our room on her own. She spent much time hiding under the couch, but always came out when she was ready to. She’s gotten used to the dog (this morning she was hiding under a cabinet while the dog was eating, reaching out to swipe at the fur on the back of the dog’s legs just to bug her) and has become friends with the older cat. (older cat grudgingly accepting, and actually starting to play with the kitten)
As for bonding, I swear that’s a crap shoot. The 8yr old cat was supposed to be MY cat. My husband didn’t really even want a cat. Guess whose cat he’s been from day one? That’s right. He sleeps ON my husband every night. He doesn’t dislike me, but he’s got his favorite person.
The new kitty doesn’t seem to be such a one person cat. She likes all four people, and is amazingly tolerant of my young children. Friendlyness was a trait I could see in her at the shelter, though. The other kittens were skittish, and Lucy was friendly and outgoing.
My advice is pick a frienly kitty and spend a lot of cuddle time with it and cross your fingers.
Long story short, the lady I was supposed to get my kitten from punked out on me, and I spent weeks there after on a kitten-finding mission, with many bumps along the way…
He’s about 1 year old, so he’s not a baby, but he’s really sweet. He’s in the cage for now to let him get used to the house without being scared and hiding, because he comes from a background of living in an outdoor colony. He’s not feral himself, but is a little shy of people at the moment (shrinking away from my hand a little, etc.) He never claws or bites, though, and rarely even makes any noise (and when he does, it’s a squeak…so cute!)
Just thought it’d be no good to let a kitty thread die without a pic.
Good for you for adopting a cat that was past the cute-kitten stage. Those cats have a much harder time finding homes.
I adopted our two cats at the ages of 5 and 8 months- the cat equivalent of teenagers. Katya was clearly in the “awkward age”- her ears looked huge when we brought her home (she has since grown into them).
Squeaker cats are cute. My Katya has a wide vocabulary of sounds, including several squeaks. Watch out for them, though- the squeaks, being so cute, are a very effective tool for training humans…
Katya used the squeaks to not only train Mr. Neville and me to pet her while she eats, but to get a card table to put their food dish on, and a chair to put by the card table, when we found that bending down to pet her while she ate from a bowl on the floor was hard on our backs. The squeaking (and purring when petted while she eats) was just too cute for us to give up petting her while she ate, so this was the only solution. Yes, we know she has us wrapped around her little paw. Squeaker cats can do that.
Yeah, I know…and it never made sense to me. I mean, though it’s really sad, I understand why people are reluctant to adopt a sick cat, or a cat who’s 8 or 10 years old, because the expense of the illness can be prohibitive and the thought of getting attached to the cat and then maybe only getting to have it for a few years is really emotionally daunting, but a 1 or 2 year old cat is awesome…already litter trained, you already have a sense of their personality, and you get to have them for almost their entire life.
Hee hee My best friend’s parents had a squeaker cat until a few years ago, and I think that cat could have convinced me to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia if it wanted to. It was just so, so cute.
My best friend’s parents had a squeaker cat until a few years ago, and I think that cat could have convinced me to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia if it wanted to. It was just so, so cute. 