At about 5:30 yesterday I found a very small kitten In the driveway (in a rural area). It seems too young to survive outside - and it’s hot. I would think mommy should be taking care of it. It has a crusty eye and didn’t seem well.
Next door neighbors: We say hi over the fence if we see them, but that’s about it. They have several cats. They feed them and basically they let them run wild in the woods or in yards. We thought it might belong to them. We knocked on their door and they didn’t answer. We left a note on their door to call, and no call.
Friend: Works for the city, including over Animal Control. We called her and she said they were closed and will be closed today. And it’s not likely someone will want the kitten.
So, the kitten is in a dog cage, away from the dog. And we are taking care of it the best we can. I guess it’s wait until tomorrow and take it to the animal shelter where I suppose they will have to kill it, unless they can find someone that wants it. :
I spoke too soon. Found the owner. End of story. (can this be deleted?)
Theres no such thing as an unwanted kitten.
Well… The dog didn’t want the kitten and we don’t want to deal with a dog that doesn’t want a kitten. We had to put the kitten in the laundry room to keep it away. And if it really was unwanted I would have put it outside to fend for itself.
Aw, come on, fate brought you together! Unless you truly have a killer dog that lies awake at night plotting its death, you have room for one more little life in the family! 
It’s not a killer dog (at least I don’t think so). She’'s a cute cocker spaniel.
When I was a teenager we had four kittens - Fifi, Fluffy. Snowball and Midnight. I didn’t really do much with them. Except for the kitten races. I would take two and put them on the starting line. The first one to cross the winning line was the winner. Or, if they went the other way there was a “losing line”. It was like a league, where each kitten played against the other kittens, and then a playoff with the two kittens with the best record. So, I will need multiple kittens.
I met this pretty girl at a campsite in the Ocala National Forest a couple of weeks ago. She seemed scrawny and was hollering a lot, so obviously I fed her everything we’d brought along. She got aggressively friendly after that, headbutting and jumping into our laps, and the meowing never stopped.
When we left, I was going to notify the campsite host, and I didn’t find them, but saw another cat in the vicinity. I called later on and left a message for the rangers, but never heard back. That’s pretty much all I could do for her, as we have three big dogs already. I hope she’s okay.
I’m glad you found the owner.
Around here, basically all shelter kittens are adopted. But i understand it’s different in other places.
We don’t usually close threads unless they go off the rails in some way. I expect people will talk about kittens for a bit, and then it will peter out.
Please don’t do this (anyone). Either the cat dies a horrible death in numerous ways or becomes a feral cat which is not good for anyone or the wildlife in the area.
If you cannot or do not want to care for the cat take it to a shelter. Maybe it will be euthanized there but even that is preferable to turning it loose.
Just my $0.02
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere before, 17 years ago I ended up with custody of two black kittens a friend found under her trailer. I had to bottle-feed them for a few days (which is why she brought them to me, as she was unable to do this herself) before they were able to handle solid food. One of them died a few years ago of kidney failure related to diabetes, and the other was just diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I’m hoping Rascal responds well to the treatment; I’m not sure how I’ll manage without him.
Well, you tried. You did the right things.
And found the cats person.
I wish everyone was as caring.
I live rurally. Somewhere theres a sign that says “Hey, you got “unwanted” critters, take them to Becks house, she likes everything!”
It must be true. We get an alarming amount of dump-off animals.
Cats, dogs and chickens. And the famous guinea hens. Once, a mule. (Yeah, try to find a shelter for that, folks).
The cat/dog shelter became my best friends. I was there so much I began volunteering. Did that many years.
As a matter of fact there were 2 boxer type puppies at my gate yesterday.
My son gave them water and took them to the vet associated with shelter because they looked ill.
Apparently they are doing ok. Just hungry, covered and full of pestilence.
They were very cute and will be fostered as soon as they can. This shelter does a good job.
Over the years I’ve had several cats on medication for hyperthyroidism. They’ve all lived several years longer without knowing they were ill.
He started getting his medicine on Tuesday; I’m avoiding mutual stress by adding the pill to his wet food instead of trying to force it down his throat. I have been checking to make sure that he’s actually eating it. We’ll see how well it’s working when I take him in for testing in mid-August.
What I’m hoping is a side effect of this is that this morning he didn’t insist on me getting up at 6am this morning to feed him.
I changed the title to indicate there is no longer an unwanted kitten in the scene.
It might be. One of the symptoms is an extremely good appetite combined with weight loss; if the meds are working, he won’t be as hungry so much of the time. If he loses too much appetite, the dose may be too high. It often varies over time and the vet will probably want to recheck occasionally. – you may well already know all this.
I have four cats; and none of them consistently eat all their food, certainly not before one of the others decides to finish it for them. I’ve gotten good at getting pills into cats, and those are nice little slippery ones.
Again, the vet may have warned you – you shouldn’t handle the pills too much barehanded. Apparently the medication can be absorbed through the skin and this is one of the rare cases in which a med has stronger effects on humans than on cats. The standard recommendation seems to be gloves, but I find it easier to work with tweezers. Occasionally picking up a pill barehanded is unlikely to have any effect; but handling them a lot, especially if you split or crush them, can affect your own thyroid levels.
Rascal is an only cat who generally eats the food as son as the bowl hits the floor (sometimes before). I’ve been checking to make sure that he doesn’t somehow avoid eating the pill, although that would be difficult considering its size.
I had not been warned by the vet about avoiding handling the pills. The pills I was given need to be split, and I have a pill splitter which includes a small storage space so I can split a week’s worth of pills at a time. I will use tweezers to handle the pills, both whole and split, in the future. I have enough health problems as it is without adding possible thyroid issues to the list.