Silver's Story

I decided that every once in a while, I would share how I got my one of my kitties, starting here with Silver. Their stories are a variety of examples of what can happen to a cat or kitten after trapping.

I trapped Silver myself, in my neighbor's backyard. I also trapped her two brothers, James and Sylvester. (Named because Silver and Sylvester looked almost identical, while James was mostly white.) They were about nine weeks old, and already pretty feral. After Silver was spayed and her brothers neutered, we decided to keep Silver to see if we could foster and re-home her. She showed much more potential than her brothers for becoming more tame. We also kept James to foster and re-home, because he was so white, he would not be able to camouflage or hide from predators. Sylvester was released back into the colony, where I can report he is still living happily.

Unfortunately, nine weeks is a little too old to tame a kitten successfully. It can be done, but the chances are not as good as if you had started at six weeks. When we started trying to find a home for Silver and James, we quickly realized that no one wanted a pair of semi-feral older kittens. They would run and hide when someone walked into a room, and James spent most of his time under the couch. After about four months of looking for the right home, we gave up. We were too attached, anyway.

Silver is now almost five years old, and has warmed up to people a little bit. I discovered that she has a strong "food drive" which means she will do just about anything for food, and eats like she has a bottomless pit for a stomach. Somehow, she never gains any weight, either. I used Silver's food drive to desensitize her to people- a.k.a., I bribed her. If she sat on my lap and let me pet her, then I would let her eat my left over eggs. If she came in the house for the night, I would give her a little extra wet food. Now she is the most overly affectionate cat I know, who loves nothing more than sitting on my lap for hours on end. She comes in every night when I call her name, and sleeps in a bed I knitted for her (see picture). Although she likes me much more than anyone else in the family, she is slowly coming around to my mom and sister. Life for her, an ex-feral, is very good.