Long story short, my Grandma has the typical farm cat overpopulation problem at her house. So, Randy and I went up there a few evenings in a row until we finally caught a kitten from her newest litter (of seven).
We named the little guy Murphy. He was clearly sick when we first got him, so I ran a stool sample to the vet. She ran the test and reported she had never seen a slide so full of coccidia before. She assumed he had worms, but said the slide was so full of coccidia she really couldn’t tell if anything else was wrong with him. A bottle of ear mite medicine, 3 days worth of antibiotics, and a syringe of de-wormer later I was out the door.
Randy and I decided to try to catch another kitten to keep Murphy company. Also, knowing how sick they were we thought we could at least afford to save another one.
Off to Grandma’s we went. The first try was futile. Murphy bit Randy the first time around, so it was only fair that I got mine this time. Max bit me so hard and in the perfect location, right on the side of my fingernail. I let him go. The next time we returned in our suit of armour (or at least gloves). The cats and kittens were all on Grandma’s back porch eating and scattered when they saw and heard us. None of them ran to the wood pile where we had previously caught them, so we assumed our chance was out the window again. As we were walking away, Randy glanced into the window well of the house. There they were! We both reached in and sure enough both caught one. Max was spitting fire…..the most mean and hateful little thing you’ll ever see. Macy was very small and fairly calm compared to the other two. Neither one of us had the heart to let one go knowing how sick they were. We sat on the back porch with Grandma trying to calm them down before jumping in our loud pickup and hauling them home. Macy calmed down okay, but Max was a mess.
We arrived home with them and went to the pool house to show Murphy who we had brought home with us. He came busting out of his cat tower when he saw them. He was so excited! Cooter, however, was not pumped about the first kitten (Murphy) and wasn’t exactly doing backflips when we brought the other two in.
Cooter and Murphy, can you fell the love or what.
Max is still our problem child. He is so afraid. It’s really sad to see him so unsure about us. He finally started to come around last night. I broke out some Pitter Pats, and his little world started to changed.
Macy is still a little unsure when we enter the pool house, but for the most part is taming down nicely and just as cute and sweet as she can be.
They have all been treated for coccidia and de-wormed. They look so much better and are finally starting to get those cute little kitten bellies.
Soon we will have them fixed and vaccinated for rabies. For now we are just trying to spend as much time as we can with them to tame them down, so they can venture outside soon.
We clearly needed more animals on our farm, specifically 3 new cats! We love them though. Hopefully once they are released into the wild they can catch the gopher who is slowing making the lawn outside the pool house door look like a prairie dog village.
Have a wonderful day!
A Simple Prairie Life 
I love your fur babies! Cute little turds! I just got caught up on your blog and have two comments:
1. Never occurred to me to make cous-cous for BREAKFAST! Love it. Kind of opposite of that, I recently learned about “savory oats” for dinner (i.e. add beans, cheese, veggies, salt&pepper). In other grain news I bought quinoa for the first time but haven’t whipped it up yet. Doubt it will be as good as at Local Burger in Larryville.
2. I used to use Yesterday’s News for Magic’s litter but didn’t have very good luck with it, in terms of really absorbing urine. I’ve been using unscented clay litter since then but really want to find something more earth-friendly (also gave the wheat kind, “Swheat Scoop,” a try… it was a goopy mess). Let us know how it works out for you. Maybe they’ve perfected it.
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Hmmm, good to know on the cat litter. I really wanted corn-based litter, but all they had was Yesterday’s News and a Pine-based litter (can’t remember the name). The bag on the pine litter was torn a little so I could see what spilled out. It looked more like pellets for a woodstove than a littler box. So, I opted for the recylced newspaper version. They have the corn-based litter at TSC. I would have bought it the day I saw it, but mom was with me and flipping out about how expensive it was so I opted to wait until I could blow through by myslef and spend the atrocious amount of money in peace. She is looking for something similar through her wholesalers for me, but until then the kitties gotta go!
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I tried the pine as well a few years back. It was definitely too pellet-y to be effective. And I’ve never seen the corn stuff. I’ll check at our Tractor Supply. All the non-clay stuff is ridonkulously priced, but I’d plunk down the money if I could find one that works well. Part of my problem might be that Magic pees more due to her asthma meds. Your average litter has never seen the likes of this cat’s pee stream.
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We use the corn-based and like it. It scoops right into a toilet and flushes easily.
A question about outside cats on the farm…. do your cats go after your chickens at all? We do not have outside cats but there are more than a few eighborhood cats and strays that love to stick around on our farm. There is one cat in particular that is always chasing our chickens. She has even caught one. 😦
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I’ll have to make a pit stop without my I’ll-give-you-my-opinion-even-if-you-don’t-ask-for-it mom and grab a bag of corn-based litter for them.
Cooter, our big Tom cat, has never bothered the big chickens. However, if he was given the opportunity he would go after the chicks I have no doubt. He’s really lazy though. Catches mice, but not really the great hunter when it comes to larger prey I guess. They flap their wings and he kind of flinches and squints his eyes.
A stray cat took down a full grown chicken? Wow, we have a gigantic stray cat creeping around our house so hopefully that doesn’t become an issue. When the chickens are out they are out with the sheep and near where the llama is, not sure if that deters anything from causing harm or not.
I’m taking your advice and planting the chickens a “garden” for early winter foraging. Our sheep get winter turnips, so why not plant something fun for the chickens!
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