update on the small crew of Italian cats who moved in on me

[randall]

Hi,

I received some good advice and kind help from posters on this board about dealing with stray cats who moved into my Italian garden, so I wanted to update those interested on the latest and ask TWO questions. But first the update:

One terribly emaciated orange tiger striped cat -- whom we call Tangy -- had worms, dandruff, upper respiratory disease, bald spots -- and he has progressed very well, positively perky with the help of antibiotics, de-worming pills and Frontline, and is even beginning to look fluffy and the ribs no longer visible! I am now able to see that this cat is actually a very young cat -- not long past being a kitten, really -- so his prognosis, I think, is excellent. I am a bit concerned that his near-death experience with starvation affected his vision. He is not blind, I am sure, but he shows no interest in flying objects, bouncing balls. He never leaves the area of my front door, so traumatized is he by his starvation, and he still eats like a horse. His grooming habits are gradually improving and he is able to hold his own against some other more agressive cats. Tangy is quite a friendly cat, and wants to move into the house, but that will need to wait until he is well enough to be neutered.

An absolutely darling but semi-wild male cat that we named Paczki (Polish for donuts) is finally allowing a few brief touches and shows some signs of learning to trust. When I pet the other cats, Paczki comes by to rub up against them at the same time. Recently, he has allowed me to sneak a few strokes on his back and tail, too, and once he rolled at my feet. Paczki is an amazing creature who thinks nothing of leaping off 20 ft walls into the garden below (any advice about getting him to stop this would be welcome, it makes me so nervous). He loves every cat toy I give him, playing with them for hours, in ecstasy. He needs to be spayed, but I have no hope of catching him.

We have another absolutely gorgeous, affectionate, friendly female we call Trudy (for "intruder") who visits regularly, looking for cuddles and air conditioning on hot days, but she has another home somewhere in the hills -- or maybe six of them. She is quite the seductress. She bears the Italian tattoo of having been spayed, so she is welcome to hang out here with the boys.

And there's more! Here are my 2 questions:

There is a rather aggressive young female all-black cat who also comes around, generally at twillight, and pretty much harasses the other cats with hisses and swipes, competing for their food. She is beautiful -- we call her Negrita, a feminine form of the Italian drink Negrito -- but I would love to discover a way to discourage her. She has other options I think, but she very much likes the nutritious fare I dish up for Tang and Paczki. Any tips? I am afraid to just stop feeding her cold turkey, but I do try to feed her boring dry food rather than the high-end meaty stuff the others get.

Finally, even in Italy it gets cold and rainy and I have been unable to persuade the stray outdoor cats to take advantage of the nice little cat houses I have set out for them, with comfy beds made of shredded newspaper stuffed into pillowcases, set into a dry space under a table. But the cats aren't getting the point. Any tips?

I will forego talking about my actual house cat -- a beautiful clever girl who has accepted all these other poachers and pleaders with grace. It is funny to see that they all defer to her. They must know she is the queen of the realm, and that to cross her is to cross me The little wild grey is actually rather devoted to her.

Any and all thoughts welcome! It is going to pour this weekend so I would like the stray cats to stay dry.

[Crewella]

I remember you posting before and I've loved reading your update, it's lovely that you've taken these cats under your wing, bless you.

I'm afraid I've never had much luck in getting cats to do anything they don't want to, so I have little of use to offer. I did wonder if they might find your shelters a little more tempting if they were tucked away somewhere less obviously 'your' territory - behind a shrub in a border somewhere perhaps?

Good luck!

[Janey]

Hiya, great to hear about your little family and that they're all doing well

I've looked after ferals for years and I find one thing which they love for bedding is straw (not hay) and that usually encourages them to use their huts. Unfortunately we had squatters in ours - hedgehogs - so our lot moved out lol but they have new huts they love and I put in my old fleeces, but they do need changing regularly as they can get damp and dirty quickly.

BTW these lot I care for are a group of ferals that I TNR and continued to care for. Please don't give up on trapping yours, if they are eating at your place you will catch them. Have you borrowed a trap from a rescue? definitely need to do that if not and get the little ones sorted - good luck!

[bobbys girl]

Hello randall, nice to hear from you and lovely to hear about the progress you've made with these kitties. Helen's suggestion of moving the 'den' to a more private spot is a good one. You might also leave a little food near by.

Are you sure the black cat is a stray? We had the same problem with the Car Park Cats. All the ferrals are ginger or tortie. There are a couple of black cats that come down, but they are bigger (and better fed). It turns out they belong to someone and are just there for the free meals! If I stand and stare at them they keep away while the others eat. They are now so use to this that when I'm around they stay away from me while the 'ferrals' hand around, following me for more food.

BTW they all have names connected to gardening. Vicky (the vocal) is named after Vita Sackville-West. Then there is Blossom and her brothers Wilson and Bob (Robert Fortune) both Plant Hunters and heroes of mine. There was a 'Posy', but she was run over.

Keep up the good work, and keep in touch!

[nannymcfee]

My strays love the large polestyrene boxes, that meats and such like are delivered in, With the lid at the bottom i just cut a door in the side of the box,slightly raised and then add a couple of sheets of paper, and they love cardboard to lie on, and an old towel, with the boxes being insulated material, the cats can be very safe in winter in them and they are water proof, ( if in sheltered position ) & in the summer they will sit all day on top of them.

If you want them to blend in with garden, coat outside in pva glue, and then cover in grit/ fine chippings, ( but leave a while til really dry until cats are introduced).

A bonus, normally butchers etc will give away for free.

Mine look quite like this.

[randall]

Hi everybody! Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions. The cats probably would like to bed down someplace not too close to the door, so I'll try moving the cat beds. Fortunately the "garden" is really more of a farm, and aesthetics are not the issue. Funny looking boxes will blend in just fine with the frut crates, the olive crusher and the wood pile. I'll ask the local butchers if they have any good boxes.

I shouldn't have posted that I have "no chance" of catching the little grey boy. He is beginning to let me touch pet him, but once when he got curious enough to walk inside my house, and the door shut behind him, he had a terrible panic attack. He repeatedly jumped against a closed window, and made frantic, weeping sounds. He left nail gouges in the window ledge. The vet is quite far from where I live, so keeping him a box to get him there is going to be a big event, so I am going to need a strategy. The emaciated orange boy has a much tamer personality, and I think he will be strong enough to withstand capture and neutering by in a month or so.

In case it wasn't clear, the aggressive black female is probably not a stray, so I am not too worried about discouraging her from coming around. However, we are about to go away for 10 days, and my landlord's will cheerfully feed the cats again, which means she will just put lots of food out (rather than feed them selectively like I do), so that black cat is going to get another free ride, and I'll need to deal with it when I come back.

I can see where the cats would really appreciate it if I constantly refreshed their cat beds with hay. My landlord recently hacked down a lot of weeds around the property, and all the cats really loved the hacked up stuff he raked into piles. What they didn't use for toilets they used for beds. Unfortunately, we live on the side of a deep ravine which is great for growing stuff, while the other side of the ravine is great for raising hooved animals,. The ravine has no connecting road, only steep staircases, so getting any hay over to my side of the ravine would be quite the act of devotion to these cats! It's bad enough carrying 10kg grams of cat little from the stores.

My landlord has already burned one of the dry weed piles, and eventually they will all be burned, which might disappoint the cats but which is okay with me, since I'm sure the rodents would enjoy the weed piles as much as the cats. My house cat, whom I also let outdoors because she likes to sit in fruit trees, discovered the still-warm pile of ashes and came back filthy, and she is unlikely to be the only cat of the bunch to find the ashes fun.

It had never occurred to me before that we tend to give all the cats names related to food and drink -- orange Tang, polish donuts, Italian cocktails. They exception is our beautiful house cat whom we named after the Italian fashion designer Miuccia Prada, since the impeccably dressed Ms. Prada almost exclusively wears black and white in public.

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By the way, I had mentioned once before that a friend had overfed Miuccia while I was away on a trip, and by following the advice to feed the cat mainly high-quality wet food, and much less dry food, I was able to slim her down closer to her best weight. So thanks for that! My friend will be feeding her again while I am gone this month, but I am sure my friend will follow any instructions I give him to keep her slim and pretty.

Speaking of pretty, one more question!

The orange Tang has black gunky "tears". The outflow had reduced drastically since curing him of his upper respiratory infection, but he still gets crusty drippings at his tear ducts. Any suggestions about keeping that at bay?

Thanks again!