These young men came into rescue at about one week old, along with their mum Hecate (who has recently been adopted). They’d been born in a garden and their poor mum was only a youngster herself, though so far as we understand had already had two previous litters outdoors. Mum wasn’t aggressive but she’d had a horrid time of neglect and was understandably wary of humans, and she taught her kits to be wary too.
Once they were weaned Hecate went off to a foster home with no other cats around where she’s really started to blossom. The kittens moved downstairs to live with the humans and resident cats. It’s taken some patience and effort from both humans and cats but they’re coming on in leaps and bounds with their confidence now.
They play and race around in the crazy way that only kittens can. They purr happily, climb into my lap for snuggles and enjoy affection on their terms. It’s a delight to see how much progress they’re making in such a short time, and I’ve no doubt that they will continue to grow in confidence given care and affection.
They’ve had flea and worm treatment and have now been vaccinated and microchipped. They’ll need to be neutered by the time they’re 6 months old. Vets vary in what age they’re ok to neuter at but all will do by 6 months.
The boys will need to stay indoors at least until they’re 6 months and neutered. After that they’ll most likely enjoy having a safe garden to explore and run off their crazy kitten energy. We do strongly recommend that cats are kept indoors over night though … especially black cats … as most accidents happen within hours of darkness.
They may be timid again for a while when they move to a new home so will need a family who can give them love and patience as they settle in. They should be fine with sensible cat savvy kids. They’ve never met any dogs so we’re not able to say how they’d be with dogs. They’ve been fine with adult cats here – some of our resident cats are more kitten friendly than others, so they had some very welcome adult cat snuggles, but also had a few cuffs around the ears.
We always homecheck prior to adoption, and ask a minimum donation of £70 for each kitten. There’s more about our adoption process here: http://www.8livescatrescue.org/adoption-process.html and you’ll find some more photos and stories about them (and our other cats) on our blog: https://8livescatrescue.wordpress.com/ and facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/8Lives/
8 Lives: Sheffield 8 Cat Rescue 