kittens

My article on kitten adoption, warning about bringing a kitten into your household without adequate precautions, is now on my website. Go to www.SimonTeakettle.com and you'll see the "NEW" item at the top of the first page, with a link to the article. I had taken a couple of photos of the little black kitten, and have put them on the page. My thanks to everyone who "vetted" this article for me, and for those of you who are posting it on your websites. You all have my permission to do so, as long as you give me full attribution and link back to my website: www.SimonTeakettle.com. If anyone wants to quote me or my experience in an article for a magazine or newspaper, please get in touch privately. I really want to get the word out about this important matter. Bobbi Untitled Table with 3 columns and 3 rows   PLEASE READ THIS FIRST     before you take in a stray cat   adopt a kitten from a shelter add a kitten to your household obtain a kitten from a friend table end I had the unfortunate experience of losing the adorable kitten pictured here to what I suspect was "feline distemper." This doesn't happen very often, but I wish I'd known a few things before I brought this kitten home. 1. If you adopt from a shelter, ask if they have a resident vet who examines all animals before they're placed for adoption, and if all kittens and puppies are tested and vaccinated. Many shelters can't afford a resident veterinarian and rely on people who adopt to take the animal to a vet. 2. Make an appointment with a local veterinarian right away, and have the kitten tested and vaccinated. My vet has a policy of not vaccinating for a week, waiting to see if the kitten develops any symptoms. If you're faced with that situation, it's doubly important to take the following precautions. 3. Keep the kitten isolated from other animals in the family and from small children. Put him or her in a small room (a bathroom or laundry room is ideal) with newspapers on the floor, and a clean old towel you would normally use as a cleaning rag to provide a soft surface to sleep on. 4. Use a disposable litter box, because some of these communicable diseases are shed in feces. The lid of a sturdy cardboard box works well for a small kitten. Buy an inexpensive plastic litter scoop from the Dollar Store, in case you have to throw it away later. 5. Give the kitten fresh, cool water in a small glass bowl. Wash this bowl well every day and refill. Do not use several different bowls, because if the kitten gets sick, you'll have to make sure this bowl is not used for another animal. Do the same thing with a food bowl. 6. Always give a kitten a commercial food designed for kittens. Adult cat food isn't a good choice until the cat is about a year old. Don't feed table scraps, tuna, milk, or anything else but kitten food. If the kitten vomits, you want to make sure it isn't because you fed something that irritated his delicate digestive system. 7. Pay careful attention to any symptoms. If the kitten is coughing, sneezing, vomiting (even just a tiny bit), or has diarrhea, call the vet right away. A danger sign I didn't know about was lethargy. This kitten didn't seem interested in play, which isn't normal. 8. Play a radio station with soft music to keep the kitten company. This will reduce stress as well as loneliness. Go into the room to pet and play with the little one, but don't take him out into the rest of the house until you're sure he's not carrying a disease. 9. Diseases that can kill kittens are NOT communicable to humans. But they linger in the environment and can be passed to another pet long afterwards. If you should lose a kitten or puppy to distemper or something similar, be sure to ask your vet how long you should wait before adopting another animal, and how to take precautions to disinfect things the kitten or puppy came in contact with. 10. Learn how to care for your cat by checking some of the reliable websites run by veterinary schools. Ignore information from non-experts. A few websites to check include: Cornell: www.vet.cornell.edu/ Tufts: www.vet.tufts.edu/ Univ. of California-Davis: www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ A complete list of veterinary schools in the U.S. can be found at: www.veterinaryschools.com. The Cat Writers' Association, www.catwriters.org, has many knowledgeable members who run rescue and shelter operations, work for the Humane Society of the U.S. and the ASPCA, and includes eleven veterinarians. CWA members have published several comprehensive books on pet care, including care for kittens, senior cats, health, behavior and training. Some of these books are listed on the Resources page of this website (scroll down to Recommended Books for Cat Lovers). And after you bring your kitten home, please read Training Your Cat Like a Dog. This page is in memory of a Little Black Kitten who was found as a stray in Masson, Quebec, on August 23, 2006, and brought to the SPCA Outaouais in Gatineau. I adopted him on August 28, and loved and cared for him until he died on October 31. SIMON TEAKETTLE INK Gatineau, Quebec, CANADA www.SimonTeakettle.com Five Fast Steps to Better Writing 20th Anniversary Edition Five Fast Steps to Low-Cost Publicity new edition published in 2003 MEWSINGS/MUSINGS international award-winner