Meet Fluffy! – Feral Cat of the Week

If you have been following my blog, by now you have heard about Fluffy several times-mostly due to the stories about the birth of her kittens.  If you want to catch up on any of these stories you may have missed, you can find them all filed under the tab “The Cat Colony” at www.weliveinspired.com.  Fluffy was also mentioned in last week’s cat story about how the colony began and you can read that by clicking HERE if you wish 🙂

 

 

Fluffy was the second kitten I “tamed” from the feral cat colony that essentially lives behind our backyard (and I have a feeling there are a lot more in the woods and all around the vicinity).  She came to me for help and affection, and of course I am a softie (especially for cute kittens) so I couldn’t say no! She is also the youngest cat I have helped-just a kitten herself.  I don’t know her exact age, but the vet said she was a very young mama, so I would guess she was about 4 months old when I met her in early May.

 

How did Fluffy get her name?

Of all the kittens that came to me , she was the only one that had a fluffy tail and this pretty,fluffy fur that would blow in the breeze.  So Fluffy just seemed fitting!  Her name was almost not Fluffy though.  The children next door would watch me taming the feral cats this summer and were amazed at how they eventually would come to me every day.  Being children (ages toddler on up) they of course wanted to pet little Fluffy, but were impatient and would chase her to try and catch her, which of course would make the cat run away.  One day the children asked if they could pet the cats and I said they would have to walk very slowly and sit down next to me in the yard.  If they were very quiet and did not make sudden moves, the cats might come.  I was only able to get the 2 bravest of the feral cats- Courage and Fluffy to come.  The kids were able to pet them and Courage already had a name at that point , but Fluffy did not.

 

What names did they come up with for her?

Because Fluffy was very sweet and kind of shy, they wanted to name her either Cupcake, Sweetie Pie, or Fluttershy.  Not having kids myself yet, I had to ask where on earth they got the name Fluttershy and they informed me she was one of the My Little Ponies 🙂 .   The kids actually named some of the other feral cats, but I kept referring to Fluffy as the fluffy kitten, so went with that.

 

 

Fluffy was very shy at first and afraid to approach me, but as mentioned in the story about Courage, she eventually started coming forth when Courage did.  Before long that adorable little kitten would run to me at full speed across the yard every time I came outside.  I don’t know why- but there is something so cute about a kitten running in the grass to you (much cuter than seeing them run across the living room for example).

 

A little bit about Fluffy’s personality:

She is very laid back and serene acting most of the time.  She is demure and sweet natured.  One of the things I loved the most- that really made me want to adopt her and “save” her from living in a feral colony outside, is that she is very affectionate.  When she was an outdoor cat she got so she would never go far from the house.  When I would come out to sit in the lounge chair she would crawl in to my lap, and most of the time she wouldn’t let me nap ,because she had to crawl right up close to my neck and nuzzle my face.  She loves to be held and cuddled and even now as an indoor cat, she still loves to lay on my chest and will look up at me with the most loving, adoring look.  I do believe she is grateful to have a home! She also is very quiet and rarely meows.  She does “talk” quietly, especially to her babies, but it is more of a little ” Brrr?” noise with a question on the end of it.  She purrs ALOT.  She did not make noise or purr until she became socialized though.  She can be playful at times, but is not a high strung cat at all.

Surprisingly she can be feisty if need be!  I never knew she could be, until she ran off with a cat wand I had brought outside for her to play with.  I wish I had a video of it, but I don’t.  When she was living outside still, her and another feral kitten “caught” the mouse at the end of the cat wand and yanked it out of my hand and ran away with it.  They took it towards the woods.  I ran after her to get it back and found them playing with it.  When I tried to get it back from her, she growled a surprisingly feisty growl at me and had such a grip on it with her teeth, that I was pulling her body with it.  She refused to let go and I couldn’t drag her by the teeth all the way back home, so I eventually let go and she ran in to the woods with it, HA!

 

Other times when she got surprisingly feisty was when it came to feeding time.  She was very aggressive with the food and was getting fatter and fatter.  If the other cats would try to get some she would stand up to them-even the big ones.  She wasn’t afraid to swat them away and growl if she had to.  In fact, I got so I was trying to get her away from the food, as she was hogging it all and had gotten to be the plumpest of all the cats.  I felt she needed it less than the others, but later discovered that she was getting fat and was aggressive at going after the food, because she was pregnant :).  What a good momma she was, and her babies were born very healthy as a result!

 

Fluffy’s family:

Fluffy has a mom that is very feral and lives outside.  I know it is Fluffy’s mom, because when she was living outdoors and was still a fairly young kitten, there was this bigger cat that would often follow a few feet behind Fluffy.  The big Momma cat is too scared to even get near me, so she keeps her distance, but she would come as near to me as she could, to keep an eye on her kitten.  If Fluffy would take a few steps closer and come over to where I sat, the momma cat would also take several steps forward and then lay in the grass to watch.  I haven’t seen her for months, but actually Fluffy’s mom has recently started coming in the yard again.

 

Of course Fluffy is now a mom herself, and gave birth to 2 kittens on July 16, 2012 (around 8 or 9 pm).  Really, Fluffy was too young to have kittens.  This is why getting feral or stray cats spayed & neutered is so important.  In this case, we didn’t have a choice.  She must have been pregnant not too long after I found her.  She was actually next up to go to the vet, but she went in to labor the day before we were going to take her.  I didn’t know the signs of cat pregnancy and with her being a kitten didn’t really think she was pregnant until it was like a couple days before she gave birth.

 

 

After Fluffy’s water broke, she ran across the yard (in 100 degree weather no less) and sat on my lap.  Her backside was all wet and she was having contractions, so that is how I knew it was coming.  Other than that she acted like it was any other day and was cuddling with me in my lap.

 

She had a very difficult birth with the first kitten.  Awful screeches-like deafening to where you thought something horrible was happening to her.  I think she was too small.  You probably would have laughed if you saw me because I was with her in a semi dark laundry room poised with my laptop and a camera, AND a sandwich (hey-I hadn’t had time for dinner yet) all ready to catch the action.  When the screaming started echoing off the walls, I about dropped my plate and camera and needless to say- I did not get it filmed, which is a good thing as it were.  I ended up running out of the room (she was hissing) to let her have privacy and stood outside the door waiting for the chaos to die down.

 

The good news though, is that once she got through that first one, it was all smooth sailing from there on out.  Fluffy and her 2 babies have never been outdoors since.  They have all been well taken care of by me and are all 3 happy, healthy and thriving.  I was planning on putting one of the kittens up for adoption when weaned, but they are such a close knit cat family, that I have adopted all 3 .  Thankfully my fiance has been a good sport about the unexpected edition of 3 cats , which I will be taking with me when we get married and get our house.  In light of this, we have decided that we are forgoing the original plan of getting a dog.  🙂

 

All of September and October I will be featuring a new feral cat of the week.   This is to raise awareness for National Feral Cat Day which is Oct. 16, 2012.  I also am going to give away some free gifts and do some other special stuff as we get closer to the big day, so make sure to follow these stories! If you want to know how you can make a difference in your community or to feral cats everywhere- just contact me and I will get you some information.

Time for some youtube videos , so you can see Fluffy in action!  The first one is so cute and funny – you will see her first experience with cat nip.  The other videos are of when I had just “tamed” her outside.

Cat Nip : (Click here to watch if you can’t see the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXcptym08Fk&feature=relmfu)

 

Links for the video above in case you can’t see it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V_jGFIdEUc