So I read a bunch of websites before I felt ready to trap a feral kitten myself. They are listed on my Links page. I borrowed a trap by paying a refundable deposit to Red Door Shelter. They had one very small "Havaheart" trap which was adequate for trapping a kitten. Even with the reading and with the trap in my posession, I felt that there was something more I needed. I found that something extra by calling TreeHouse Foundation, a non-profit no-kill shelter for cats, in particular sick or injured stray or feral cats.

When I called Tree House Foundation, Denise who works in their clinic told me that getting her spayed immediately would help her socialization process because I wouldn't have to bring her to the vet later and have her potentially regress in the new trust we'd established. Plus they gave me a clinic appointment for the very next day and gave me a generous discount since she was a rescued feral. I was trapping her Thursday evening and she told me to keep her in the trap and bring her in the trap Friday at 7am so as not to risk a dangerous kitten bite. She also was tested for two diseases and given a flee treatment and another shot.

I decided to name her Zen. I had thought of that as one of a few possibilities, but since she was so calm in the trap I figured her name was definitely Zen. The Tree House Foundation clinic told me that she was a female. Up until that time I was saying "he or she" because I had no idea. They also told me that she was 5 months old, and that she weighed 5 lbs and 3 oz. This was all news to me. I'd love to know if that is big or small for her age. I have no idea. They also told me that she was definitely feral, judging from her behavior around them compared to all the other cats they'd seen in the clinic.

In addition to the in-house clinic, Tree House also has their own behavior specialist who is a very experienced person who has socialized many stray and feral cats and kittens over the years. I left a voicemail for her and she called me back and gave me lots of tips on how to socialize Zen. She's very down to earth and approachable. Tree House also loans out traps as well. With both the clinic and the behaviorist, Tree House Foundation has been/is an important resource for me. For a link to them see the Links page.

Zen's Second Trip to the Vet/Tree House Clinic

Zen had to go back to get her first PCR distemper shot again. If I had taken her back within three to four weeks of when she got it the first time for her follow up shot then it wouldn't be necessary to restart. I'm a little stubborn sometimes and I thought she didn't need it. I thought wrong, but Joan the behaviorist from Tree House shelter explained to me that as long as she felt her carrier was a safe place that she wouldn't regress much with the trip. She may dislike some people but it'd be more the clinic people and not me. She'd get back home, feel the same good food/play routine in place and relax again. I was really only worried about her anxiety and that she might hate me, so when I realized that wasn't an issue I was OK with it.

So I got her a carrier about two weeks before the appointment and put a blanket with catnip inside and sometimes even fed her by putting the food in the back of the carrier so she'd get used to going all the way in and out. This is called carrier training. Joan the behaviorist at Tree House shelter told me that this way she bonds with the carrier and thinks of it as a safe place. This would lessen her anxiety when going to the clinic because as she is transported to and from she's still in her safe place! I kept the carrier right next to where I sit and feed her every day. For some reason she doesn't hop on top of it when I'm there so it makes a good drink coaster for me too. :-)

Three days before the morning clinic appointment I started giving her a morning feeding in her carrier, with me sitting right next to the carrier. The morning of the appointment, right before I was supposed to leave, I fed Zen in the carrier and when she went in to eat I closed and latched the door. Then I loosely draped all the openings with a towel thinking that might calm her a bit, plus keep out some of the cold.

So long story short, Zen did well at the clinic. She did not hiss at all, which I guess they expected particularly since she was feral. She even let one of the women in the clinic pet her on the head! That's only the second person she's let pet her so far with me being the first. Very cool. As far as her regressing, I spent about 1.5 hrs with her right when we got home, coaxing her back out of the bed with food, feeding her and playing. By the evening feeding she was pretty back to normal. For a bit I forgot I'd even taken her to the vet. As far as me her guardian, I realized I'd been letting my energy get pretty blocked up worrying over her upcoming vet visit. I need to work on that! Worry doesn't help anyone.

I had brought in a fecal sample of hers so they could do a fecal analysis for which they only charged me $5, perhaps because she's a rescued feral. Anyway they found roundworm eggs in her feces. Roundworm is a parasite common in all puppies and kittens and can be transmitted to humans even, mostly to kids who eat dirt or sand that has the eggs in it (from contaminated animal waste). She did not have a ton of eggs and her feces were "well formed," they think because she was given a very cool natural topical flea/parasite treatment called Revolution when she came the first time. I have read in several places not to use over the counter flea treatments because they contain lots of toxic chemicals, so I'm glad Tree House is up on all of that. To purge the roundworms out of her with her waste they sold me three pills (to give one every two weeks) to grind up and put in smelly wet food. I gave her the first one ground into powder and mixed into wet tuna cat food. She ate it all up, feeling like the luckiest cat ever to be getting wet tuna. I'll do one or several more fecal tests after the medicine process is over to make sure they're all gone. Fortunately she just thinks she's getting a treat when she gets her tuna laced with medicine and the fecal tests happen completely without her involvement.