Lily, I know just how you feel...A few years ago, we had 2 semi feral gals that had litters and actually brought them to us...They lived on our porch and we were able to bond with them...But after a couple of weeks, the mothers would make a noise and all of a sudden the kittens would run after them..They were going to take them into the woods...Several times, my DH would take off running with a big box and gather up all the babies (9) and bring them home...Finally, we put all the babies in the basement and only brought them out for feedings and eventually we were able to wean them..Having 9 furbabies in my laundry room was quite exciting...I spent hours just sitting with them, playing with even reading to them...We found good homes for all but 1 orange tabby and that's my Clancy...After that, I helped with a rescue group and again my laundry room was used as the "cat room". Many hours were spent, almost living in the cage with the ferals that we had rescued. But it got harder and harder to give them up,(kept 2 more) so I had to quit...I really do admire all those "helpers"...It is very satisfying to help those little babies...

As mentioned, it can take up to six weeks for the residual testosterone to dissipate after a neuter, so the male kitten may continue making a nuisance of himself for a while. That said, I recently had a nearly 10 mo. old male kitten, Bobble, neutered. Before the surgery, Bobble had chosen one of my other young, neutered males as his "girlfriend" and mounted poor Goober frequently, biting the back of his neck. Goober was most pleased to find that behavior disappeared right along with Bobble's boy parts. They still wrestle, but the mounting is no longer one of Bobble's favorite moves. Hopefully your boy kitten will lose interest in mounting, as well, though, as with dogs, mounting can be a non-sexual demonstration of dominance. In any event, it obviously doesn't bother the little girl too much, so don't fret it. Laurie

I have 7 cats now, and each one has a different personality. Two are male, the rest are female. All of them are rescues, with at least 5 of them having been born feral. Two of the females (born feral) are brown tabby littermates. One of them has always been very affectionate and very much a lap cat in the winter, but a curl up beside you cat in the summer. (Temperature does make a difference - cats don't like to be cold) Her sister for years was very, very shy, rarely let us pet her, much less a lap cat. For some reason, her personality has recently changed, and she gets in my lap every evening with her face in my face, wanting to be petted. It turns out she loves to be brushed, so we have a brushing session every night. It's amazing she's not bald by now! I have one brown tabby that I rescued as an adult. She was either feral or abandoned. She's very skittish, is a one person cat (I'm her human -she occasionally lets DH pet her, but mostly runs away from him) and only wants to be petted on her terms, but when she does want to be petted, she loooovvves it. My other cats fall in between, with occasional lap time, occasional petting time and occasional play time. They all love to be petted and loved, are very affectionate, but are not necessaily lap cats. All this rambling is to point out that I don't think that "lap-catism" has anything to do with male or female, bottle fed or mother fed (we used to have two cats, that have since passed away from old age, that we bottle fed after finding them abandoned at a rest stop along the highway that were very, very affectionate and both lap cats to the extreme.) It's just the personality of the cat, and that can even change, as exibited by my one cat that went from scared of everything to demanding lap time. Each cat has something to offer, and is very loving in their own way. When you find your special kitties, you'll find friends for life, no matter whether they show their love by getting in your lap or sitting next to you. Sally

I know your intentions are good, but there is just nothing about this situation that sounds at all humane to me. The cats were taken out of the social structure of their established colony and territory and are now spending the next 30 days terrified, confined in large cages in unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar animals and people. After that, they will be turned loose into a territory which, according to your member page, is too dangerous for outdoor cats because of your coyote population. That just doesn't sound like a kindness for the cats. If they survive the stress of the next 30 days of their confinement without falling ill or injuring themselves in the attempt to escape, and if they remain within the relative safety of the confines of your farm buildings after being released, they may survive until and unless they become ill or injured and you can't catch them again to help them. That just isn't a scenario I'm willing to subject an animal to. I, too, live on a farm, and I have thirteen cats, more than half of whom were dumped or otherwise just showed up here. Of the eight "show-ups" (all adults), four were tame strays, two were semi-feral, and two were feral. All eight were brought (or trapped, as the case may be) inside and integrated into my family. One of the tame strays now prefers to spend all day every day outside, and some of the others go out less frequently and usually only briefly. The two ex-ferals and two semi-ferals spend all of their time indoors quite happily. The cats who choose to go outside during the day keep my barn's rodent population down to insignificant levels. Of course, the dogs also assist in that effort. All of my cats are safely inside at night. I just don't see the point of subjecting cats to an unnecessarily perilous and stressful lifestyle where they are too scared of humans to accept help if and when they need it. I also know that mine is not a common sentiment in a farming community where cats are frequently treated more as tools than as living beings. I just hate seeing ferals labeled as unredeemable and untamable, when my own experience has taught me quite the opposite. My ex-ferals are exceptionally loving boys, but that never would have happened if I'd left them outside to their own devices. But at least your new girls will receive regular meals (I assume) for as long as they survive, and that's certainly more than many cats manage to get out of human society. Laurie