Lost/Stray Kitten in Changwon

[angielee]

Last night I heard what I thought was my landlord's daughter's bunnies being terrorized by a cat. I went out to see and found a small kitten up a neighbor's back stairs crying. One of the 2 guys that lived there and just happened to arrive home at that moment reached up and grabbed her (?) and held her out to me. Knowing I'm only here for 7 more months and not sure where I'll be after that, I hesitated. What's wild is that a month ago I was looking for a kitten. Thinking I'd leave the cat with the landlord's daughter who loves animals or just take it traveling with me, but I rethought that, though, and had decided against it.
And then I saw myself reaching out and taking the cat. The landlord's daughter was there too, at the time and shrunk back in fear. It turns out she loves dogs and cats in pictures, but not in real life. (Classic Korean cat-fear).

My questions are: good vet, or any vet, in Changwon? The few people I know don't have any pets.

Places to buy cat supplies in Changwon?

This cat seems very young to me. Maybe 4-5 weeks. She/he is very clean. I don't know if she got separated from her mom or was someone's pet (too young?) I don't know if she's from a wild or tame mother. She seemed incredibly shy and hid in a towel for 10 hours. Now she's on my lap but just in the last few minutes hissed at me when I touched her where she'd allowed me to pet her before.

Also, she's not eating or drinking water, or peeing,so far. Is it the baby bottle/syringe thing? What should I feed her?

Any help would be much appreciated. She's a cutie. Medium length hair, white with grey patches, a dark grey top of head with 2 white tipped ears sticking out.

[Karen]

Hi angielee,

I don't have any real experience with kitten care. The one kitten I took in stayed here for about 2 weeks until I found foster home. At that time I found these websites really helpful:

http://www.rescueguide.com/orphkits.html
http://www.kittenrescue.org/handbook.htm#Basics
http://www.kittencare.com/
http://www.catchat.org/health_care.html

My experience was that the first vet I took the kitten to didn't know seem to know very much. It was a Sunday so I couldn't use my regular vet. I had to ask the new vet to check for fleas and earmites and I thought he was a bit disdainful handling a street cat, he told me none of the purebred cats he treated cried so much. He also didn't test the patches of hairlessness on her feet and neck which when I got the kitten to my regular vet were tested and turned out to be a fungal infection.

OK, that's a very long anecdote to say use caution when choosing a cat vet in Korea.

For cat supplies in Changwon, I'd first try the larger department stores like Emart and Homever to see what is in their pet sections. Emarts sometimes have a vet clinic there, too.

There are also some links to online cat supply shops in this thread: http://www.lonelylifetime.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=12

But you may need a Korean person to help you order.

Good luck!

[Karen]

I found a list of vets in Changwon City with addresses and telephone numbers here:

http://www.petcity.co.kr/link/offa1409.htm

Hopefully one is near you.

[angielee]

Karen, yes the kitten rescue sites are invaluable. I've had many cats, but all came to live with me after 6 or more weeks old and weaned. Evidently they need to be stimulated to pee and poop. The mother does that when she cleans them. I've been trying but no luck yet.

I will email my Korean friend and see if he can help me with this.

I'll keep you posted and get a picture on soon.

angielee

[angielee]

Hello, well, it was a very short relationship — we were together about 36 hours — but alls well that ends well, and I hope I did the right thing.

After reading about cat rescue and really young kittens I had a bit of a handle on what to do but work (and getting fired!) kept me from getting supplies the first day, which is just as well. S/he took to the warm rice milk, wool sweater, covered box etc that I gave him. Once last night I thought I heard another cat crying outside, the kitten heard it too and started crying like crazy. This really started me thinking about whether it was better to try to return the little one to it's mother or find her a luxury alternative life-style with a new adopted mother. I have rescued a kitten before, but it was older and it got away from it's owner, not it's mother, so once I'd exhausted all roads to find that owner, keeping her was not an issue.

Oh, lord, what to do? I started thinking of putting the little one wrapped in her sweater on the stairs by where I'd heard the cat and see if she came back for her. (Was this the best life for him? Couldn't we humans give him more?) But then, mother love has a strong pull and it won out. I put the little guy all wrapped to stay warm out on the stairs. After she didn't get picked up in an hour, I brought her in, thinking "o.k. you're with the humans, now."

This morning we were sitting together on the floor in the kitchen and I was feeding her. (Oh, by the way, he peed, and even, though he can just barely walk, left his little box to poop by the door — I was so impressed with his upbringing!) We heard the momma cat again, and the little guy just started howling. I quickly opened the door and saw momma dash away around the corner. So, again I put baby wrapped up on the stairs and within 20 minutes she was gone and I talked to people who saw the mother carry her away.

I still don't know if I did the right thing, I mean, what kind of life is that? But, there you go, that's what I did. I could have found it another home, but I chose to let it go back to its original one.

I've learned alot from this about wild cats, very young cats, etc. I'm not nearly as afraid of them now as I was.

Thanks for all the support, Karen.

angielee

[Karen]

It really amazes me that mother cats can seek out their lost little ones and come back for them! That's such a cool story. Well, it sounds like it was best for them to be reunited, especially considering how young the kitten was. I read something recently that said that kittens should stay with their mothers for 12 weeks to grow into healthy, well adjusted cats! I guess ideally you could've taken in both the mom and baby together, but she might have more kittens somewhere else that she needs to care for... so who knows what's best?

If you can find the mom and kitten again in a few weeks when the kitten is weaned, you might want to consider catching them and getting them spayed at a vet. Another member, timvas, is helping out with a Trap/Neuter/Return program in Seoul (see: http://www.lonelylifetime.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=10 ), there may be something similar in Changwon.

Thank you for posting your story in the forum, and I hope you've maybe gotten rehired at your work ? Yikes! It sounds like you had a stressful week.

Take care,
Karen

[angielee]

Karen, yes, it was quite the week. The next day the boss acted as if none of it (2 hours of blame, accusations and mostly lies) had never happened, business as usual! Lucky for me I knew of another job and have accepted it. It's in Daegu and I will be moving there towards the end of May.

Telling my cat story on your forum has been a good experience for me. I've really been soul-searching since the cat went back, and I think those of us who love animals are always soul-searching for the right thing to do in any given situation. I've since figured out that this is the mother's only kitten and the reason she cries up on the roof is because she's alone (not with her siblings) when the mother goes out to get food, etc. Knowing what some alternatives are is helpful, like the catch, tag and release person you mentioned. I have a friend in Jinhae who has one dog at home she's adopted and 2 neighborhood dogs she is "auntie" to — she had one bathed and bought a doghouse for another and feeds them both and walks them. She doesn't ask permission, either, she just does it. I guess one neighbor is quite p...d at her and another is grateful. I will look into the catch and release before I see if I can manage that before I go.

angielee

[Karen]

Hi angielee,

I know your original post was quite a while ago and that you're probably not in Changwon anymore, but I was wondering if you by any chance knew of an English speaking vet in the Changwon area?

Someone recently asked about one (http://www.lonelylifetime.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=548#p548), but I don't live anywhere near there. In fact, I'm back in Canada!

Thanks for any help you might be able to give. Hope you're doing well.

Karen