Aww man! The poor kitten!

[Rayder]

We've been feeding some strays that were born under our front porch. 3 kittens and the Mama kitty. The one kitten (orange tabby) was becoming friendly with us and was starting to let us pet it and didn't run when we were out there tending to their food and water. We even made them a little house for them to bundle up in with a flap over the opening and everything. We have it on the porch.

Early today, I went to meet with my Mom and Aunt to have lunch and the little orange tabby was out on the porch when I left....I pet him a little, talked to him a little and then proceeded on my way. Such a cute little guy.

I got home around 1PM. As I was pulling around the corner, I saw 2 big dogs and they had our favorite kitten and were playing tag with it and throwing it around. I jumped out of the car (still have to go out and park it properly), ran towards the dogs and shooed them away, but it was too late. The kitten gave two final little twitches and was dead.

Mama kitty came out from under the porch and was making a terrible yelping sound. It really hurt to bag up the little dead kitten as the Mama watched. I can imagine how she must feel. :'(

I refreshed their water bowl and put out some more kitten chow for the remaining two kittens, and some 9 Lives Chicken & Tuna for the Mama. I wanted to see if the other two kittens survived. Luckily, just a minute or two after laying out the food, they were both on the porch munching away, so those dogs only got one of them.

BUT IT WAS THE ONE WE WERE PLANNING TO TAKE-IN THAT GOT KILLED!

The other two kittens bolt under the porch anytime they see anyone, as does the Mama cat, though she is SO friendly and rubbing up against us when we're putting out the food. It's probably why they survived and the friendly one didn't.

Those two dogs have been seen running loose before, not often......maybe only like 5 times in the 8 years we've lived here, and in actuality are generally friendly towards people. They are a pair of beautiful Husky's, though I'd have to say they seem much less "beautiful" to me right now. Nobody seems to know who they belong to, but they are very well groomed. When we had our old cat (he was about 14 years old, he passed away a couple years ago from old age) they didn't bother him, but the little kitten wasn't so lucky. I just keep thinking, "If only I'd have come home a couple minutes sooner, I could have prevented them from getting to the little kitty."

What a way to have your day ruined. My brother is going to be heart-broken when he gets home and hears about it.

I feel like I have a rock in my stomach.....but I HAD to tell someone about it.

 

[Jax]

Jesus man, that's horrible...

 

[Szyslak]

:'( That's awful Rayder. Sorry to hear it.

 

[Mangofett]

stupid dogs

makes me want to kick one and perpetuate animal abuse even further

 

[nintendofreak]

Dammit! Poor little guy

Take care of the other ones!!!

 

[leonheart_a]

man that is awful sorry that its happened

 

[Joey Ravn]

Oh, crap... that's too sad. I love huskies, but cats rock... even more if they are little, soft and playful like yours

At least, give him a decent burial... and a name. He deserves to be remembered with a full name

 

[moozxy]

Maan that sucks! I prefer cats to dogs... I would have been right in there with a battle-cry, knees and elbows flying..

 

[HBK]

What a disaster.

I love cats, but I mean, that's terrible.

My condolences.

 

[Rayder]

Oh, crap... that's too sad. I love huskies, but cats rock... even more if they are little, soft and playful like yours

At least, give him a decent burial... and a name. He deserves to be remembered with a full name

Well, we weren't sure if it was a male or female, but I was figuring the name was going to be Tanner, since he/she was tan/orange striped (tabby., I assume it's called). Our plan was to continue to treat them kindly, then bring the friendly one in. Then, after it got used to being indoors, takie it to the vet for check-up and shots and stuff. Guess that won't happen now. Sigh...


My bro and I buried him about an hour ago in our back yard. Mama cat was watching.....

After it was done, she went over to the burial site, sniffed around, looked up at us and yelped. Boy do we feel bad for her. She got an extra can of food today. What else could we really do, you know?

We TRY to take care of them, but I think the Mama cat was born wild....and we KNOW the kittens were, so getting too close to them is rough, though Mama cat DID let us pet her a bit as if she understood what we did when we buried her baby. None of them would ever attempt to come in when we purposely left the door open, except for the one that got killed. One time, about a week ago, it came in and I shut the door behind it. It acted so freaked out that it couldn't get back out that I let it back out just to calm it down. We were planning to do that a few times until it got used to the idea, then we were going to adopt him/her.....

We're not really sure what to do with the remaining 2 kittens and the Mama cat though. They are so sketchy and bolt for the bushes whenever we get near them. Only that one kitten that got killed would ever let us get near enough to pet it, and the Mama cat usually only let's us pet her when we feed her (and she's real weird even about that), today after burying the kitten was the only exception.

We don't want to just stop feeding them, Winter is coming on and it's getting pretty cold out (that's why we built the little house for them), but we don't really want to call the APL on them either, since they are wild cats and likely would never take to being adopted and would just end up getting destroyed. But there's also the fact that the remaining ones won't let us get near them. What to do, what to do?

The 2 kittens left are a black one and another tan/orange striped one. The Mama cat looks like one of those kind where they tried to make it have tiger stripes, but it's black and grey and the stripes aren't uniform. All of them seem pretty healthy as they tend to wrestle with each other on warmer days, and they LOVE to chase around a laser pointer. We'll miss Tanner since we were planning to adopt him.

But that's how it goes in a big city like Cleveland I guess.

 

[Mangofett]

Name him Temper

 

[Hiratai]

Name him Temper

He/she's kinda dead.

 

[MC DUI]

The owner of the Huskies really shouldn't be letting them roam the neighbourhood, they should be kept in their yard. You should ring the local ranger and report them so that the owner is made aware of their responsibilities.

It's not the dogs fault they had a go at the kitten it's part of their nature to do that.

I know you guys are liking having the cats around and all and you probably don't want to hear this but IMO it's kind of irresponsible for you to be looking after feral cats. Especially if the mother continues to breed and leave homeless cats roaming the neighbourhood.
The homeless cats will kill a lot more wildlife than those two dogs if they are allowed to roam free.
If you guys are going to keep any of the cats make sure that you get them de-sexed so that the homeless cat cycle doesn't continue.

 

[BigX]

I agree on that. Despite it is sad for that cute kitten.
This is evolution.

 

[JPH]

Sorry to hear that.
A dog ate my 2 bunnies that I had.

Sad day, indeed.

 

[.TakaM]

man that sucks
I hate it when people don't train their dogs and let them fuck up the neighbourhood
I remember when 2 dogs broke in our fence over night and killed the guinea pigs and one of our chickens.
They were mongrel dogs and didn't want to leave, I just wanted to kick their asses but they were out of control.
Had to call a dog handler to take them away, and my parents told me the dogs "went away" etc
I was about 9-10 but i was pretty sure that meant put down


My dog however is so awesome, sometimes she sits outside my window at night and watches my TV, so I leave it on for her.
The only time she escapes is early in the morning when the paper arrives and she brings it to the back door

 

[Dylaan]

Dogs can be quite nasty, but so can cats! Don't ask me why, but I'm partial to the geese we have at school... Anyway, somehow some cats got into their enclosure with the young ones. Ripped their heads off! :'(

 

[rhyguy]

Thats horrible
Another reason why i hate dogs.

wasnt anyone else home while Tanner was being attacked?

 

[MC DUI]

Thats horrible
Another reason why i hate dogs.

wasnt anyone else home while Tanner was being attacked?

Cats are easily as bad as dogs in regards to killing other animals, perhaps worse, especially feral cats.

Dogs are great pets if trained properly and given the care they need, just like any other pet.

 

[cubin']

Yeah cats are much harder on the environment than dogs in most places. They've killed off many bird species where I live and feral cats continue to destroy heaps of Australian animals. It's not the cats fault though, people should look after their animals instead of letting them run loose

Sad story dude I would have been crying

Not really the dogs fault though it's just instinct.

My dog is actually afraid of our chickens

she's a big dog too. When the chooks are out she tries anything to escape.

Nature is cruel

Glad you gave Tanner a proper burial. You did all you could. It's a really tough situation to be in...looking after them or letting them fend for themselves.