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Kitten hiding in my garage

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Funnily enough, we were recently talking about taking in a cat from someone I know who's cat had babies so we're not really opposed to it, but obviously if it's someone's cat it should go back to them.

If I grab it, were do I put it? I was thinking if we need to take it to the vet, we'll need a carrier so it might be a good idea to have it sleep in the carrier tonight (how do I deal with setting up a litter box for a cat that doesn't trust me?). I could allow it to roam around in one of our bathrooms, but I'm sure the chances of it bolting the second we open the door are high.


I assume you already fed it pizza?

...Ordering delivery ASAP.
 
So how does the cat respond if you approach him/her slowly in a crouching position and calmly move your hand towards it for a sniff?

That car is an old project and is surrounded by some clutter & wall so I can't get a comfortable spot next to the wheel. I tried putting my hand near it earlier and it didn't growl or hiss at me but didn't meow either. It just sits there staring at me wondering why i'm putting my jerk face so close I'm guessing.
 
I don't know, 4 or 5 times? My wife does it more than I do, she used to live in a rural area in Georgia where it happen enough times she had 15 cats.

You married a cat lady?

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That car is an old project and is surrounded by some clutter & wall so I can't get a comfortable spot next to the wheel. I tried putting my hand near it earlier and it didn't growl or hiss at me but didn't meow either. It just sits there staring at me wondering why i'm putting my jerk face so close I'm guessing.

I'd personally sit down with some food and try to coax it out. If it's not hissing you might be able just to grab it.
 
no lie, that's how we got our cat now. it was hiding in my gf's mom's wheel well. they lured it out with water and boiled shrimp. look at this motherfucker now. two years later and looking dapper:

AP4S5ax.jpg
 
That car is an old project and is surrounded by some clutter & wall so I can't get a comfortable spot next to the wheel. I tried putting my hand near it earlier and it didn't growl or hiss at me but didn't meow either. It just sits there staring at me wondering why i'm putting my jerk face so close I'm guessing.

Try to do so, quietly. Does it concentrate on your hand or look over it's shoulder when you approach it? If it's just sitting put and looking at your hand with big open eyes without lowering it's ears I'd say it's relatively relaxed in your presence and you can move your hand closer, almost touching the nose. Keep your knuckle forward and fingers down, take it slow and stay low with eye contact. Touch the red wire and it go KABOOM.

Nah, I think it's cool. Make friends with it. If you're able, try to pet it. Then leave it alone with some more water and food. Check in later, repeat.
 
Try phoning a local animal shelter or rescue place, and see if they can loan you a trap. Once you have it, let them out in a small room in your house and leave it alone with some food, water, a litter tray and blankets for a few hours or so.

Then initiate contact, sit with it in the room on the floor with a book or tablet or something as it eats and eventually it'll get used to you, and you can let it explore your house and eventually be part of the home. Boom, you now have a cat.
 
I used to rescue and tame wild stray cats and then rehome them.

Leave food and water down and be very patient. Ideally if you can catch it you need a room where you can keep the cat where you can just go and sit in the same area as the cat and build that trust while not being threatening.

By the look of the cat it may not be a stray but could be lost or an unwanted pet.
 
Try phoning a local animal shelter or rescue place, and see if they can loan you a trap. Once you have it, let them out in a small room in your house and leave it alone with some food, water, a litter tray and blankets for a few hours or so.

Then initiate contact, sit with it in the room on the floor with a book or tablet or something as it eats and eventually it'll get used to you, and you can let it explore your house and eventually be part of the home. Boom, you now have a cat.

A trap, what? You don't think that might stress the cat out even more? This just seems like an odd decision to make if the cat don't show aggressiveness. Hell, even if it did I'd try to take care of it myself. When it goes feral that's the time to call in someone.
 
Well, I guess you can do something that will accomplish two things:
1) Get the cat out
2) Make the cat scared of cars


The answer: Rev the engine.
 
What the hell is up with folks talking about giving it pizza? What did I miss?

I'm assuming it's a reference to an episode of the cartoon Doug, in which the titular character feeds a cat pizza and ice cream, causing it to give birth to a litter of kittens.

EDIT:
Or maybe Samurai Pizza Cats???
 
Stick your hand in, grab it by the scruff and pull it out. It will bite you, hard, and probably shred your hand. But that's how you get it out, and that's what I've always done for small kittens hiding in stuff.

You don't bother wearing a glove when doing this? Sweet jesus dude
 
Funnily enough, we were recently talking about taking in a cat from someone I know who's cat had babies so we're not really opposed to it, but obviously if it's someone's cat it should go back to them.

If I grab it, were do I put it? I was thinking if we need to take it to the vet, we'll need a carrier so it might be a good idea to have it sleep in the carrier tonight (how do I deal with setting up a litter box for a cat that doesn't trust me?). I could allow it to roam around in one of our bathrooms, but I'm sure the chances of it bolting the second we open the door are high.

Temporarily set it up in a small room or bathroom with a cardboard box + towels, food/water, and litter box. Cats instinctively want to bury its poo/pee, so you can just put one down and it will eventually use the litter box.

Put it in a carrier when you need to take it to vet.
 
This may sound strange but it works. When looking at the cat, make eye contact and give him some slow blinks. This is a sign for cats that all is ok. He may not blink back but it should help him calm down. use low, soft tones in your voice too.
 
Temporarily set it up in a small room or bathroom with a cardboard box + towels, food/water, and litter box. Cats instinctively want to bury its poo/pee, so you can just put one down and it will eventually use the litter box.

Put it in a carrier when you need to take it to vet.

Do this. Let the cat chill for a few days and enter the room and offer food/treats/toys so it can get used to you.
 
Funnily enough, we were recently talking about taking in a cat from someone I know who's cat had babies so we're not really opposed to it, but obviously if it's someone's cat it should go back to them.

If I grab it, were do I put it? I was thinking if we need to take it to the vet, we'll need a carrier so it might be a good idea to have it sleep in the carrier tonight (how do I deal with setting up a litter box for a cat that doesn't trust me?). I could allow it to roam around in one of our bathrooms, but I'm sure the chances of it bolting the second we open the door are high.

If you provide a litterbox, it will use it. They naturally want to bury their waste, so as long as it feels safe (probably with no one around) it will use it.
 
Direct eye contact with a cat can be considered threatening by them, so if you are trying to get it to trust you it would be best to just be relaxed and in sight of it but not staring at it. That will let the cat know that you aren't a threat.
 
Imgur analytics says the cat has used 1.34GB of bandwith so far, all just by sitting on a freaking tire. This cat hasn't even casually walked over your keyboard yet. It's so young and it's already made a small dent in the interwebz. Be proud, be dad.
 
This may sound strange but it works. When looking at the cat, make eye contact and give him some slow blinks. This is a sign for cats that all is ok. He may not blink back but it should help him calm down. use low, soft tones in your voice too.

I didn't realize this was a known thing. I discovered that trick years ago after noticing that cats tended to give slow blinks when at their most relaxed.

It gets a bit awkward when you realize that between two human beings, this would totally be considered a sexual advance.
 


Put a glove on and held some tuna in my hand and it ate it. held a bowl of water up to it and it drank that too, lured it out after a while and picked it up by the scruff and it didn't seem to mind, how he or she is in our bathroom. I guess I need to get some sort of litter box stat. While I'm out I should pick up some food too, how much should a kitten like this eat? Oh yea, it's meowing a lot too since I started feeding it.
 


Put a glove on and held some tuna in my hand and it ate it. held a bowl of water up to it and it drank that too, lured it out after a while and picked it up by the scruff and it didn't seem to mind, how he or she is in our bathroom. I guess I need to get some sort of litter box stat. While I'm out I should pick up some food too, how much should a kitten like this eat? Oh yea, it's meowing a lot too since I started feeding it.

If it's doing that high-pitched kitten meow, you film it and then put videos on youtube
 


Put a glove on and held some tuna in my hand and it ate it. held a bowl of water up to it and it drank that too, lured it out after a while and picked it up by the scruff and it didn't seem to mind, how he or she is in our bathroom. I guess I need to get some sort of litter box stat. While I'm out I should pick up some food too, how much should a kitten like this eat? Oh yea, it's meowing a lot too since I started feeding it.

congrats, it chose you.
 
You did the right thing. I'm surprised it came to you so quickly, but that's a good thing too. Stray cats sometimes take a long time to come around (and occasionally never do, which has been the case with strays we've fed who've remained timid). Usually, you need to build up trust by putting food out every day and inching closer to the point where they'll let you pet them.

I was also going to recommend putting it in a small room like a bathroom for now, too, but you're a step ahead of where I thought you were.

The kitten doesn't look too young, so it hopefully will be okay removed from its mom. If it starts to seem malnourished or sick, look into kitten formula, because that may be an answer. We had to do that in the past. But, for now, maybe just buy bagged hard kitten food. If that doesn't seem to interest it, or it's having trouble chewing, tuna or soft kitten food are both options.

Good luck and enjoy the new cat. I'm happy to hear that you're willing to take he or she in.

EDIT: Try playing with it to make it less frightened. A ball on a string or even a piece of string -- just watch that it doesn't eat the string.
 


Put a glove on and held some tuna in my hand and it ate it. held a bowl of water up to it and it drank that too, lured it out after a while and picked it up by the scruff and it didn't seem to mind, how he or she is in our bathroom. I guess I need to get some sort of litter box stat. While I'm out I should pick up some food too, how much should a kitten like this eat? Oh yea, it's meowing a lot too since I started feeding it.

Daaaaaw.
 


Put a glove on and held some tuna in my hand and it ate it. held a bowl of water up to it and it drank that too, lured it out after a while and picked it up by the scruff and it didn't seem to mind, how he or she is in our bathroom. I guess I need to get some sort of litter box stat. While I'm out I should pick up some food too, how much should a kitten like this eat? Oh yea, it's meowing a lot too since I started feeding it.

awesome. I'd suggest not taking it to a vet right away, wait for it to get a bit more comfortable with you. But it's up to you. I guess right now a good check would be if somebody in your family is allergic to the cat.
 


Put a glove on and held some tuna in my hand and it ate it. held a bowl of water up to it and it drank that too, lured it out after a while and picked it up by the scruff and it didn't seem to mind, how he or she is in our bathroom. I guess I need to get some sort of litter box stat. While I'm out I should pick up some food too, how much should a kitten like this eat? Oh yea, it's meowing a lot too since I started feeding it.

Awww so cute! Glad you got it out :D
 
Looks 10-12 weeks. I'd feed it a cup of dry food a day; due to the size of the stomach it will likely eat small, frequent meals.
 
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