Barnabus came to us about four days ago. The activity and aggression level of this five month old kitten was so over-the-top, the first thing I did was get him neutered.
It takes awhile to calm down that testosterone level, so he is in the Intro cage when I am not out there among the cats. I ‘ve let him out a few times when I can supervise- and he terrorizes everyone! The Alpha’s (who I thought would school him fairly fast) now run in terror when he gets released. LOL I think Barnabus is going to be a high alpha.
His back story is he was found on craigslist and rescued by a family with young children. He proceeded to bite everyone in the house (severely) causing the mom to find other options for him. She called me asking me if I ever swap kittens with people. She wanted to trade him for Curly. She said she was looking for a barn for him- but he is not a good candidate for a barn cat because he has a lot of white in him. Predators would find this kitten fairly fast at night.
I took Curly over and met “Striker” he was a bit out of control but not bad. We did the swap and now I am looking for a good home for him. He would do well with no other cats and perhaps a middle to large-breed dog to help him run off his energy.
This morning, when I took him out, he was a bit more calm but not by much. A typical kitten, he has to get into everything and proceeded to crawl into the interior of the pet fountain (after I washed it out) to let me know “hey mom? You missed a spot!” Then he decided to climb up the garden hose to see where that might lead and made a gigantic leap from the top of the hose to the top of his cage (at least 5 feet)
He is a cow kitty- and his ears are HUGE- he has Serval ears for sure. He’s definitely going to have to go to an active home with older kids where he is the only kitty before he will be happy and settle down. Until then, I get to wrangle him!
I’ll be posting pics of him later this afternoon so you can see his bunny ears. He has beautiful markings, he was probably just taken from mom way to soon, is poorly socialized and not used to other cats.
Barnabus
He is a good looking kittie. Maybe as time goes on he’ll settle down but probably not without your magic touch
He is handsome! My guess? He just might be an active cat his entire life. But you are right he would probably benefit from a dog companion to burn off that energy and teach him some social skills. That’s the only reason he probably bit the people in his home, too much energy and not properly socialized by other kittens as a baby.
Thanks for making me laugh a little as I pictured his antics as you described them. What a circus!
If you have a couple energetic kittehs or a bossy momma cat, maybe some time with them would help calm Barnabus down a bit.
Barney might be a bit old for the momma cat’s training, but at five months he’s just rounding into the Kitten Monster stage, best we remember.
those are some SERIOUS ears. we hope that time and patience will help him learn to trust…..
He looks like he’s looking for fun or trouble – though to him, they are probably the same!