Friendly Felines in the Making
By: Lynn Moroz, IWARS

Kittens, everyone loves them and wants them, they are so cuddly and love people, right?

You might not know this but kittens are one of the few domesticated species that must be socialized (meaning having hands-on interaction with humans) by around 5-6 weeks old for them to be the people-loving kittens everyone wants. A little older than this is still possible, but we find it’s a long and a very committed role for foster parents to work with them to socialize them properly. Even then, they tend to be a bit more skittish and some just never click-on the people-loving button in their brain.

One of our goals at IWARS (Infinite Woofs Animal Rescue Society) is to have kittens with people as soon as they are a few weeks old. If families wanting to surrender their kittens call to say, “Can we take the kittens once weaned?“, we have to always add, “As long as you interact with them daily, which means playing with them but also picking them up and holding them for a while.” The other option is for the kittens to come directly into foster care with their mom shortly after birth so that our fosters can socialize them as required.

Sometimes kittens are called feral. That term generally applies to kittens over a few months old who have had no, or minimal exposure to humans. Over eight weeks, they often have to be trapped and will almost always have some effects of not being handled during the crucial first couple of months of life.

These cats are often GREAT with other cats, so what we try to do is feature them as adopt the super friendly one and get another cat for your cat!! They have been socialized just enough to remove their instincts to protect themselves from predators and know how to find food. Being sent to a barn is setting them up for failure because they just don’t have the ability to survive or thrive compared to a cat who was taught by mom during their formative years how to protect themselves and find food.

So what happens to these cats? There are few families willing to give them a chance, to overlook that it’s not going to be a cat that sits on your lap and gives love. It’s a cat that you have to earn their trust, to take baby steps, and to celebrate small victories, like that they came to eat while you were there.

Families often report that with time, they do see positive changes. These are the lucky cats! Someone was willing to give them that chance. We need to find families willing to adopt a cat for their cat, or even themselves since farm life is not an appropriate option for them.

Foster homes allow the team at IWARS to continue rescuing unwanted, abused, and neglected animals.