Can I kick out a tenant on a month to month lease in 10 days? (real estate, high school)

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

No, your wrong. Plenty of possums live in the hill country here in America. Granny used to bake them all of the time- I guess you never saw the Beverly Hillbillies.


Virginia opossum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We had them in Redwood City, CA. Skunks and raccoons too. Couldn't leave the pet food out in the garage.

[XRiteMA98]

I think they are all cute Never seen one, not even in the zoo though. Although I lived in the house for ten years -prior to renting it- I've never seen one. We had plenty of wild life in the back, but not opossums. Plenty of racoons, squirrels, moles, beavers, turkeys, deers, garden snakes, chipmunks, mice, rabbits and lots of birds.
As for the show, I've never seen it. But I'm not surprised. French people ate rats during the revolution and Italians ate cats during WWII - at least, this is what I heard.

On the same note I'm glad that animals left in the house are cats and not racoons, squirrels or something else. I heard it's much harder to get rid of them. Cats are domesticated and clean. But still, I'm looking forward to the day this cat family will be out of my house. I scheduled air duct cleaning and disinfecting on late Feb. hoping they'll be gone by then.

[ebyrnes]

Thanks so much for taking care of the kitties; I wonder, tho, if by eight weeks they will be too "feral" to be adopted? Maybe the whole family should be trapped now in an attempt to tame the kittens so that they can be adopted? The Humane Society could probably give good advice on that. I just hate to think that you've made all of this effort to keep the kittens safe for adoption and that it to all be for naught...

(All of my cats are from the very rough streets of Philly...took them all a loooooooonnnnnngggggg time to come around to living happily with people.

e

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

Absolutely. As I mentioned few pages back I trapped one cat and took her to HS. I kept the cage in the basement set up just in case and after a week, in which the food was not touched and the litter box was not used, bingo! A second cat. I was about to take her too to HS but I heard meows. Kitties meows, so I let the cat go to her babies. I prefered this way than destroying the house to get to the pets.

I am going to wait 8 weeks (4 have already passed) and then trap them all and take to HS. The kitties should emerge by then. 8 weeks is the adoptable age.

I took pics of the cats I trapped and they look like the pics of the pets my tenants posted on their FB. Sent the documentation to Kathy Hecker, so she can investigate. I speak with her on weekly basis to keep her informed.

[XRiteMA98]

Ebyrness, 4 weeks is way too young (and too cute). They might still eat milk from their mom. Actually that's for sure. A parenthesis here: in 2007 my son brought home a cat and 2 kitties left behind by some people who moved out of their Mt Washington house. This cat family was next to his best friend's house, so he brought them home. I went to the pet store and bought cat milk and a kitties bottle. OMG they were so incredibly cute. The mother was beautiful too. The kitties were small, they had eyes but still nursing. We kept them until they were like 8 weeks old and took them to Humane Society. I couldn't keep them. At that time I had my 3 adults cats all confused and had to keep this cat family in the spare bedroom away from my cats.

Can't attempt to trap them at this age because more than sure I'm going to get the mom again. 8 weeks is a different story. But I imposed so much on my neighbor who is actually helping me and he is so nice and calls me when it's too cold or a storm to let me know I don't have to come over; he's fed them already. I really don;t know how I could ever repay them for the kindness they showed me over the years. There should be a day in the calendar marked "Neighbor's day". These people are one of the kindest ones on Earth.

[sparrowmint]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

Ebyrness, 4 weeks is way too young (and too cute). They might still eat milk from their mom. Actually that's for sure.

Yes, they still nurse, but Ebyrnes point is that this is a critical socialization period with human beings. By 8 weeks, they can already start to be feral-skittish. A lot of personal experience with this, having been raised in an area where there were a lot of "barn cats" around, that were basically feral and bred like rabbits. I would trap them at least by six weeks. They actually can eat commercial food now, but by six weeks, it's a guarantee.

I raised three kittens from 1.5 weeks of age in 2012 (still own them, they love people, but they're devils too). One of them was close to dead from malnutrition and exposure, and didn't want to eat formula. He had a lot of fight in him for a creature that weighed four ounces and was wasting away. The vet had him on a mixture of the KMR kitten formula and Royal Canin Recovery RS canned food (mixed very thinly, given by syringe). The taste of that motivated him to eat. By three weeks, they were all eating a mixture of KMR and Royal Canin babycat soft food (which is a commercial, non-prescription food). It is a canned food that almost has the consistency of a mousse. By five weeks, they were completely on canned food. All of this was done with regular consultation with a vet very active and involved with rescues. They're all very healthy, well-adjusted cats. They were using the litterbox consistently by four weeks of age (basically the lid of a shoebox, and I went up in size as they grew older) and have never had an accident in the year and 8 months since.

I would urge you to start trapping at least within the next couple weeks and not wait a month. If adopting is your goal, that is.

[Hopes]

That's true. They'll be permanently feral if they don't interact with humans from this point forward. Your window is narrowing. I believe it's between 4 and 6 weeks. It might be possible starting from 6 to 8 weeks but it will require a lot of human interaction. Of course, the mother and litter need to be kept together during this time period.

My current kitten was a feral we found dying in the middle of the road when she was between 4 to 6 weeks old. It was a huge struggle to tame her. She was wicked with her spitting, hissing, and growling. She would get up on her hind legs with show all her front claws and teeth. She wasn't much bigger than a can of soup so it was hilarious but she meant business. If we had found her just a little bit older, it would have been impossible to tame her.

If they're not tamed, they'll be PTS.

[XRiteMA98]

OK I'm all for it but how would I do this? I have only one cage. So I trap them one by one and take them to Humane soc? There's no way I can trap them all in the same time. I wish I can see them and play with them. I never had experience with feral cats, so I appreciate your advice. Hopes, is that the cat who meant business in the pic?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

OK I'm all for it but how would I do this? I have only one cage. So I trap them one by one and take them to Humane soc? There's no way I can trap them all in the same time. I wish I can see them and play with them. I never had experience with feral cats, so I appreciate your advice. Hopes, is that the cat who meant business in the pic?

Call the Animal Friends lady and ask her. I'm surprised she didn't point out that there's a very narrow time period to tame ferals. Maybe you need to find where they're hiding. I wouldn't trap one kitten at a time unless she has a wet nurse at the shelter. Yes, that's her a week or two after we saved her. She is still skin and bones in that picture. She was so tiny she couldn't do any damage to us, but she truly tried her hardest to scare us. She hated the dog and hissed and spit at him for two months. It was funny because he was 500 times bigger than her and he was terrified of her

[sparrowmint]

Western PA Humane Society also rents out traps for a deposit, 2/3 of which is returned if the trap is returned undamaged. Something to consider, if you're willing to spend the money. Might also want to consult them and ARL to get a range of opinions, alongside Animal Friends. WPHS and ARL are both open door shelters, unlike AF, so they might have different experiences and perspectives since they get more of the drop off litters and such.

My concern is that 4 week old kittens likely couldn't or wouldn't leave the ductwork by themselves yet, if that's where they are.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by sparrowmint

My concern is that 4 week old kittens likely couldn't or wouldn't leave the ductwork by themselves yet, if that's where they are.

That's my concern too. 4 week old kittens don't venture very far. She might need to hire someone to pull the ductwork apart.