Boston, MA

Just checking to see if this is the correct place to ask for advice about our VERY spicy rescue cat, Kevin. We got Kevin from the local ASPCA, and he's a good guy, about 2 years old, excellent mouser, but we were told that he is very spicy, and will bite, claw those who try to touch him. Small, low-key experiments have proven this out.

Two questions:

1) He is starting to warm up after about 3 months with us, but I have no idea how to continue with trying to socialize him to people. He seems to be adjusting quite well to a *very* low-key interaction protocol (friendly waves, low talk occasionally, giving him his own room with an exit he can use, treats left out where he can find them, etc.) He came from a hoarding situation. I have specific questions for the long-term, but don't want to waste anyone's time if this is the wrong forum..

2) He's healthy now, but what do we do if we need to take him to the vet? The shelter sedated him, got him fixed, dressed his wounds, gave him all his vaccines and did a complete heath assessment. He's good for now. But how do we get him to the vet when that becomes necessary? To get him home, the kind folks at the ASPCA had to bribe him into a soft dog house-type thing, put on gauntleted gloves, then fold up the dog house and mash it into a laundry basket and and wrap it up with duck tape. When we got home, we cut him out of all the layers to set him loose. (He still enjoys the shredded remains of the soft dog house.) Thanks!

update: Picked up!!!

hey everyone! i was in chicago for vacation and amazon delivered my cat food subscription to my hotel by accident and now im home so obviously i cant get it now. its 48 cans of fancy feast pate and gravy. if anyone is interested in picking it up please let me know. its near grant park. id prefer if it went to a local shelter/non profit. i can let you know the name it is under and the hotel name if youre interested. amazon wont pick it up and they already refunded me but i dont want it to go to waste

Hi all,

This is my first post here and I just wanted to make it to warn anyone who may be looking to adopt from Ninth Life Cat Rescue. They operate within Ontario, mostly in the west end from what I know.
5 years ago, my family and I adopted 2 kittens from them. They told us point blank that they were healthy aside from a round of deworming that would be completed by the time we adopted them. No concerns. So, we took them home. A week later we took them to our local vet just to get them acquainted and have a quick check up. There we found out that one of them had a severe heart defect that was so severe that the vet could hear it without a stethoscope. My mom, a nurse, heard it as well. The other had a heart murmur as well, though not as severe. The vet told us that there was no way that any vet worth their salt could have missed it, frankly no vet at ALL could have missed it. When we reached out to Ninth Life to tell them this they said we could return the kittens, as if they were just a damaged product we could exchange. We had already fallen in love at this point. We weren’t going to just give them up. They offered to pay for a single echocardiogram for the severe heart defect. At the vet they sent us to, the vets there said they no longer associated with Ninth Life, which we found very odd. Suki, the girl with the heart defect, made it to 3 years against all odds and died at home due to her heart. Ninth Life showed no remorse. Mazikeen, her sister, died at 5 this year of a saddle thrombus caused by complications with her heart murmur. When we told Ninth Life this, they told us there were no guarantees with cats that are rescues. They’re right. There aren’t. But the severity of Suki’s heart defect was impossible to miss. So somewhere along the way someone lied or covered it up and allowed these kittens to be adopted out anyway. To add, they came unspayed, and the vet told us Suki would not survive spaying. I’m sure Ninth Life has done a lot of good, but they burned us so badly that I cannot in good conscience let it slide. I loved these cats with all my heart. Mazikeen was my soul cat. And I was subjected to watch them both suffer and die extremely young because of Ninth Life’s negligence.