Back to the subject of kittens:

gotalonglildoggie,

I have a 10 month old orange kitten named Sammy. We got him when he was only 4 weeks old, and we had to bottle feed him and wean him from the bottle. He is a terrorist, that is why my mom and I have dubbed him Osama Bin Sama. Right now he is just terrible- chewing everything in site, destroying as many things as possible, terrorizing our other cat Dudley, crawling on the screens (when the windows are open), etc. Even though he is such a little "stinker", I adore him, there is no way I could be mad at him.

BUT if he was the first cat I have ever owned, there is no way on Earth I could deal with his behavior. Since my family has owned previous adult cats, I know what it takes, I guess you could say, so I am prepared to deal with his attitude problem. He is a kitten, so of course he is going to act like this. Right now we are trying everything to deter him from doing his various "duties", but he doesn't respond to it. The vet said we just have to wait until he gets older and learns his manners.

What I am trying to say is, owning a kitten is hard; it's just like owning a puppy. Basically the only thing different is you don’t have to potty train kittens. If you are a first time cat owner it may be best to start off with a somewhat older (mature) cat that has settled down, learned its manners, and won't present a lot of challenges for you.

(Keep in mind I am talking from my perspective of owning a kitten like Sammy, I am sure there are other PT'er on Pet Talk who raised mellow kittens- not all kittens are terrors of course. I don't mean to generalize all kittens in this post.)

Best of luck to you in your search for a feline partner!

-Laura

Sammy:

May 2003:

February 2004: