The stray queen cat that took refuge in my garage had one small kitten. That kitten was orphaned at a young age and I took up the care of it and worked to tame it for TNR.
The kitten hid from me and meowed loudly. Clearly, it was traumatized at being abandoned. It took some time to corner the kitten but was able to grab it by the scruff to examine and since it had teeth my husband and I decided to feed it kitten kibble mixed with KMR replacement milk for kittens.
The kitten was very hungry and ate the food. So for the next 6 weeks, I fed the kitten daily at the same time and weaned it off the replacement milk. I also read a book while sitting in a chair in the garage for several hours daily.
I wasn't sure if I could use the Feliway diffuser for such a young kitten so bought a boombox radio at a garage sale which enabled me to play low-volume classical music in the garage. In the past, I have found that low-volume background classical music is soothing to feral cats.
Then one day the kitten jumped up on my lap and I knew that I had successfully tamed it and that it was dependant upon me. However, I didn't immediately trap it for veterinarian care. Instead, I waited until that kitten played with its toys on my lap. The feral kitten was tamed and would not be released after sterilization.
Today I was able to pick up the kitten and put it in a cat carrier. No problems picking up by the scruff, but once in the carrier, the kitten regressed into a wild feral cat.
The kitten was taken to the veterinarian's office immediately and they will do the combo test, give vaccines, worm, and spay. The veterinarian will keep it two days after the spay so the kitten will heal in comfort.
I am certain the kitten will need a refresher course on socialization and will need to learn to trust me again. If the kitten can be tamed again we will not release it but instead, seek adopters for a forever home.
