The other day I posted a “Good Morning” picture of Baby Cat on Facebook and someone noticed that her ear was tipped. It’s the first picture in the collage above. Her ear is tipped! I love that they noticed it and I wanted to share with you the story of Baby Cat and what a tipped ear means on a cat because I think it’s so important that everyone knows.
About 7 years ago now we had a Mama cat who was dropping litters of kittens around my house. We rarely saw them but every once in a while we would catch a glimpse of kittens playing in my driveway or we would hear them at night. While it was great catching glimpses of kittens, it’s not something you want happening as these kitties all go on to be feral cats. We got permission to TNR (trap and release) the Mama cat and got her Baby cat as well. Earl is trained in TNR and there is a vet near us that will fix them for a discount if we bring them in to help with the feral cat population. We brought them both in to get fixed and they were tipped as they were to both be released.
While they were there they were both scanned for chips. It’s something that they always do to make sure that they aren’t owned by someone. If you have a cat it’s always a great idea to get them microchipped with your information because if they ever get lost, the vet can scan that chip and get them back to you. With Mama, we were curious as I had seen her outside for a couple of years. I didn’t think she would be chipped though as you rarely saw her and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with anyone. The only time you saw her, she didn’t see you. We weren’t surprised when she didn’t have a chip. After their surgery, we brought them in for recovery as it’s not great to put them back out right away. They need a little time to recover. As soon as we came in the house with the cage, Mama Cat started purring! We were caught completely off guard. She then starts rubbing against the side of the cage looking like she wanted pets. Not normal behavior for what we thought was a feral cat. We quickly learned that she was really friendly. We think that maybe someone dumped her a few years before we brought her in. We live near a nice park and unfortunately, people just dump their cats thinking they will be fine. They typically won’t if they have spent their lives inside. We knew we didn’t want to put her back out there. The next problem though… the baby cat with her. Baby cat was incredibly skittish so it left us in a tough spot. She was born outside and at this point had been out there for about seven months. Typically that’s too long to turn them around. If you get them really young you have a chance to make them friendly. We had a decision to make, put Mama back out with Baby or try to see if we could help them both. We were afraid if we just put Baby Cat back out that she wouldn’t survive. We decided ultimately to give them both a home. That’s why the names, Mama and Baby Cat lol 
We didn’t know how successful we would be but we wanted to try. Baby cat was a ghost cat for a long time but we worked so hard with her. She loves attention now. Mama is the cat on the top right of the collage, and you can see how far Baby Cat has come by the picture on the bottom left. She will smack you now if you don’t give her enough attention. Not a typical story for a feral cat for sure, but it is one that I’m so happy we got lucky with.
I do want to add that if a cat has their ear tipped it means that they are part of a feral colony. We are the ones who tipped Baby and Mama’s ears to indicate that they would be going back out. We thought they were feral. The tip means that they have been cared for and that they belong outside. In most cases, cats with tipped ears will want absolutely nothing to do with you. We got very lucky with Baby Cat that she came so far. 
I think it’s a misconception that all cats are friendly. Some feral cats are incredibly unfriendly. They are in fact wild and there is a huge difference between a domesticated cat and a feral cat. That’s not to say that some won’t come around in time but you don’t want to just try to scoop up a feral cat for a pet. 🙂
Loki is also a rescue. We found him in the middle of the road eating a squirrel as many of you know. It was dusk and we were on our way to fireworks and there he was in the middle of the road. I talk about him all the time. We were lucky and found him incredibly young. He was just about 6 or 7 weeks. Old enough to go away from Mom but not feral yet. We saw the Mama and other kittens that night but never saw them again. They ran away. Loki was friendly from the start. He is a really rare story. We never tipped his ears as he knew he wasn’t going anywhere. 🙂
Have a magickal day!
Much Love and Many Blessings,
Jasmeine Moonsong
2 thoughts on “Kitties With Tipped Ears”
I love that you wrote about kitties with “tipped” ears. When I moved into an old home, there was a very young mom kitty and five kittens, all hissing at me. I fed them, and luckily found a kitty group who sent someone to help me learn how to TNR. Since they were feral, the animal shelter wouldn’t take them for adoption. The Kitty Lady picked up the kitties from the vet, kept them at her home to recover, and then brought them back to my home. Now, I have about 10 “feral” kitties. About half of them are now tamer, and love to be petted. I was lucky to have help, and a shed, where I put a security camera. That way, when the kitties got trapped, I was able to bring the trap and the kitty inside for the night, as often it was cold in the shed. Also important, I never trap the kitties without alerting another kitty trapper. I’m very healthy, but if there were an emergency, I want someone to know that there might be a kitty waiting in the trap. So glad you have your kitties:)
I love that you are helping out with them as well! 🙂 It always makes me happy to hear that. We have cams outside as well. We try to keep an eye on the ones that wander through at night from time to time. Winters can be tough in New England.