trying to understand

On March 25, 2001, a outdoor cat I had been feeding since early Jan. had two kittens. She would still show up a couple times a day to be fed then leave again. Approx April 2 or 3 she apparently went into heat again, because she only showed up to be fed twice from April 3 to April 7 and both times she had to run a guantlet of male cats trying to get to her.

Monday evening she was sitting outside our door and i went to feed her but she walked into the grass deside the house and laid down. This being unusual I walked over near her and realized she was laying beside a kitten. She got up and left. I thought the kitten was sleeping but soon realized it was dead. It looked perfect. No appraent sign of injury, obvioulsy had grwn and gained weight. I buried the kitten in the back yard. This morning in front of the door was the other kitten looking like the first, dead but looking perfect. The mother sat there till I picked it up, then left. I buried it bedise its botther/sister.
Why did the mother bring them to me?

Buckeye,

It sounds as though mama trusted you with her babies, seeing as you had fed her. That is quite an honor, although very sad that she lost both her babies. Is there anyway you can take her in? It sounds as if you are the only one she trusts. Keep us posted, please.

She will let me pet her as she waits for me to put food down, and pet her as she eats but as soon as she eats she moves off. Shpould I try to approach her she runs.
I think I would probably get scratched if I tried to pick her up. I am letting her grow in trust.

I knew cats would bring dead animals and such sometimes but didn't understand the meaning behind her kittens being brought.

Nor do i understand what happ4ened to them but suspect her coming into heat tne the males harrrassing her for almost a week might had had something to do with them dying.

it was sad burying them.

I would imagine she brought them to you for help. Cats are very good moms and I am sure she was sad and did not know what to do with her kittens. One possibility for you at this point, would be to try and get a humane trap. You could get her into a vet or low cost clinic for spaying and after the surgery you could bring her into the house and let her re coup. It would be a good time to work with her.

If she will let you pet her while she is eating, this is the perfect time to get hold of her. If you grab her by the scruff of her neck you can pick her up and drop her in to a carrier. Have it ready-preferably sitting on end and drop her back side in first then quickly close the door. I have done this with several semi-tame ferals and it has worked well. Good luck

I hope you are able to catch her and have her spayed. She is lucky to have you. Good luck.

Kaaren, your way of trapping then can be great if you're experienced. But, if you're inexperienced and not very determined you could end up with an empty carrier, scratched arms and a distrusting cat.

Humane traps are better in that the cat won't associate you directly with being trapped. Try and get one and have her spayed even if she'll always be an outdoors cat.

We took in a cat named Pussy Willow (named by me when I was 3) who was an outdoor cat. My mom used to feed her all the time, and we started by feeding her on the porch, and slowly moved her feeding spot into the garage. One day, when we were getting ready to move (we wanted to take her with us) when she came into the garage for food, we shut the door. She was mad naturally, but we left her in there with plenty of food, water and a litter box for about a week. In that time she saw us more and trusted us more. By the time we had to move, she would allow us to pick her up and carry her. That might be something you might want to try, it worked for us, so it might work for you.

I have made some progrsss since Jan. The idea sounds good, except no garage. I did entice her, with food, into the house once back in January. But that wasn't good, she tried to jump through a plate glass window, which was closed, to get back out. Also, I have four inside cats.

She is far more trusting of me now. So, I have made progress. It is slow but steady. I will continue that till I feel maybe i can pick her up.

Mostly I was confused by why she brought each kitten to me after it died. I didn't and don't understand what that meant.

Pussy Willow had kittens, and they all died. She sat and meowed at our front door until someone went out, and then she kept walking from the dog house where she had the kittens to us, and when we followed her, they were all dead. My mom thinks its because she didn't know what to do with the dead kittens. She hadn't fed them, so they died of starvation we think. My mom thought that she didn't know they were dead, and that she wanted us to feed them. She probably brought them to you for you to take care of, like someone already said. In any event, if she has more kittens, you should check on them, because if they looked perfectly fine, they might have starved or something, and if shes not feeding them, you could try. (We did that with one of Pussy Willow's litters, and 3 of the 4 survived )

That could be, i don't know. She had had a litter of two kittens before and they did fine. They were caught and turned into the animal league, the place where they find homes for animals.

I am thinking more and more that the problem was her going into heat again. I think the males might have kept her from the kittens, she may have stayed away to protect the kittens from the males who were going for her. If any of this is true, than they may not have been being fed for several days there or fed little during that time.

Both kittens were much bigger then they would have been at birth, both felt well fleshed out, so that is puzzling too.

Just confusing, i don't know enough about cat behavior.

Thanks for the help.

Anne, I actually own a Have-a Heart trap which I have used many times but, think that it scares the cats when it snaps shut-then there is the problem of getting them out of the trap. I have always transported the cat to the vet in the trap and let them worry about getting them out but, some vets may not be to happy about that.