I finally let them go...

Day 7 10PM

Only Torao sighting today. And he didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t come out until 9:30pm.
We had roofers come and measure our roof twice today. Maybe that scared them.

I really want to see Konne and Torami before leaving town.

I wonder if Konne is telling kits firmly not to show themselves too much.
Kits were 4 months old when I brought them inside. I wonder Konne is resuming her teaching to kits? I have read feral moms are very strict.

I will keep porch light on tonight. I hope they will show and eat. I hope to capture Konne or Torami…

Day 8 8PM

Torami sighting at 6:30PM!!

I am so glad she is alive. But her fur looked dull and scruffy. She only ate a little bit of wet food. My daughter said she looked sick and unhappy. I hope she is OK …

Still no Konne sighting. Did she move on to somewhere else?? I really want to see her before we leave.
I modified feeding area in the den. It is now covered and has water dispenser. Dry food was all eaten up this morning. They much like that spot.

I was actually surprised to see all three kits together so early tonight. In the morning, we had another roof guy. In the afternoon, my daughter was playing in the yard with her friend. (That girl visited cats in the room before.)
Torako came right after I put food out and called them. I ended up scaring her by opening the door, though. Then Torami came and I saw all three kits in the yard together!!
Torao has been going back and forth in the patio. He looks content and healthy. His fur is as shiny and sleek as before. I wonder if he wants to play with me???

Miraculously, daytime temperatures have been around 50 here and no rain. This trend it forecasted to continue for at least 5 more days!! God must have heard my payer…

I'm glad to hear you've seen all three kits. One can never predict how a mama cat is gonna act. I've seen some be very motherly always, letting her babes and others nurse on her for months as well as hunting for them and teaching them to hunt. Another that used to live here had no trouble cutting her kits loose to the point of swatting them if they tried to eat near her at meal time.

I guess all I'm saying is that Konne may come back or may not. It doesn't mean something bad happened to her.

I don't recall if you said there will be someone to feed them while you are gone. It sounds like they will stick around if you do. If the little girl continues to look as though she is not thriving, maybe you can recapture and try to help her along.

I know how upsetting it can be when your kits appear to be MIA. I've gone out on more than one cold night calling and searching just to find out later that the one I was looking for was hiding somewhere in the house.

These little fur kids sure can worm their way into your heart.

Thanks, Trudy.

I think Konne would be a motherly type. She was letting kits nurse until October!!
It looked almost funny that 5 months old kits nursing. They looked too big to be doing that.

I hope Torami is OK. I think she was just too scared to eat right...
When I brought them in, she didn't come out of her crate while I was there for 1 month. Other cats starting to have fun with toys and treats, but she never came out. She always gets panicky if I pick her up while other cats don't act like that. Since she was the weakest due to umbilical hernia, she developed that way….

Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to feed wet food every night. I have Le Bistro feeder for dry food. I hope kits won't leave in search of "better" food. We will leave on Tuesday and come back on Saturday.

I so hope little Konne shows up soon. (Can you help with pronouncing your kitties names? Is it Kon-ee or Kon)

I'm worried about your little girl, Torami. I hope she just needs to eat more.

Keep posting. I'm fascinated with your cats.

Thanks Katie.

Her name is pronounced "Ko-Ne". In Japanese, "Ne-Ko" means a Cat. (I am originally from Japan)
My mom's family cats were always named "Ko-Ne".
And I had gray tabby just like my kits when I was in Japan. Her name was Tora.
That's "Tigre" in Japanese.
She was indoor-outdoor cat and lived up to almost 20 years old.
I have so many memories with her.

I think that as long as the dry is available they will keep coming to eat, and they will then be that much happier with you when you give them wet food again.

I agree about how funny it looks when kits are bigger than their mama and still nursing. Before I was able to get all the cats TNR'd, their were 4 litters all born within 2 months of each other. The cats that had them were all sisters. One had hers under a pallet by my mates mothers' back door and she was the one that would nurse any kitten that would come up to her. I felt kind of sorry for her when they got to be about 5 months old because some of those kits would follow her around and latch on to a nipple any time she would sit or lay. She was just a tiny girl and nearly all the kits were bigger than her, but other than sometimes getting up and walking to a different spot, she never swatted anyone away.

I have a lot of sweet memories from when all those babies were running around here.

I had this written down but never manage to post it here. So, here we go.

2/24/08


Dry food in den is gone again. So, I put additional bowl out there.
I also put Le Bistro feeder out by the patio so they know.


Still no Konne. I am calling Hilary tomorrow.


I got hold of Feliway. I plugged in and sprayed around patio.
Then I went back to the kitchen and came out again and someone is meowing.
It's the calling meow. Cats are communicating.
I hurried back in to the kitchen and put Fancy Feast out.
Around 6:30pm, all 3 kits came out to investigate. They must be smelling Feliway.
Torami was the first one to eat. I sat quietly by the door and looked at her through the glass.
She looked up and saw me many times, but I tried not to looked at her and I blinked a lot.
She kept eating and eating. I needed to sneeze, so I slowly got up and left.
When I came back with my daughter, Torami was finishing up and then left. To our surprise, she finished off entire plate. It was 2 cans of Fancy Feast!! It was less than 5 min. Torami must have been hungy. Poor Torako and Torao didn't have anything left. (there is always plenty of dry food, though…)
I put 2 more cans out.


After for a while, all three came back. Looked like someone was investigating the cat house. Half of her body was inside of it. I think it was Torami. But she looked very different. Face didn't look weak. Fur was some what puffy than before. My daughter swears that was a different cat. I am little confused now. Logically, it can't be another cat there. Then why did she look so different??? Maybe her fur was more puffy from being outside. That's why her fur looked scruffy last night?? I think she is doing fine.


It's 11:50PM now and most of wet food is gone. I wonder if Konne has been eating wet food at all???
She always let kits eat first and had left over. She was that way even when I was hand feeding them. I am really anxious about her...

2/25/08

My heart is bleeding tonight.
Hilary communicated with Konne, and she is not feeling well.
Konne ate something which made her sick. According to Hilary, Konne is not dying or anything like that. Which gave me relief. She is recuperating under deck with furniture on top of it. She is either across the street or across the driveway. Her location is lower than our house.
I never told Hilary about our neighborhood being hilly. And almost all of houses across from us with deck is lower than us.

Hilary suggested not to do anything. I may go look for her, but don't try to catch her or disturb her.
I walked in to the neighbor's backyard which had deck and furniture on top of it. But couldn't spend much time to look for her.

My mind was so consumed with cat that I manage to forget about today being my husband birthday. He was very upset. On top of that, Hilary called back about Konne while he was there. I visibly became upset about the news and that annoyed him even more.
I really wanted to do more search, but had to take my daughter to the swimming lesson.

When we got back from dinner about 7:30, Torao and Torako were waiting for us. Torako was already eating dry food. I put out wet food and she came. My daughter manage to touch her!!! She almost played with Da Bird, but I ended up scaring her.
I wonder if kits are all staying with Konne. Hilary believed so, but I am not sure. I hope they are not. Staying in my backyard is much safer…. I wonder Torao took over alpha duty in absence of Konne??

We are going to Disneyland tomorrow. I really don't want to go. Why did I let cats go!!!! I shouldn't ask "Why". It's done now. I should think about how to improve the situation. If Konne keeps hiding, I have to help her out....
I may contact Hiraly again…. Yes, I am money pig. But I work hard for it and I earn enough to do that….

Here are my prayers for Konne. She must feel safe where she is. I hope Hilary is right and that she is able to come home soon.

I wish she was in the shelter you built for her. I know how hard it is when they are not safe where you want them to be.

You are wise to see that now that they are outside, you need to improve the situation as much as you can. Remember the prayer to change what you can and accept what you cannot. Sometimes you need faith in nature to help take care of your cats.

Sending my love to you, your husband (Happy Birthday!), and your daughter, as well as your cat family.

Thanks Kaitie.
You and your kitties must be enjoying summer weather!
We came from place which 80 degrees being "too hot".
It was little too hot to walk around in the park.

So far kits have been visiting our patio every night.
They are not tired of dry food yet!

I saw Torao looking at the sliding door. Probably he was wondering where his house folks has gone.

I feel much better about Konne.
Coming over here distracted my feeling and I am more optimistic.
I believe god brought my cats to me and it' all part of his plan…

Absolutely. Everything happens for a reason even if we do not understand the purpose at the time.

I'm sorry to hear about Konne, but I'm so glad the kids are regulars at your home.



Laurie

3/1/08

There is no kitty sighting on cat cam last night.
Raccoon must be the cause.
It also looked wet out there. It must have be rainy.
They may not come out to eat when it's raining.

We are going home today. First thing I will do is to call my kittes.
Will they come out? Or they moved on to somewhere else???

Maybe I should try to trap that raccoon and turn him over to animal control...

I'm glad you'll be home soon and able to see your kitties.

There was either a racoon or possum in the yard here and other members of TCS told me to be very careful if I tried to trap it. Be sure to ask for help with that from your local animal control before you do anything. Evidently they can be nasty and carry plague.

Looking forward to hearing about your kitties soon.

3/1/08

Good to be home!!
It was pretty cold and drizzly here.
As soon as I came out of my car, I called out kitties names toward the street to let them know we are home.
I did the same thing to toward backyard.
But nobody came out… I was little sad and worried.
I put wet food out and after for a while, one of the kitties showed up! I think it was Torako… Then Torao finished off the plate.
But as soon as they noticed me, they run! I hope they will associate me with good food.
No raccoon sighting tonight. I hope he was just a transient.
Feeder still had half of food left, but bowl area was pretty bare.
Thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s why raccoon was trying to mess with container portion of feeder??

I will start leaving food in regular bowl tomorrow.
I hope Konne is OK. I will ask Hilary again if I don't see her by 3/10.

3/2/08

We definitely have another gray tabby.
He cleaned up most of the wet food this evening!!

I had a chance to look at him close for a few minutes. Is he my kits' daddy???
If so, he must be wondering around again in search of female to mate.
All of my girls are spayed, but smell of other cats brought him here??
His tummy looked fat for a feral. Is he someoneâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s pet???
What shall I do in this situation?
Shall I trap him and neuter him? But if he happens to belong to someone, I shouldn't be doing that.
I wonder if other female cats ran away because of him???
I saw Torao eating tonight. He shows up every night.
Does that mean he gets along with daddy cat??

Still no Konne sighting. I hope she is OK. At least she knows how to hunt.
But other kits donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t. Or will they learn to survive that way?
They all know where the food is, though… If they are desperately hungry they know where to go.

I miss them very much. I hope one day they will all show up when I call for dinner.
They did that during summer up until I trapped them.

I have a rule here that no one leaves this territory able to reproduce. If they are touchable then I'll list as found and if truly feral then they are fixed and released.

I figure that if someone didn't want their pet spayed or neutered than it shouldn't have been able to wander into my no babies land.

I really do understand that cats can wander far and wide and also that indoor ones can be very wily about escaping, but I don't understand why they were never s/n in the first place. So I take care of that and then do the listings to see if mommy or daddy are looking for them.

Thanks, Trudy.

I think he belongs to someone because of his cubby tummy....
I have never seen that cat before. He must have traveled from other area of our neighborhood.
I haven't seen any missing cat flyer in my area.
I may take a walk to other development around us to look for flyer.
Maybe I should put flyer for Konne!

If he happens to be a feral, I could take care of him.
Trapping him may be tricky...
I wonder if he would leave once he failed to find available female?

If he's looking for a girlfriend, and you get him neutered, he may just go back home and quit wandering.

Can you check under your neighbor's deck to see if Konne is still there? I'm sending good vibes for her, I'm concerned, too. Have you seen the third kitten? Is that the one that wasn't so healthy?

3/3/08

Hi, Katie. Yes, I have seen all three kits. I think they are OK.
I have not done intensive search for Konne. I am not ready to do that yet.
Somehow, I think she is OK and she will come out when she is ready. I will ask Hilary to communicate her on 3/10 if nothing changes.

Torao is the only one we see every night, but I am sure they are all eating.
Every morning, bowlful of dry food is gone.
I don’t think raccoon came night before last, but he could have made visit last night.
He likes washing his hands in the water bowl which leaves a lot of dirt in it.
So I decided to leave smaller bowls of dry food inside of cat house. I was shifting blankets around in there to make room and noticed part of it being wet.
There should be no leak there.
Does that mean wet cat went in there??? (It’s rainy today)
Are they using it as a place to stay????

I hope they feel safe there.
I think they come to the porch after we go to sleep. Their active time was after 10PM when they were inside. They basically slept all daylight hours.

I don’t think they appreciate attention right now. I will leave them alone and hope they would start to come out and show themselves to us. I should start to set meal time on schedule. Right now, I leave dry food all the time and put wet food out between 7PM and 8PM. Wet food is usually gone by 11PM.

Tonight I saw all three of them through catcam. Since our cats blend in to wet patio cement, motion sensor on camera is not detecting them very well. I will aim camera at cat house and see what will happen tonight.