4 Feral Kittens... I'm Lost!

I tend to consider myself very knowledgeable with cats. But I am so lost now. We have three ferals we've been taking care of. Momma Cat is an all black long haired cat. She had a gray tabby awhile back, we named him Little Tom. Then she had a black kitten we call Little Scoop. We've been talking about getting her (and the other 2) fixed, and now she's always up under our feet so its a good time to just pick her up and put her in the carrier. Except that she had 4 other kittens. And we finally found them today, behind the shutters leaning on our front porch (right under our noses for 2 months!).

I know kittens have a much higher chance of adoption than adults, so I called the local SPCA to see if they could take them in. But first I had questions, because I dont have the heart to give them up with risk of euthanasia. They told me they'd put them on a 5-day quarantine, fix them when they weigh enough (one is 1.7lbs), then put them on the adoption floor. But that they had no guarantees and euthanizing was possible either before or after they hit the adoption floor. I mentioned having them returned to me if they were up for euthanasia but she kept darting away from that with the "no guarantees" answer. So I couldn't leave them there. Rob and I would rather they be able to live. I emailed the manager of that SPCA, telling them I am willing to fix them on my dime (shelter I volunteer for does free TNR fixes, but I would donate plenty of items to them for doing so), and to ask them if I could be notified if I brought them in and they were not adopted.

I am not really able to foster, and the SPCA asked me about doing so, because of my three indoor babies. But I've brought the 4 kittens into the weight room, put a litter box, food, water, and the kitty cube I bought for mine (which they havent used in forever and I now store toys in) with a blanket. I was sitting in there for a bit, but now am leaving them to get adjusted. Rob would like to try and socialize them ourselves. My friend, who fosters for the SPCA I volunteer for (but am not in the proper county for them to accept the kittens), told me to list them on craigslist after they are fixed, and charge a small rehoming fee. Of course, browsing there just now broke my heart.

I'm feeling guilty about it, for not getting Momma Cat fixed sooner. I want these kittens to find homes instead of keeping them as outdoor ferals, but am willing to do so if I must to save their lives. I guess I just need advice on what to do or some options, as I'm totally lost right now. I'm taking Momma Cat, Little Tom, and Little Scoop to be fixed this week, and these 4 as soon as they are of weight/age.

They guesstimated 7 weeks old, and all are eating on their own. They grabbed one and s/he weighed 1.7lbs so they estimated they all are close to that. My FIL is apparently a cat whisperer, and I walked in to find him holding the one I'm sure is female. The other 3 are hiding in the corner. They have been munching on the cat chow I feed the outdoor ones - probably what they've been eating since Momma had them. I looked on the SPCA's foster info page, and may go that route (where I keep them until they are adopted to be sure they aren't put down).

I just want to do things right for them. So far I think I am by trying to socialize them and get them fixed so they cant become a larger part of the overpopulation, and not risk being put down - since the SPCA said they may not even make it to the adoption floor depending if they got sick being with other strays. There are 3 black ones and a tortie (one my FIL was holding). Of course I'm a softie for black cats, as I have 3 of my own

Two of them have hissed/batted at me so far, they're kind of cute when they do it. They also run away from me, the Tortie just freezes in place and lets you hold and pet her. I imagine it will take some getting used to for them, just like it did for my other 3 ferals that I can now pet regularly. Thanks for the kind words, I feel so new to trying to actually foster an animal and prepare it for a new home, as I've only ever adopted cats from shelters (and as a kid, our cat had kittens and we kept a few of them from birth).

So I stopped by the SPCA I volunteer at, and it turns out they have county restrictions on fixing ferals as well. So I'm paying $85 a cat for Momma Cat and Little Scoop (the females) to be fixed on Friday. They almost didn't want to list them as ferals, because I can touch them now - even though it took many many months to get to this point, but I cant imagine it would cost any different than it does. I will wait until they run a special to get Little Tom fixed, and now I guess I really do need to look into the fostering program for the 4 kittens because that's going to be expensive as well to fix 4 of them! While I'm not really hurting for money and can afford to feed all these cats, this is an unexpected expense compared to what I thought it'd be! Unfortunately, my county is the only one in the tri-county area that doesn't do a TNR thing. They bring their fixes to the one I volunteer at and it'd cost the same. Hopefully Momma & Scoop wont be hard to contain overnight in the large kennel carrier on Thursday.

The kittens are getting slightly better. I can pick up the Tortie most of the time (because she's always at the bottom of the pile, and freezes in place!), and my husband was holding her last night too. This morning he went in and held two of them. When I went in to feed and water them and scoop the box, they were in their "kitty totem pole" in the corner. Last night I could tell they were getting a bit more comfortable in the room - when I went to check on them before bed, two were laying on a weight bench and two were laying on top of the kitty cube (of course not in it! ) Two of them keep hissing but are quiet once held. They do struggle a bit. One of them is easily distracted with wet food I learned.

Hopefully this will all have a positive outcome, as I'm learning along the way!!

The only "no-kill shelters" are two organizations that foster animals out (they dont have a true "shelter" location to take them in at). One of them focuses mainly on mature and special needs animals, and the other is not in my county either. I asked the SPCA about alerting me if they do not get adopted, and they danced around the question with "no guarantees" when I'd ask those questions. I may call the in-town foster no-kill group and offer to keep these ones as fosters if they will list the kittens on Petfinder.

I am quite bummed as well. When I was volunteering at the large shelter (that I'm getting the adults fixed at), they came in to ask for advice on recruiting volunteers now to return TNR'd cats to their locations once animal control brings them in to be fixed (animal control cannot return them to the location themselves). I wish my county would follow suit, but the only shelter is so small they don't have sterilization facilities on site. I think that the larger shelter SHOULD offer the discounted feral rate through them though since they use the same place. They were telling me about the grants they get and that they dont really apply to out-of-county, yadda ya. I have a coworker willing to take in the kittens for sterilization when they are old enough and use her address (in the correct county). I just worry if they are tame enough by then the SPCA will refuse to consider them feral (because of the repeated mentioning of "well you can handle your adults, but we'll still list them as feral as a favor."....even though it didn't cost any different!)

Well the evening has arrived to try and get Momma Cat & Little Scoop contained for their spay in the AM. I got Momma Cat and put her in with her kittens. At first they foofed up at her, then suddenly attacked her with kisses and purrs and they all started suckling her and were much calmer with me in the room again. Little Scoop is on to me and I have to find a way to get her in the large kennel (and find the door!) and cover it up tonight. She's currently off gallavanting somewhere.

Two of the kittens hiss at us still, and the little tortie gets a little hiss in here and there. They're eating good - been bringing in some wet food along with the chow. I feel like I've gotten nowhere still, though I try and remember how long it took me to get the other 3 ferals to allow me to pet them!

My fingers are crossed all will work out positively. I'm feeling stressed about the spay appointment, worrying I cant catch Little Scoop, and can almost feel the relief of it being over - except then I have 4 more kittens to worry about after that!

Momma Cat and her kittens were incredibly adorable this morning - she was laying on a seat from a car we have in the room, and her kittens were all piled on top of her. She wasn't too hard to get in the carrier, though she was very unhappy about it and told me so the entire drive to the SPCA. Even her kittens were shocked and had little angry faces. But the good news for them is that she'll be back tomorrow and they can all pile together again. I took some pictures yesterday and will upload them after work

Little Scoop was not a success story this morning. I put some food down to distract her (I can pet her while she eats but not really approach her if she's not). I scruffed her and my hubby opened the carrier - wooo we put up a fight! I received a nice slice in my palm and some on my feet but held on until she twisted out of my grip and ran back out down the steps. Well that was my one shot. I tried setting Momma outside but every time Little Scoop saw me she ran to the other side of the porch. Then took off across the yard into the woods. So, she's a work in progress. We are going to clean off the huge dog carrier and find the door, then put the food in there next week and see if she'll walk in it. That, or she'll have to start trusting me again and I'll end up breaking the trust for a 2nd time!

I was extremely bummed and frustrated this morning when she got out of my grasp. But I'm trying to think positively - at least I got one in for her appointment, and thats one less female that'll have kittens. It's not the end of the world that I didn't catch Little Scoop (and yes, we named her that because my hubby and I call little kittens "scoops" because you can just scoop them up with one hand! ... when they're not ferals At the time she was the small kitten bouncing through the yard.) I'll have other attempts to get her, some how, some way!

Posted some pics in the pics & vids forum:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...92#post3068192

Little Scoop hasnt returned yet after this mornings traumatic experience. I'm sure she'll be back though - i have the food! The kittens were slightly less skittish before, but are still very hard to approach without them scattering and then reconvening in the corner behind the weight rack.

I saw Little Scoop at my in-laws house (behind ours), but she's been back on our porch. She keeps her distance now. I do not have a real trap device, but it looks like I may need to call either the foster that had Hoshi before we adopted him (she told me if I ever got to TNR'ing, they have traps they loan out) or the lady at work - she's always TNR'ing and re-homing.

One of the kittens seems to have a food aggression - he was growling at batting at the little tortie girl. Two of them are still less frightened of us than the other 2 - one is a little mean thing (unless you scruff him when catching him), and the other is unsure of everything still. I feel like I'm not making a lot of progress with them adoptable-wise, but its only been just over a week I guess!

An update:

My feral kittens are doing wonderfully. Three of them are all over me constantly, and escaping their room in the house quite often when I go to feed them My cats follow them around curiously. One of them made it all the way into the living room (3/4 the way across the house!) before I caught up to him, only because he was staring at the fan. I call that one my Little Buddy, because he was the 2nd one to become attached (the Tortie, Little Girl, was the first to be mostly okay with people). They're putting on some weight, I'm pretty positive they're of the proper weight to be fixed now, though age is still up in the air. I do not think they were 7 weeks when we found them, probably only 5, putting them around 8 weeks now, and at the prime of their cuteness!

Rob is ready for me to list them for adoption. Part of me is attached and wants to keep one, because I think it's wonderful how we took them in, socialized them, and "raised" them! But at the same time, I never thought toooo hard about 4 cats. He just sort of looked at me when I said that I told him I'm convinced he's distanced himself from being around them too much so he doesn't get attached himself! I'm trying to get my MIL to take Little Girl - she adores the coloring of her fur, and told me this weekend if she had to pick one to keep, it'd be her. It would be nice to have one of them living right next door! My FIL and that kitten took to each other pretty quickly - the first day I had them, he carried her around everywhere! Still working on her to say yes

I'm also thinking that if I can manage to adopt these ones out, I want to think about fostering for one of the shelters in the future. It'd be easier than this, for one. At least I don't have to do the hard work on finding homes, and fix them! We are thinking of building a large garage/studio area on our property, which would leave the room in my house that the kittens are in now as an extra space anyway with no particular plans for it. My friend fosters and says it gets easier the longer you do it, which I believe, and I receive the foster alert emails from the SPCA I volunteer for because a guy I work with is signed up for them and always forwards me the emails now.

I'm now trying to think of a way to have these 4 fixed without breaking the bank. My friend suggested adopting them out with a spay/neuter contract, stating that they have to get them fixed by a certain point. Not sure how I'd enforce that, but Rob likes the idea too. I also thought about putting an adoption fee of about half the sterilization cost to lessen the amount on both ends. I emailed one of the foster network shelters in my town, asking for any help or advice they could provide, but they have yet to respond.

Unfortunately I've talked to the local ones and they all tell me I'm restricted because of the county I live in So it's $65 + 2 vaccinations for each female (totaling $85 per female) and $55 + 2 vaccinations for males ($75 per male)! While I know it's cheaper than the $150+ they charge at my vet, it's still hefty when there are 4 to think about.... (And I'm really not sure what the other 3 cats are yet I just assume they are/refer to them as male because I already have 3 black male cats)

I am emailing a woman who works for a no-kill group that runs on foster families. I adopted one of my cats from her 2 years ago and she was helpful in giving trapping advice when we were aiming to get one of our ferals fixed back then. I'm hoping she may have/know some resources in the area to help me out. Of course it's in the next county, but she's been doing it for awhile and may know some place here.

I think I could handle 4 cats in my house, I don't see it being much different than 3 (because 3 wasn't much different than 2!). I never had more than 2 until we adopted Neko (I grew up with 2 at home, Rob grew up with 1). I agree that it would be special to keep one with how we came into this, and really want MIL to take Little Girl!! I told her I will not rest until she says yes

The lady I adopted Hoshi from emailed me back, and their group is willing to include me as a foster home, fix the kittens for me, and list them on their petfinder page and put them in their rescue group adoption windows at Petsmart if I'd like to go that route. This way, potential adopters have to go through the normal screening process, and the group receives the adoption fee to cover the sterilization like most shelters. I asked her for more details, hopefully this route will work out for the kittens and their future forever homes

Sounds like all they need from me is to vaccinate the kittens, they handle the sterilization, and list the kittens on Petfinder through their group name. Then when there is room at Petsmart, the kittens get brought there for display as well. I'm thrilled they are willing to help me!

Got a surprise this morning ... apparently Little Scoop was pregnant when I tried trapping her. She didn't look it, but there's a single newborn black kitten in the large open carrier on the front porch. Rob noticed that she had been spending a lot of time laying in it this week, and this morning while she ate, he looked over and saw a small black moving blob in there. So I guess there'll be another one I'm fostering for a home once I can take it away from her! Now I feel worse that I failed at catching her that day, because now there's another kitty needing a home Ughhh. One step forward, 2 steps back! Once I catch her, I believe that's all the feral females in the area, then we can start working on the abundance of males hanging around! (I swear I fix one, and another cat appears!)

Kitten update:

Mr. Grouchy Kitty has come around now as well. We let them explore for an hour or so in the evenings (easy to round them back up by putting down food ). I brought the tortie to my MIL's house yesterday. She immediately hid under the hutch before we could block it off, but a few hours and some wet food temptation later, she came out and let my MIL hold her and bring her into her own room in their house. On Friday, my FIL said he had no problem taking a kitten, and by Sunday my MIL was asking when I was gonna bring her She had already bought her a litter box, food dish, kitten chow, and treats.

Saturday afternoon they will go for shots and microchipping - the foster group has a Petsmart event day once a month and will be out there then and asked me to bring them by - this weekend Banfield had no time for 4 kittens they said. My MIL is going to fill out the adoption paperwork on her anyway, as it'll be cheaper overall to pay the adoption fee rather than get her fixed and vaccinated on her own, and she would like to give the $ to the organization and it's cause. Then I'll get her set up with a wellness plan (I still have my other cat that lives with her on my credit card monthly) for the kitten - we've saved about $7000 in the last 3.5 years with all our cats by having it!

I'm so excited she took the tortie - we need to name her now! Been calling her Little Girl since I trapped her, thought about naming her Tortellini just because I called her that once - but would like my in-laws to name her since she's theirs! The other three are just so cute as well, and I love them running all over the house and interacting with my three boys and exploring, but hoping I can get them all adopted out before I go on vacation in July for a week - someone is coming to watch the animals and I dont want to make it too complicated for her and would prefer they all have homes to go to forever asap (Before I get more attached, too!!)

My MIL has been calling her "Little Bit" - I asked if she had been thinking of any names. She came out and is craving attention and play time!

The other three were tearing around my house, playing with Neko, rubbing Hoshi, and driving Nero crazy by using his favorite scratcher.

I have the Optimum Wellness Plan through Banfield. I think I have the basic adult plans on 2 of my 3 - Neko has one with a dental plan which is the next step up from the basic. I probably will bump my other 2 up as well as they are over 3 now and have slight inflammation on their last comprehensive visits and could use yearly cleanings (extra $2-3/mo for the plan covers a $200 cleaning per year). I also have Katina on one of those plans, my MIL pays me in January for the year since she would have to re-enroll to be in her name and pay the enrollment fee again.