Is what I'm doing okay?

Recently we moved out to the country...as in the middle of nowhere. We have 3 neighbors in a square mile. We live in 5 acres. People out here treat owning animals completely different than what I'm used to. Our next door neighbors have a cat that stays outside 24/7 and is SO small and skinny, and not fixed.

Anyway...a few days ago we had this teeny tiny super skinny cat show up on our front porch in the middle of the day. At first I thought it was a male, but today I realized it is a female. Its really small, but I have NO idea how old it is, though I know it has already had one litter of kittens (not sure if it is pregnant right now, though).

She is SUPER skinny, so I have been feeding her. I don't know if she belongs to anyone, but considering the cat my one neighbor owns, she could. She is REALLY friendly, but she also has a head tilt (vestibular problem?) and loves to talk. She'll even get up in DS's lap, and let me try to extract milk from her nipples. She loves any attention she can get.

I have been sure that DS and I wash our hands as soon as we get inside anytime that we have been petting her.

Is what I've been doing okay? We just moved here in March and we don't know anyone other than that one family, and I know this isn't theirs. She now comes to our house 3-4 times per day (but has 300ish acres around us to roam through).

We decided to adopt her. We're not bringing her inside yet, b/c she has kittens out there somewhere. She spends most of her day on our front porch, except to go feed her babies. Once I am fairly certain she is done nursing, and we get her tested for FIV/FL, we will get her spayed and bring her in. We have named her Hazel. She is such a sweet little girl.

I will. As soon as she brings them by here (assuming she will, b/c she is not a fan of our dogs so she may not) we will contact a rescue or a feral group around here, depending on if they are friendly or not. I'm thinking they are already big enough for her to bring them by if she wanted to b/c she takes them chicken that we give to her, so they are big enough to eat stuff like that. I don't know, though, I have no clue. lol

Here's a pic of her I took last night. She is making bread. LOL She does that all the time when she is laying on her side and getting pets.

Well, I was wrong. She brought her kittens here. I'm not sure when, but I saw them for the first time last night. Late last night I went out to talk to her and give her some company. Usually she just sits on our front porch all night. She wasn't there, but occasionally during the day she will sit on our chicken tractor to get away from the dogs so I went around the corner of the house to see if she was there, and I saw kittens go flying away into the dark. Hazel came over to see me, and I had my husband turn the side light on. I realized there were two kittens there.

I just sat on the porch, talking to Hazel and talking softly to the kittens. I don't know how old they are, but they are a good size yet still nursing. One is black with white paws, chin, and chest with a LONG tail, and the other is a gorgeous calico with a few tabby stripes in some of her orange spots. Gradually they came up on the porch with us, but wouldn't let me come near them. The calico sniffed my toe, though. Hazel is so tiny, her kittens are almost as big as she is!! Like I said, they are still nursing, but were eating the cat food I put out for Hazel and she has taken them some raw chicken in the past.

I haven't seen them all day today, but maybe again tonight. I have NO clue where she is keeping them.

What now????? Hazel is so small, it is hard for me to judge how old her kittens are (and I haven't had a baby cat since Nora was a kitten 3 years ago, so I don't remember...the boys were 7 months when I got them and they are huge). I would like to get them all fixed, as there is a low cost spay and neuter clinic around here that will fix ferals for $25. I have no idea when to get Hazel spayed.

Oh boy. Well...she has a second litter. I walked out of my husband's shop tonight after putting my chickens away, and they were all following along behind her as she was walking down our driveway. These ones are LITTLE, though. Oh, and did I mention there are five of them?? LOL Four boys and one girl. The older ones are a boy (black one) and a girl (calico). The little ones are really friendly, though. Especially one, he was crawling all over me, playing with my fingers. SOO cute! Two of them have broken/chopped tails. One looks like a little piglet, his tail is like a cork screw. The other one's tail was chopped off somehow. The other three are fine.

Do you think it would be worth it for me to try to find them new homes, or should I just hand them over to a rescue? I don't want to get Hazel spayed right now since she still has a litter that is actually nursing.

Here's some pics DH took:

Hazel is in front, the five little ones behind her, then the one in the back left is one of the bigger kits


The older calico


Drinking from the animal water bucket. Hazel in front, and you can see the two bigger kits behind her and the size comparison. Hazel is REALLY small, though.


Please ignore my hose laying around...I was lazy and didn't want to put it away after I hosed the chicken poop off the porch yesterday. lol The fan on the porch is for the cats/dogs/chickens b/c of the heat. They really do take advantage of it.

The little ones are going to be easy to socialize. She kept them here, they have been sleeping and playing on the porch. We (me, DS, and DH) have been playing with them all day. They are all VERY sweet. Two of them are still a little leary of us, but will let us pet them if we don't move too fast. The other three are crawling all over us, playing with our fingers, etc. I gave them some cat toys. As I type this, mom must have gone off to hunt and all five of the little ones are tucked away in the cat carrier I put out for them.

I took some new pics today. I named them all after Charlotte's Web characters.

Wilbur (has the curly tail)


Fern (the only girl) not the best picture, she didn't like my camera


Templeton


Lurvy


Avery




Better pic of Fern




The older kits will be harder to socialize, if I even can. I only see them late at night (I haven't seen them all day), and they usually won't come near if they see us. I got those couple pictures last night, but the rest of the time they stayed out by the road at the end of our driveway. I'm not giving up, though.

They do still have tiny pointy tails, its just hard to tell in the pics and two of them have broken or chopped off tails. They are eating dry cat food, though.

As for our other cats, Nora spends most of her time in our bedroom closet and I'm sure she can smell them but she doesn't seem to care. Walter and Thomas have seen them when we open the front door and through the glass patio doors, but are just curious. Walter wants to be everyone's buddy, so he has tried to get out to see them a couple times. Thomas could care less.

They are all gone. The babies were there when I let my chickens out of the coop at 6am but Hazel was gone. Now they are all gone. Hopefully they are just out on a walk or something and they come back. Its just strange, though, b/c they were here all day yesterday. I wouldn't expect her to move them during the day.

I sure hope so. It just strange for Hazel to be gone for so long. Even before she brought the kittens up here, she would be on our front porch quite frequently during the day. I haven't seen her at all today. Hopefully they show up tonight. I'm really nervous about them.

Well, Hazel has been by a couple times, once late this afternoon and again about a half an hour ago. No sign of the babies, though.

I have no idea. I doubt it is the people I spoke about before. We've fed their animals while they were out of town before, and they only have one male cat. They may be getting fed by another family down the road, but if they are I don't feel great about it b/c Hazel was bone thin when she first came to me. She is starting to put on some weight since she started hanging out here.

Today it is 100 degrees with a 102 heat index. Hazel has been here almost all day, since I let the chickens out at 6am (she even tried to help me haha), but no sign of the babies. She was sitting on the front porch panting really hard and crying, so I convinced my husband to let her into his air conditioned shop. She stopped panting immediately and started looking around. I made a small litter box for her, just in case, and she IS litter trained. She started digging and peed as soon as I put her into it. She layed down on the cool concrete floor and seemed pleased as punch. I really wish I knew where those babies were, especially in this heat. I'm hoping someone else has them in their house.

We butchered our first chicken today, so I gave Hazel the heart, liver, and scraps of skin and meat. She took off and led the older kits back, and they got a good meal this evening.

The babies are back!! Woohoo!! She went and got them this evening after it got dark. I don't think they are being fed anywhere else b/c as soon as they got here they pigged out on cat food. It's nice to have them back. I was SO worried!! *big sigh of relief*

Should I start a new thread for updates on Hazel and her kittens, or keep posting them in here?

This morning all five babies were there, all cuddled together in the cat bed I put on the porch. Sometime this morning Hazel took two of them off and hid them. When she came back she didn't have them with her, but she has stayed around with the remaining three (the three black boys). I put the little litterbox on the porch, just in case. One by one, I put each of the babies into it, and they each peed and pooped in it! I was so proud!!

I'm probably talking to myself, but oh well....

Tonight Hazel went to get the rest of the babies...and came back one short. The little girl Fern is missing, probably gone. She was always a bit lethargic and didn't seem like she was doing very well. I doubt Hazel would have left her out there alone. She probably either died or was taken by a predator. Everyone else is here and accounted for, and seem nice and healthy, though.

The older kits are still only coming by at night, but they are getting less skittish each day. They now don't immediately run away when we come outside or walk up to the house from the shop. If I am sitting right next to Hazel, they will come and nurse with me there, which is a HUGE step. The calico one even let me pet her while she was nursing last night!! She was talking to me, also. She sounds just like Hazel.

I love going out there every so often and playing with them. They are so stinking cute!! They are all getting really comfortable around us and love to be petted and picked up. I think they will all make great pets!

All of the kittens know how to use the litterbox now. They use that and the empty flower bed on the side of our house. They use either of them religiously now, they no longer go in the grass. Even the more feral older kits use the litter box! Hazel always goes in the same spot in the dirt on the edge of our woods. I'm sure adopting the kittens out would be no problem and they would use the litterbox just fine if that was their only option.

Fern finally came back!! I have no idea where she was at, but I'm glad she is back. Being here for a while now and getting fresh meat and good food, she is doing much better, also. They are all getting nice and fat. I have also been dusting them with food grade Diatomacious Earth to help with their fleas. (Z@Ww ncjjjjjjjjjjssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssg32222 <-------that was a note from Henry (we renamed Lurvy Henry) He walked on my keyboard as I was typing this. LOL)

It has been getting up to 110 heat index the past couple of days, so I have been putting Hazel and all the babies into a big carrier and putting them into my husband's air conditioned shop for a few hours. Especially yesterday, b/c the kittens were lethargic and glassy eyed, I was afraid they were going to die. Today wasn't as bad, but Hazel was panting really hard. I have been putting a frozen 2 liter bottle of water covered by a thin towel into a smaller carrier on our porch, and the kittens LOVE it!! They lay next to it and even on top of it. I get so worried about them, but they are doing okay so far.

The older kits are getting better. They aren't as jumpy anymore, staying in place when we come outside and will come up next to us now. They even stay where they are when we walk right next to them! I was able to pet the black one while he was nursing a couple days ago, and today I pet the calico one while she was eating cat food. A HUGE improvement over when they first got here, when they would bolt any time we would move a muscle. Maybe someday they will let us pet them like a pet cat would, but even if not that's okay. We've named them Callie (the calico...I know, predictable lol) and Ninja (the black one).

Hazel scared the heck out of me today. She was gone when I got up, and has been gone all day. The babies were still here, though. The heat index was 110+, so we kept the babies in the shop all day. I was so afraid something happened to Hazel b/c of the heat. I've been going out occasionally, calling her as loud as I can. She finally came back about 15 minutes ago, 7:15pm. She was hyperventilating, she was panting so fast. I rushed her into the shop and put her in with the kittens and got her some water. After about 5 minutes she stopped panting and layed down so the babies could nurse. I'm so relieved.

I HATE this heat!!!!! I'm just glad that Hazel is okay.