I need help making a decision!

superpop

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Hello,

My name is Josh and I am not a cat owner but I am a love all animals and am very conflicted with what to do with a particular stay in my area.(there seems to be a lot of strays around here but almost all of them are not people friendly which leads me to believe they are feral.(all though most of them seem to be well fed...sometimes really fat even)

The cat I am here for is very friendly and it leads me to believe she was a house cat earlier in life. We first saw her a week ago and she came up to us and was skin and bones and appears to have given birth recently as her mammaries are swollen.

We feed her some lunch meat and she wolfed it down like there was no tomorrow and then went on her way. We didn't see her again for another week.(which was yesterday) We gave her a can of tuna and she again wolfed it down.

Tonight was the kicker though. My boyfriend and I had invited 2 friends over for a BBQ and when we went out to start the grill the cat was on the steps waiting for us. We again gave her a can of tuna which she wolfed down and then we didn't have anymore tuna but was still acting hungry so we cooked 2 hotdogs and then cut them up into small chunks and she at that as well. Then the 2 friends showed up and brought some dry cat food with and she ate a bit of that as well and hung out with us and rubbed up against us and socialized. She is a VERY nice cat. She hung out with us for hours before wandering off.

Here is the dilemma:

We live only 1 mile away from the largest "no kill" shelter in all of Minnesota(http://www.animalarkshelter.org/)

We don't know where her potential kittens are though. We are going to buy a bag of cat food tomorrow because I am sure at this point she will continue coming here for food and we will give her as much as she needs everyday.

I just don't know if she has a liter of kittens that she is still nursing somewhere and I don't want those kittens to die of starvation if we bring thier mom to the no kill shelter.(and I'm sure they could adopt her easily enough because she is clearly not feral....but IS CLEARLY a stray at this point in her life)

What should I do??

If she is nursing kittens somewhere in the neighborhood do you think she would potentially bring them here once they are old enough? 1 of the friends who came over tonight already wants to adopt one of the kittens if she has any.
 

rosiemac

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Hi Josh, and welcome to TCS


I've removed your duplicate thread in the other forum so we can concentrate on this one in here


First of all, thank you so much for feeding this little girl, because bless her she sounds like she needs a good feed


If you keep looking in here others will be able to give you some excellent help and advice, but because of the time difference it could be a few hours.

Oh, and has she got a bowl of water to go with her kibbles?, because she might be dehydrated as well?.
 

feralvr

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HELLO and welcome
. AND a big thank you for helping this mother cat. I would not take her to the shelter right at the moment. She most likely has kittens. Start feeding her cat food and canned kitten food (which will be good for her since she is most likely nursing). Since she is so hungry, she will eat the canned food up right away. Don't leave the canned out, it will spoil quickly. Make sure you also have water, nice cool fresh water. Since she is friendly, can you pet her? Does she rub on your legs? She is not feral, but a lost, uncared for or abandoned pet.
If you can, follow her to her nest, it might not be too far from you. But don't get close at all, stay way back, just see if you can find where she is keeping them. If she feels threatened, then she will move them, which she might do anyway. Mom cats will frequently move their kittens for safety and survival reasons. The sooner you can get to the kittens the better for socialization to humans also. But first, you have to make friends with her and she has to trust you totally. Also, yes... in answer to your question, she will bring the kittens around when they are about 4 to 6 weeks. If they are quite young still, then it will be awhile before you see them. When they are old enough, they will start to follow her if she allows them to do so. You will need to try to trap mom and ALL the kittens and bring them inside and start socializing the kittens soon so they can all be adopted out by the shelter. Call the shelter and explain the situation. They will probably even help you with medical costs if you can "foster" the family for a short time before bringing them to the shelter. OR, they might even have "foster homes' lined up to take on situations like this. The shelter I volunteer for has a list a mile long of wonderful, volunteer foster homes for new moms and kittens. Let us know how it is going!!! And thanks for rescuing this cat and I am hoping you will find the kittens.
 

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Hi Josh, and welcome!


What a wonderful thing you want to do helping this kitty (and her babies!).


I only have two things to add to what Lauren suggested.


It will help if you're able to put out the kitten food (as a mom, she needs the extra protein) at a regular time (or times).
She'll pick up on the schedule, and the routine will help reinforce her confidence.
A steady, reliable source of food is everything to a kitty like this.

Then, as Lauren says, when she's ready to start transitioning the kittens to food from her milk, she'll bring them around. They'll continue to nurse until 6 - 8 weeks, but will start eating food on their own around five/six weeks old.

The only thing I disagree with is that I wouldn't try to figure out where she has them. This in and of itself may cause her to move them, and while I know we worry about the kittens, at this point, it's best to try to let her do this on her own IMO.

I would go ahead and call the shelter. In our experience (though we live in a completely different part of the country), shelters are almost always full, and you may find that you have to make other plans for how to find her a home, but it can be done, and we have ideas for that if it comes to it!
 
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superpop

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Originally Posted by Rosiemac

Oh, and has she got a bowl of water to go with her kibbles?, because she might be dehydrated as well?.
Silly me for forgetting to mention that we also offer her water. She has only drank a little bit and only 1 time though so I'm guessing she is finding a source of water elsewhere. But we will continue to offer her water as well as food.

Originally Posted by Feralvr

Start feeding her cat food and canned kitten food (which will be good for her since she is most likely nursing).
Will do. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Feralvr

Since she is friendly, can you pet her? Does she rub on your legs?
Yes. She even came in the house for a little bit. We invited her in and she hesitated at first but then came in and explored a bit and then wanted back outside.

Originally Posted by LDG

The only thing I disagree with is that I wouldn't try to figure out where she has them. This in and of itself may cause her to move them, and while I know we worry about the kittens, at this point, it's best to try to let her do this on her own IMO.
It would be next to impossible to follow her around here anyway.

Originally Posted by LDG

I would go ahead and call the shelter. In our experience (though we live in a completely different part of the country), shelters are almost always full, and you may find that you have to make other plans for how to find her a home, but it can be done, and we have ideas for that if it comes to it!
I will hold off on calling the shelter for now because even if they have room at the moment doesn't mean they will have room for her or her kittens in the future.

When it comes time to try to find her(and maybe her kittens) homes I will ask for help and advice on here if needed.


Thank you everyone.
 

eilcon

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Nothing to add at this point, but did want to thank you for caring for this sweet girl and your willingness to help her and kittens. Looking forward to updates!
 
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superpop

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Went and ran some errands today(including getting her cat food) and when we got home she was on the steps waiting for us. She ate and is now just laying down on the at the top of the steps.

Couple things...

First is the friend who came over yesterday who was interested in one of the kittens said she will take the cat if the kittens are never found.

Second...I could not find any canned kitten food at the grocery store.(all the canned food was for adult cats)

I will look for some canned kitten food at a pet store when I get a chance.

Here is a picture of her:

http://i52.tinypic.com/rmr1pk.jpg
 

ldg

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Oh is she a sweetie!

And that is GREAT news about your friend!!!!


Finally, yeah, supermarket food for the most part sucks (low quality) and there isn't a lot of choice.
Of course, just helping a kitty, no one expects you to spend an arm and a leg getting the best quality food there is (many of us can't afford them anyway). A rule of thumb... look for an ingredient list where the first three ingredients are actually meat, not "meat by-products" (you really do NOT want to know about "meat by products"!)

But for helping a kitty in need, anything you do is wonderful.


We feed our outside ferals dry food and wet food. We live in a rural area, and I don't want to feed the whole forest, so we put out dry food at about 9:00am and pick it up if there's any left at about 8:00pm (summer hours), and I put out wet food at the same times. That gets eaten pretty quickly LOL.

The dry food I use is called 4Health. I don't know if you have Tractor Supply stores there, but they carry it. It is a very high quality food for the price (a dry food). We just switched our indoor only cats to an all wet diet. Most provide both, and a lot of people use the 4Health dry food.

As to wet food, I'd say you'll probably find Wellness to be the best wet kitten food. It's carried everywhere, is more expensive than "cheap" food, but isn't as expensive as the really good stuff. It's very high quality food, and I think all pet stores carry it.


Of course... for this girl, any kitten food will help her and is better than what she's been getting (probably garbage!)
 
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superpop

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This is the food we got her:



the first 3 ingredients are Salmon, Chicken Meal, Whole Brown Rice.

I hope it's decent enough for the time being.
 

ldg

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Don't know it, but sounds great!
I'm sure she'll love it.
Most importantly - it's nutrition meant for a cat!


When a cat first decided to ... adopt us, we started by feeding her cheese and tuna.
It was a HUGE concession on the part of DH to get cat food, so you're leaps and bounds ahead of the help we gave the first cat that interacted with us.
 
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superpop

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update:

No sign of her tonight.
(From now on I will refer to her as "Lady PurrPurr" because that is what I have been calling her.)

I hope she is okay...we left food and water out on the steps from 10 AM - 10 PM and we never saw her once and the food was untouched.

I won't leave food and water out overnight because of the abundant amount of well fed ferals in the neighborhood.(I don't want them running her off and eating HER FOOD!) In particular there is a GIGANTIC feral that I named Garfield(This cat must weigh 20+ pounds literally) that I see chasing off other ferals all the time. I also watched "Garfield" kill a bunny 2 months ago. Garfield is scared to death of me but Lady PurrPurr is very human socialized and is very greatful for the meals and I will not let Garfield drive her off so I won't leave the food out overnight.

Lady PurrPurr has always shown up around 4-6PM but she had food out there all day today and my boyfriend and I were out virtually all day doing gardening and stuff in the garage and there was no sign of her.

I'm kinda worried because we saw her the last 3 days in a row but didn't see her today.
 
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superpop

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Oh also of note:

2 nights ago when I originally started this thread...

The woman who wanted one of the potential kittens(and now wants Lady PurrPurr if the kittens never come around) is a former cat owner and is currently looking for a new cat....

Anyway she felt Lady PurrPurrs nipples and thinks they are "chapped" and "dry" and that there is a chance that the kittens are alive but that there is a good chance they could already be dead. She said to keep feeding the cat and pay attention to her mammaries.(she says if the mammaries go back to normal that either the kittens will show up here soon because they are no longer nursing or that there is no kittens to nurse because they died)


I myself as a gay male knowing nothing about breast feeding felt Lady PurrPurrs nipples yesterday and they did all feel kind of "chapped" and "dry"
 

ldg

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Oh many she'll come back and she's OK!

I've never cared for a friendly mom cat, only ferals, so I have no experience with this. I'll ask someone who frequently fosters friendly moms to check in here.

The hardest part of working with kitties outdoors is just this - they come and go.
It is a source of endless heartache! But keep putting out the food if you can... sometimes they have another food source, but.... if she's OK, she knows where friends and food are. We've had kitties disappear for several weeks, some for a few days, some for a few months. But these are ferals, and because we are feeding others in the colony, we always have food out.
 

kailie

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More than likely if her nipples are dry/chapped, she either is no longer nursing or is currently pregnant! Does she have a belly at all? If she has quite the boobs on her, she may have had litter, after litter, poor doll...
They should be round and full if she is still nursing. She sounds like such a sweetheart... Lots of vibes that she comes back soon safe and sound.
 
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superpop

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update: no sign of Lady PurrPurr today again.



Originally Posted by Kailie

More than likely if her nipples are dry/chapped, she either is no longer nursing or is currently pregnant! Does she have a belly at all? If she has quite the boobs on her, she may have had litter, after litter, poor doll...
They should be round and full if she is still nursing. She sounds like such a sweetheart... Lots of vibes that she comes back soon safe and sound.
I'll just give a timeline to make this easier:

8/10 - First time she came here and she was friendly but rail thin and both my boyfriend and I though she was pregnant but her mammary glands were not as large as a week later. We fed her lunch meat and she didn't come here again for another week.

8/11 - 8/16 - Nothing....no sign of her.

8/17 - My boyfriend and I were in the driveway and Lady PurrPurr was across the street and as soon as she saw us she marched on over. Her mammary glands looked larger. We gave her a can of tuna.

8/18 - We were having friends over for a BBQ and she was on the steps waiting for us. She ate a can of tuna, 2 cut up hot dogs and some dry cat food.(this is when the friend who wants her felt her nipples and commented that the felt dry and chapped)

8/19 - got home from running errands and she was on the steps waiting for us and we gave her dry cat food.

8/20 - 8/21 - No sighting of her even though food and water were left out all day for her but it was untouched.(hoping that this means she is feeding her kittens and will be back soon)

I am guessing she gave birth during the 8/11 - 8/16 period of the time frame but I could be wrong.



I am a bit worried that if she does have kittens and does bring them over here that it will be at the worst time possible! We are going on vacation to Colorado and will be staying with my boyfriend's cousin from 9/20 - 9/26
 

rosiemac

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Awww bless her l hope she turns up soon Especially when you may have a loving home for all of them


I'll say this though Josh. Looking at her picture she certainly seems comfortable with you all!
She's a gorgeous little girl!
 

ldg

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More she comes back around.

All I can say is this... do your best not to worry about what's going to happen down the road. The little one needs to come back first!
 
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