Ho boy, this is going to be rather long. Apologies in advance for all the parentheses; it's an addiction.
About four months ago, I noticed a little stray cat hanging around my house. Sitting outside my window, occasionally meowing at me or my cat, pretty friendly behavior. Very shy, though; she'd run as soon as she saw me outside, as opposed to through a window. I thought at first that she was someone's outdoor cat, but after working on convincing her I was friendly for about two months, I was able to get her to come up to me to be petted, (It was pretty clear even at the outset that she'd been socialized and wanted to make friends, despite her shyness) and I realized that under a rather fluffy coat (medium-length, a little thicker than a Siamese which she's clearly got a lot of traits from) she was badly underweight, rather dirty, and her breath smelled of carrion, like she'd been eating roadkill. There isn't very much roadkill where I live, though, and I could feel the outline of her bones pretty clearly through the fur. She was very friendly once she decided I was a potential friend, and I started feeding her; outside to start with, gradually moving indoors so I didn't have to leave the food outside. She was afraid of being inside at first, and even after a couple of months she was only staying in the house for an hour or two at a time, then wanting to be let back out. My older cat (a spayed female who's ten or eleven, as far as I know; I'm not her original owner and the folks I got her from were kind of unclear) has a bit of catspergers and has no real idea how to make friends with other cats, so she mostly just stayed away from the new one, though the stray was quite friendly toward her and was clearly interested in making friends.
Well, a week and a half ago the little stray (who I'd thought had just been getting fat from being able to eat; I was thinking about putting her on a diet) started crying at my window at about 9 PM, which was way later than she normally came in. She'd been restless when I'd fed her earlier that day, and when I let her in she was clearly uncomfortable and scared. Then, when I was stroking her side, I felt something move in her belly, and realized that, yup, she was pregnant and was probably about to give birth, which she did starting about three hours later. You may all laugh at me now for not realizing she was pregnant earlier, hahahaha! She had four healthy, plump little kittens who started feeding immediately, though the birth took a lot out of her since she was a tiny thing, (about the same size as my cat, ~8 pounds) and as far as the vet can tell probably less than a year old.
I didn't have any problems for most of the first week; my older cat kept a fairly wide berth, and the young stray and her kittens were in the front room where my older cat didn't hang out much. Then she decided to move the kittens, at first wanting to put them in my bed, and, after I'd vetoed that since I didn't want to squash the kittens in my sleep, she tucked them under the bed instead. A couple of days later she chased my older cat out of the bedroom, which upset both me and the older cat since I'd had her for about eight years and she stayed in the bedroom most of the time. Neither of them were hurt; there was some squalling and a couple of small tufts of fur flying, but no blood, which I assume is because neither of them is particularly aggressive. (The older cat booked it immediately, and the younger one didn't chase very far) The same thing happened earlier this evening; it's got my old cat grumpy and depressed (I'm trying to spend as much time as possible with her, to make sure she doesn't feel abandoned, but not being able to sleep with me is really hurting her feelings) though she's still not aggressive, and when the two cats see each other in the front room, there's not much of a problem; the older one growls and glares a bit, but the younger one is still trying to be fairly friendly. There's only two rooms in my house though, plus a rather small bathroom, so I don't have a lot of choice in where to put the cats. They're separated right now, with separate food and water bowls and the litter box in a fairly neutral location where neither of them hang out when they're not using it.
I'm pretty sure this isn't all that abnormal. I know mother cats get a bit aggressive, though I thought I'd dodged that since she was so relaxed with me and she left my older cat alone for most of the first week. What I'm wondering is if there's anything I can do to help lessen it; I don't want the cats fighting if I can help it. The stray is totally fine with me being around her kittens, and even handling them. I don't pick them up, except for trying to help her find a place that wasn't on my bed and carrying the last one while she took the second-to-last when she moved them, but I pet them occasionally, and she's entirely fine with it, though I wonder if that might be because I helped with the delivery.
In addition to that, I'm wondering if this will continue when the kittens are mobile, because that could be a real problem if they wandered out of the bedroom and into the room where the older cat is. I have no concerns whatsoever about the older cat hurting them, she's the gentlest cat I've ever met in my life in spite of her catspergers, but I worry about the stray going after her. I really don't want to have to take this poor stray and her babies to the shelter; most of the time she's got an incredibly sweet temperament and she's wonderfully friendly toward me, and on top of that she's extremely shy so would likely be hard to adopt out.
Do any of you folks have any advice? I'd welcome suggestions!
About four months ago, I noticed a little stray cat hanging around my house. Sitting outside my window, occasionally meowing at me or my cat, pretty friendly behavior. Very shy, though; she'd run as soon as she saw me outside, as opposed to through a window. I thought at first that she was someone's outdoor cat, but after working on convincing her I was friendly for about two months, I was able to get her to come up to me to be petted, (It was pretty clear even at the outset that she'd been socialized and wanted to make friends, despite her shyness) and I realized that under a rather fluffy coat (medium-length, a little thicker than a Siamese which she's clearly got a lot of traits from) she was badly underweight, rather dirty, and her breath smelled of carrion, like she'd been eating roadkill. There isn't very much roadkill where I live, though, and I could feel the outline of her bones pretty clearly through the fur. She was very friendly once she decided I was a potential friend, and I started feeding her; outside to start with, gradually moving indoors so I didn't have to leave the food outside. She was afraid of being inside at first, and even after a couple of months she was only staying in the house for an hour or two at a time, then wanting to be let back out. My older cat (a spayed female who's ten or eleven, as far as I know; I'm not her original owner and the folks I got her from were kind of unclear) has a bit of catspergers and has no real idea how to make friends with other cats, so she mostly just stayed away from the new one, though the stray was quite friendly toward her and was clearly interested in making friends.
Well, a week and a half ago the little stray (who I'd thought had just been getting fat from being able to eat; I was thinking about putting her on a diet) started crying at my window at about 9 PM, which was way later than she normally came in. She'd been restless when I'd fed her earlier that day, and when I let her in she was clearly uncomfortable and scared. Then, when I was stroking her side, I felt something move in her belly, and realized that, yup, she was pregnant and was probably about to give birth, which she did starting about three hours later. You may all laugh at me now for not realizing she was pregnant earlier, hahahaha! She had four healthy, plump little kittens who started feeding immediately, though the birth took a lot out of her since she was a tiny thing, (about the same size as my cat, ~8 pounds) and as far as the vet can tell probably less than a year old.
I didn't have any problems for most of the first week; my older cat kept a fairly wide berth, and the young stray and her kittens were in the front room where my older cat didn't hang out much. Then she decided to move the kittens, at first wanting to put them in my bed, and, after I'd vetoed that since I didn't want to squash the kittens in my sleep, she tucked them under the bed instead. A couple of days later she chased my older cat out of the bedroom, which upset both me and the older cat since I'd had her for about eight years and she stayed in the bedroom most of the time. Neither of them were hurt; there was some squalling and a couple of small tufts of fur flying, but no blood, which I assume is because neither of them is particularly aggressive. (The older cat booked it immediately, and the younger one didn't chase very far) The same thing happened earlier this evening; it's got my old cat grumpy and depressed (I'm trying to spend as much time as possible with her, to make sure she doesn't feel abandoned, but not being able to sleep with me is really hurting her feelings) though she's still not aggressive, and when the two cats see each other in the front room, there's not much of a problem; the older one growls and glares a bit, but the younger one is still trying to be fairly friendly. There's only two rooms in my house though, plus a rather small bathroom, so I don't have a lot of choice in where to put the cats. They're separated right now, with separate food and water bowls and the litter box in a fairly neutral location where neither of them hang out when they're not using it.
I'm pretty sure this isn't all that abnormal. I know mother cats get a bit aggressive, though I thought I'd dodged that since she was so relaxed with me and she left my older cat alone for most of the first week. What I'm wondering is if there's anything I can do to help lessen it; I don't want the cats fighting if I can help it. The stray is totally fine with me being around her kittens, and even handling them. I don't pick them up, except for trying to help her find a place that wasn't on my bed and carrying the last one while she took the second-to-last when she moved them, but I pet them occasionally, and she's entirely fine with it, though I wonder if that might be because I helped with the delivery.
In addition to that, I'm wondering if this will continue when the kittens are mobile, because that could be a real problem if they wandered out of the bedroom and into the room where the older cat is. I have no concerns whatsoever about the older cat hurting them, she's the gentlest cat I've ever met in my life in spite of her catspergers, but I worry about the stray going after her. I really don't want to have to take this poor stray and her babies to the shelter; most of the time she's got an incredibly sweet temperament and she's wonderfully friendly toward me, and on top of that she's extremely shy so would likely be hard to adopt out.
Do any of you folks have any advice? I'd welcome suggestions!
