Desperately Need Advice

Hi Everyone,

My name is Geri and am a fairly new member.  I have not been active for the last few months due to some family issues.  I have a three year old female named "Pickles" and have been taking care of an outside feral male cat who I have named "Perry".  The little dude has made our backyard his home.  He has his own insulated house in which we have put a soft specially designed for outdoor cats heated pad on which he sleeps.  Perry is fed a can of soft food first thing in the morning, 6:45 a.m. to be exact, and then we leave out a bowl of hard food so that he can munch throughout the day.  By the way he will only eat salmon flavoured food, he can be very particular.  I have been trying to trap him to get him fixed, but it turns out that this little one is very smart and has so far managed to avoid capture.  Perry still will not let me touch him, and any attempt to do so, sends him running in the opposite direction.  I just wanted to give you a little background on Perry. 

Today as I was getting dinner ready I looked out our back door to see Perry and another cat eating from the same bowl.  The unknown cat looked up, to see me staring at Her, and started to move away from the food.  She looked really scared.  At this point I am going to say that she is also feral.  As I backed away from the door, she slowly approached the food and started eating again.  Perry stood guard as she ate.  After they had finished eating they both moved towards the back of our property which is surrounded by trees and bushes etc.  Then to my great surprise she went behind a rock and returned with a kitten in her mouth.  They both came a little closer to the house and put the kitten down.  I swear to god that Perry was showing off his new "son" or "daughter" to me.  The kitten is a carbon copy of Perry.  A small bundle of white and orange fur.  There is no mistaking the parentage here.

The kitten played for a few minutes before Mom and Dad picked up their kitten and moved into the next door neighbors yard.  The house is empty and has been for a while.  It looks like Mom has set up a little home there.  We did not want to get to close but it looks like everything is okay for now.

What do I do now?  I can not let another kitten become feral, its to harsh a life.  I am worried sick.  I also do not want to separate a mother and kitten.  Any suggestions or options would be appreciated.  As much as I want to adopt this little one both Husband and my girl Pickles are vehemently opposed. 

Desperately,

Geri P. 

Have you searched for the rest of the litter? Are you sure there are no more babies?

Good Morning,

I live in Toronto and it is raining this morning.  I am in the process of feeding both my cats, indoors and out, and am going to illegal enter next doors yard to do exactly that.  I will let you know shortly.

Geri

p.s.  Thank you for answering me.  I feel pretty much alone right now and want to do what is best for mother and baby (s).

Well no one will advise to break onto another property illegally, but quickly searching for *Pets* is understandable.  Keep updating!  Lots of Great rescue ladies here will offer tips on how to catch your Ferals. Plus manage these babies. This site is full of Support!    

Hope the litter is OK   

Looks like just one kitten.  Mom and Dad are very protective thank heavens.  I have moved food and water closer to the Mom so she does not have to leave her baby to find food.  Am heading to the pet store to see what else this small family needs.  Looking into setting up a shelter as well.  Baby is younger than I thought.  Mom does not look that old either.  My heart is breaking.  I just want to move the whole family into my house.  Know this is impossible. 

Thanks,

Geri

Hi there! I have had our caring @Seventhheaven  point this thread out and am happy to help!

Several things to say, first of all, searching for kittens while mom is not there, means absolutely no sounds from you other than footsteps, it is inborn instincts for them to stay dead silent while mom is away, but if you go looking, and they don't hear any sounds other than stepping on leaves, etc they will cry out when you get close.

I would spy to watch where mom goes, there may be more and usually are, hidden deep in bushes, under things, well hidden from sight.

I know you don't want to take this baby from them, but if kitten is big enough to walk steadily, like a regular kitten and not wobbly or uncoordinated, it does need to be pulled now.

Mentally developing at a very fast rate right now, the feral ways become more and more inbedded, and by 8 weeks old they pretty much will always have a feral streak with strangers, they can tame nicely to one person, but makes them  very hard to adopt out as they will hide and be very shy when meeting new people.

So now is the time.

However, at the same time, this also causes mom to go in to heat and get prego again, they must be trapped and fixed, both of them asap.

Unless your trap is new and never had a trapped cat in it before, it needs to be cleaned, using a spray household cleaner like 409 or any other, saturate it down with the spray, let sit for a few minutes then hose off really well and sun dry.

The smells of fear and adrenaline will be washed off.

Next, set the trap up so that the door won't shut, use a bread tie or something, and from now on only feed in the trap.

They will get used to that and then you can go for it and get them, but you want to get one there at a time so the other doesn't witness the trapping.

Once the trap goes off, run to it and cover with a large towel so they don't injure their noses trying to get out, this calms them down.

Once fixed, release in the same spot as was trapped.

Be sure to find where you will be getting them fixed first, that will not require an appt to fix a feral cat.

SPCA's are good for that and cheap.

You will be giving them the best gift possible, it changes their lives for good, then continue to provide food and love, they will eventually warm up to you nicely. Not lap cats but will gain trust in you, and will be your permanent outdoor cats, I have 2 here myself, on top of an entire route of colonies I care for in town.

They need to be fixed and given an FVRCP vaccine, that's it unless they can deworm them also.

And yes, kitten was actually brought to you as well as brought to the food source, so must be ready to eat on it's own now.