Feeling Guilty and Devastated

Hey all,

Discovered some very sad news yesterday.  There was a litter of feral kittens in our rural neighbourhood since this spring. Our neighbours across the road cared for them mainly, the kittens stayed in their yard all the time and didn't venture too far outside of that area of the neighbourhood.  The neighbour's kids always were with them and played with them. There was one little kitty that hubby and I called Cookie, and I found out through accidentally seeing a text on my hubby's phone that Cookie was hit by a car and did not make it  I am absolutely gutted to learn of this news, and I am feeling immensely guilty that this happened to the poor sweet thing.

Some backstory - I have been grief stricken since late August when my husband and I lost our dear Siamese cat to dilated cardiomyopathy.  After several weeks of excruciating pain and missing our Siamese, hubby and I adopted a sweet little Savannah kitten.  Our new kitten has brought us some much needed joy and happiness, as the loss of Ninja has been immense for both of us. Right after losing Ninja though, our neighbours with the ferals joked that we should take in the kittens.  But during this time I was absolutely stricken with grief and we did not want to adopt right away. We also truly considered the ferals to be the neighbour's cats, including little Cookie, so we went on to adopt our own kitten, the Savannah.

Now I am absolutely torn apart with guilt that we did not take them in.  I love my Savannah so much and would not trade him for the world now that we have bonded. And the neighbours talked a bit about adopting the feral cats and bringing them inside too but they had not, and now one of them was hit by a car.  I cannot help but feel that I could have prevented this and I am feeling at fault because we adopted another cat and not this one

You can't change the past, but you do have the power to change the future.  Perhaps your Savannah would like to have a little brother?  One of the best things for feral kittens is to have another cat who is totally domesticated around.  The kittens you describe don't sound totally feral either, since they play with the kids, but if they aren't taken in, neutered and spayed soon, there could be a population explosion and more kittens hit by cars.  Perhaps you and your neighbor could work together to find homes for the remaining kittens and make sure they get vaccinated, neutered and spayed.  That would be a good tribute to Cookie, saving the rest of her family.  Whether or not you and your Savannah decide to adopt one or more of the kittens, you will certainly feel a lot better if you can help them find safe indoor homes.

Thank you for your reply.  We were told originally that all these kittens had homes already, but that turned out not to be so.  Cookie was one of the remaining ones, I believe there were 5 total and 3 of them actually got adopted.  Perhaps I worded it wrongly calling them feral - I think I just meant that these kittens lived outside full time with their mom.  The mom cat is definitely feral, she behaves more like a wild animal and does not really let you approach her or touch her or anything like that.  The kittens must have really been socialized with people though because the neighbour's kids always played with them and whatnot.