I think she means spayed and neutered.
Oh, your poor cats! I'm really touched by how well you cared for Jax when he was sick. Sweet boy, he was so lucky to have you as his cat guardians.
Dooley sounds like he really landed on his feet when you took him in too. I have a lot of semi feral cats, some of them can be handled, some of them I have to trap when I take them to the vet. Luckily they are fairly robust, they very rarely get sick. They were trapped when they were old enough to be spayed or neutered and got their vaccinations at the same time. I moved house about 3 years ago and brought the whole feral colony with me, so they got vaccinated again when I had to trap and relocate them.
So they're not up to date on their shots, but when you're taking care of ferals you just have to be grateful for whatever you can do. Dooley sounds like one who might have to be trapped in order to get him to the vet, or if that doesn't work then sedated.
You know, there are a lot of horror stories in the Health forum, but not every cat suffers from all the health problems out there. Most cats are very healthy, so please don't worry too much about the kittens. Just keep them separate from Dooley until they've been checked over by a vet. They look like they're in pretty good condition, it's so much easier to take care of kittens that were dumped by someone or who lost their mother than really sickly ones who were abandoned by mum.
My kittens are all over 4 months old now. They're getting fixed next week and then they are going to one of the Tokyo Cat Cafes to be adopted. I've grown really attached to them, but I have 22 cats already so I can't have any more. I got to do the fun part of taking care of them when they were tiny and I'll also have the satisfaction of knowing they'll go to good homes, where they'll get all the love and attention they need.
Having said that you can probably understand why I'm thinking "1 cat and 2 kittens? No problem!"
I can understand why you have your reservations though, taking on another cat is a huge responsibility. You don't have to decide right now. Think of them as fosters that you are caring for while they are too tiny to go anywhere else. If they become foster failures and you do end up keeping them, well that's fine. Let's just wait and see.
Oh, another bit of TCS jargon you might hear; we often talk about the Cat Goddess and how she picks people to take care of her cats and kittens.
Sounds like she knows where you live.......
