Feral Mother Moved Kittens (her's And Another's) And Only One Mother Can Get To Them

[feralhelp]

I had two cats give birth in my yard about a month ago - one in a doghouse I have and the other in a cat tent I set up on my back porch. The two mothers are very friendly and showed up at the same time/age months ago so I think they're litter mates. About a week after giving birth the cat in the house brought her (4) kittens to the tent on the porch and they take turns feeding/grooming all (6 total) so they seem to be blending as a family just fine. The mothers are brave / friendly enough with us now to ask for petting and let us walk around normally. Our plan was to pick them all up at about 3 months to get the lot of them fixed.

Yesterday we had to have some contractors go through the back porch to get up to our roof. So one of the mothers moved all 6 kittens over to the next yard (we can't get there due to fencing). The problem is that the mother with 3 legs also can't get there easily and has been approaching me asking for something and vocalizing as if she wants me to help her get to her kittens. The two mothers still act friendly towards each other and both still asked for food and petting on the porch after the moving the kittens. I'm just worried about the little ones since I don't know if they're going to get enough food or protection with only one of the mothers able to access them. Short of going into the neighbor's yard and bringing them back, does anyone have any other advice on helping them out?

 

[StefanZ]

Are the contractors gone now?
If so, chance is very good the momma will bring the kittens back.
Otherwise, continue to set out food, and hope for the best.

Of course, if you can talk with the neigbours its the best. Even if everything remains as it is for the moment, coming into speaking terms with neigbours is always nice.

So you arent able to take the kittens in (with or without mothers) and make sure they are postered and adopted out?

 

[feralhelp]

Thanks for your reply. The contractors are coming back on Friday and Saturday so I wouldn't mind them away for a couple days. My main concern is the mother who stayed behind. She's frantic and won't leave me alone (meowing at the window, winding around my legs, etc). She also has swollen tits and probably really wants to feed someone. If they don't come back after the weekend, I may talk to the neighbors about bringing them back.

As for fostering, I'd love to but we just took in 3 orphaned kittens in December that I couldn't find homes for so now they're ours in addition to our elderly pet and another stray we took in two years ago. Unfortunately, we just don't have capacity to do more than feed them and let them all live in the back yard.

 

[msaimee]

Your best course of action is to speak with your neighbors. Are you on good terms with them? They would likely be very happy for you to remove the kittens from their yard. For all you know, they may not be too happy about having cats in their yard, and worst case scenario is that they would take the kittens and dump them somewhere, or put them in a shelter before they are weaned. Once they give the okay, you could bring a l pet carrier back there, load up the kittens, and return them to your yard. You haven't mentioned how old the kittens are, but if they are still weaning, they need to be with their mother cat, and the fact that their mama cat is in distress is yet another strong reason to go talk to your neighbors. By the way, I've had to talk with many neighbors about cat situations, not just on my block and immediate neighborhood, but also in the neighborhood where I work when there was a cat hoarder whose cats were breeding out of control and becoming ill. My experience has been 95% positive. Even people who don't especially like cats are usually pretty Cooperative when it comes to finding a solution for having a bunch of cats running around their neighborhood . So I encourage you to speak with your neighbors, I have a feeling it would be very productive for all involved.

 

[surya]

If talking to the neighbors is out of the question, the only thing I could think of doing is digging a secret hole under the fence that the kitty could squeeze under. If its a wooden fence and their are bushes around so it would not be too noticeable this might be possible. It kind of depends on the fence for this to be possible though.

 

[msaimee]

If speaking with the neighbors is out of question, (you've had fights with them in the past?) another option would be to wait until you're sure they are not at home, that their car is not in the driveway, and just go over to their backyard and take the kittens. If you are caught, just calmly explain the situation. Even the most of unreasonable neighbors would be happy to have a group of feral kittens removed from their property.

 

[surya]

Can the contractors go through the front door instead of the porch? Have you tried calling rescue's in the area to see if they could take the kittens when they are old enough? Also search Facebook for cat rescue groups. I found some in my area that have helped me with rescue's.

 

[feralhelp]

UPDATE: Thanks for all the advice. I get along fine with the neighbors so that wasn't the problem, though there is a slight language barrier: I speak Portuguese and they speak Spanish - I can understand them, but they can't always understand me.

On Friday, contractors were back and replaced my roof so I was kind of glad they weren't here. This am everyone was back on my porch, but contractors were coming back to clean up the mountain of debris. I was able to grab one of the mother cats and all 6 kittens, but the friendliest cat - three-legged no less - was able to get away. I am really hoping she comes back tonight or tomorrow so I can put her with the others. All are going to humane society next week!

 

[surya]

Some cities have very good Humane Societies. Where I live, they have a very high kill rate, around 89%. I'm not trying to scare you, but I would check them out before you take them there.