- Joined
- Aug 1, 2017
- Messages
- 26
- Purraise
- 14
I am so glad this forum exists. I am freaking out (like about to have panic attacks).
Backstory:
On June 9, a beautiful, young, and hungry semi-feral cat showed up at our house. We began feeding her, as we thought at first she was someone's pet. We looked for her owners but there were no responses; so we basically accepted her as "ours" and knew that when she became more comfortable with us, we would capture her and take her to the vet to start the initial process of either TNR or domesticating her. We captured her and took her to the vet. After all of her shots, a general check-up, an age estimation of 6 months, and receiving a clean bill of health - with the admission that she had NOT been spayed - and not knowing a lot of alternatives at the time, we just brought her indoors and kept her secluded away from our other cats.
We decided to see if she could adjust to a domesticate life. She adjusted okay; didn't like us, but she enjoyed the indoors, went to the litter box, etc. But after a couple of weeks inside with her still being so terrified of us, we thought she might best enjoy being an outdoor pet cat.
However, we live in a subdivision and our neighbors are crazy. They will capture ANY cat that comes across their yard whether it is stray, feral, or someone's outdoor pet, and take them to not nice places. We knew we couldn't provide her with the outdoor pet life in good conscience and we couldn't just drop her on the side of the road somewhere. We determined that we would get her spayed, and then give her to my friend who is a farmer and always needs barn cats.
Then yesterday, I'm driving home from work my husband calls me and says "uh, she had kittens." So now we have two newborn kittens and a mother cat who is terrified & furious. We moved her and the kittens into a calm, safe, and closed-off/secure room w/ lots of food/water, a clean litter box, and a soft bed. We are only checking on them twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to make sure food and water is fine.
But I am still completely freaking out because I don't want the babies to die or for her to harm them. As far as I can tell, she has been caring for them.
in fact, i am afraid her protection might harm them. She has been crouching/hunching/sitting over them since they were born. That's how we found her/them yesterday when she was out in the main living area (though hiding in her regular hiding spot). Last night, when we had to move them separately into the secure room, she ran direct under the bed, and when we moved the babies in there, we placed them on the cat bed we made. This morning when I checked on her, she had moved them under the bed with her and she was still crouching/hunching/sitting OVER them up against the bedroom which also has a towel near it.
So i am terrified she is going to smother them or crush them, but I don't my terror lead me to disrupt her entirely and cause her to freak out and then completely reject them. How can I check that they are still alive/thriving if she won't let me get close to her right now?
Please help. The babies are so cute and she is so sweet (as long as we don't get too close to her), that I don't want anything bad to happen to them
Backstory:
On June 9, a beautiful, young, and hungry semi-feral cat showed up at our house. We began feeding her, as we thought at first she was someone's pet. We looked for her owners but there were no responses; so we basically accepted her as "ours" and knew that when she became more comfortable with us, we would capture her and take her to the vet to start the initial process of either TNR or domesticating her. We captured her and took her to the vet. After all of her shots, a general check-up, an age estimation of 6 months, and receiving a clean bill of health - with the admission that she had NOT been spayed - and not knowing a lot of alternatives at the time, we just brought her indoors and kept her secluded away from our other cats.
We decided to see if she could adjust to a domesticate life. She adjusted okay; didn't like us, but she enjoyed the indoors, went to the litter box, etc. But after a couple of weeks inside with her still being so terrified of us, we thought she might best enjoy being an outdoor pet cat.
However, we live in a subdivision and our neighbors are crazy. They will capture ANY cat that comes across their yard whether it is stray, feral, or someone's outdoor pet, and take them to not nice places. We knew we couldn't provide her with the outdoor pet life in good conscience and we couldn't just drop her on the side of the road somewhere. We determined that we would get her spayed, and then give her to my friend who is a farmer and always needs barn cats.
Then yesterday, I'm driving home from work my husband calls me and says "uh, she had kittens." So now we have two newborn kittens and a mother cat who is terrified & furious. We moved her and the kittens into a calm, safe, and closed-off/secure room w/ lots of food/water, a clean litter box, and a soft bed. We are only checking on them twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to make sure food and water is fine.
But I am still completely freaking out because I don't want the babies to die or for her to harm them. As far as I can tell, she has been caring for them.
in fact, i am afraid her protection might harm them. She has been crouching/hunching/sitting over them since they were born. That's how we found her/them yesterday when she was out in the main living area (though hiding in her regular hiding spot). Last night, when we had to move them separately into the secure room, she ran direct under the bed, and when we moved the babies in there, we placed them on the cat bed we made. This morning when I checked on her, she had moved them under the bed with her and she was still crouching/hunching/sitting OVER them up against the bedroom which also has a towel near it.
So i am terrified she is going to smother them or crush them, but I don't my terror lead me to disrupt her entirely and cause her to freak out and then completely reject them. How can I check that they are still alive/thriving if she won't let me get close to her right now?
Please help. The babies are so cute and she is so sweet (as long as we don't get too close to her), that I don't want anything bad to happen to them
