Is what I'm doing okay?

[kara_leigh]

Recently we moved out to the country...as in the middle of nowhere. We have 3 neighbors in a square mile. We live in 5 acres. People out here treat owning animals completely different than what I'm used to. Our next door neighbors have a cat that stays outside 24/7 and is SO small and skinny, and not fixed.

Anyway...a few days ago we had this teeny tiny super skinny cat show up on our front porch in the middle of the day. At first I thought it was a male, but today I realized it is a female. Its really small, but I have NO idea how old it is, though I know it has already had one litter of kittens (not sure if it is pregnant right now, though).

She is SUPER skinny, so I have been feeding her. I don't know if she belongs to anyone, but considering the cat my one neighbor owns, she could. She is REALLY friendly, but she also has a head tilt (vestibular problem?) and loves to talk. She'll even get up in DS's lap, and let me try to extract milk from her nipples. She loves any attention she can get.

I have been sure that DS and I wash our hands as soon as we get inside anytime that we have been petting her.

Is what I've been doing okay? We just moved here in March and we don't know anyone other than that one family, and I know this isn't theirs. She now comes to our house 3-4 times per day (but has 300ish acres around us to roam through).

 

[feralvr]

Hi Kara! Hope all is well in your new home and it sound like a lovely place. Very peaceful!!! YES, you are doing the right thing so far. I would treat this cat as a stray that has now adopted you as her new caretaker. So you must follow through now. I would not contact that neighbor as it sounds to me like they have that "farm" mentality with cats i.e. don't feed the cats, they are suppose to live on the mice and fend for themselves. This is not a way I think about barn/farm cats at all

. I would do what you can to find a rescue/foster/shelter that could take this friendly, sweet kitty. She needs a home and rescuing. That is why she has come to you. It sounds like she could be easily placed

. Much luck with this kitty

 

[kara_leigh]

We decided to adopt her. We're not bringing her inside yet, b/c she has kittens out there somewhere. She spends most of her day on our front porch, except to go feed her babies. Once I am fairly certain she is done nursing, and we get her tested for FIV/FL, we will get her spayed and bring her in. We have named her Hazel. She is such a sweet little girl.

 

[feralvr]

That is wonderful news, Kara

. Good for you saving Hazel. Pretty name too. You are doing a wonderful thing for her. What about her kittens? She might bring them by soon. So you might want to have a plan to gather them up and take them to a rescue to get them adopted. Kittens usually get adopted quickly. I am just thinking if Hazel is going off to feed her kittens, then she will bring them to you when they are old enough. Just be prepared for that

.

 

[kara_leigh]

I will. As soon as she brings them by here (assuming she will, b/c she is not a fan of our dogs so she may not) we will contact a rescue or a feral group around here, depending on if they are friendly or not. I'm thinking they are already big enough for her to bring them by if she wanted to b/c she takes them chicken that we give to her, so they are big enough to eat stuff like that. I don't know, though, I have no clue. lol

Here's a pic of her I took last night. She is making bread. LOL She does that all the time when she is laying on her side and getting pets.

 

[kara_leigh]

Well, I was wrong. She brought her kittens here. I'm not sure when, but I saw them for the first time last night. Late last night I went out to talk to her and give her some company. Usually she just sits on our front porch all night. She wasn't there, but occasionally during the day she will sit on our chicken tractor to get away from the dogs so I went around the corner of the house to see if she was there, and I saw kittens go flying away into the dark. Hazel came over to see me, and I had my husband turn the side light on. I realized there were two kittens there.

I just sat on the porch, talking to Hazel and talking softly to the kittens. I don't know how old they are, but they are a good size yet still nursing. One is black with white paws, chin, and chest with a LONG tail, and the other is a gorgeous calico with a few tabby stripes in some of her orange spots. Gradually they came up on the porch with us, but wouldn't let me come near them. The calico sniffed my toe, though. Hazel is so tiny, her kittens are almost as big as she is!! Like I said, they are still nursing, but were eating the cat food I put out for Hazel and she has taken them some raw chicken in the past.

I haven't seen them all day today, but maybe again tonight. I have NO clue where she is keeping them.

What now????? Hazel is so small, it is hard for me to judge how old her kittens are (and I haven't had a baby cat since Nora was a kitten 3 years ago, so I don't remember...the boys were 7 months when I got them and they are huge). I would like to get them all fixed, as there is a low cost spay and neuter clinic around here that will fix ferals for $25. I have no idea when to get Hazel spayed.

 

[Willowy]

Call the spay clinic to ask when they recommend spaying a mama cat. My vet says it can be done when the kittens are 9 weeks old, but the clinic might have different preferences. You should do it soon, before she gets pregnant again, though. And probably it's a bit too late to tame the kittens enough to make housepets out of them (ideally, if you want to tame feral kittens, you should get them before they're 8 weeks old), so they should be spayed/neutered soon, too. I've noticed that spring kittens don't usually go into heat until the next January, but you never know.

 

[feralvr]

First off, Hazel is a very pretty girl

! I had a feeling she was bringing the kittens by now. I bet they have been coming at night. They sound pretty too. You can get Hazel and the kittens fixed immediately. The kittens are old enough, especially if they are almost as big as Hazel. The reason they are still nursing is because they don't have a constant food source, until you, that is. My TNRd feral Dixie, had kittens nursing too and they were about five to six months old when I first saw them. I started feeding and trapping them all right away and lucky that I did because they were all female!!!!!! Since Hazel is friendly with you, them the kittens will follow suit. Start getting them as soon as you can. But make the arrangements first. It takes some effort but is worth it because you will stop more kittens adding to the overpopulation problem and will be saving lives

. Hopefully one of the places can find homes for the kittens. If not, at least they will get fixed. If they are already five to six months old, then they can start breeding

and you don't want more kittens.

Lauren
P.s. I like your new siggy

 

[kara_leigh]

Oh boy. Well...she has a second litter. I walked out of my husband's shop tonight after putting my chickens away, and they were all following along behind her as she was walking down our driveway. These ones are LITTLE, though. Oh, and did I mention there are five of them?? LOL Four boys and one girl. The older ones are a boy (black one) and a girl (calico). The little ones are really friendly, though. Especially one, he was crawling all over me, playing with my fingers. SOO cute! Two of them have broken/chopped tails. One looks like a little piglet, his tail is like a cork screw. The other one's tail was chopped off somehow. The other three are fine.

Do you think it would be worth it for me to try to find them new homes, or should I just hand them over to a rescue? I don't want to get Hazel spayed right now since she still has a litter that is actually nursing.

Here's some pics DH took:

Hazel is in front, the five little ones behind her, then the one in the back left is one of the bigger kits


The older calico


Drinking from the animal water bucket. Hazel in front, and you can see the two bigger kits behind her and the size comparison. Hazel is REALLY small, though.


Please ignore my hose laying around...I was lazy and didn't want to put it away after I hosed the chicken poop off the porch yesterday. lol The fan on the porch is for the cats/dogs/chickens b/c of the heat. They really do take advantage of it.

 

[StefanZ]

Interesting, this seems one of these cases of two different litters simulaneously. Perhaps delivered three weeks apart...
They arent often, but they are not entirely unique.

Another possibility is she adopted motherless kittens at some time. This happens too. But they seems more or less of her color, right? So prob it is the scenario nr 1.

I agree for you to plan on spaying. Sooner the better. If the vet knows she is nursing, he can lay the wound where it doesnt get in the way.

As the mom takes the kittens now to you, and the food at your place, the risk is much lesser if you take mom for spaying and cant find the kittens. Without mom they are defenceless.
Now they know the way, and will come to the food, even if you dont manage to catch them all at once.

You ask, send them to this shelter or find them homes... It is often better to find them homes on your own, unless the shelter has excellent possibilites to find homes. Many shelters doesnt. Perhaps best to talk with them and coordinate the efforts?
Try to socialize them! MUCH easier to find adoption-homes if they are socialized.
It should be fairly easy with the small, they are still in the right age when it is easy.

The older ones are entirely possible to socialize too, although it will prob take more time and effort. And thus - before you adopt them out, you must either socialize them (you or this shelter) OR make sure the adopter is willing to put the work, patience and love into socializing...
Most adopters dont want or cant.


Good luck!

 

[kara_leigh]

The little ones are going to be easy to socialize. She kept them here, they have been sleeping and playing on the porch. We (me, DS, and DH) have been playing with them all day. They are all VERY sweet. Two of them are still a little leary of us, but will let us pet them if we don't move too fast. The other three are crawling all over us, playing with our fingers, etc. I gave them some cat toys. As I type this, mom must have gone off to hunt and all five of the little ones are tucked away in the cat carrier I put out for them.

I took some new pics today. I named them all after Charlotte's Web characters.

Wilbur (has the curly tail)


Fern (the only girl) not the best picture, she didn't like my camera


Templeton


Lurvy


Avery




Better pic of Fern




The older kits will be harder to socialize, if I even can. I only see them late at night (I haven't seen them all day), and they usually won't come near if they see us. I got those couple pictures last night, but the rest of the time they stayed out by the road at the end of our driveway. I'm not giving up, though.

 

[feralvr]

OMG

Hazel sure brought you a lot of work

. Are they ever darling

. Just adorable. My heart just dropped when you said the Charlottes Web character names. I have used those names for many years, they are great names for pets. My older dog is Wilbur and his brother is Henry. We had a Charlotte and Avery too. Anyway, I would wait a little bit too before you get her spayed. Those kittens look to be around four weeks. If you have a good shelter, then by all means take the kittens there when they are weaned another four weeks. Cute and adorable kittens like this will get adopted fast. In a couple of weeks they will start to nibble on dry food or maybe even sooner. OH I can't get over how cute they are

The older kittens I would try to trap and get fixed right away. Hopefully they are not with kittens. I like your attitude about not giving up because those older kittens need you and need to be fixed. How are your cats reacting to seeing the new family of kitties outside? What cute pictures and all the kittens are so pretty. Wow, in just a few days, you went from just Hazel to now her two litters. Hope she is done bringing you kittens

, she certainly loves you

 

[Willowy]

I would actually guess the younger kittens to be 7-8 weeks old or so; they don't have the pointy baby tails anymore, and their eyes are losing their blueness. They are a bit small but that could be from not having a reliable food source.

If the shelter is a good one, and they spay/neuter before adoption, I'd take the younger kittens there. If they don't have a good adoption rate, I wouldn't risk it. Even if they do have a good adoption rate, if they don't spay/neuter before adoption there's no reason you shouldn't re-home them yourself. You should be able to find them decent homes without too much trouble.

But wow! That's a lot of kitties. Better get the calico and Hazel spayed quickly, before there's more of them!

I'd recommend getting the calico spayed ASAP (a lot of shelters or Animal Control offices will lend out traps if you can't catch her), and getting Hazel done in a couple weeks.

 

[kara_leigh]

They do still have tiny pointy tails, its just hard to tell in the pics and two of them have broken or chopped off tails. They are eating dry cat food, though.

As for our other cats, Nora spends most of her time in our bedroom closet

and I'm sure she can smell them but she doesn't seem to care. Walter and Thomas have seen them when we open the front door and through the glass patio doors, but are just curious. Walter wants to be everyone's buddy, so he has tried to get out to see them a couple times.

Thomas could care less.

 

[kara_leigh]

They are all gone.

The babies were there when I let my chickens out of the coop at 6am but Hazel was gone. Now they are all gone. Hopefully they are just out on a walk or something and they come back. Its just strange, though, b/c they were here all day yesterday. I wouldn't expect her to move them during the day.

 

[feralvr]

Oh believe me, they will be back. She might have taken them out hunting... This is common for mom and kits to disappear for a bit. If Hazel felt there was any sort of threat, and who knows what it was, off she would go with them. It is hard to say exactly how old they are, but they are tiny. Hopefully you can have a plan to be ready to go with to get the kittens into a rescue/foster/shelter organization. Sending you lots of vibes for all of those little darlings!!!

Lauren
p.s. Sounds like Walter wants to be a friend to them all

. What a sweetie

 

[kara_leigh]

I sure hope so. It just strange for Hazel to be gone for so long. Even before she brought the kittens up here, she would be on our front porch quite frequently during the day. I haven't seen her at all today. Hopefully they show up tonight.

I'm really nervous about them.

 

[kara_leigh]

Well, Hazel has been by a couple times, once late this afternoon and again about a half an hour ago. No sign of the babies, though.

 

[feralvr]

Is it possible that there is someone else feeding them too? That farm nearby? I am sure that is where she is keeping her kits. They will be back because your place is where Hazel stays, most of the time, so the kittens will follow her lead when she allows.

 

[kara_leigh]

I have no idea. I doubt it is the people I spoke about before. We've fed their animals while they were out of town before, and they only have one male cat. They may be getting fed by another family down the road, but if they are I don't feel great about it b/c Hazel was bone thin when she first came to me. She is starting to put on some weight since she started hanging out here.