Most of the cats are around for one or two years before they disappear. There have always been kittens to replace the ones lost. Even a couple of these cats have adopted me, inviting themselves into the house. One of these cats was a Siamese-looking cat, Alley. This past winter she delivered five kittens in my cup towel draw (long story); not the prepared space I had provided her. When the kittens were about five or six weeks old, Alley came up missing. She was found on a neighbor's porch dead with a sever head wound. Because a large number of cats had started disappearing from the neighborhood, I assume that Alley became a victim of whoever was eliminating them.
Again, I lucked out. I was able to start feeding them with the others and they thrived. So now there were nine kittens. On May first, I came home from a meeting only to be greeted by a neighbor who had five kittens in a box. He insisted I had to take them so his two dachshunds wouldn't kill them. He couldn't find the mother, so I was their only hope. They had some kind of bacterial infection which they passed to the other kittens. The vet treated the sickest kitten from the litter, and sent antibiotics with me for the other thirteen. The kitten at the vet's died, but the others survived and thrived.
I did discover the mother for these last kittens, so I reconnected them. She was a cat I called Silver, who had been around for several years. She took care of them until she was ready to wean them. By then they were eating with the other orphans. Sadly, she came up missing shortly after her kittens were completely weaned.
Number fourteen joined the group when the boy next door brought her to me one evening. He was sure his dog would kill the kitten, if I didn't take her. I took her.
So now there were officially fourteen kittens alive, well, and growing fast. I was able to have them spayed/neutered and vaccinated for rabies free through the SA Animal Control Services Capture and Release Program.
I know my item task also says find them homes, but I am having a hard time letting them go. I just can't give them to anybody. Timmy and Tiny have been the first to leave having found a new home with friends from the trail ride. Terry wants a couple, but beyond that they may just end up joining the feral population who hang out at my house. That's not a bad thing. It means no mice, no snakes, no bugs, and I can keep watching them grow and evolve. And if a friend needs a cat, well we'll see. What a sucker!
(I consider this item done because even if they stay with me, they have a home.)
3 comments:
You are to be admired for assuming responsibility for all of these kittens! And thinking up 14 names? Wow! I admit, I am tempted by a couple of them, but I know dog Luckey would be even more tempted.
Thanks for taking photos of all of them!
Truth be told, it several days to get all fourteen taken. They were very uncooperative. I finally settled for a sleeping Monkey. Inside she is a terrible pest, but outside she is a ghost.
Maybe, when the kittens are grown, Luckey would be less likely to harm them.
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