For some time now, a scrawny half-grown cat has been hanging around our house. We didn't know at first if she belonged to somebody, but couldn't find an owner. If she did, she clearly wasn't being taken care of, so my husband started feeding her (yes, I know. don't say it lol). About the time he considered taking her to the Humane Society since we simply can't take on another pet right now, she was pregnant. Well, then of course we couldn't take her. 
She had her litter. We couldn't take her in with a litter depending on her. We wondered where it was until last night. Suddenly, waiting at the front door was 'mama' with one of her brood, apparently to show us, since after a short visit, she disappeared with the kitten again. After that, she kept desparately trying to get into the house. This morning, my husband found out why. While the garage door was open, she brought the rest of her brood in, unbeknownst to us, though she didn't finish, since kitty number one is missing and must still be at the original haven. So, here are the dinner guests. The garage door is left partway open and locked at that point so she can come and go. She has water. She's been fed. Now what do we do??
15 comments:
You're lucky she brought them to you! We once had a cat that had her kittens way in the back of our barn/garage. By the time we discovered them, they were several weeks old and 100% undomesticated...
Hi Paul
You're right. She's got them back in the corner again now and, even with the garage door cracked, it's still in the 80's here in Florida,so she may move them again. Kittens have a better chance of adoption than cats and these are adorable ,so when the time comes, we'll try to find homes and maybe get the mother fixed and continue to feed her outside.
Michael
Your experience helped. We don't think the odds of this mother cat being adopted are high and we don't want to take her off, knowing she'll be 'put to sleep'. As long as she keeps coming around, we'll just keep feeding her. Weather isn't a problem here except for hurricanes and she could go into the garage then. Otherwise, winters are when it finally gets cool enough to breathe down here.
Had a cat in Boston who loved to go outside (she lived 18 years, after traveling with me by boat to Florida). She was out in one of the worst blizzard of one winter. Couldn't find her. She survived!
They ARE adorable:-)
Keep her!! Keep her!! Keep her!!
Follow your heart not your head!!
They are all so adorable.
Yes, i'm leaning that way. I'd like to keep one of the kittens, too, but...
she'll just stay an outdoor cat. since it IS a dead-end street it's pretty safe. our last cat lived outside for the last 13 years of her life. She preferred it that way.
Consider them a blessing.
Cats are intensely connected so if one decides you’re worthy of its intentions then you’re obviously doing something right.
I read recently about Diogenes who was captured by pirates and sold into slavery. At the slave market he saw a buyer he liked the look of and said to his captor, “Sell me to that man, he looks like he needs a master.”
I have a friend who saw a cat run over by a car. The cat lay by the side of the road obviously in great pain. My friend picked it up and cuddled and stroked it, and it purred and purred for about 5 minutes and then died. Connexion and love supplanted its pain.
Hi Steven
Having had cats all of the years I was growing up and in many years off and on, I know what you mean. It was very apparent to me that this cat had checked us out and, the first time the garage door was open for a while as my husband did other things, she moved her brood one by one, in there. He finally figured out the puzzle of the one by the door. He, of course, didn't know about this move, and had closed the door and she couldn't get the last one in. After she made constant attempts to get into the house, which she'd never done before, we finally let her in and she ran around to the house garage door. He opened it and followed her in and found them. As of this morning, she's still settled in with babies and being treated royally with water right next to the bed and food delivery:-)
oh, how adorable... we have two, or I'd sign up for a kitty...! My husband would kill me if I got another animal... :P
In college, a neigbor's cat got out and subsequently gave birth as a result of her nightly adventure.
I took one of the kittens and had a wonderful "buddy" for 13 years.
My parents also took in a stray who had a kitten. The mother was hit by a car, but kitten is going strong 14 years later.
Cats are good critters and pretty low maintenance.
I love cats , too, and am more and more considering keeping one, but as an outdoor cat. With the physical/medical issues I have days can go by when I wouldn't be able to empty a litter box or train a kitten not to scratch etc. I've had cats before and know a lot is involved in their early potty training and in maintenance. The little colorful one with a stub tail is winning my heart, tho, as is the mother, so they may just be outdoor and come in for 'visits'. As I think I commented earlier, our last cat of 18 years did that by preference. She much preferred to be outside. After she ate and was rubbed, she was at the door again.
All our family cats were outdooors as was my first one. The farm cats didn't technically come in...apart from when they sneaked in. They all were happy healthy cats. My current one is different and has adapted well to staying in...is reluctant to go outside with me. He is an indoor cat due to circumstance...three legs and a busy town road outside. The RSPCA advised me to keep this one in. If I lived in a rural location I'd give him the choice to go out.
I think cats adapt well to whatever living arrangements they are given. They are amazing creatures.
I know...if we lived on anything other than a deadend quiet street I couldn't consider outdoors, either. Where I grew up was the ideal for a cat (and hence the multitudes that ate at our back door). we were on a main street, but it was a small town and 'main' meant that a car came by maybe every ten or fifteen minutes instead of every hour or so:-) Behind us, we had a garage with a barn extension and behind that was a small pond and woods. Cat heaven!
My road runs almost from one end of the peninsula to the other. I am on a very 'touristy' street, a few doors down from a victorian tram station and amongst various hotels and large houses. It can be heaving with holiday traffic all wanting to gain access up to the summit of the Great Orme. And every day in summer I see numerous coaches parked outside to load or offload. It is a beautiful street with a view of the sea at my end and the sea and distant mountains at the other, and with a stunning rocky headland rising up behind and some amazing victorian architecture. But boy does it get busy in summer!!!
In the winter it is mostly quiet.
yes, i'd keep him in,too!
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