Of Fostering and Failing
I don't think I ever posted about this... Anyways here it goes.
The neighbors next door, have had cats, when said cats get old enough to come into heat or start spraying... Needless to say they throw the animals out and have no qualms about it. I know they have had about 3 and I see those three seldom, as they are stray and nearly feral now... and not spayed/neutered. Well one of the 3 had a litter of kittens. My dad had originally alerted my sister to them, he saw one crawl to cover when he was mowing our backyard. Mind you this was back in late April to early May.
Out of curiosity my sister and I go looking for them where my dad last saw the one that ran. I happen to turn the corner to go back around our other next-door neighbor's back yard (it is open and unfenced) and see 5 little kittens sitting on the back porch. I quietly called my sister over and pointed to them. When we approached they ran into the bushes. We spent at least 30 minutes in almost 90 degree heat trying to get them to come to us, but they wouldn't. So then we headed back inside and told our mom that we had found them.
My mom decided that we should try and catch them, to foster them, and find homes for them that would not throw them out like trash. My sister went out and caught all 5, and got poison ivy for her efforts. We socialized them to humans, dogs and other cats,fattened them up, and gave them names. Daisy Mae, Lilly Bell, Tiger, Demon and Luna.
Here comes the failure part. We tried not to get attached, and we tried to find homes. But no one around here wants kittens and at the time we already had 4 cats of our own. So after much deliberation between my parents and us... we decided we would keep all 5. That makes 9 cats. If we hadn't stepped in when we did, and the neighbor who's yard they were in had found them. He would have drowned them in the river. He said so himself after my parents had told him we were in their yard, and didn't want them to think we were trying to break in the house or anything.
Our older cats have all been spayed/neutered. 4 out of the 5 have been spayed/neutered. We are still waiting to get Luna fixed, after an accident with our dog, Blaze, that happened a few days before the scheduled appointment, left her with a hole in her head and unable to get fixed at that time. She is now fully healed, healthy, and waiting to get her spay done.
Kittens
The neighbors next door, have had cats, when said cats get old enough to come into heat or start spraying... Needless to say they throw the animals out and have no qualms about it. I know they have had about 3 and I see those three seldom, as they are stray and nearly feral now... and not spayed/neutered. Well one of the 3 had a litter of kittens. My dad had originally alerted my sister to them, he saw one crawl to cover when he was mowing our backyard. Mind you this was back in late April to early May.
Out of curiosity my sister and I go looking for them where my dad last saw the one that ran. I happen to turn the corner to go back around our other next-door neighbor's back yard (it is open and unfenced) and see 5 little kittens sitting on the back porch. I quietly called my sister over and pointed to them. When we approached they ran into the bushes. We spent at least 30 minutes in almost 90 degree heat trying to get them to come to us, but they wouldn't. So then we headed back inside and told our mom that we had found them.
My mom decided that we should try and catch them, to foster them, and find homes for them that would not throw them out like trash. My sister went out and caught all 5, and got poison ivy for her efforts. We socialized them to humans, dogs and other cats,fattened them up, and gave them names. Daisy Mae, Lilly Bell, Tiger, Demon and Luna.
Here comes the failure part. We tried not to get attached, and we tried to find homes. But no one around here wants kittens and at the time we already had 4 cats of our own. So after much deliberation between my parents and us... we decided we would keep all 5. That makes 9 cats. If we hadn't stepped in when we did, and the neighbor who's yard they were in had found them. He would have drowned them in the river. He said so himself after my parents had told him we were in their yard, and didn't want them to think we were trying to break in the house or anything.
Our older cats have all been spayed/neutered. 4 out of the 5 have been spayed/neutered. We are still waiting to get Luna fixed, after an accident with our dog, Blaze, that happened a few days before the scheduled appointment, left her with a hole in her head and unable to get fixed at that time. She is now fully healed, healthy, and waiting to get her spay done.
Kittens