The Kittens’ New Home
I did find Mama Cat’s kittens. That was on Friday afternoon, after I came home from work. I knew in which direction Mama Cat had gone, so I headed off in that direction and sure enough, I found Mama Cat hissing at me next to the ventilation system of one of the buildings. She only hissed at me once and then let me come closer. Behind the ventilation system I found her litter. It was a small litter but I didn’t stick around long enough to count kittens since I didn’t want to make her too nervous, hovering over her newborn babies. Unlike her March litter, this litter seemed to be gray or black.
Then yesterday it rained all day, but I wasn’t too worried because Mama Cat had found a particularly sheltered place to have her babies. Besides, she’s an experienced mother and she seems to know how to take care of her babies. I did ask Debbie, however, if she would let me borrow her doghouse. The plan was to move them to my backyard when it wasn’t raining. This morning when I went to look for her and the babies, I found that she had moved them. While I had hoped she wouldn’t move them, I wasn’t too surprised. There are two reasons why she might have done this. First, it had rained all day yesterday and perhaps she had found a better, drier place to keep her babies. Second, it’s not unusual for mother cats to move their litters a few days after giving birth. That makes it harder for potential predators to find them. Whatever her reason might have been, she led me to the new nest. The problem was that it was in one of my neighbors’ backyard. She and her daughter love the strays, too, so I wasn’t worried about the kittens being there. And Mama Cat wouldn’t have taken her babies there if she had felt the place was unsafe. My concern was that she had put her babies under the slide in the yard, where they didn’t have sufficient protection from the rain, especially if it started raining very hard again. So I left them a note letting them know about the babies being there and asking them if it was all right for me to come and move the babies over to my backyard, explaining that I had a doghouse I could put them in where they would be safe from the rain.
A while later I talked to them and they let me into their backyard, where I found the babies under the slide. There are only two of them this time, and they are both black, just like their mother. I don’t know if there might have been more kittens originally and they didn’t all survive, or if this was simply a small litter. The babies were tiny and huddled together. I picked them up (both of them fit in one hand!) and started walking toward my own backyard, with Mama Cat in tow. I took them straight into the doghouse, where I had put down an old sheet and an old towel to provide them with a comfortable, warm bed. Then I picked up Mama Cat and put her in there. To my relief she didn’t try to run away and instead settled herself down next to her kittens and allowed them to start nursing. I took that as a good sign that the new nest was acceptable to her.
A couple of hours later she was still in there with her kittens, and then she came around to my front door to eat with the other cats at dinnertime. After spending some time with the other cats in the parking lot, she made her way back into my backyard. I really hope that she will continue to feel comfortable with this nest and that she will keep her kittens there without moving them again. This way they will have a great shelter from the rain and they won’t run the risk of being harmed by people. I hope to be able to socialize these kittens early on, so that I won’t have to wait so long to be able to find them homes. The other kittens are nearly 5 months old and I have yet to make contact with one of them. My hope for this new litter is that they will grow up knowing me and trusting me so that I can find them homes much sooner.
I will find out tomorrow whether Mama Cat likes her new nest. I hope that when I get up in the morning I will find the babies still in the doghouse and that their mother will not have moved them again.
Then yesterday it rained all day, but I wasn’t too worried because Mama Cat had found a particularly sheltered place to have her babies. Besides, she’s an experienced mother and she seems to know how to take care of her babies. I did ask Debbie, however, if she would let me borrow her doghouse. The plan was to move them to my backyard when it wasn’t raining. This morning when I went to look for her and the babies, I found that she had moved them. While I had hoped she wouldn’t move them, I wasn’t too surprised. There are two reasons why she might have done this. First, it had rained all day yesterday and perhaps she had found a better, drier place to keep her babies. Second, it’s not unusual for mother cats to move their litters a few days after giving birth. That makes it harder for potential predators to find them. Whatever her reason might have been, she led me to the new nest. The problem was that it was in one of my neighbors’ backyard. She and her daughter love the strays, too, so I wasn’t worried about the kittens being there. And Mama Cat wouldn’t have taken her babies there if she had felt the place was unsafe. My concern was that she had put her babies under the slide in the yard, where they didn’t have sufficient protection from the rain, especially if it started raining very hard again. So I left them a note letting them know about the babies being there and asking them if it was all right for me to come and move the babies over to my backyard, explaining that I had a doghouse I could put them in where they would be safe from the rain.
A while later I talked to them and they let me into their backyard, where I found the babies under the slide. There are only two of them this time, and they are both black, just like their mother. I don’t know if there might have been more kittens originally and they didn’t all survive, or if this was simply a small litter. The babies were tiny and huddled together. I picked them up (both of them fit in one hand!) and started walking toward my own backyard, with Mama Cat in tow. I took them straight into the doghouse, where I had put down an old sheet and an old towel to provide them with a comfortable, warm bed. Then I picked up Mama Cat and put her in there. To my relief she didn’t try to run away and instead settled herself down next to her kittens and allowed them to start nursing. I took that as a good sign that the new nest was acceptable to her.
A couple of hours later she was still in there with her kittens, and then she came around to my front door to eat with the other cats at dinnertime. After spending some time with the other cats in the parking lot, she made her way back into my backyard. I really hope that she will continue to feel comfortable with this nest and that she will keep her kittens there without moving them again. This way they will have a great shelter from the rain and they won’t run the risk of being harmed by people. I hope to be able to socialize these kittens early on, so that I won’t have to wait so long to be able to find them homes. The other kittens are nearly 5 months old and I have yet to make contact with one of them. My hope for this new litter is that they will grow up knowing me and trusting me so that I can find them homes much sooner.
I will find out tomorrow whether Mama Cat likes her new nest. I hope that when I get up in the morning I will find the babies still in the doghouse and that their mother will not have moved them again.
posted by Ana at 20:34
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