This came in today from Paula. I have emailed to ask her what area as it sounds as if she is doing a stupendous job but definitely needs some help.
If you haven’t read my email and see this Paula can you get in contact or reply onsite?
The whole story is on as a comment on Conversations but I feel it needs to be up front so that anyone who is available to help her can.
Hi, I cant find where to put a fresh topic on this site. I’ve just been searching for people who know cats. Sorry to jump into your conversation but I’m “out of my depth!”.
I own a garage. For the last 6 months we’ve been finding cat prints near our tea area but we never saw the cat. Last Sunday we found 5 kittens in a box in an upstairs room. We figured, through searching the net, that they were 2 days old. Mum was nowhere to be seen at that time. I started leaving food and was thrilled to bits that it started disappearing so I continued to feed her. After a couple of days she figured that the food situation was OK but she didn’t like the fact that we could look in the box at the kittens so she moved them. Unfortunately she choose the highest cupboard in the room where we’d stored all manner of rubbish. It’s cold and draughty up there, right near the roof.
On Saturday I went in to feed her and she came down from her cupboard muttering what sounded like obscenities and threats. She was all puffed up, growling and hissing and marching toward me with purpose. I kept my cool in the face of the advancing ball of teeth and claws and, talking calmly, I put the food down on the floor.
The next day I did the same only this time she let me stroke her. Today she was my best friend and she’s lovely - her growl seems to be her way of talking. She even let me stroke the kittens and pick some up.
On top of the cupboard is horrible, I was watching her tonight struggling with the now 6 day old kittens, there was just no room. She looked so uncomfortable and so tired that she closed her eyes and half nodded off with her head on my hand while the kittens fed.
There are dangers on the cupboard, I tried to work out what I could move without upsetting all the other rubbish up there; bits of metal, polythene bags, wood and lots of black dust. Mum was cramped, laying on the kittens and looking pained. I think she’s sore too.
So I came home and got some soft pet bedding and a big box, went back and set up a den for her that’s well hidden. I put her food down and she extricated herself from the kittens and went to eat. I got another box and put all five kittens in it - she watched while she ate. I put all the kittens in the new bed. When she’d finised eating she looked a bit upset but went to the box and went in through the hole I’d put in the side. She was only in there long enough to count them then came out again. She ate some more and we spent half an hour being friends again. Then I turned off the lights, came home and I’ve been sitting here worried sick ever since.
The kittens were a lot more mobile today than they have been previously, eyes opened too, and the chances of them falling off the cupboard were quite high, that worried me. It absolutely threw it down with rain today and I know the back wall, which the cupboard is built against, is wet through when it rains. There was no room and no way I could get blankets of any size in there to keep them warm.
Did I do the right thing? If they’d been puppies I would have been fine but cats are something else. Their body language and their actions seem so contradictory! They are absolutely beautiful and I’m bonding way too well with Mum (My GSD would think so anyway).
The RSPCA have said that they’ll come and take them all when they’re 4 weeks old, Mum too. They’re going to spay Mum and see whether they can rehome her. If they cant she can live at the garage and I’ll continue to look after her.
There is one kitten much smaller than the rest, this is another worry (can you tell this is my first litter of kittens?!). This little one cries more than the others. At least I can see her now, if Mum keeps them where they are now. On the cupboard I could barely see them at all.
What I’m really worried about is whether she’ll reject them! Common sense tells me that she shouldn’t because she was willing to allow me to handle them on top of the cupboard. She took them back and cleaned them afterward.
I know very little about cats you see. And I feel hugely responsible for all of them.
I get the impression that Mum has been a house cat, probably abandoned by some heartless ****, as she’s so keen on company now. She really is loveable and it goes beyond feeding time. I was with her for ages tonight.
Any advice re moving them again, if she shifts them back to the cupboard, and what to do with the little one if she doesn’t appear to be feeding would be appreciated.
I don’t think I’m going to sleep much tonight. Wish they were here at home with me but my GSD isn’t very tolerant of cats and it would likely upset Mum even more.