Friends

08:49 am June 4th, 2012




			Friends

twotone


	Return of Feral Kittens
	I guess June is the season for kittens. Back in June 2004, we discovered that Chester and Tammy's MomCat had had another litter of kittens. ( Littermate of Pan, who was apparently more photogenic ) We discovered them hanging out on a deck across the street, and soon discovered that we could lure them out by saying "mew mew mew mew mew" in a high-pitched voice. It was hilarious to watch them scurry out from under the deck. as though being dragged out by an invisible leash. How could we ever guess that the little brown tabby -- I called him All-Tab -- would eventually become our Pan, the most affectionate and also annoying of our cats? Fast forward eight years. We came home from a lovely-if-occasionally-rainy day visiting friends at the Coventry Farmer's Market, followed by an impromptu visit to Manchester CT for Sonic slushes and a movie... ...and found the black and white little cat lounging on our steps again. She scurried away at our approach, but Daniel mused out loud that it was odd to see her there again. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times...? Remembering our experience years ago, I jokingly called out "Mew mew mew mew mew!" I was absolutely astounded when a tiny grey tabby kitten appeared, toddling along the side of the house and seemingly trying to get into the windowwell of our basement window. !!!!! The kitten disappeared when we went indoors to drop off our groceries. But when we came out again and tried calling, the kitten came out from under our side deck, accompanied by a sibling... and another sibling... ( A few more pics... ) They were definitely attracted by the sounds of our voices (oh, their tiny little piping mews!) and by the red glow of my camera flash, so they have full sight and hearing. Daniel is pretty sure that they're still too young to be separated from their mom, though. We took some pictures and made soft conversation with them and then went in to get a Chinese takeout container and put some kibble in it for the mom. I fully acknowledge that we may never see these kittens again. After all, we've only occasionally seen the mom around, so this is probably just one of her reststops, as opposed to being her main base. Unlike Chester/Tammy/Pan's MomCat, she doesn't know this house as a source of food; MomCat had been fed by our previous neighbor Connie for some time, so she didn't hesitate to bring her kittens around to our porch. I sincerely believe that this familiarity with our porch (and us) is what allowed Pan to become as well-socialized as he did. Because we spent an entire summer talking to him and playing with him and in Daniel's case, picking him up and petting him as he strained towards the wet catfood, Pan was a friendly affectionate kitten and remains so well into his adult cat years. This new cat and her kittens, though, have no idea that food can be obtained by visiting our house. ( What to do? What to do??? ) As previously stated, we may never see these kittens or this mom again, so this is likely a moot point. But... I fret. I feel like we ought to do something, but I don't know what. We are hoping to call the vet's office and ask for advice; I know they have a cat adoption program and at least one of the staff members does cat rescues, I think. (Not sure if she's the same lady who had 30 cats, which is not as insane as it sounds as we do live in farm country and people do have barn cats around here.) UPDATE: Daniel just called to say that the kittens were under the side deck nursing. Apparently there are definitely just three of them. He is now putting out a small amount of food for the momcat, well away from our shared porch. I will go out later today to check on the food and dump any excess so that vermin are not attracted. UPDATE 2: I went through our pantry cabinet and found some ancient cans of cat food (pretty sure we got these from Connie for capturing the original MomCat, but I'm working under the assumption that something is better than nothing). I went out and shook it into the takeout container, and MomCat2 soon came out and ate it all while I crouched a short distance away and spoke softly to her. One of the grey and white kittens came out to bump her side but did not nurse. She slowly went under the side deck with the kitten and growled a little when I approached the takeout container to shake the last bits of gravy over the remaining dry catfood. Meanwhile, Daniel was told by the vet that we should try and handle the kittens, as they would probably go feral and disappear (and go on to reproduce and bring MORE kittens into the world) if they weaned without human contact. He was given a voicemail number for the vet's adoption agency, but got a message that they were all full. Daniel's coworker Greg found a no-kill shelter in West Hartford which we may investigate next. Tags: cats