The rescue organization I volunteer with had a litter of 4 kittens who had been diagnosed with ringworm but were under treatment and have just been given a clean bill of health (I have dogs and didn’t want to risk giving it to them, so I needed to wait.)
While I was waiting on that, another lady called who had a friendly stray cat in her neighborhood with two kittens, so I said I could take those three. So tonight (it’s 10pm here) I went over to get the mom and kittens. The kittens are at least 4 months old and completely feral, and so not interested in letting us anywhere near them. The girl who called cornered one and grabbed him (her?) and was promptly bitten and clawed pretty badly. Not a good sign. But the mom let us pick her up and put her in the cat carrier. She’s currently cowering under our guest bed–I’m just letting her calm down and get over it. Pics tomorrow, I promise. Right now I’m just letting her be. She’s a beautiful green-eyed calico.
The sad thing is that these kittens are probably never going to be fully socialized–they’re pretty old–and the girl who has been feeding the cat under my bed has been “taking care” of her since she first got pregnant (around March she thinks) but she never tried to pet or play with the kittens because “she’s really afraid of worms.” :rolleyes:
So now I have no kittens but an adult cat :). I think I’m going to offer to foster two of the ex-ringworm kittens as well, just to drive myself crazy.
Also, what are the odds she’s pregnant? Her belly looked a bit distended to me tonight, but I haven’t gotten a good look yet and I don’t want to drag her out from under the bed until she’s ready. I’ve googled it and can’t find good info about when cat’s usually go back into heat after giving birth.
She has emerged! Very sweet and hungrier than she should be–she ate a ton while we were trying to catch her kittens tonight. Abdomen is definitely distended, but that could be worms instead of babies. Other than the abdomen she’s pretty skinny and a small cat. She’s going to the vet Wed.
But of course, you’re right! Why would it be one or the other? How silly of me.
The thing about the feral kittens is that the organization just doesn’t have a lot of resources to take in animals that will be difficult to place, and I don’t have unlimited time to socialize them. Plus I don’t like being bitten by cats. But who knows, maybe they’ll come around and be better tomorrow. Or maybe we’ll have a new batch. No shortage of unwanted animals on this island, you can be sure of that.
So we took her to the vet today and she’s pregnant, no worms, FELV and FIV negative. Vet guessed about 4 weeks before she’s due, but I think it’s going to be sooner than that for some reason. So I’ll be fostering kittens after all, just really young ones. I can’t say I’m too disappointed, although this island certainly doesn’t need more cats. Still…kittens! Yay!
Here are some more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/raenjapan/Callie
She is beautiful - I love calicos, although they can be bitches! Her coat looks really clean and shiny too. At least with the next litter of kittens you can socialize them properly from the get-go. Good luck!
How silly of me.