JCC So guess whose roommate found a stray kitten underneath the house?

Although this is widely believed and parroted as fact, it's not true at all. Parents don't tend to shun their offspring for no good reason. And the kitten is far too young to be spayed or neutered.

Also, your roommate's an idiot.

 

MrZap, you're such a good person.

There.

 

Will try to put the kitten back with its mother. If it doesn't work then at least we tried and we'll go back to caring for it.

How long is a good indicator that it didn't work? Put the kitten back in the area but the mom and other kitten (which seemed much more active, which is troubling) of course went back farther away from me. I moved back and watched for a few minutes, but neither of them moved, so I elected to leave for a bit and come back in ten minutes, hoping I'm not letting that die of exposure. And of course this was all still underneath the house. It's like a crawly-pipey area and I needed a flashlight and had a really annoyingly small entrance full of wires. Not easy to maneuver down there...

 

I've never heard of this black cat killing at Halloween, nor black cat adoption and neglect at Halloween either. I guess it's just an American urban myth.

This seems to confirm that assumption: http://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker/are-black-cats-in-greater-danger-around-halloween

Anyway, good luck with your new kitten! Is the mother feral?

 

Probably, yeah.

And I went back down and checked. And she took him back. And I am so amazingly relieved right now.

 

Good for mama!

 

Did she ask you for beer money?

 

That's amazing! I was not expecting that at all.

 

All's well that ends well.

 

Well, there is still a (probably) feral cat and two (or three...) kittens down there, one of which is rather weak from its ordeal. I've contacted a foster care site in the area and am looking to see if they can help tie up the loose ends.

 

I want a kitten...

 

Fact is that the majority of cats simply don't get adopted because 1. people are stupid and think that it's fine to let their pets breed like mad and 2. well-meaning people give feral/otherwise unadoptable cats to shelters and those are automatically put down. If you can, at least TNR (trap, neuter[/spay], return) the mother and the kittens when they're old enough so there doesn't end up being a ton more unwanted cats.

 

That's looking more and more like what I'm going to end up trying to do after getting advice from someone from one of the foster care places in my area. In the meantime I'm planning on going back down there shortly to check on the health of the one we took.

 

Stray kittens can be homed, as long as they've had regular human contact before they turn feral, IIRC that's at about 4-8 weeks..?

 

So...

After advice from a worker at an adoption shelter in the area I've provided cat food, water, and makeshift bedding, as the mother cat appeared as though she might have been in distress. I'm expecting to have to monitor and provide for them until capturing and spaying/neutering them is viable, provided of course that they survive that long/don't go somewhere else.

But we'd only be capturing two of them.

This evening I went down there again to give food and water. I couldn't see them in the darkness, as my light only extends so far. I was worried that I didn't hear any sounds/see any movement upon my entering the area, as the cats have always been immediately visible upon my entering, but as it was very dark I didn't worry about it too much. I concentrated on setting out what I brought, then decided to try to move closer to where I normally saw them, to examine the area and check to make sure they were there. I found the two kittens... the first one I encountered was the one we had taken in, and it appeared to be dead.

You can understand my distress at this point. I got closer to confirm it, putting my hand to it to look for any signs of life. There were none.

After calming myself, I ventured further in and found the other kitten, alive and (based on appearances) well, and watching me. I confess I handled this one slightly to get a contrast to the other to be absolutely certain that I had been correct before. I couldn't find the mother. I looked farther into the area, but the light (plugged to a socket outside) stretched to the limit and I couldn't get a good look all the way back. I'm hoping that she was either hiding somewhere I couldn't spot or was temporarily out hunting or something, otherwise there might well be another dead kitten tomorrow morning. One okay sign is that the water I provided yesterday was mostly gone, so they did make use of it (there's no access to sunlight where I put it so it couldn't have evaporated).

Upon thinking about it and talking it over with someone else I decided to leave the kitten's body down there until the morning both because I wouldn't want to provoke a reaction from the mother and because it would be a bit easier to work and see.

This has not been a good week.

 

I wouldn't feel too bad about the situation. You did all that you were able to do under the circumstances.

 

I'm sorry for your loss. You made a good effort.

 

Yeah - at least you tried to help. That's more than a lot of people would have done.

 

The last time he tried to help, he was robbed and kicked out of his apartment. This time a kitten died.

IMO he should take a break from helping.

 

wannasee, how many more threads are you going to invade with your condescending bullfeces?

 

You know I'm the first in line to call dude out on his garbage, but his post wasn't really all that bad this time. Actually, it was kind of funny.

 

Not everyone will give up a good night's sleep, $5, their socks, their shoes, and their right to live in a rental property they'd already paid for all to help some drunk stranger.

 

MrSAP