The last thing we need…

It seems there are two litters of dumpster kitties again. We’re having trouble counting, but it looks like about 10 all together. The youngest litter is still pretty small, and though skiddish, will come up to eat food from right beside me. Feral kittens, the babies of feral cats, living with a slightly older litter of feral kittens… these babies may already be too old to rescue. We’ve been taking them food every day, mostly to gauge whether any seemed young enough to learn to live with people. Everything I’ve read about feral cats says that once they’re too old, they cannot be taken care of in a home, and most shelters will kill them. There are some humane groups who try to capture, spay/neuter, and release these cats, allowing them to continue to live in their colony without further breeding, but there doesn’t seem to be one for this area.

If any of the younger ones will allow us to take them in, I think we should try it. Those that do might have a chance of being adopted. JT thinks they’re pretty close to being too old, by the way they act. I’ve still got hope for two to four of the younger ones who will come closer to eat. Question is, what do we do with two to four additional cats who would need to be kept separate from our two current cats. They’d all need a vet visit…

What really needs to happen is the capture, spay/neuter, and release process for all of those cats. It just kills me to discover, as I did today, a pile of kittens huddled together for warmth under the shelter of a bush, shivering in the rain, knowing that most or all of them would just run out into the rain if I tried to take any of them. Meanwhile, we take them food and do a body count every day, to see how many are surviving.