Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Daily Photo: Kittens and a Friendly Mama

Bowie and her kittens.
Bowie and her kittens.

We already have several dozen kittens in our rescue, but what’s three more? The little family includes a pretty gray kitty mom with amber eyes and one solid gray, one dark tabby and another dark tabby that has more white on its face than the other. Mom cat Bowie, who was a feral cat but had become somewhat friendly with Denise, has turned out to be an absolute love in the cage with her babies. That, and our luck in catching her and bringing her in are two wonderful surprises. In abut eight weeks they’ll be looking for homes, so it will be fun to watch them grow!

Among the feral cats we were trying to catch in my neighborhood in the past few weeks was a young gray kitty who was expecting, and she eluded all capture and gave birth to her kittens last Thursday. I’m not fostering them—they are staying with Denise who’s been feeding the colony—but I’ll be helping her care for them especially on her long days of work.

All eight cats Denise is caring for were born to a few cats who showed up summer before last. They found it was safe under her deck and she began feeding them. Hard to catch without help two litters were born, and then she finally made contact with the Homeless Cat Management Team so they could be spayed and neutered and we could help her with some food for them. Feeding eight cats is not cheap, nor is spay and neuter if you don’t know of low-cost clinics.

We caught five at first, then last weekend we tried to catch the last three without luck. We had been trying to ease the remaining three into traps by setting them up open and letting them get familiar with them. Bowie is the mom cat, a young solid gray girl who had grown somewhat friendly with Denise but wanted to parts of the trap.

Denise came home from work and went outside to set the traps tied open and start feeding in them and there was something on the door mat outside the front door, looking like a dead mouse at first, then she realized it was a kitten, and then she saw Bowie under the table and realized there were more kittens. She sent me a picture of the kitten and let me know what was up, so I ran up to see what we could do.

At the milk bar.
At the milk bar.

We had to get Bowie before she decided to move her kittens and we never found them, and we couldn’t just take the kittens and bottle feed them, they needed their mother, plus it was a day when the temperatures were dropping. I told Denise our best bet was to work with her friendliness with Bowie, and she had to try to pick up Bowie and we’d get her in a carrier then collect her kittens later. Denise just wasn’t sure it would work but tried anyway, and I didn’t want to tell her things don’t usually go the way you want when you try this. She went out and began to set out food for them and I hid just inside the front door with the carrier ready. Bowie came out to eat, Denise petted her and then just picked her up and scruffed her. In less than a minute I heard, “Bernadette, I have her.” I came out the door with the carrier upended and in Bowie went. I can still hardly believe it worked the way it did! Denise and I were both so happy, and are still shaking our heads it worked out the way we planned.

The kitten on the door mat had actually been dead, probably stillborn, or died soon after death. Bowie had three other kittens, clean and dry, under the table, and may have given birth to the first one on the mat, or put it there after it was born. It’s typical of a cat to remove any diseased or dead kittens so they don’t endanger the others, and stillbirths are not uncommon with cats who’ve lived outdoors, even when they are fed and looked after. Spring can be very cruel to young lives with temperatures up and down and snow and ice and rain, and a cat’s first litter can be full of difficulty. From experience I knew one stillbirth could indicate other issues like other stillborn kittens that might need to be extracted, internal infections and other live-threatening conditions. Bowie has shown no signs of anything yet.

Precious little tabby face.
Precious little tabby face.

But first to get them in a safe place. I took the carrier to the garage where Denise had a cage and then we went and collected the kittens in a little bed. The cage is tall with a shelf. We lined the bottom of the cage with moving blankets and put the kittens on the bottom level and their bellies must have been full because not a mew came up from them cuddled in a tiny heap. Then not knowing if Bowie would be frightened and try to get away we put Bowie, still in the carrier with the carrier door open, up on the shelf, then closed and locked the cage doors and covered it so she would feel safer. Denise messaged just an hour later that they were reunited and Bowie was curled in the cat bed with them.

And there Bowie has stayed since then. She’s been eating and drinking well, no signs of distress from the kittens, and all is well so far. She purrs and kneads her blankets and the cat bed and may be enjoying life indoors being very pampered

Happy mom cat with babies.
Happy mom cat with babies.

 


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© 2016 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

—

Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

—

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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

2 thoughts on “Daily Photo: Kittens and a Friendly Mama

  • St Francis’ blessings two ewe Bowie and de wee ones…..we wish all de best for each oh ewe for yeerz & yeerz ta come ~~~~ ♥♥♥

    Reply
  • What beautiful babies! Kudos to you and Denise for a remarkable rescue! <3

    Reply

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