I need your help.
A hungry kitty came to our house and Jen fed it. The next day she moved 4 kittens into our yard.
They have to go.
I had hoped the mama would at least move the kittens out of the yard, but she hasn’t. I thought to not feed her again, but after reading the info at Alley Cat Allies, I fear the mother will become more desperate.
I have contacted everyone I thought could possibly help me.
If you’ve ever tried to find some help with feral relocation, you know what obstacles I’m facing. My options are to
A: Find a safe space to re-release.
B: Socialize the kittens and put them up for adoption.
I have to be honest with you- I CANNOT take these cats into my home permanently, and conditions here are not conducive to socializing kittens (two large dogs sniffing at the door won’t help matters).
Soooooo… here’s where you come in.
IF I find a rescue organization that can take them in, I’ll need to raise funds to pay for their medical expenses. And I want to raise funds to say thank you for taking on feral kittens.
Will you please help?
Granted, I still haven’t found anyone to say yes, but my heart just can’t bear to surrender these cats to animal control. And yet it’s not fair to the dogs to not be able to go outdoors and play in their yard because this mama cat decided to take over (WHAT was she thinking????).
Thanks, and pray I find someone who can help me help these cats!
BTW, if that someone is you, PLEASE speak up! We are in middle Tennessee in the US.
Dogpaddling Through Life 
Rumpy! I hope you find a rescue group as I have no experience with felines. Keep us updated if you do find one. I would be willing to donate.
That is my ideal outcome.
Oh, those kitties are little and sweet. We hope your Mom will be able to get some people to help her find them homes and for the mama cat, too. We’ve always thought…and Freddie Cat has confirmed this…that there are special secret markings on the fences and houses of people who have compassion and are willing to help an animal in need.
When kitties see the special markings, they come right up to the door and say “Can you help me, please?” There’s a special place in the Heart of the Universe for the people who do. Rumpy, your Mom’s place is guaranteed! All eight of us will gladly donate our allowance to help out these little friends.
Rumpy, of course, I’d like to help you!!! We always thank you what you and your family do for ferals. Please let us know how we donate! 🙂
I hope those kitties find their home before long. *pawhugs*
I won’t raise any funds until I know what the plan is, but trust me, I’ll keep you posted!
What a dilemma. Mumma cat’s not silly is she? I agree cats do have a sense for this type of thing. I’ve had limited experience.. but at our house in the country we managed to catch a feral kitten who wasn’t too wild (but was vociferously unhappy at being caught & separated) and take him to the RSPCA where we believe he was socialised and rehomed. Several years later 2 of his brothers still lead a semi-wild existence at the house next door, and near our city residence we have a semi feral kitty who has been spayed & microchipped by Cat Protection Society, and lives reasonably well thnx to the kindness of several apartment dwellers who keep him fed. It’s a tenuous existence but one he doesn’t apprear to want to change despite many opportunities. Last year, I had to surrender a 4 week old kitty the G.O. found on a building site to CPS. Even though I’m a registered donor with them they were reluctant as per their general rule of trying to find other avenues, but happy enough to take her as she was too young for us to look after (not having vet nurse skills)… and we donated an extra $100 to ease the process. Personally, re-releasing the kitties is less than ideal. If they are old enough to separate from Momma Cat you or someone else may be able to socialise them enough to re-home or surrender them to a good cat shelter. (I’ve heard anecdotally that bbq chicken is an irrestistable tool in the feral cat socialisation process). I’m sure with the input of other bloggers the solution will come your way. All the best 🙂
It’s not ideal, I agree, but I’m not having any luck finding anyone to take them in. It’s kitten season, and to be blunt, socialized kittens are a higher priority than ferals. My only other option would be to surrender them to animal control where they will be euthanized.
Those kittens are so cute. I would socialize them but for some reason cats don’t like playing with me – at least Scratchy doesn’t. I hope you find a good home for them and funds for their expenses.
Where are you? I am sharing the post and if people could see where you are, they might put up their paws (er Hands) to help. I can’t see easily where you are so add a rough area location to a tweet. Thanks.
Done! We are in middle Tennessee- Murfreesboro.
They are so adorable! Aaaaaah, I know it is a headache to have to help them out, but it is such a cuddly headache. Hope you enjoy your visitors while you have them.
I’m not enjoying them at all. They hurt my heart and make me sad.
Awww. I am so sorry. I have been there before, but when you find them nice homes, you will be so happy!
Oh dear Jenny, I hope you find a good home for them, I wished to help you… love, nia
Reblogged this on photographyofnia and commented:
They are so lovely, need a good home!
Mama cat knew you’d take her in, and how else would you notice her unless she occupied the yard? I wish I could help, in the same situation I would ask for help as well. But I usually ended up bringing them in to make sure the were socialized, including mom, and she was spayed. Hope you find someone to help!
That is wonderful. I wish I was in a position to do the same, but I’m not.
I have shared this on facebook. I hope help is forthcoming xx
… also twitter!
Someone has asked where they are? Not sure of your location! 🙂
We’re in Murfreesboro Tennessee
Rumpy, are you in the UK? If so, drop me an email. I know a rescue team that specialises in feral queens and their kittens.
We’re in the US in Tennessee!
Rumpy Dog. Ha ha ha ha ha! Thank God you got new family and its now time to work on a new Budget. You can start by reducing your diet to one meal a day. Its like planning for one baby and then you have quadruplets. Good luck.
no good deed goes unpunished, does it
Praying you will find help for your new move in family of cats. I think she knew she had stumpled on a kind heart.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Mom sez Do you have CatHaven in ur area? Meanwhile we will repost on our FB accounts
Rumpy, keep us posted so we know if you’ll be needing to raise funds. Meanwhile, I’ll RT for you and keep my fingers crossed. xo
I’ll pass this on to Oregano to see if his Tabby’s Place contacts have any suggestions. Good luck. I’m sure you are frustrated.
Very much so. God shouldn’t curse poor people with a conscience.
Rumpy,
Mom needs food – so please just help her with that. Call every shelter, animal officer you can think of. Hopefully someone can help.
Mom knew that your Mom has a huge heart of gold – so her instinct brought her there. Is it frustrating? Yes – my Mom knows for sure!
She has had so many kitties show up here – and now she just found out Freddie was abused. It took her a lot of phone calls and networking – but happily he is now safe and being cared for.
Now we have a new kitty who came – Snowy is another intact male – and he even went after Shadow. He hasn’t been back in 2 days – but she knows he will be – and the begging for help will start again.
Sigh…………..
Purrs for someone to help Momma Kitty soon
Morgan
I am sorry and totally understand how you feel as that has happened to me before. I am currently in the opposite situation. I have a 10 year old cat who isnt good around my son and won’t be able to move into the new apt with us. So now, after taking care of her for about 5 years, I have les than a month to find a new home for her. I feel so sad but I can no longer afford to take care of her. She would be great for a single person or a couple without kids as she is very loving. I cant bear the thought of taking her back to the Humane Society where they could put her to sleep.
Find a rescue group that will list the cat on Petfinder, or who would take the cat in.
I am so sad about the poor momma cat and the babies. I hope that some Person or Group comes forward to take them in.
I have tweeted and shared this @catchatcaren and on Cody’s facebook page. Hoping that someone can help!
We will donate $$$ let us know where to send it. I wish I could help more. Good luck Rumpy, your mom is an angel.
We will be posting on our blog to help. By the way, the old guy just about ran over a group of kittens last fall that ran out from under the wood pile. They now live here…. the old guy is too much of a softie in our opinion!
Your friends,
the collies and chuck 🙂
If I was close to you, I’d take them in. 😦
Mollie here. I was taken to the shelter with my kittens but I was people friendly. My kitties were adopted and my mom wanted me instead of a young one so I got a good home. Sometimes things turn out all right. You are right, though. It’s kitty season and people want friendly cats. Our shelters here in PA go crazy trying to get people to foster cat families for adoption. Good luck and I know my mom is always good for a few bucks for kitties.
I’m not sure what all of the obstacles are regarding feral cats…but I’ll tell you how I found homes for kittens..first of all are they weaned? I took pictures of each kitten and went to get the pictures developed, by the time they were developed at a Walgreens, people were fighting over the chance to adopt them..my plan was to post these pictures at any store that would allow me to put the picture up…
These cats have had no human contact save for meeting Jen this past week. They fear humans and will not be good pets unless someone can socialize them. The problem is, Jen does not have the time now to do all she has to do, and it’s hard to socialize kittens when you have two dogs who are just on the other side of the door.
Tough, tough spot for everyone…
i hope they find homes
Here’s my advice, socialize the kittens and then give them away. If they are eating out of a bowl already, a couple of days of petting them and playing with them, and you could give them away pretty easily. Facebook some cute pics of them to help adopt them out.
I have 8 kittens to adopt out myself! I took in a cat just because she was brave enough to cohabitate with the dogs, and now I desperately need to spay her!!
go to http://www.spayusa.org/ to find a low-cost spay/neuter clinic near you and do it!
I found a few, but I have to live in the county where they are located. 😦 And I live in one of those rural areas where nothing in conveniently located. But it’s definitely my May priority. All of our dogs are fixed, but she was a rescue…
Hopefully a farmer in your area needs some barn cats. We will have about 13 baby quail running around soon enough and decided our back yard was the perfect nesting spot. Have a Great Day and Good Luck!
I am willing to donate some if you have found an organisation.
I wish I lived close to you Rumpy, I would take those kittens in. But sadly I don’t. 😦 I hope there is a kind hearted person around there who is willing to take them in.
I’ll post it around on facebook, you never know.
I actually do live relatively close (South Central Kentucky), but we have three cats in a TINY apartment with a baby already
Are you aware of any cat rescues in your area? I have posted this on my Facebook, Tumbler and Twitter. I am in Canada and as much as I am not sure I can be of much help, I do have Rescue facilities on my Friends List and am hopeful one of them will have connections that can help you.
I hope you find a rescue group soon. That is a big and scary responsibility.
Love and licks and hopes,
Cupcake
Rumpy did you find any place for these cute kittens…Rumpy and momma hoep you both find a way to keep these kittens safe…
maybe socializing them would be a good idea…’have you come up with any other plan?
Praying!!
Reblogged this on Gabrielle Angel and Autumn Sunshine.
Thank you!
🙂
Reblogged this on jimmiechew and commented:
if you can, please help!
Thanks Jimmie!
I know I am late in replying and I live in San Francisco bay area, but would be happy to donate something if/when you have your plan. Not easy to make decision like you are faced with. That momma cat knew your yard would be a place where someone would take action to try and help her. keep us posted and I watch Twitter too.
Oh this is a tough one! I hope it all works out!
Rumpy we wish we could help! We hope they don’t have to go to the shelter.
Bella and DiDi
PlumBlanca here, Mom will send you some green papers for the babies, let her know where and when.
I do hope it all works out for those kitties and their Mum! Sending hugs and love!!
Oh, I do so hope you can find a shelter that will take these little ones (and the mama) for you. There have been lots of tweets regarding your plight (I added another) so hopefully, now that the word is out, someone will come to your aid. Love & purrs.
Nerissa from Nerissa’s Life (@nerissathecat)
I hope you find a rescue soon. Already have 5 kitties, sorry.
Ahhh, no! This happened to us the summer before last. A mama cat and her kittens took up residence in our crawl space. I had to move them because we were being exterminated for brown recluse spiders (eeew eww and eww!) Finally, though, we moved them around so much that the mama got fed up and took them across the street to the neighbors yard. LOL
1. If the kittens are more than 8 weeks old and they look like they are, socializing them will be difficult.
2. If they are true ferals, typical rescue groups won’t take them in because they are unadoptable.
3. Up here in Chicago Metro area, most veterinarians would not touch feral cats. Same probably goes for you.
4. I don’t know if you looked already. There may be feral cat groups that help with TNR (trap-neuter-release). You may have better luck with them. I assume these groups, like my group, can provide you with traps for free and heavily discounted shots, microchips and neutering/spaying at participating vets. Some may even know farms that accept feral cats.
5. My neighbor has 4 large dogs and no fence. My feral cats learned since they were kittens to avoid my neighbor’s yard when the dogs are out. The cats don’t spend all their time in my yard either. They have places to go. Things to do. So even if they stick around, cat-dog conflict may be few and far in between.
6. Three out of five in my feral cat family already met untimely ends. It’s not ideal. I worry all the time. But, they have a home and are healthy and well-fed.
Best of luck.
This is just an awful situation! Here you are trying to help and look where it gets you! I will try to post on my Facebook page and if need be perhaps we could set up one of those chip in fund things…like they did when the pitbull family lost their home? I can’t remember what it is called, but I’m sure one of your readers will know! Sure do hope that they all find good homes…FB is usually pretty good with this stuff! Let me know if you need me to do something! Prayers coming your way! You did the right thing!
Can you contact local vets and ask for help or if they know someone who takes in kittens to be adopted out? Can you go on Freecycle in your area and post the kittens with the mom to a good home for free? Good luck with your situation!
Vets have been contacted. Feral cats are not pets; they fear humans bit tolerate them to eat, and this mama knew Jen would feed her babies.
As for the ads, you should NEVER offer animals Free to a Good Home. Licensed sellers of animals to research labs collect those Free animals.
Are there any local farms or horse barns near you where they might be useful as mousers?
They would be great mousers!
I see from the comments Rumpy that there are lots of ideas and suggestions. Let’s hope these kitties are helped very soon.
Reblogged this on Real Life Monsters and commented:
If you can help with these kitties please let Rumpy Dog or me know.
They are in Murfreesboro Tennessee, USA
Rumpy, there is an organisation in New Orleans called ARNO. They have saved many and might be able to help you.
http://www.animalrescueneworleans.org/contact.html
http://www.facebook.com/AnimalRescueNewOrleans
I hope they can help.
Let me know if i can help as well.
I’d take them but my dog Monkey does not like cats at all. I have the scars to prove it.
Awww! They are so cute and cuddlesome! Unfortunately I am on completely the wrong side of “the pond” to be of any help but if I hadn’t been I’d have taken them all 🙂 Wishing you the best with them and I hope it has a happy ending 🙂
Robyn Anderson at Love & Hisses works with a rescue called Challenger’s House. It is in North Alabama, not hugely far from TN. They might help, or know someone closer.
Hope our fine, furry, four-legged friends there get some help.
It’s pretty late to socialize them to humans. When I was on the farm we had a feral mom cat who had two kittens. We were never able to do anything with them. We built her a cat box under the house near a heat source for winter. She stayed there in bad weather and there were enormous amounts of mice and other wild things to eat. We gave her water, but rarely food. The kittens died the first year from falling in an irrigation ditch. She stayed on after the kittens died. She must have been an elder cat as she didn’t have more. When we moved my dad moved her to the kennels. Oddly, she liked the dogs and they liked her so that’s where she lived out her mousing life.
The dog is especially beautiful.
How are things going Rumpy? Did momma and her kitties go to a cat organization?
No, we couldn’t find one that would take them.
Do you still have them?
They live close by with their mama. I never tried to trap them because I had nowhere for them to go.
I’m rescue poor. Just had my pit put down and out of a job or I promise I’d mail something. Thanks for stopping at my site.
So sorry, Jen and Rumpy, but I have three cats and cannot handle anymore. Advertise in the papers and at the vets and having great kittens who would grow into great mousers! And possibly get in touch with clinics that treat childhood cancers, as kittens are considered great pet therapy!
I have heard that sometimes people have found adopters for feral/semi-feral cats at horseshows and other equine events. You might want to put up flyers there, and also at local feed stores. Good luck!
Good idea! Thanks!
Coming late to this–but here is a link I found to NO-KILL shelters in Tennesee. http://www.nokillnetwork.org/d/Tennessee. They usually will help with at least neutering the mama kitty and getting the kittens tested and socialized for adoption. The ones around here in Western New York usually get kittens adopted pretty easily. Good luck! I have been in your shoes and I commend you for wanting to help these dear kitties!
I shared them on my page, I’ll share them on my personal page too. I have lots of family in the Appalchias there so maybe they can help, sorry I didn’t see this til now :~(
It is awesome so many people want to help. I’d like to help, but I am facing my own cat situation 😦 Good luck!
Reblogged this on Stan the dog and commented:
I’m in the UK so can’t help so reblogged this in case anyone can help out…..
I’d use this as an opportunity to train the dogs not to chase cats.
Take them outside on the lead and sit at a distance calmly until the kittens come to say hello on their own.
Dogs tend to run up to say hello, cats prefer to stare at each other from a distance. If you can get the dogs to sit still the kittens will come say hello eventually.
Once the dogs will leave them alone you could just leave them wild. Once the mother has taught them to hunt when they are a little older they should survive just fine and should make a dent in the local rat population.
Dont feed them too much or the mother will never take them hunting and they wont learn to live on their own. Cats will learn to hunt from instinct but they learn faster and become better hunters if mum teaches them.
If you dont mind wild cats visiting but really dont want them in your yard take the dogs outside on a lead just close enough to bother the cats but not enough to terrify them, you dont want the cat attacking the dog. They will move out but if you put the odd bit of food out the mother cat will still come to fetch the food. Cats will roam quite a distance and if they know someone will feed them they will return for the food. Shes moved them in because she feels safe there but that wont stop her coming for food if she knows there will be some.