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UPDATE: All feral cats and kittens in our care have been successfully trapped, neutered, and returned (TNR) to us!!!
Autumn (mom) with her baby Oreo.
Momo, Melonball, and Midnight step inside the house briefly for a bite to eat.
THE BEGINNING
It all started unintentionally. My husband and I had just moved to the area in January. Our house had a fenced in backyard and a wide expanse of woods behind it. While my husband worked, I would stay home and unpack / put away our many piles of belongings.
One day, I saw a calico cat perched on our fence. I didn't really think much of it - I assumed she belonged to a neighbor and was primarily an outdoor cat. I changed my mind when I saw her outside during a vicious winter storm that coated everything with a slick, thick layer ice. Wanting to make sure she wouldn't starve, I took a bowl of kitty kibble (we have 2 cats of our own and thus have very easy access to lots of cat food) and went out to the woods. With no cat in sight, I shook the bowl gently (this works wonders for getting our cats' attention).
10 cats came running out with such fervor, I was briefly wondering if they were going to attack me. 8 were clearly kittens - perhaps 2-3 months old. The calico I had seen on my fence seemed to be the mother - we dubbed her "Mom." Another cat (medium haired tortie) seemed larger than the kittens but smaller than Mom - perhaps all fluff? We couldn't quite determine whether she was a kitten or a full grown feral. Extremely hungry, but also quite frightened, the cats were wary of my presence and darted to and from the food bowl as quickly as they could, grabbing small mouthfuls of food.
We didn't want to get too attached to the cats, knowing that winter was far from over and that we would not be able to bring the cats indoors without possibly jeopardizing the health of our own cats. Everyday, I would shake some kibble in the woods and wait for the cats to run to me. My husband and I gave them generic names based on their colorings.
I grew more and more attached to them and started to try to coax them closer to the deck area where we could provide them more shelter from the elements. Their enthusiasm for food made this relatively easy.
All the while, we were contacting every local animal shelter / no-kills and the like for help in how to trap and neuter them. All but one place turned us away, citing reasons such as how ferals are generally un-adoptable and would have to be put down upon capture, how they didn't do trap-neuter-returns (TNR) where the ferals are returned to their original colony area (the woods behind our house) after being spayed and neutered, or how they didn't have space in the shelters to house these cats for life. We placed all of our hope in the one place who didn't immediately shoot us down. This Rescue was completely run by kind-hearted volunteers who dedicated their free time in helping strays and ferals. Working with them, we waited to find a volunteer in our area who could help us trap 10 cats.
So we waited patiently and meanwhile tried to make the cats as comfortable as possible. The weather was warming up and we no longer had to worry about them literally freezing to death. We erected a little tent and placed a card table over the tent entrance to prevent rain from falling into it's curved entry. We then put a large black tray inside of it to hold their food and several 10 pound weights to secure the tent from blowing away if it were to become too windy. We situated the tent right next to our glass deck doors so we could watch the kittens eat and play while we ate dinner every night. Life was good.
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