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maribouSo, the pair of feral cats that've been hanging out in our backyard for the past month or so as the neighborhood cats are wont to do? The ones we were ignoring since a) it was fairly likely they actually belonged to one of our neighbors seeing as everyone lets their cats run loose around here (not us! but many of our neighbors do) and b) they were very skittish, very healthy, and mostly just seemed to want to be left alone to sun themselves? The ones we were certainly *not* feeding and *not* trying to befriend? The ones that seemed to have their home base in the storage shed belonging to the neighbors in back of us, whom I don't think actually live in their house but I'm really not *sure*, so I don't want to go back in there in case I get shot?
Are in fact a family of feral cats, with three kittens that look to be no more than a few weeks old. Bloody hell. Mama, Papa, and all 3 babies *do* look fit as fiddles though, we got a good look at them through our basement windows which are at ground level - they were only a couple of feet away. Mama Cat also seems to be a good mother, as when she spied us looking at her she immediately stood up and put her front legs in front of the still-nursing kittens in a wary-not-aggressive-but-protective fashion. Then once we left the window, she'd moved them away out of the backyard within 10 minutes of us stopping watching them.
So the new strategy is to go out on the back porch (about 8 feet higher than the kitties), which seems to be the only way of approaching them that doesn't make them run off, and let down some food to them. And otherwise try to win their hearts and make them trust us, so that eventually we can catch them all and get them spayed/neutered. And probably try to socialize/tame the kittens and make them housecats, in the long run. But for now, we're just thinking it's ONE thing not to feed random strange cats in one's back yard, and another thing not to feed a nursing mother...
I recognize that there are a lot of strong philosophical arguments for doing things differently, but I'm not really that interested in hearing them... I looked that mama cat in the eyes and I don't think I could bring myself to take her babies away from her. She's been doing a very good job, far as I can tell, and I just want to make things as safe for them as possible in this all-too-contingent world.
Practical advice, though, would be appreciated.
Are in fact a family of feral cats, with three kittens that look to be no more than a few weeks old. Bloody hell. Mama, Papa, and all 3 babies *do* look fit as fiddles though, we got a good look at them through our basement windows which are at ground level - they were only a couple of feet away. Mama Cat also seems to be a good mother, as when she spied us looking at her she immediately stood up and put her front legs in front of the still-nursing kittens in a wary-not-aggressive-but-protective fashion. Then once we left the window, she'd moved them away out of the backyard within 10 minutes of us stopping watching them.
So the new strategy is to go out on the back porch (about 8 feet higher than the kitties), which seems to be the only way of approaching them that doesn't make them run off, and let down some food to them. And otherwise try to win their hearts and make them trust us, so that eventually we can catch them all and get them spayed/neutered. And probably try to socialize/tame the kittens and make them housecats, in the long run. But for now, we're just thinking it's ONE thing not to feed random strange cats in one's back yard, and another thing not to feed a nursing mother...
I recognize that there are a lot of strong philosophical arguments for doing things differently, but I'm not really that interested in hearing them... I looked that mama cat in the eyes and I don't think I could bring myself to take her babies away from her. She's been doing a very good job, far as I can tell, and I just want to make things as safe for them as possible in this all-too-contingent world.
Practical advice, though, would be appreciated.
