So, I can already tell, I am getting no sleep tonight. And it's only midnight here. How do I know? A few hours ago (I didn't look at my clock, didn't have time) I heard a small catfight outside of our window in the backyard. We have a feral colony, so I didn't think much of it and it didn't seem to bad, so I let it be, thinking someone got too close to another cat's kittens or something. Then I heard another fight, and another. Each was small and didn't last long, but they were getting closer together. So I threw on my glasses and ran outside to check. When I got there, I saw Munchkin, one of our fluffier cats, seeming to fight with her own tail, hissing and biting at it. She just had kittens yesterday, so I knelt to look better.
That's when I saw her kittens. Apparently she hadn't cleaned them well enough or something, so when they dried, they stuck to her fluffy tail. When she came in the yard to eat, they came with her. They got caught on a couple of things, and rather than slow down and try to free them, it scared Munchkin and she tried to get them off quickly. Two of them came off almost as soon as I walked out there, and it freed her enough to run out of the yard, two kittens still dangling from her tail. I checked on the two kittens I now had with me, neither seemed harmed, just scared, so I took the two of them in to my fiance to hold and keep warm while I went out to try to find the remaining two. I found one more under a boat we have in our back yard startled the mother with the kittens in the boat (did I mention we have too many kittens right now?) and took this third kitten in to my fiance.
After an hour and half or so of more looking with a flashlight, I saw neither the fourth kitten, nor the mom, so I came in to feed these three tiny kitten with a bottle. They took to the bottle right away (and my fiance was glad to have his hands back) and it didn't take long for them to start to get comfy. I found a small box and put a t-shirt in it for a little more warmth, and put the three girls in there. They have names, now, so we can have a little easier time telling who has eaten and who hasn't, and they are Goatee (the biggest, who has a white chin and one side of her mustache white as well), Spectacles (who has light rings around each of her eyes), and Racer (the smallest who has a racing stripe going up her nose). We will be taking them to a shelter tomorrow, and if the shelter has room for three newborn kittens we will leave them there. If not, we will alternate staying up to feed them so everyone gets some sleep.
And please, before I get any hate about taking them to a shelter instead of raising them myself, listen to a few of the facts. My fiance and I are planning our wedding for later this year, so money is a little tighter than it could be because of that. On top of that we have a feral colony that we feed and take care of that we are trying to get fixed, and since we have around 25-27 kittens counting these four, you can guess at the numbers for the adults, so even if we get discounts on getting all of them fixed, it will be quite a bit of money, so money is tight there. We also have to feed all of the cats, whether we get them fixed or not, which is a permanent money drain. We have also taken a few of the cats into our home for various reasons. My cat, Mockingbird (who we lovingly call Idjit) has a deformed front paw and was abandoned when he was a few weeks old. His girlfriend, Isis, was the runt of her litter and the only black cat in a sea of grey and grey tuxedos, so she was picked on. We took her in and the two of them bonded immediately. Our oldest cat, Misty, came to us from the house across the street, home of a couple of boys who didn't understand that cats feel pain too, so Misty and her brother Fuzz came to us for shelter. Misty is my future mother in law's cat that is indoor/outdoor, and Fuzz stays next door with Papa (my fiance's grandfather) and guards his workshop (Fuzz is too longhair to stay in our house as Mom is asthmatic).
Ollie, Larka and Blaze are the next bunch in our house, they are siblings. They were born in our house to one of the most people friendly of the colony, we took her in for her sake while she was pregnant and although she returned to the colony, they have stayed in ever since. Larka has a home lined up, once my friend is settled, and Blaze is going to have a home we hope. Ollie will probably stay, but he gets along with everyone. The next group is an oddball set, Longshot was an only kitten that was picked on and came to us for shelter, which she got, then we found two kittens in our driveway, one of whom found a home, the other, Sea, stayed with us and she joined Longshot. Then we found another kitten, Fog, and he joined the two girls. We are hoping to find homes for Fog and Longshot, and we will keep Sea with Ollie.
On our property we have what used to be the servants' quarters. We use that house (the little house) as storage. We had a bunch of the cats in there, but Papa kicked them all out (or tried to at least) and all that was left was three females. Two of the females are very people friendly, Powermotor and Sheba, but the third is one of our most feral, Mouse. Sheba managed to not get pregnant this season, but Powermotor did and had five kittens, who I was mistakenly thought were all male, but instead are all female. Mouse also got pregnant, and she had four kittens. Mouse will be caught as soon as her kittens are old enough to be apart from her, as we do not like being hissed at and attacked every time we try to feed them. Whether we will take her to a shelter knowing she will be put to sleep, or if we will let her out with the colony after being fixed is yet unsure. We will take some of the nine kittens from the little house to a shelter, as they are at least used to people.
When it comes to the rest of the feral cats and their litters, Fuzzy Bagheera has the oldest kittens, Lucid and White Socks, and we will most likely take Fuzzy Bagheera to a shelter as she is mostly people friendly. Fuzzy Momma has three kittens, Oreo, Cookie, and Double Stuff, and if we can catch therm than Oreo and Cookie will probably go to shelters. Cute Nose has two kittens, and all three of them will most likely go to shelters as well. Buffy has either three or four kittens (we know of 3 for sure, have seen 1 other once in bad light) and we are not sure if they will stay or go yet. Two sisters, Fog and Cross, are raising one litter together, as they both gave birth but one of them abandoned their kittens and they got taken to a shelter. They have either two or three kittens (again, bad lighting) and they will probably be impossible to catch. Fire is the only female outside who does not seem to have gotten pregnant this season, and we think she is too small to go into heat (she is full grown, but several inches shorter than her sisters, Cross and Fox. Isis is about the same size and has never gone into heat, even though she is around 4 years old). The males of the yard are Big Boy (who will probably go to a shelter) Twinkle Toes (who will stay) Ninja (who will be impossible to catch and will stay) and Tweedle Dee (there is a Tweedle Dum somewhere but she hasn't been seen in a while. He may or may not stay, he is still a bit young). We also have a few other cats who wander in and out of our colony, but most of them are male, and at least one is fixed (and at least one is not and has fathered a few of our calicos)