A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not. --Ernest Hemingway

Early this morning I was sitting at my computer.  I had the TV on, but every now and then, I became aware of a cat meowing.  I muted the TV and listened, but didn’t hear the cat.  Then when the TV was on again, I heard the meowing.  I went downstairs to check on our cats.  No one was stirring so maybe the sound was coming from outside.  We do have a stray cat, Mr. Smith, who has been coming into our yard for several months now.  We plan on catching, neutering and releasing him when we can.  He doesn’t run away as quickly as he did when he first started coming around, but he is still skittish.  Ironic that we are helping other people trap and rescue cats from their yards, but we still haven’t caught our own stray!

Mr. Smith at his favorite spot...the birdbath

Anyway, I still could hear the meowing.  I started checking around the room.  I opened the door to the closet and Kaci ran out.  She had been in there all night and was telling me about it.  I apologized profusely to her, but she ignored me and ran downstairs. 

Kaci

A little while later, Charlie came in and told me that Kaci had thrown up again...on the bed.  Apparently she had gobbled down some dry food which immediately came back up when she got on the bed with Charlie.  I told him about the closet caper and he was relieved.  We have had to take Kaci to the vet recently because she has been vomiting frequently.  The vet couldn’t find any obvious reason, other than maybe a hairball that wouldn’t come up.  She gave us anti-nausea meds for her and I was also giving her some Petramalt for hairballs.  The vomiting became less frequent. 

Now back to the kitten rescue:

On Friday night, September 20, I received a text from my friend.  She had caught the “remaining” kitten!  Earlier that day we had taken the crate down and put it away.  We only used it with each kitten when they were first caught so we could separate them from the others before they were checked out at the vet’s.  Of course, as soon as the crate was put away, another kitten would be trapped. 

Big crate holds litter box, bed and food/water

I went over to get this latest one.  We were sure he must be the dad and we had been hoping to get dad at some point to be neutered and released.  This one was also solid black.  It seemed to be as afraid as Mama Jackson was when she was trapped, so we assumed it was feral too.  But, when I got it home and was able to see it in the light, it wasn’t that big.  In fact, it was about the same size as Indy and Annie.

It looked ferocious with its ears laid back.  It growled and hissed and unlike the others, it slapped at me.  We planned to release it after it was spayed/neutered.  We called it “Bandit”and it was set to go to the vet on September 23.

Bandit was neutered and since we planned on releasing him, he had a rabies shot only.  He still wouldn’t let me pet him and the vet said he was only about four months old.  That meant he was part of the same litter as Jackson, Indy and Annie.

When we got him back home, we wanted to make sure he was feral before releasing him.  He actually was friendlier than we thought.  He seemed to like Charlie more than me and allowed himself to be petted.  There was hope that he could be someone’s pet some day.  We decided to keep him a few days to see if he made progress.

Since Simba and Brandy were older, we came to the conclusion that Mama Jackson actually had three different litters.  Brandy and Simba in the first; Jackson, Cali, Annie, Indy and Bandit in the second; and Mikey, the youngest, in the third.  She would not be having any more litters though.

The litters were about two months apart, which meant that mama Jackson had barely given birth to a litter before she was pregnant again!  Gestation is only about 62 days.

When we caught Mama Jackson the first time on August 6 and had her spayed, Mikey, the youngest, was only about four weeks old.  The second time she was caught with Mikey.  Even though she was spayed, she was nursing him.  I’m not sure she still had milk though.  But, it’s good that when we had her spayed we released right away, the next day.  She was able to go back and care for Mikey.  He probably had not yet been fully weaned and needed her then.

Would we ever get all of Mama Jackson’s kittens before they went feral?  And how many were there?  My friend said there was still a tiny black kitten that she had seen before with Mama Jackson.  They were very elusive because she had not seen Mikey, an orange tabby, until he was trapped.

On Wednesday, September 25 I received a call.  The tiny black kitten was caught!  I went over to get it.  It was at night, but we could see that it was indeed tiny, about the same size as Mikey.  As we put the trapped kitten in my car, in the light of the streetlight, I saw a cat across the street, sitting and watching.  It was Mama Jackson.  She knew we were taking her last kitten.  One by one, she had brought her kittens up to my friend’s house, it seemed, for help.  Maybe that’s putting too much of a human emotion spin to it, but it sure seemed that way. 

Mama Jackson, like other feral, unspayed cats, had three litters of kittens in secession.  She had to nurse, wean, provide food, and protect them.  It is quite a job!  Now that Mama Jackson was spayed, her job was over.  As she said goodbye to her last baby, she only had herself to care for.  My friend would still feed her when she showed up.  If we ever caught the daddy cat, we would have him neutered and released back.  It would be better for him too because he would not wander far afield, looking for female cats in heat. 

The lifespan of outside cats is not as long as indoor only cats, obviously because they don’t get good food and are not protected against diseases or injuries.  But, even those cats are more healthy if they are neutered and spayed.  The males don’t have the competition of other male cats.  Females aren’t having litter after litter of kittens that sometimes become mothers themselves at only four to six months old.  And so many just don’t survive anyway. 

Brandy was still taking his antibiotics and I think he was feeling better.  He was playing with the other kittens and Buffy on the patio.

Charlie and I didn’t consciously decide that we would be so involved in rescuing cats.  We started out with one cat, then two, then three cats of our own.  It was that way until 2000.  Then  our three cats expanded to seven cats when Jezibel came to us and had her nine kittens.  We kept her and three of the kittens.  The rest is history.

More later.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_

There are Tabbies and Tortoiseshell, Black Cats and White, All happy and purring from morning till night, And though they do mischief sometimes, which is wrong, They're so pretty, you cannot be cross with them long.--Nursery Rhyme

On Wednesday, September 11, my friend called and said she had trapped the “last” kitten.  He looked like Simba.  At first I thought he was bigger and may not have been from that same litter.  But, when I got him into a crate, he was the same size as Simba.  Like the others we had caught, he hissed and growled, but we were able to pet and hold him.  Amazing.  We called him “Brandy”. 

Brandy, you're a fine boy!

Brandy was a very sweet cat.  He was very much like his brother, Simba.  When you picked him up, he just curled up and went limp.  He purred and loved to be petted.  He was very special. But,  he was not the “last” kitten, after all.

On September 14 my friend trapped a mama cat and her orange tabby kitten.  The mama was a tortie like “Mama Jackson”.  But, Mama Jackson had been spayed and her right ear tip was clipped.  We thought this cat might possibly be Mama Jackson’s sister.  My friend had seen this small, orange tabby kitten, and also a small black kitten with this cat before.  The kitten was possibly 2-1/2 months old.  The mama cat’s ear didn’t seem to be clipped, but it was at night when she was trapped so we couldn't see that well.  The kitten was definitely her kitten though.  She was very protective of him and he was comfort-nursing.  We kept them together in the crate for the night.

Mama Jackson with her baby, Mikey (Leo)

The next morning I checked on the mama and kitten.  In the daylight I thought I saw a clipped ear on mama.  Yes, her right ear tip was clipped.  This was “Mama Jackson”, not a new cat!  I was somewhat relieved.

We separated Mama Jackson from her baby.  He was very afraid, but did not bite or scratch.  We called him “Mikey”.  We put “Mama Jackson” in a kennel.  She watched as we took Mikey from the crate and settled him in a bed in a 4x4 kennel.   She did not seem to be distressed that we had her kitten.  We took her to my friend's house to release outside again.  Like the first time we released her, she ran from the kennel and was gone.

My friend told me that she knew there was another black kitten to be caught: Mikey’s brother.  He had to be that real “last” kitten!  But, just how many more "last" kittens could there be?  Mama Jackson was spayed and she could not have more.  Mikey and the elusive black kitten just had to be her last litter out of three that we knew of.

On September 16 Brandy had an appointment to be neutered.  It was complicated because only one of his testicles had dropped.  The vet had to do an incision to complete the surgery.  Brandy seemed fine the first day, but then the next day we noticed that something didn’t look right about the incision and Brandy didn’t seem to feel well.  We took him for a recheck with the vet.  One of his sutures was out and he had a fever of 104 degrees.  The remaining sutures were holding, so he was sent home to take antibiotics.  He was not a happy camper, having to wear a cone to keep him from doing any more damage. 

We’d only had Mikey four days when my friend found a home for him.  He went to his new home on September 18.   His name is now “Leo” and the updates are good.  His new family just loves him and he is going to be a good pet for them.

Buffy and Brandy

In the meantime, Brandy was taking his antibiotics and would go back to the vet in a week to get his sutures out and have his temperature checked.  Hopefully he would feel better and we’d be able to find him a good home.  Someone would be very lucky to have such a sweet cat.  Buffy, the patio ambassador, comforted Brandy in his discomfort.  We’re sure Buffy was sent to us to keep things calm on the catio.

To be continued.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_