I've just crossposted this, Debbie can take the cats at a push but ideally we need someone who can take on a couple of the kittens to lessen the burden. Can anyone help
At a push, I will take 2 kittens but ideally I don't want to as I'm chocca and hubby will kill me
Anyway the link and post is below
http://www.catchat.org/forum/discus/show.cgi?17/92539Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum, I thought I would tell you all my story as any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!
The house nextdoor to us has been empty for five years, and the garden becoming increasingly overgrown. Last weekend, my husband and I were about to drench the nextdoor garden in weed killer as the thorns and brambles are about 7ft high and coming over into our garden. So, my husband went over the garden wall because he wanted to try and trample it all down first... and to our surprise, we discovered a little family living in there.
There is mum and four little kittens, I can only *guess* that the kittens are about 7/8 weeks old... We didn't know what to do for the best with them, none of them would come anywhere near us, including mum, and so for a few days we just kept an eye on them from a distance.
However, on Monday, I decided I had to do something when I looked out of my window into the back garden: the poor kittens were so hungry, they had managed to climb up a 6ft birdtable, and they were eating the birdfood I had just put out :0( they must have been starving. I decided then that something had to be done, so I spent the whole day trying to catch them...
By the end of Monday, I had managed to lure the mum and three of the kittens into our shed using food as bait, but unfortunately, one kitten, the smallest, spent the entire night alone outside as we could not get it. We could hear it all night crying for the rest of its family, so at 6am the next morning my husband and I went back out, we put a cat lead on mum and managed to use her to lure the kitten into the shed!
So, now, we have the whole family safe and well and together in the shed. It is a VERY large shed, so they have plenty of room. We have been feeding them, etc, since Monday, and they are all looking very healthy and bright-eyed, but unfortunately, we can not keep them. We already have a dog and two cats of our own, and feeding five extra cats is already crippling us financially!! It's been a real struggle.
I have contacted our local Cats' Protection who have put them on the waiiting list... but my main concern is the kittens. They have obviously never had contact with humans, and they are feral with a vengeance! They will not let us near them, if you try to reach out to touch them they hiss at you and run away. We've had them since Monday and still have not yet managed to touch them... How are we supposed to tame them? We are hoping that we might be able to rehome them ourselves, to take the strain off Cat's Protection, who are already over-run, but we cannot rehome them like they are now... Does anyone have any advice?
We think mum must have been a pet at some time, because she is happy to come for a fuss and be picked up, we are booking her in with the vet on Monday to be spayed and check for any microchip... but even taking the kittens to a vet for check-ups seems impossible when we cannot yet get near them...
Sorry for going on...!
Claire x
