[lorelei]

Tonight we were visited by a very nice black and white mama kitty... who is hugely pregnant. She is so friendly and nice, but there are a ton of strays in our small town.

So.. my dilemma is this; should I try to keep her around so that I can see that her kittens are taken into good homes, and that she gets fixed?

We just got two boy kitties recently, they're about a year old. Vincent we were able to get fixed without trouble, he went willingly into the carrier and on to the vets no sweat. Bela, on the other hand, scratched the shit out of DH and I so we decided best to take Vincent to the appt, and then take Bela later. Plus, stupid me somehow found the most ludicrous and expensive vet in the county- aside from trying to charge me triple what I was told it would cost to neuter and get his shots and rabies vax, they then proceeded to try to send me home with pain killer for him. Seriously?

We do have a spare bedroom that mama kitty could be quarantined in, boy kitties are rooming in our large indoor utility room until we can get Bela fixed.

My in laws live with us for the time being, (in the in law apt) and my MIL seems very opposed to having mamastray on the porch, even. They have 3 cats, to our two. Which isn't too big of a deal, it's just more bagage, kwim?

So I would like to help this kitty out, but don't really know if we want another permanent feline member of the household. Is it better to take her in, keep her safe and fed til the little ones can get new homes and then fix and find her a good home too, or better to just let her do her thing outside and let nature take it's course?

Additionally, I don't really know when she'll have the kittens, she looks HUGE! I think she's a fairly young cat, she's a tiny bit smaller than my almost year old males. But her sides are sticking out so far she looks like she swallowed a balloon!

Please give me some guidance here, mamas. And any good arguments to present DH with would be fab, he's out of town on business til tomorrow night.

TIA!!

 

[domesticzookeeper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorelei Is it better to take her in, keep her safe and fed til the little ones can get new homes and then fix and find her a good home too, or better to just let her do her thing outside and let nature take it's course?

Given that nature 'taking its course' could mean the death of mama and kittens, and if they survive, they'd only contribute to growing stray population...then I'd have to argue for rescuing her and making sure that she and her babies find wonderful homes.

Is there a cat rescue in the area that would be willing to take her in, or have a foster home that could take care of her? Even if you volunteer to be the 'foster home', the rescue will often help to pay for vet bills and take care of finding new homes for the kittens.

I probably shouldn't tell you that I was in the exact same predicament and it led to us having four more cats

 

[incorrigible]

I do this all the time. We've rehomed about 20 cats in the last year or so. I don't have the money to get shots or fix all the strays and their babies we take in, so part of the agreement with new homes involves this. If mama is looking ready to pop, she probably doesn't have long. The skinny little strays usually don't start looking REALLY preg like that till they're a week or less from birth. They're just nothing but kitten inside. =/ The sooner she has access to large amounts of healthy food and water, the better! Even if you're just giving them safety, love, and food until you can rehome them, you're greatly improving their quality of life.

Whatever you do, please get them off the streets, though. Whether you take them in or give them up to a shelter, they really need to be somewhere other than where they are.

ETA: You don't have to end up with four more cats like pp, btw. lol Set your own limits. Both of our cats came into our lives as stray kittens, but we only have 2. 3 is our max, but we're long term dog sitting for a friend and the dog takes up that 3rd slot while he's here.

 

[litlepick]

just thought I would add my 2cents

total gestation time for kittys is 2 months

make sure she is actually pregnant (if she is that big you should be able to feel kittens)

if you can't feel kittens she likely has a bad case of worms

I have made that mistake)

 

[domesticzookeeper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by incorrigible ETA: You don't have to end up with four more cats like pp, btw. lol Set your own limits. Both of our cats came into our lives as stray kittens, but we only have 2. 3 is our max, but we're long term dog sitting for a friend and the dog takes up that 3rd slot while he's here.

Of course!

When we found Scully she was as you describe: young, flea infested, very skinny, and VERY pregnant (resting our hands on her side we could feel her babies moving around)

She gave birth to four kittens a week later.

We were initially the impromptu foster home under the umbrella of the local cat rescue, but we decided we wanted to keep Scully and would handle rehoming the kittens ourselves (knowing they'd need to be at least 10 weeks old before they could leave). That was one of the reasons we decided not to go with the rescue, actually - they wanted to rehome the kittens earlier than we felt comfortable with. YMMV.

We screened potential homes thoroughly, and managed to find homes for the two boys but not the two girls. So they stayed with us and Mama Cat (who, btw, nursed them until they were 5 months old. Gotta love AP cats

) Then a year later one of the boys' new homes didn't work out, and per the contract we had them sign, we took him back no questions asked. Ergo, finding one stray pregnant kitty led to us having four new cats. Definitely not something that will necessarily happen, but what can you do? We fell in love with them