Adventures in Fostering

Wow! What a ride it has been! Turns out that I have a feral momma cat on my hands. (Feral means wild) She won't let me touch her or her babies. Let me back up to the beginning. As I stated earlier I am fostering a momma cat and her 9, yes 9 babies. Some of the babies were 1 week old and some 2 weeks when I got them from Operation Kindness Monday. They told me that some of the babies are hers, but she adopted the others when their mother died. Because she isn't designed to nurse 9 babies, we were concerned about the little ones not being able to fight the older ones for the milk. So we started taking the older ones out, letting the younger ones nurse and then rotating the older ones back in. We did that all day Tuesday and then "H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks" broke loose. Mom, being the feral cat she is, did not like all the touching we were doing to her kittens. She felt unsafe and decided to move her babies into the closet. I walked in on her before she could get all of them in her. I immediately put her nesting box with remaining babies in the closet with her so she wouldn't neglect any of them. I went in about 20 minutes later and found her having EXPLOSIVE diarrhea all over my sweet husband's shoes. All the stress of us handling her babies really got to her. She knows how to use the cat sand and had done it prior but was all out of sorts and had an accident, a big accident. It was the stinkiest poo I have EVER smelled. Needless to say, we put her back in the tub with her nesting box and since then I haven't touched her babies and I go in there just to count breathing babies and give her food. Thing are going swimmingly with mom and I can only hope all the babies are getting milk. I have been making tallies to see how many times I see each baby drinking. Operation Kindness is working on getting a foster who is able to bottle feed the older ones so that mom has only 5 babies. I am not sure I will be fostering a momma cat and her babies again, especially if momma is feral. More to come!! Stay posted!