The Joy And Sorrow of Feral Kittens

It's true! We love animals. Some people feel we are a little (or a lot) overboard about this but we don't care. As far as we are concerned they are the replacement for the children we were never blessed with. Many people do understand what an amazing gift animals are to us. And unfortunately, maybe just don't get it at all. Those are the people we pity.

There is nothing like the love of an animal. We have even been blessed with the love of wild animals as well as domestics. It is simply a wonderful thing.

And to have an animal in distress or in need is intolerable. We must do what we can to help. It is who we are.

Please! We can't even watch movies or television shows that are going to have some kind of drama with an animal. They might potentially be harmed. Even though it is not reality. We simply can't do it.

We can't even watch certain commercials without crying. We are just crazy about animals and very soft hearted.

Judge us if you will. Those are the facts. :)

We have a fairly large wood deck off the back of our home. We spend a lot of time out there. But it was a long winter and we had not really been out there yet, not even to get it all cleaned up after the snows and wind blowing of winter. It was early April and I decided it was time to get started out there. After all, in another month I was going to want to start planting my pots of flowers and herbs. Up here in Michigan winter can easily last into late march to mid April, so mid May is really about the soonest you would want to plant.

Anyway, I had gone onto the deck to survey the damage when I realized something was watching me. I looked over the edge of the deck and there was a little face looking at me being as still as possible. It was there only a second, it really startled me. I wasn't sure what it was. We have opossums and raccoons, bunnies and squirrels in our backyard. I pretty much ruled out a bunny or a squirrel, that would have been weird behavior. But I know we have Opossums living under the deck and we have raccoons out under our shed. So I wasn't sure.

I called for Jim to come out and see if we could figure it out. He told me we should go in and watch from the window and see if it reappeared since it seemed to have been frightened.

Well that worked. We didn't even have to watch for very long before we saw our first really good glimpse of our new baby. A kitty.

BTW, the kitten picture in this module is not Tommy Ginger, we did not meet him when he was that tiny. But it is what I imagine he would have looked like.

My next door neighbor, Renee and I, were the surrogate mothers for this brood of babies. We were equally enthralled with them and wanted nothing more than to love and care for them. Of course the problem existed that they were feral and would not allow contact.

But that didn't stop Renee or her daughter Kelsey. They persisted in their attempts to win them over. Renee did the needed research about feral cats and watched a few youtube videos and came up with a plan. Renee or Kelsey would sit on the front porch or back deck in their yard and put baby food on their fingers (the smell and the babies' hunger found the baby food attractive) and just talk with them and coo at them until one of them was brave enough to come see what was up. Of course that was Tommy Ginger, the only boy in the litter, he is so curious. He really was a push over for getting him to accept food.

And it didn't take long until a routine had been established. Early in the morning and before dusk in the evening was feeding time. They would just show up for their feeding. One at a time or maybe two but they would come. Even Stubbs knew food was available and would come.

Well since they had mainly graduated from our deck to Renee's front porch, I began going over there at feeding time so I could have my fix of the babies. My husband Jim and I started contributing toward the food for all of them and we all felt like family. It was a delightful early Spring, but the worry about them being feral and outdoors always haunted me. I just couldn't help it.

We have another wonderful neighbor that until these babies arrived, we didn't know much about. But come to find out he is a feral cat rescue right from his home. He live traps the feral cats, takes them in and gets them spayed and neutered and treated and vaccinated then he tries to place them in homes. If he is unsuccessful he releases them back into the neighborhood.

He has also built a winter fortress for them. And of course he feeds them.

So because of his work, Mama Stubbs and her babies have now been spayed and neutered. He was not able to find homes for them, so we just thought they didn't come around for a few days. We had no idea what had happened.

When we did find out what was going on, we found this so amazing that it was going on right in our neighborhood and we didn't even know it. My husband ran into him in the neighborhood when he was walking our paralyzed dog Isabel. Our Isabel opens the door to many conversations in our neighborhood. So we were introduced to a wonderful person and we applaud his work.

This is where the story loses some of its luster. Tragedy strikes our happy little family. Remember I told you I could not stop worrying about the fear of them being outdoor cats and what could happen. Well I had good reason.

The reality is, Outdoor cats are susceptible to all kinds of dangers. Wild animals, cars, stupid humans, falls, traps, you name it. It is dangerous out there. Well, two of our babies were taken from us.

Twixie, the muted color calico was struck and killed by a car right in front of our home. Jim and I were taking a movie back up to the video store and saw something in the road. We knew right away what it was. We got out of the car and saw who it was. I became nearly hysterical. I cried so hard. I could just see my fears coming to fruition. I was sick! I couldn't stop crying. It is so senseless.

The Callie, the other calico, got a severe facial injury. We are assuming she got attacked by a raccoon, since there are so many of them around there. She had four puncture wounds in her face. It was obvious the wounds were infected. She needed attention. But she is feral and won't just walk up and let you handle her. So wonderful Renee with much patience and perseverance, finally was able to capture her and get her to the vet.

They cleaned out her wounds and gave her an antibiotic injection and sent Renee home with oral antibiotics for her. Renee kept her penned in one of their bathrooms and she did very well, she even walked around the bathroom and seemed to enjoy being petted and sitting on Renee or Kelsey's laps. She had no problem taking to the litter box and she was eating and drinking. We were so hopeful and since she was taking so well to indoors we felt the transition might not be too bad.

One night about a week after she was at the vets she took a severe turn for the worse. The nurse in me knows she went septic, the infection entered her blood stream. She was just a baby, about five months old. She died. it was devastating for everyone.

We were now down to two.

Well it is now December 2010, It is single digit temperatures outside. We have several inches of snow and ice on the ground and the winds are blowing. It is frigid...burrrrrrr

Well Tommy Ginger doesn't care. No longer is he an outdoor cat. He is going to have a long healthy life, maybe nine of them! No longer is he a feral cat. No longer is he at danger of being hit by a car, or having a raccoon attack him or having his little leg crushed.

Tommy Ginger is now eight months old!

No longer are his surrogate mothers worried for him. He is a happy indoor kitty. He is fat and sassy and healthy as he can be and everyone involved in this story is gleefully happy.

Our feral kitty is safe and loved...

And we are loved by him.

One Last Thing: This story even has a happy ending for Stubbs, Mama Feral Cat. She is living with our rescuing neighbor in his winter fortress, She is being fed regularly so she doesn't have to prowl and hunt anymore. Although she is still an outdoor cat, she is warm and well fed and has a better chance of survival than some less fortunate feral cats. And our neighbor really cares about her. She is visible now way more than she used to be when she was on the prowl, she seems much more content. We are very happy for her and our neighbor, to whom we will always be grateful.

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