Kittens - What To Do?

So Many Shoes

Hi All,

My boyfriend just rang me, he is after finding some kittens in a ditch where he works.

Another guy he works with saw the mother cat leave a while ago and thinks she left with another kitten (but he's not 100% sure). My boyfriend thought that there was just 1 kitten there but he took a closer look and there is another cat there (so 2 kittens). He's not sure what age they are, he said that they would fit into the palm of his hand and are really fluffy and 1 of the kittens is kind of walking but not very well and that the 2 kittens are playing with each other, so maybe a 4/5 weeks?

The mother cat still isn't back, I told him not to go too close to the kittens as the mother cat might sense him and then not come back. But at the same time we don't want them wandeing too far away (if they even can walk that far away), but how long should he leave them alone for in the hope that she comes back? I realise that she might be finding a new home for them, so she might be gone for a while.

We're not sure what to do....The cat could belong to someone (I'm going to call up there after work and ask around), but as it's in the city it is probably a stray. We can take in the cat/kittens, but how do we go about catching them? I can get one of those cat cage things from my sister, but if the cat is a stray she won't want to come near the cage! But even if the mother cat does come back we don't want to leave them as strays either (if they are strays), and then if she moves them we might not be able to find them again??

Also, I love cats and have wanted one for ages, so would love to take them in!

Any advice?

Thanks!

Outkast_IRE

Tell him to back off and give the cat a chance of a few hours to come back , if you want a kitten there are plenty of legit ways to get ones from animal rescues etc. Cats move the kittens one at a time and wont come back for the others while people are hanging around.

So Many Shoes

Thanks for your reply. But I think you have taken me up slightly wrong, of course I know there are plenty of kittens/cats in animal rescues that are 'legit', and I'm not just going to take some random kittens....but I don't want kittens to end up as strays and for a possibly stray cat to have more kittens and add to an animal rescue thats already full with kittens/cats. What I meant was that if these are strays then I will take them in and not just leave them there or give them to a rescue centre...

As I said in my original post, I have told him to 'back off', he didn't actually go near their den, he could see them....he won't be finished work for another few hours, so he was going to wait and see what happens anyway.

I have had cats and I know that they move around but this is in a city centre, it's not safe for them either way.

Thanks anyway.

MsFifers

You could contact a local animal rescue service and ask to borrow a cat trap. If you can catch the mother in the trap, it would be easy enough to pick up the kittens too and bring them all home. This might take a few days. In the meantime, you should get your boyfriend to leave lots of yummy food for the Mammy cat so she won't move from where she is.

The only thing is though that many Mammy cats go off somewhere to have kittens, so it is possible the cat has an owner (obviously an irresponsible one though!)

So Many Shoes

Thanks MsFifers, I am going to go to the neighbourhood this evening and ask around if anyone is missing a cat. I had thought that maybe the mother cat did go off to have kittens (I've had cats who have done this before) but surely if your cat was pregnant and has gone missing that an owner would go looking for them and also find the kittens??? The kittens are old enough to walk (kind of!), so they are a few weeks old....But as you say the owners may be irresponsible....But if the cat has owners who are irresponsible what are they going to do with them kittens then?

I'll get him to get some cat food, and leave it close by, but we don't want to get too close either and then we may end scaring her off.

I will call the local animal centre and see if we can borrow a cat trap.

Thanks again!