Barn Wall Kittens

The barn wall kittens are here now.  The five orange kittens I found down in a wall in the barn, a few days ago.  We tried then using a trap with them as bait to catch mom but failed.  Eventually, the barn owners put them back in the wall.  Only to find them yesterday up in the loft.  But they didn't know which cat was their mom since they have lots of orange cats.

Yesterday they trapped all know females in their barn.  But which one is their mom?  Nobody knows.

Five adults in all, they trapped, four of them orange, four of them female too. After they caught them and I was out there to pick them up, they went and got the former barn wall kittens, from the loft.  We tried to find out which female might be their mom by checking the frightened cats, for lactation.  It's not that easy to see.

So who is mom of wall kittens, who also are now here?

Here are the candidates:

Orion, a known kitten thief.  I am told she stole all the kittens from all the moms, first litters of summer..

That's Orion, staring at the camera

What about Bob?  Could she be the mom?

Bob got her name when they thought she was a he.  Later they discovered their mistake but the name stuck. You might think Bob would never have five orange kittens.  But earlier in the summer, her first litter, was two orange kittens.

What about attitude girl?   She gives anyone who looks her way "the look" and its not a nice look.
Could she be the mom?

I can't see lactation, but then my eyes are bad.  The barn folk couldn't see any milk swollen boobs either.

How about Orion lookalike Venus?  SCORE!  Lactation obvious with her.  But what about the kittens running around in the ceiling of the shop.  Who is their mommy?  There should be two lactating females!    Tomorrow the barn folks are cutting a hole in that ceiling so traps can go up there for those kittens.  We heard them playing above us.  They've never been seen however.

Venus is to the left, down below Orion.  Kittens are after her!

Kitten mom sure isn't this guy!!!

Buffington, the boy

They're after a sixth adult, a male, and will keep trapping in case of more adults they don't know about.  Plus they'll set traps for the ceiling kittens.

So anyhow, I took the three teens to the ER vet yesterday.   They had constant diarrhea and unloaded mounds of dead roundworms.  I was worried however, that maybe they have giardia.   The vet reassured me the diarrhea was likely just parasite overload and they'd improve.  Besides Dagwood is leaving for Animal Rescue and Care Fund Monday.  They'll take him straight to their vet.  He turned tame so fast and is just the sweetest little guy.   Now to find somewhere for the two girls.  They were all going to a barn home initially until I saw how bad their parasites are and how not feral they are.  None of them are true ferals.   No feral four month old tames in two days.  These are kittens somebody threw away

Despite how busy I was yesterday, running back and forth to Tangent, to pick up trapped cats, taking the three teens to the vet, I got time out to go to lunch with Fran, whom I see now and then, and then to coffee with my Corvallis friend, who was at the same vet clinic at the same time with her old boy, Buddy.   It was great to see them both!

I am a bit overwhelmed?  Yes.  But Dagwood leaves Monday and Charlie leaves the second week of October and I am optimistic I'll find somewhere for the two girl teens too, since they're not barn cat material.   As for the barn home who was willing to take them, I am hoping to get the Mary street kittens there.  Remember Mary street, the chicken colony?  It came back to haunt me, when a woman called Barn Cats R US, a Washington state based group, saying she was feeding five kittens but moving the first of October.   Oh shoot.  We got seven fixed there and three to new homes, one of them an 8th cat, but already fixed and very old and ill.   Anyhow, now at least five more, probably seven more.   The adults, once fixed, can remain, because the old couple feeds across the street.  But maybe the lady willing to take the three teens will take five teens from somewhere else.  Am hoping.  That's a project for next week though.