I gave up one to a local rescuer who had taken in a half tame mom and her two kittens, living as strays in Albany. The kittens were also fixed, but someone else got them in.
Here's the mom, a classic torti, Beatrix, pregnant again at spay, with kittens only about 3 months old.
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| Beatrix |
I took in the last known unfixed female from the big Sweet Home colony. She was both post partem and in heat. Meaning her kittens are probably gone, dead, or some we already took out of there.
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| Petunia |
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| Bandit, a boy, fixed yesterday |
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| Mouse, a girl fixed yesterday, who apparently had kittens only about 2 weeks old |
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| Missymom from Sweet HOme |
I also took the five bathroom kittens to Heartland. This was bitter sweet for me. Zeus, that gray fluffy little boy, who had been in my place almost six days as of yesterday, was a little ball of energy and love. The other four, with me just over 36 hours, were still wildish and suffering from URI's. All five were from the Sweet Home colony.
I checked my records and I've gotten 40 kittens off the streets in the last three weeks. 24 of them were from that Sweet Home colony. 8 were from one household in Sweet Home whose two females both had kittens (moms now fixed). 1 from the RV park on the edge of Sweet Home. 5 from the Sweet Home female who had kittens in the trap. And 2 from Cascadia.
I can tell you every one of the kittens moms are now fixed with the exception of Sammy Sunbeams' mom, out at the RV park. They had thought the torti was his mom, along with the two torti kittens, but now we know that is not the case. I'm on it though. And of course the mom from Sweet Home who had kittens in the trap, all now up with Animal Rescue and Care Fund, she's not fixed yet, not until her kittens are weaned.
Rescues and shelters who take in kittens could and should make a huge difference by not taking the kittens until the moms are fixed. Otherwise, they're simply participating in kitten mill behavior, taking the kittens while the mom is left to produce more kittens.
I hear you that fixing the mothers is the first priority.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you (again) for your most excellent work.
Yeah, its really a huge deal, and if done, by all rescues and shelters, would probably end this nightmare finally.
DeleteSo glad you had help gettiing that Mom back to her kittens so all ended well - we hope.
ReplyDeleteOh I was so grateful to get that offer of help. I was so tired out. Today I slept most of the day and feel good again.
DeleteYour last paragraph is thought provoking. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteYeah, taking in kittens, not making sure the mom is fixed, means in most cases she will have more, and they'll be brought in===the kitten mill shelters and rescues, selling the product.
DeleteForty? Wow! Good work. I wish folks would be more responsible, including rescues. You make a good point. Be well!
ReplyDeleteYeah I wish they would too.
DeleteThe cutest one is Petunia. I feel bad for the moms with missing babies.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad for them, most of the kittens out there died, of upper respiratory. 24 kittens found, 12 lactating females. 2 found per female when probably 4 to 6 were born per lacating female. All but three of the 24 kittens I briefly had from there were quite ill and would not have lived.
DeleteI wonder if they grieve.
DeleteI'm sure they do, in their way. They cry, the mothers, if they cannot find their kittens, yet often drop one and forget it when moving them around, or sometimes eat their litters or some of them. First time mothers often have the kittens and leave them. The 13th female out there, the orange tabby girl, wasn't lactating at spay, the only one. The colony caretaker said she'd had a litter on the front porch and left them to die. Just walked off.
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