I'm sorry to say that this will be a sad journal entry. Last night when I went to feed the commune of feral cats, I went into the cattery while they were eating to check up on the little ones and found a ginger and white one dead. It was lying slightly apart from its three siblings – it wasn't breathing, its belly was distended and its body was cold to the touch. I reached out and picked it up and was holding it in my hand when the black nanny/auntie cat "Hissy Fit" who looks after kittens with Mimsy, came charging inside. She instantly went to check out the kittens. I returned the little dead one to the nest so she could see what had happened. She tried to revive it by licking it but obviously didn't succeed. My scent was on the little kitten too, which didn't help. I don't know how cats process information but on some level these ones may equate my being there with the baby's death. On another level, Hissy Fit showed no hostility towards me, possibly because I have a long term record of feeding them and looking after them so they recognise me as a carer.
This morning I returned to remove the dead kitten and found all of them gone. This has happened once in the past when my very kind auntie came and fussed over a previous litter and returned one that had crawled away. Within hours the mother had moved the lot of them. It's my observation that the moment humans touch the babies and get there scent over them, then the mothers will move the kittens to another nest.
After finding them gone this morning, I began searching for them. I believe they've been moved under the broken floorboards of a dilapidated shed which stands next to the cattery. There are lots of pipes and crawl spaces there, and Mimsy has brought previous kittens up in this spot. Belle, my cross border collie with the amazing nose for finding kittens, also started sniffing in the vicinity.
2 comments:
So sorry to learn that you lost one of the gingers. That is heartbreaking.
Yes, I have experienced the mothers moving the kits too. When Baby had hers in my closet after the second day she moved them under the bed. This was too dangerous as they have gotten stepped on, so I moved them back to the birthing box and "built" an enclosure so they had the entire closet as their "cave". She must have liked it as she never moved them again.
I hope you locate them so you can be sure they are safe!
P/S. this is hard to type because Honey is trying to groom my hands and is nipping when I don't hold still!
Thanks, Cat.
It was strange because the dead kitten looked to be the largest one in the litter so I don't know what happened.
This week my task is to locate the others. I know where they are but it is extremely difficult to get to them without clearing a lot of old floorboards and pipes. However, I need to get them used to humans prior to catching them at around the six week mark. Their eyes should be open by now.
J
Post a Comment