I had another one of those awesome volunteer days....and I have a few kittens to tell you about. C'mon...you know you want to know more.

  

So today Friends of Kindred Spirits sponsored a spay/neuter day for feral cats. An awesome client of ours gave us a heads up last fall about a feral colony in a junkyard. Feral cats, as you probably know are cats that have reverted essentially to a wild state and live on their own...usually with the help of people feeding them.

There is a whole world of feral cats and their care online.  We have a group of people passionate about feral cats right here in our area...but more about them later.

So without going into the history of the movement, suffice it to say that a major portion of pet overpopulation occurs in feral colonies. Basically a few cats start in a barn, a junkyard or any low predator geographic area.  Because cats are prolific reproducers, the number in the colony grows unless it is limited by disease, lack of food, or neighbors.

In the perfect world, we could capture these cats and find them loving homes. But that ain't gonna happen. Number one, there are more cats nationally than there are homes. Number two, these cats are totally happy living peripherally with humans and keeping to themselves.

When this client came to me last year (lets just call her Martie) and told me about the junkyard cats, we had recently gone through the Jonesport Feral Cat project and we had donations to cover more feral cat spays and neuters.

So, Martie called me a few weeks ago and organized the spay/neuter weekend together with Pam and Linda of Forgotten Felines, as well as Diana (Amazing Animal Control Officer) and Jean, who supplied us with traps and advice. Pam gave us some great suggestions in the planning phase, and yesterday Martie and Diana did the trapping.

Of 17 traps they set, they caught 14 cats. Last night I got the final call that we were on.

Christina the wonder tech met Mary and me at 10am and we finished not that long ago. Turns out that most of the cats were females, and most were pregnant. I planned to do 7 spays and 7 castrations. I did 4 castrations, 6 spays and 4 Caesarian Sections.

Stay with me.

OK, the good news is that we spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and released 10 cats. The other good news is that we had sutures donated by one of our vendors (thank you for Doug from Nevsco) and we only had to pay for vaccines, anesthetics, and lunch. Everyone there donated their time.

For those of you who are math whizzes, you may have noticed  a discrepency. Worded like one of those Algebra Word Problems...If Martie and Diana trapped 14 cats, and the next day 10 were released, how many stayed?

The answer of course is 4.

So, I had to call Pam and tell her that there were a few live kittens born. A few as in 17.

No problem, in 1/2 hour her and Linda came over and collected up the 4 nursing mothers and kittens and are bringing them home to nurse for the next 4 weeks, at which time the mothers will be returned to the colony and the kittens can be fostered.  I am humbled by the commitment of everyone today, but am particularly grateful for Forgotten Felines because my Plan A was to take home 17 kittens tonight and start bottle feeding.

  

So, the Britney Spears song Oops I did it again comes to mind.  Nationally, many feral cat organizers are forced to euthanize kittens because there is simply not homes for them. The pervailing wisdom is that spaying the mothers comes first, and if kittens have to be sacrificed in the process then the greater good is still done.  One trip to any Humane Society will tell you that there are more cats than homes, and that if you are fortunate enough to be able to catch and arrange spay/neuter for these feral cats, setting them free with kittens that are not spayed and neutered simply goes against the math of the situation. Getting more cats from a project than you trapped is also not good.

That explanation just doesn't feel very Kindred Spirity to me and Mary though.

So thanks to everyone today, and with Pam's support, I need some foster homes for 17 kittens in 4 weeks.

  

I'm not kidding.

17 kittens. One month.

  

I think this could be a new reality TV show.

Once they are 4 weeks old they will be on gruel or canned kitten food. They will need foster homes until 8 weeks of age, then we will spay and neuter and vaccinate them. Then they will need forever homes.

  

I'm pretty sure I'm in over my head on this one. But I also know that sometimes you just have to trust in the universe to make the right thing happen.

  

Cmon universe...I'm counting on you.