I have been asked by several readers this one question. “There is a queen and a litter of kittens on my property, what now?”

Everyone who rescues has their own system. Some people believe that trapping the mom and securing the kittens at the earliest age possible allows the kittens to be easily handled. I suppose that is true. If you were a baby and your mom was taken away from you suddenly, you would go into shock and be easily handled as well. I just don’t ascribe to this method.

Any time I have a litter of kittens and a queen on my property, I leave her kittens with her until she and I have formed a bond and she brings them to me. They always do on their time frame, not mine, and I learned over time to stop panicking if the kittens get over the 4 weeks of age time frame. They can still be handled and socialized, but staying with mom, they learn valuable lessons that only she can teach them. I am a poor substitute.

This is my method and it has served me well over the years. It has been refined over time to be more effective. Perhaps, it might help you as well if you are struggling with what to do now~

I feed the queen on a schedule daily. At least five separate times, I visit her feeding spot, leave her food and water. She comes to expect the visits and I see her waiting in the bushes or under a piece of farm equipment, waiting for that now familiar pop of the cat food can, or the rattle of the Friskies box. I always announce myself first, either by popping a can, or shaking a box of food before I pour. Nearby on the ground spread out is a blanket (a thick one depending on the terrian,) After I set the food out in cookie sheets- I do not feed in bowls, but have learned that flat feeding surfaces are easily accepted, I lie down on the blanket on my back and just wait. She will come and eat, and through it all I lay quite still. If she hisses, I don’t react. If she inspects me, I don’t move. I am a rock- silent and still and waiting.

Over time, I change position until I am sitting up. At no time do I even look at her because a direct stare to a stray cat is like inviting her to a fight at the ok corral. If we do happen to catch each other, I slowly blink several times, lower my head then look away.

She gets used to me and how long it takes really depends on me. If I am impatient and wanting her to accept me now, she responds by backing away. It is her time sheet not mine she is keeping. So I work slowly not expecting anything earth-shattering to occur and that is when I usually get a head bump or two.

Once she knows I am not there to hurt her, she comes to me willingly and I still will not touch her or stare at her. I know from experience that the very minute I reach out to touch her- she will dart away and vanish and I am back at square one. Slow and steady wins this race.

After the kittens are born, I increase the times I feed her. I also give her kitten replacement milk to sustain her as nursing is hard on her. When she is ready and asl long as I stay low on the blanket, she will bring them to me. They generally climb all over me and I still don’t move. It will take days before I begin to touch them ever careful of mom and her protective ways. I have been struck by a new mom and it came fast and calculated. I never saw it coming, but I felt her wrath for days afterward.

There is a rhythm to this procedure. It is like breathing, the yin and yang of life. It is slow measure movements, wearing your love on your sleeve and soon I am rewarded with a lapful of kitties ready to leave mom. They have learned from her how to hunt, when to be quiet, when to play. How to go to the bathroom and how to socialize with others. Thats when they come indoors and get individual attention. I do enough bottle feeding every year to understand the true importance of the queen being in the kittens lives- and instead of asking God “What now?” I trust in Him and the knowledge He has given me to work with these wonderful creatures.

Yesterday, I was bottle-babyless and it felt quite strange. I had to take hubby in for his cancer check-up, then he had an eye surgery scheduled and we had to drive clear to Portland which is three hours away. Normally, I would have just packed the little darlins and all their supplies and they would have gone with us- but we are sitting at high temperature heat and even with the air conditioner roaring, they wouldn’t have been comfortable. So a friend of mine took them for 24 hours.

They are back now and have just been fed and tucked in for a few hours. She loved the whole process, even getting up every 3 hours didn’t diminish the delight she felt in helping “the wee darlings!” They look good with the exception of MacBeth, the short haired gray. I have an appointment with Dr. Vicki Thayer this morning. She is a feline specialist who makes house calls- a rare find in this neck of the woods! She is so good and we have developed a friendship as well as a professional relationship with each other. I suspect that MacBeth should have stayed inside the queen just a bit longer. His rectum doesn’t appear to be fully developed and passing stool is so difficult for him. If you compare him to the other kittens you can see that he is from a different tom simply by his size, the fact that his eyes are still half-closed, his ears haven’t opened and his poophole is so tiny. 🙁 I pray I am wrong, but I ran into this a few years ago with a litter of cute, cute, cute manx-cross kitties and within 24 hours of bottlefeeding, I knew something was terribly wrong. They were all 7 rushed to the vet and none of them came home again. All were euthanized because they had no rectums, they had a hole, but it didn’t go anywhere. 🙁 He is at least pooping- but it is a long process and he cries are so horrendous, I know he is in pain. But I also know that if I just quit stimulating him he could die from that. Hopefully, Vicki will be able to provide me with the answer.

The cats, dogs and horses are in a state right now. We have had fierce electrical storms at night. Last night, the thunder actually shook the house! There were cats flying in all directions trying to get away from the noise and chaos. The sky was lit up with heat lighting, and there are now multiple forest fires around us, although we are far enough away from the hills not to be in immediate danger. The air is smoky this morning and the animals are on high alert. I don’t think we have seen the end to these strange storms.

Well, it is 6:30 a.m. and as much as I want to just crawl into bed, throw the covers over my head and pretend I don’t exist- I have to instead go and feed the horses, feed the dogs, feed the cats, bring in the cat litter, change out all the boxes! YAY! No more nasty sweet smelling cat litter- it has been all given away and replaced with Stall-Dry! My cats hated that litter that was given to me. What a shame too, a whole pallet of non-clumping cat litter that caused the worst case of litter box reprisals that this house has ever seen. The living room was the battle ground of choice and it is going to take me days to restore the room back to a normal scent. I don’t know what possesses some litter companies to put scents in litter! Cats don’t care if their litter doesn’t smell good before they use it- in fact, they Prefer it doesn’t smell at all! This stuff (which I won’t name publicly because the company was so nice to donate it to me) was so smelly sweet I knew I was in trouble when I opened the first bag. Most of it went in the horses stalls- with all the air traveling through the stalls the smell wasn’t the issue. But in the cat room and the house, the cats were pissed in a bad way and they sprayed and pooped out of the box for weeks until I managed to get rid of the stuff. No wonder the company couldn’t compete with the big dogs- they don’t know cats!

The first night with bottle babies can be nerve-wracking. The kittens are trying to adjust to their new world-sans their mom, and you are trying to adjust to having to get up every three hours round-the-clock to feed them.

On their first night, the kittens will cry sometimes unceasingly. They will cry if they are hungry (usually a shrill, piercing “FEED ME NOW!” type of cry.) They will cry if they are getting stopped up and need a bathroom break- this cry is lower than the hunger cry, a sort of moaning meow as if the kitty has a tummy ache. The kittens often cry for their mother. This cry is louder than their food cry and you can hear it throughout your home.

They learn early on that mom leaves the nest for food periodically. They know, because she has taught them, that they have to be silent while she is gone (or predators may munch on them.) It is usually after the third day, when the kittens will become frantic and start screaming for mom.

It usually takes me about 24 hours to identify each kittens’ voice. As I lay there in the dark with the kitten box close-by, Their voices surround me. I can hear each meow distinctive in its own way. The boys are generally quieter than the girls (just like in our society.) But unlike a human baby, you can’t let newborn kittens cry themselves to sleep. If they don’t stop crying, their immune system bottoms out and you risk losing them to an illness.

Here is Dusky- sucking on his bottle-

If anyone reading this would like to sponsor one of these kittens till adoption- that would be wonderful. For $25.00 you will get photos and stories about the kitten you sponsor until it is adopted out. I will send these 3 times a month.

There is a donation button on my kitten-rescue site should you be interested. No, the $25.00 won’t even pay for the spay/neuter but it will help greatly to defray costs on this current crop of kittens.

New arrivals here. They have been without mom for 2 days and they seem to be endlessly hungry. There are four of them, 3 boys 1 female. A tortie, a mackeral tabby, a dark grey kitty and an orange one. This is the first year we have had SO many orange kittens. Just makes me miss Prowler, Bailey and Franklin all the more- These cuties are a week old-

The sun is barely peeking over the mountain when the dogs and I head for our walk. The Cascade lumber trail has long been a favorite path for us. Baron heads the pack, his black German Shepherd tail pointing straight up as if to say “It’s this way folks! Follow me!” I let him lead. I know that dogs are pack animals and some people insist that the human needs to be in front. I know differently. I have gained respect with these formerly abused creatures. Even if I lag behind them, should I suddenly change direction and head the other way, they would soon join me.

The alders, mountain ash and pine trees loom overhead. The trail is shaded and peaceful…the only sounds; the chirping of the birds and the panting of dogs…ok, this human is also panting as parts of the trail are steep! We round the bend and are confronted with a fallen cottonwood tree. It stretches across the path barring the way. The dogs quickly duck under the highest point and look back at me as if say “Where are you? It’s easy, just try it!”

I look at their entry point and decide that although the limbo was a favorite game for me back in grade-school, my fifty year old back couldn’t go that low these days. Instead, I grab an exisitng branch and laboriously hoist myself over the tree grateful that no one with a video camera is recording the event. I’d hate to see THAT on YouTube! The dogs still excited at their prospective walk gather around me. Kodie licks my hand as if to offer me sympathy that I am not limber enough to follow their lead in this case. Baron, in his two-year old wisdom just leans on me offering his support as we continue to trudge up the mountain.

Baron is such a puppy! Although at two years old, most German Shepherds are settling in and the brain has kicked into gear in regards to behavior, Baron retains all the traits of puppyhood, having been denied his own. He was created for breeding purposes only in a puppy mill. His testicles never descended, leaving him in danger of being euthanized because he was of no use to the breeder. Instead, he now lives with us, still fully intact although he shows no stud tendencies. No aggression to females, even ones he meets when they are in heat. He is a joy to watch as he romps through the grasses and crashes into the underbush following scents.

I wish I shared these dogs joyful abandon. They greet each day with such pleasure and don’t get caught up in their past. All that matters to them is that they now have two humans in their lives who love them. They are never beaten or scared or intimidated. Their food bowls are always full- their water bowls filled daily and their presence brings us as much joy as they are now finding in this morning walk in the woods.

The scratching pad I received has claimed all the cats attention since it was first placed on the floor. Charlie likes to ride on the whale and push all the other cats off. Who knew this kitty that almost died would be so dominant with the group. I wish now I had gone with the larger-sized orca as Sinclair is having problems fitting into the belly of the smaller whale. Though he does try!

A gal that I only know off the Internet has designed a wonderful adoption poster for me. My hope was to bring the enchantment that these cats and kittens create daily alive on paper, and Carol certainly delivered! Twila went to a new home today, and there have been calls about three other cats here. I have posted them about town and in some of the surrounding areas as well.

Took Everest to the vet tonight. He was limping severely. I was afraid he might have broken his leg, but they found instead he tore his muscle. It is pretty bad. They put him on torbutrol and they want him secluded but confining him just tends to stress him out. So he is sleeping right now on Mike’s shoulder.

He was so unhappy at the vet’s office. He was hiding in their sink for most of the visit. He weighed in at 13 pounds and he also has the start of stomatitis which is why he has been drooling so badly.

I have never had the pleasure of dealing with such a mischievous cat as my Matuse. I have to give Drinkwell Pet Fountains props though- their latest fountain has lasted four years before falling to the evildoings of Matuse. He jumped on the fountain this morning and it toppled over killing the motor. He is such a twit-nose!

This morning on the way to town as I was driving though the Narrows, I noticed a burlap bag tied up and laying by the roadside. A movement in the bag caught my attention so I pulled over to investigate. When I opened up the bag, I almost cried. Two mackeral tabby babies just days old were inside! They were flea-ridden and hot to the touch with bad dehydration. I rushed them to the vet where the vet did the best he could and then told me to just take them home, feed every 1/2 hour and hope for the best.

Mite died first and then her brother Bug followed soon after. I will keep to myself what I wish I could do to the asshole who dumped these kittens. They were only a few miles from my home, I just wish I had found them sooner-

I have to go back to the vet tomorrow with my Panic kitty. She is exhibiting some puzzling symptoms and I am unsure what is going on with her- if she has been poisoned with something or if she swallowed a foreign object- I hope they find out what is wrong with her. She stopped eating yesterday and has taken to camping out at the water bucket and drinking massive amounts of water-

Thanks to the creativity of Imperial Cat my group has been introduced to Free Willy-the Orca scratching pad. They love it! They have been riding on the back of this Orca, playing in the belly of the whale and sleeping/scratching and playing King of the Killer Whales trying to stay on top of this fun item.

I am amazed at how many shapes this company can manufacture! Check out their website and add one of these scratching pads to your collection. They are the cat’s meow!