Kittens: The Sequel

It's been over a year since our third kitty, Wild Bill, was born to a feral mother in our backyard. Now we've got a whole new kitten adventure going on. Another feral, whom we dubbed Toast for her black-and-brown tortoiseshell coloration started turning up in the spring. I tried to catch her a couple of times to get her fixed, but one or more tomcats got to her first, and she turned up pregnant:


I kept feeding her, hoping she'd stick around, and she did. Four week ago, she turned up looking disheveled, a little dazed, and a whole lot thinner. After a bit of searching, I found her nest in the backyard with four tiny babies in it.

They're toddlers now, and though she's moved the nest once (urk -- I got a little too nosy with the camera), she's still in the back yard. I'll keep luring her with food and toys, and see if I can get the little ones to play as they get bigger. My hope is to tame them so that they can be housecats. At the very least, get them fixed and keep caring for them. My fear is that if I let them live here with their mama, someone is going to start saying, "What's with all these cats?" and call in animal control -- or worse yet, the known cat poisoner who lives somewhere down the block will start leaving out tuna-and-antifreeze cocktails again. So taming them and finding homes for them would be ideal.

Before Toast moved the nest, I got this shot of the babies when they were three weeks old:


The grayface tortie in the front is Gizmo. Immediately behind him is a darker tortie, Gadget. The calico behind them is Sprocket. And the shy black-and-white to the right is Edison.