Thirteen Cats
I own two adult cats. Zipper and Zoom. Here’s some pictures my daughter took of them recently.
I have a friend with two very charming, sociable older kittens that visit my house often. They’re also the ‘backup cats’ for the Tabby Time Cat Encounters small business, as I don’t always have foster kittens (and Zipper and Zoom do NOT have the right personality for cat encounters!) so I can ‘borrow’ them whenever I need to.
I am also fostering the ‘Nature Kittens’:
That’s Thunder at the back, then Dawn, Cloud, and Midnight. Thunder and Midnight are the boys, and they’re getting desexed on Tuesday. All four are fully vaccinated and have visited the vet several times for health checks (and some health dramas). Thunder and Cloud have a home lined up, and I’m taking them there for a play date tomorrow. There’s an older cat at the new home who will need time to adjust, and it’s good for Thunder and Cloud to take things slow as well. Cloud is too little to be desexed yet (vets are willing but my pet-happiness adviser and I have higher standards of care). Midnight MIGHT have a home lined up, but Dawn is still available for adoption. These kittens need five litter trays between the four of them, so I’m really looking forward to Thunder and Cloud getting adopted so I don’t have to tiptoe between litter trays on the way to the toilet!
So, until Monday I have eight cats in my care! That’s a lot! Emptying eight litter trays 3-4 times a day is really really a lot. I invested time introducing the Nature Kittens to the friend’s kittens and they now get on well, which is ADORABLE.
Then, on Thursday, someone I know very slightly called me and said she’d caught five very young kittens and the RSPCA refused to take them (or more accurately, would probably release them or put them down because they simply have way too many kittens and cats right now). I know this woman is very poor and would feed them crushed dry food and water, which would probably keep the kittens alive but at four weeks they should have mainly specialised milk and then a small amount of specialised food gradually introduced. They need a huge amount of attention and money, is what I’m saying. I reached out to various people and organisations immediately, with no luck at all. Which wasn’t entirely surprising.
Knowing the crushed dry food would probably make them sick, I picked up the kittens myself a few hours later and took them home (and spent a bunch of moolah on specialised food and items). Temporarily!
And that’s how I ended up looking after thirteen kittens in one house.
When I saw two calicos in the teeny tiny litter, I knew I was in trouble. I love calicos.
Since then I’ve found an organisation that is willing to take them when they reach 1 kilo, which will probably take about a month. That’s my only offer so far, and I’m grateful for it but still looking for help. My advisor has checked them over and noticed one of them has a slightly deformed leg. It’s an old injury, but I’ll talk to a vet about it in a few days, when they all get a health check (they’re too young to be vaccinated, and too frail for worming for a few days). I’ve looked after other kittens from that colony, and they definitely had worms, so the tiny kittens must be quarantined from all the other cats because they’re highly infectious. Also because they’re so young that interacting with other cats could literally give them a heart attack. Yesterday I held Zoom in my arms so the tiny kittens could see her (and vice versa) so that (a) Zoom knew why we weren’t letting her in that part of the house, and (b) The kittens had a distant glimpse of a cat they’re likely to see again in future (an extremely gentle and controlled introduction).
They’re still very scared of everything, although they definitely know I’m the source of food so two of them meow frantically and come towards me as soon as they see me. They’re big on hissing and spitting (the larger calico in particular) but because they’re so tiny it sounds like popcorn, so that’s what I named the bigger calico. Then I named the others Caramel (the other calico), Sprinkle (the smallest), Violent/Violent Crumble (has a very clear ‘V’ on his side), and Curly Wurly (has curling white marks on his back). The two calicos are girls, and the three tabby and white ones are boys.
I’ve been bottle feeding them every few hours, and they’re extremely enthusiastic so after checking with my advisor I’ve started them on solids (suitable for 1 month old kittens) and begun working on teaching them to drink and eat from dishes. It’s a LOT of work!
I do love a crisis, though. But I’m also looking forward to having my friend’s cats go home on Monday so things aren’t QUITE so bonkers.
Zipper and Zoom can interact with the friend’s cats (they’re grudgingly used to each other) but it’s better for Zip and Zoom to get some space of their own.
The friend’s cats can hang out with the Nature kittens. So those six can go in the same room. But they’re fed different kinds of wet food twice a day, and have to be separated for that. I also separate them at night.
The tiny kittens aka the Snack Pack must be kept separate from everyone, including the Tabby Time customers that are visiting today.
And of course all eleven kittens are bent on escape…. from my room, from the bathroom, from the house, into the toilet (two have fallen in while I was dealing with litter), and from the scary monster (me). And I’m doing roughly a million loads of washing per day. It’s been 1.5 days with the Snack Pack, and Popcorn in particular is SO angry and SO beautiful it’s killing me.
Also, we’ve spent $197 on them so far, with a $150 vet visit lined up. If you can help at all with the financial side, please do! I have the receipts if you want to see them. TabbyTimeCanberra@gmail.com is the best place to email to offer help. With Tabby Time Cat Encounters I’ve set aside 20% for emergency cat vet stuff. That’s $20 so far which is… not enough, lol.
Wish me luck!
PS If you’re one of the people that decided a cat encounter business is animal abuse and therefore I am an animal abuser, please do feel free to report me to the RSPCA and/or the Department of Domestic Animal Services. But they all know me and my house by now and they’ve seen how well I take care of cats, so it’s unlikely they will thank you for wasting their time. The only thing I’ve done ‘wrong’ right now is taking on a huge litter that no one else was willing to look after. And I’m still looking for a less hectic household for them.
Felicity Banks 
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