She left the property this morning and we were able to get a picture of them while she was gone:
From left to right is a mottled dark cat like its mother (but it is partially hidden). Next is a dark cat but it does not appear to be pure black. Third is a yellow cat like its big brother Peachy and its Dad next door Peaches. Then we have a white one! Where that came from, we have no idea. Is there a white male in the neighborhood? I haven't seen one. Is this a genetic throw back? Who knows. Fifth one is another yellow one same father as the other one (Peaches is the only non-neutered yellow male in the neighborhood). Finally a tabby like its big brothers Tom and Huck. No, we are not going to keep these. We can't. We can't afford to have 6 cats spayed and neutered nor can we afford to feed all these cats. We kept the four from the August litter and have cared for them and love them. We must find homes for these new cats or some kind of organization that can help us find homes. I am just hoping mother leaves them on property. She has moved them once from the place where they were born and so far is trusting us more. We also must catch her and have her spayed. We have a trap and are trying to catch the males that are swarming this neighborhood.Update written one week later on above: We no longer have the feral mother cat or the kittens. We talked about it and decided it was not possible to try and care for all these cats and upon closer inspection we could see an eye infection in the mother cat and all the kittens had one or both of their eyes crusted over with the same infection. Paul was able to use the kittens to trap mother and then took them all to animal control this morning. It is a sad time for us but we are happy to have our four "babies" from the August litter that give us great pleasure!
And just to update you on the August batch (7 months old on March 14) here are some current photos of them sleeping. They sleep a lot in the daytime, but boy in the evening and early morning hours they come to life. The following three like to be in the house and spend the night in the house. Huck will come in to eat and sometimes play but he prefers to sleep in the garage. We tried keeping him in the other night but he woke us at 3 AM crying to be let out. We have also never seen him use the litter box which makes it dangerous. These three do use the litter box. So well in fact that they will sometimes be playing outside, stop and then come inside to use the box rather than outside dirt :)
Peachy just loves to stretch out either on the sofa or our bed.
Tom also loves to stretch out mostly on the couch. Sometimes he has a companion like Jade.
Jade doesn't usually stretch out. She prefers to sleep curled up in a ball so this position was rather unusual for her. She prefers the rocking chair or a cushion we have but this day she stretched out on the sofa.
So that is it from "catsville". Never a dull moment around here when it comes to animals.
