Well, I got one heck of a surprise this morning!

Our bathroom window faces into the sunroom, so we can often hear, even if we can’t see, the cats and kittens.

This morning, I started to hear the mewing of kittens.

Mewing that began to sound increasingly distressed!

I finished up as quick as I could and headed into the sunroom.

Of course, the first thing I checked was the cat cage.

It had one grey kitten in it.

Where was the mewing coming from? Was a kitten trapped behind a shelf of something? Hurt somewhere?

Then I heard the mewing again and realized it was coming from the bigger cat carrier. The one that opens from the top.

So I opened the top…

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… and found four newborn kittens.

I had no idea we even had a pregnant cat! As far as I could tell, they all already had their kittens, weeks ago.

It seems one of the more feral cats – one of the ones we don’t even know the gender of – had her kittens in the carrier last night.

The problem is, there’s no sign of her. I’ve been keeping an eye on the critter cam as I write this, and there are no cats – or other kittens – in the sun room.

It looks like the white and grey litter has been moved out. I only saw two of the greys this morning, and the last time I went by, I only saw one.

I currently have the app for the critter cam in the sun room running. I have not seen any cat going to them. In fact, I’ve only seen one short haired black and white, just as it was leaving the sun room, and I don’t think it was the mama.

Sometimes, I have to turn the sound off on the camera, because they start mewing and it just breaks my heart to hear them, but not see a mama.

Now, out in the wild, so to speak, this would not be unusual. The mamas have to leave their babies for hours as they go hunt (or come to the house for food). They come back when they are ready to feed the babies. But with them being in the sunroom, I’m concerned they have been abandoned, or will be abandoned. We are currently going to avoid using the sun room for the next while, so the mama won’t be scared off. While working outside this morning, when I needed to go into the sunroom, I’d check the camera first to make sure it was empty before going in.

This mama found a really safe “cave” to have her babies, though. You’d think that would mean she will come back to tend to them.

Right?

The Re-Farmer