I was definitely wiped out yesterday. I went to bed before 8am and, other than a few cat related disturbances, slept until 6am.
Some time yesterday evening, it started to rain, and was still raining when I went out to feed the kitties. Nothing major; just a gentle, constant rainfall. It was enough to finally refill the rain barrel by the sunroom, though, and I had to add the diverter!
Sprout’s feral babies (and she seems to have all four of them now; I don’t see the other mama around as much) are getting braver. Now that we’ve got kibble again, I’m back to setting out the dry kibble first, then distributing the bowls of kitten soup. As I was going back to the shrine feeding station, I spotted the tortie, loafed in the upper level of the isolation shelter! She ran off when I got too close, but that she was there at all, and just chillin’, is progress.
They were very happy when the kitten soup bowl arrived.
Even Sprout is starting to go in there more often. You can see her in the second image above, with Colby on top of one of the box nests behind her.
I took some kitten soup to the bowl in the garage, just in case the secret kitties were still around. This side of the garage is where we store the lawn equipment, and is accessible only through the main doors. A hole was dug under the door, I believe originally by skunks, so the cats could also get in and out with the doors closed. My brother tried to cover up the hole with a sheet of metal when he stored their big mower in there, but it got dug out again beside it, before we knew there were kittens in there!
After I was able to pick up and hold one of the babies, the mama moved them, and I feared she took them to the barn or one of the sheds in the outer yard. I was still leaving food in where they were before, just in case.
This morning, after putting the food bowl in, I spotted the mama coming up through the garage. The middle is where we park our vehicle, and where my brother’s vehicle he loaned us is currently parked. It has a doorway to the other lean-to side of the garage, and the back door is beside that, so it’s not unusual to see cats cutting through the garage from the yard through there.
She went to eat while I continued on to switching out the gate cam memory card. When I came back, I saw the mom going around into the middle of the garage, making calling noises, while doing to a back corner of the garage. Currently, there is a wrapped and stacked pile of summer tires from the van we no longer have, sort of blocking the space into the corner, between a built in counter shelf on one wall, and a storage shelf on the other.
On a hunch, I moved the food bowl into that part of the garage, and left it in front of the shelf near that corner.
Walking by a few minutes later, I spotted the mama sharing food with her white and grey kitten, which you can see in the last photo above. I didn’t see the smokey one, but it would be in there, somewhere.
The mama had simply moved her kittens to the other side of a wall.
I am so glad she didn’t take them far!
Now, we just have to convince them to come to the shelters in the inner yard.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 