Hi everyone,
For a few months now, a stray cat has taken up residence in our garden. She comes for food, rests in the conservatory, sometimes pops into the kitchen, and lets us stroke her, but not much more than that. She’ll stay in our arms for a few seconds (we’re trying to get her used to humans).
About three weeks ago, she gave birth in secret in our garage. We only discovered the little ones after two and a half weeks.
The cat noticed that we’d seen her kittens (they are adorable, obviously), and everything was going fine. We were able to stroke her while she was nursing and even touch the kittens a bit (just to check they were okay).
Yesterday, we moved the whole little family with their cosy cardboard box to a corner inside the house because of the heatwave. This change didn’t seem to bother the kittens or the mother at all. She’s eating, nursing, coming and going, and lets us stroke her kittens.
We want to get her spayed to avoid any more litters. Out of the 5 kittens, we’re planning on keeping one (who had a sticky eye that we’re treating with an ointment prescribed by the vet) and finding good homes for the others.
To get things ready, we even managed to briefly pick up the kittens to take some nice photos and started telling people we know about them.
This morning, the kittens were very lively and starting to want to climb out of the box to explore the world.
But PROBLEM!!!!!!: the cat "slyly" moved all her kittens during the morning without us noticing, and she’s hidden them somewhere outside... However, she’s still coming back as usual to eat and ask for strokes.
Besides the fact that we’re (really) gutted, we’re wondering why she might have moved them... Was she scared of something?
We don’t know what to do!!! How can we treat the kitten with the bad eye if we can’t get to it anymore?
Is there any chance the kittens will come back once they’re older? Will they have gone feral again?
Thanks in advance for your replies, we’re really at a loss...
(And sorry for the wall of text!)
