Bout two months ago driving into our complex saw a couple of kittens near the garbage. Counted 3 kittens and one cat perhaps also a kitten that was larger. They were scrummaging through the garbage bin to find food. We brought out food for them, but that place was not good near the garbage. A few days later found they had been hiding in some bushes near by. So we started feeding them there and providing water.
Two other neighbors got involved as well and we started to see what we could do.
It transpired that the bigger one was their mom and she had three kittens. The kittens may have been around 2 months or maybe 3 months old. I don’t know how they survived for so long eating garbage.
One of the ladies contacted an organization that do catch and release and she managed to capture all 4 cats in due course and they all got vaccinated and fixed and unfortunately got a third of their left ear cut off. They do this to signify a feral cat that has been fixed.
The mother cat was deemed to be pregnant again but turned out her big belly was full of worms. She has become quite friendly and is now being fostered. Perhaps she will be lucky and get adopted.
The three kittens we are trying to tame so that they can also be adopted.
Tammy managed to get one of them to be friendly enough to handle . She was able to bring him to our home for the nights. He pines to go out in the daytime to rejoin his sister and brother. Of whom he is very fond. They are inseparable. The other two, the girl we call Ricky and the boy Goldie (he is jet black with golden eyes, Ricky is striped and looks like her mom, while the one we are bringing home we call Ollie Tollie is a tuxedo cat). The dad must have been a tuxedo cat.
OUr cat whopper is not pleased and does not fully get along with the new cat. So at night whopper sleeps in our room as usual with us and Ollie sleeps by himself in the living room.
He has since become quite the house cat. Very well behaved, uses the cat box and you wouldn’t know he was a feral cat. Except he has one bad habit which is he likes to chase our toes and will bite gently. We are trying to break him of this habit.
Our lease is up and we are considering moving to a better apt. But we are in a dilemma. To take ollie or not? He has become used to nights at our place (he follows tammy home when it gets dark) and used to hanging out in the daytime with his mate. The three of them don’t stray far from one area.
Ideally if we had a house with a big back yard we could take all three and the other two can remain outdoors while ollie is indoor/outdoor.
But thats not financially viable at this point. 
whopper is no longer aggressive towards the new cat but the tables are now reversed and the six month (estimated) kitten is aggressive towards whopper. So they are not a best match but could still be workable in time.
Apparently feral cats are encouraged not to be turned in to the SPCA because since they are not tame (even kittens) they are almost always put down. So the recommendation is to feed them and let them live where they are.
Ollie is no longer feral and we feel we can adopt him. Too bad we didn’t get him civilized before he got a third of one ear cut off. Why didn’t they just cut off a tiny portion?? The sadists cut off a third of one ear !! gee.
Ollie and Whopper are allowed to be together only under supervision as they are still aggressive towards each other and a fight can happen.
Tammy is thrilled to have another cat. They have distinct personalities the two of them. Quite different from each other.
I am not one thousand percent thrilled as i know two cats are harder than one cat to handle. They have bad habits like waking you up at early hours.
Ollie has been good about it, but whopper likes to get up at 430am and wake everyone up. This gets ollie up and wanting to eat and get outside to join his mates. I think whopper does this on purpose to get rid of ollie for the day.
WE like waking at 7am and NOT at 4am.
Ollie’s litermates have come to the apt to eat a few times but are extremely skittish. WE have been able to pet them while they are eating. And tammy is able to put flea medicine on them this way.
But they are both still feral cats. Ollie has been the one brave enough to approach and tame.
Hard pass…
