Basketful of Chaos (Patreon)

Ahem, now that I have that part out of the way, this is what's happening now -  kittens under a neighbor's porch, courtesy of this gray feral cat I've long been trying to nab for TNR.  If you attend my livestreams, you might have heard me talking about her.

My neighbors discovered them and we set about catching the kittens in a humane trap, one by one with the aid of some tuna late Tuesday night.  They've since been camping out in a second bathroom that I don't make much use of (please disregard the hideous purple decor. I've been meaning to renovate). 

I took them to the vet yesterday (with some very patient help from my friend Patrick), and it seems they're all in pretty good shape, roughly 5-6 weeks old, Feline Leukemia Virus negative, and completely indistinguishable from one another just to make things extra difficult.

In the dark early hours of this morning, their mother came to serenade them at the window and they responded in a interminably, heartbreaking, peeping chorus. On a lark, I set the trap out on my porch - a trap she had long evaded, mind you - with a hand towel in it that I had rubbed on some of the kittens.  She took the bait and now I have her too.  The bottom picture doesn't quite do their happy reunion purr-pile justice.

This will be the short term situation, though. I will have to have her spayed so that she can't make any more xerox copies, and then released.  She's unlikely to ever trust people enough to be a happy housecat, but I will continue to feed her and provide her outdoor shelter.  

The kittens needn't be feral, though, and for a whole host of reasons, it would be best if they weren't.   I can't turn them over to a municipal shelter because they won't invest any effort in them - they'll simply kill them. I've been calling around to no-kill shelters and rescues (all of which are already overburdened), but the simple fact is that they need to be socialized to people in order to be considered adoptable  first - lots of petting, playing, holding and handling.  I desperately need help with this part.  One or two kittens I could do, but there simply aren't enough of me to give five kittens enough attention to really win them over.

So, I'm putting out a bit of a distress call here. If you're in the market for a kitten, know someone else who is seriously interested in adopting, know someone willing to foster, or know of any rescue groups or foster associations that have operations in Missouri or even Illinois, I would very much like to hear about it.  I'm willing to foot the bills for their first vaccinations and even spay/neuter if anyone out there has an open spot in their home.

Thanks guys.

*******Resume Screaming********