Hi everyone,
Thank you Nina for the link to the yahoo feral group, what a great resource! To the best of my knowledge, our "colony" consists of just wild Mia (now spayed, wormed, vaccinated and flea treated), and a big grey tom that would occasionally stop by to check on her and the kittens.
He comes quite infrequently and won't let us get close, but I suspect that he may belong to someone down the street, so I'll be knocking on doors this weekend to see if I can find an owner. We put food out and never see any other kitties, but if any show up, we will try to trap them as well. I felt so bad for Mia last night, we let her go, opened the carrier door and she went 30 yards like she'd been shot out of a cannon before slipping through the back fence. We will continue to feed and water her, though we have to sneak around my crabby MIL, who doesn't believe in feeding strays (or spaying, you'd think we'd get a thank you, all we hear are complaints from her). I think an igloo with straw hidden in the brush pile might help her out in the winter, if she'll use it. A backup caregiver would be heaven, (as we live 30 minutes away), I'll follow your suggestion and see if a local group might help us find one. Anyway, we stayed last night to play with Alice and watch the Apprentice, and Mia came to the back door meowing for her kittens. Ran away again when I went to the door. I know I had to take them from her, but aaarrrgggh, such guilt!!! MIL hollered and said we'd have to retrap her and let her go someplace else. Nasty old crab. No danger of us actually doing that. Meanwhile, Alice was working her charms on Gary and I, she played nicely without hiding while we watched TV, ran up every few minutes to check in with us, purr and play, layed down for quite a while right in front of the TV and stared at it with us, and then curled up in the crook of Gary's arm while purring and staring lovingly from his face to mine. If by any tiny chance she gets a negative and we can't find a better guardian, we will keep her. If not, she has changed the adoption equation from one of begging someone to "do us a favor and take the sick one", to "who is good enough to deserve the absolute honor of sharing life with the nicest kitten they'll ever meet." It would be lovely if that were us, but if I can find a home with more financial resources for treatments and fewer pets it might be better. (I also have 3 lovebirds and an African Grey, she's like having a 2 year old for life :o). Thank you Wendy, for your welcome, hopefully I'll be asking you for advice on mixing Ally with Blue in a few months. And thank you Belinda for the supplement links and information. Ally's IFA should be in any day, but I never heard of the PCR, I'll look that up now. I'll post Ally's results as soon as I get them.
Best Wishes,
Beth
