My husband works with a young guy who lives with his parents on a farm. These people have barn cats, who they basically care very little about. Well one of the cats had kittens a couple of days ago, and got cornered by a dog. By the looks of how scratched up the dog was, she put up a good fight, but the dog ate all but 2 of the kittens. The farmers don't care about the kittens at all, so they may still be in danger from the dog.
My husband, feeling empty and sad by all that we've been through, and wanting to make me happy again, offered to take the mom and babies. I seriously don't know what to make of this. On the one hand, it is far far too soon for me take in anymore kitties, especially three of them. By the sounds of it, momma is half wild as she doesn't receive much attention from humans. She is used to being outside on the farm, and I don't know how she would handle coming into a strange house all of a sudden. It is possible she might get stressed out and not take care of her little ones? I also wanted to test my remaining two cats for FeLV in about 6 weeks, to make sure they haven't picked it up. I didn't want to expose any kittens to the virus. Plus I don't know if this momma is even healthy. She could have the virus herself, or any other number of things. She will never have been vaccinated. If I was going to get more kitties, I wanted to check out their backgrounds a little bit. On the other hand, these poor kitties may or may not survive on the farm. Nobody cares about them. Plus, ever since I was 9 years old and watched a mother cat give birth and watched the kittens grow, i've wanted to experience that again. I know I could give them a much better life. I just know i'm not ready to make this sort of decision. I've got open wounds that will take a long time to heal, and just replacing my 3 lost babies so quickly is not the way to heal. I wasn't even sure I wanted to get more cats, and definately wanted to wait quite awhile. I felt both appalled and excited when my husband told me that he had offered to take the kitties in. When it hurts so much, sometimes you just want to try filling those empty places in your heart. I know its difficult to give me any advice on this one, but I just needed to tell someone. You have all been friends to me through the rough times. Cassandra
