In June of 2015 my wife’s sisters house caught on fire and she was killed along with her two dogs. We went to the scene, in Albany Georgia, and were confronted with all of her cats. Connie had always had cats and she fed them from the back porch every day. Some came inside, some stayed outside, but there were cats, many cats, and no one was feeding them. The poor dears did not understand what was going on, but Carla and I knew we had to help them, so we set traps and contacted animal control.
Animal control trapped three cats and we headed to Albany to get them. Over the phone they told us we could have the cats, but then when we arrived they told us that they were feral and told us we would have to pay an adoption fee. My wife became very upset, as not only were we attempting to deal with the funeral, the estate, the code enforcement people, now we had someone contradicting what we were told on the phone. Then a wonderful woman came from they back and laid down the law, “these are the people that called about the cats, they are going to find them homes. Give them the cats, they lost a relative.” God bless you, whomever you are, as you saw a stressful situation and fixed it.
We took those three kitties, about maybe 4 months old, in car carriers and went back to Connie’s house where we had set traps. We caught one and put her in the carrier. In addition, a friend had come by and found three kittens and was bottle feeding them. We trekked on over to her house and headed home with one older cat, three 4 month olds and three kittens!
So, the above image is the one we christened “older kitty” and we were worried about her because it looked like she have given birth, she still had teats, but she would not nurse the little kittens we had. She was so scraggly and only weighed 4 pounds.
Once we adopted out the three 4 month olds, she stopped eating. We think they might have been her litter and she missed them. We took her to the vet and she had a very bad tapeworm, so we de wormed her but she still refused to eat. At one point, Carla smeared we cat food on her nose and the only way she could get it off was to lick it. Well, that made her start eating again!
So, a month or so goes by we are tending to the kittens and hand feeding them and she is just hanging out. She gains a little weight but she still looks straggely. We decide that no one is going to adopt her, she did not look good, but she put on a pound so a the end of August we took her to the vet to be fixed. We drop her off, and hour later the vet calls, I can fix her, she’s pregnant and going to give birth in about a week!
Well, so much for that, we go get her and bring her home and she starts acting squirrely the next week, chewing cardboard and making nests. So, we put a cardboard box in the bath room and lo and behold, on September 11th of 2015 she gives birth to three babies.
So, we changed her name from “older kitty” to “Mamma Kitty” and she has been Mamma ever since!
Mamma with her babies!
