Here’s the thing. I love cats. I’ve always loved cats. Since I was a little girl. I am forever a cat person.
But did I ever think I would become a crazy cat lady? No.
It all started with one cat.
Just one cat.
Who suddenly showed up in our barn. Popping in and out at night, seen only by our security camera.
Now, feral cats on our property is not a new thing. They show up often, run when they see us, and really just leave us alone. I even caught one in a raccoon trap once. I was trying to catch a raccoon. I never caught the raccoon.
I consider feeding them but am also afraid I’m going to end up feeding all the raccoons, possums, skunks, bears, rats, etc. and our chickens won’t stand a chance once the local wildlife know we are an all you can eat diner.
Fast forward to a couple days after noticing this cat wandering our barn. I get a text from the husband saying “There’s a baby baby cat in the barn. Seriously Baby baby”
CRUUUUUUUUD.
So I go in there and find one lone kitten in a dark corner of my barn. Barely 2 weeks old, he was just opening his eyes and was so cold and shivering.
Mommy instincts activated.
As much as I wanted to sweep up this kitten and bring him into the warmth of my house, I knew mama was around and I assumed had it all under control. But I certainly wasn’t going to leave without helping out a bit. I have a heart afterall!
Well, I got a box and a towel and got that little kitten settled and yet it still screamed and shivered. So we then placed a bowl of food out for the mama and set up a camera to watch and make sure the mama was taking care of her little baby.
Now, it struck us as odd that there was just one. I researched and it did say that first time moms can sometimes have just one, but it didn’t stop us from searching every corner of our barn for more kittens. Not an easy task as our barn is a literal maze complete with nooks and crannies galore. It’s a mama cat haven for dark corners to hide kittens. But we didn’t find a single other kitten. And we heard not a peep of little babies looking for their mama.
So, we figured this was the only one. Or mama was in the process of moving them and hopefully she will use the nice warm box we provided for her.
And then we began watching. By morning, we hadn’t seen the mama enter the box and yet the food we set out was eaten. And that baby was screaming.
We put out another bowl of food. Once again, mama never entered the box despite her baby’s cries. But she ate the food.
At that point I decided she wasn’t going to go to her baby and he needed help.
A little grey ball of fur, he was simply the cutest little thing. But I knew nothing about taking care of newborn kittens. Nothing.
And so I called the vet. They had me bring him in. Several technicians begged me to let them have him. But I had already decided he was mine. If anything, we could use a barn cat.
They taught me how to keep him warm and feed him and everything I need to know to keep him alive and a prayed to the gods and the universe that it was only one kitten because the 3-4 hour feedings alone were going to kill me. And I began my new life as a cat mom.
I named him Sampson.
Every 4 hours I dragged myself out of bed or stopped whatever I was doing to feed him. Every 4 hours I warmed up his formula, fed him with a syringe, helped him use the bathroom, replaced towels he had accidents on, reheated his warming pad, and washed his “dishes”.
To say I was exhausted is an understatement. It was a replay of when I had newborns of my own and somehow had to function on no sleep and no energy and brain fog. But I was saving his life and it was worth it.
Until a couple days later.
It was late in the evening and we were finishing up some gardening projects and starting to put things away for the night. When the husband said the words I was not prepared for.
“Are you prepared for this?”
CRUUUUUUUUUUD.
Immediately upon entering the barn, I heard it.
The cry of baby kittens.
Only this time they seemed to be coming from inside our wall! Panicked, we started looking around everywhere, following the sound of those cries and trying to pinpoint where they were coming from.
What we found we couldn’t exactly believe. In the top of the barn, there was a hole with a tunnel in the insulation. The cries were coming from somewhere in there.
Grabbing a ladder, we tried to inspect. We found one kitten, facedown in one section of the wall, stuck in some insulation. Another popped its head out of the hole only to disappear quickly into the tunnel.
Well, dangit.
And this hole had been located just above where we found Sampson. It was clear Sampson had wandered out and fallen the 10 feet down from the nest.
So, once again we put up the camera to watch what mama was doing.
In the morning, mama had eaten the food but there was no sign of her during the day. It was clear from her actions with these kitties and Sampson that she was only coming around during the night. During the day, the kitties were left to themselves and wandering out of their nest, getting themselves into dangerous situations.
Once again my mommy instincts set in.
We tried shining our phone into the hole and using it as a camera to see what was going on, but it was just too dark. But out of pure curiosity, the kittens popped out and made themselves available.
1, 2, 3 little boy kittens were dropped into my shirt and carried out of their home. I weighed them all and they were significantly smaller than their brother that I had been taking care of the past couple of days. They were malnourished and needed love.
And that is how I ended up with 4 kittens added to my 2 cats I already own. There is more to this story but it will have to wait until another day.
But for now, let me introduce you to Sampson, Jasper, Alister, and Jessie
