Hi!
We will be getting two new kittens in late December. They will be approximately 13 1/2 weeks old at that point. We lost our two cats due to illness earlier this year within a month of each other (each had a different illness: one with heart disease and one with most likely IBD/lymphoma), so we are currently cat-less and are very much looking forward to welcoming some new kittens into our hearts.
We currently have 1 or 2 stray cats roaming around our neighborhood. One of them is an orange cat that may or may not be a stray - I only saw him one time about a month ago peeking into the window of our basement door. He took off as soon as I saw him and I haven't seen him since.
The second one I think is most definitely a stray. I started seeing her last fall lurking around our bird feeders. I thought she was our neighbor's cat since they had just gotten a new cat. I came to find out this year that she is not their cat. I only see her about 1-2 times per month and sometimes not for months at a time.
Then this summer, she shows up with 4 kittens in tow. The kittens only showed up in our yard once and then the very next day, I saw her with her kittens in another person's yard a whole block over from us and I never saw them again after that. I have tried to call to her and even tried to entice her with some treats from time to time, but she is very afraid and runs away any time I try to approach her.
She showed up on our patio again today for the first time in 2-3 months with no kittens. I didn't even know she was out there, but she ran off when I opened the door. Then I saw her a few minutes later spraying some of our bushes like she is marking territory. She walked off to another neighbor's yard and disappeared. Last year she looked a bit thin, but now she looks nice and healthy.
I'm a worry-wort by nature. Our new kittens will be indoor only cats. Should I be concerned about tracking in something the new kittens can catch from any strays that have sprayed around/on our patio, etc.? I'm not sure what I can do about it, in any case. Come to think of it, I have also seen an opossum on our patio as well - we live on the outskirts of town and get all sorts of critters in our back yard from time to time. We hose down and sweep our patio area a few times a year, but don't really scrub it down or anything.
We will be taking the new kittens to our vet a couple of days after we bring them home, but if I understand correctly, they won't get their final shots until they are 16 weeks old. Am I worrying over nothing or is it a real concern? If you have made it this far, thank you so much for reading my many ramblings.
We will be getting two new kittens in late December. They will be approximately 13 1/2 weeks old at that point. We lost our two cats due to illness earlier this year within a month of each other (each had a different illness: one with heart disease and one with most likely IBD/lymphoma), so we are currently cat-less and are very much looking forward to welcoming some new kittens into our hearts.
We currently have 1 or 2 stray cats roaming around our neighborhood. One of them is an orange cat that may or may not be a stray - I only saw him one time about a month ago peeking into the window of our basement door. He took off as soon as I saw him and I haven't seen him since.
The second one I think is most definitely a stray. I started seeing her last fall lurking around our bird feeders. I thought she was our neighbor's cat since they had just gotten a new cat. I came to find out this year that she is not their cat. I only see her about 1-2 times per month and sometimes not for months at a time.
Then this summer, she shows up with 4 kittens in tow. The kittens only showed up in our yard once and then the very next day, I saw her with her kittens in another person's yard a whole block over from us and I never saw them again after that. I have tried to call to her and even tried to entice her with some treats from time to time, but she is very afraid and runs away any time I try to approach her.
She showed up on our patio again today for the first time in 2-3 months with no kittens. I didn't even know she was out there, but she ran off when I opened the door. Then I saw her a few minutes later spraying some of our bushes like she is marking territory. She walked off to another neighbor's yard and disappeared. Last year she looked a bit thin, but now she looks nice and healthy.
I'm a worry-wort by nature. Our new kittens will be indoor only cats. Should I be concerned about tracking in something the new kittens can catch from any strays that have sprayed around/on our patio, etc.? I'm not sure what I can do about it, in any case. Come to think of it, I have also seen an opossum on our patio as well - we live on the outskirts of town and get all sorts of critters in our back yard from time to time. We hose down and sweep our patio area a few times a year, but don't really scrub it down or anything.
We will be taking the new kittens to our vet a couple of days after we bring them home, but if I understand correctly, they won't get their final shots until they are 16 weeks old. Am I worrying over nothing or is it a real concern? If you have made it this far, thank you so much for reading my many ramblings.
