Yesterday I contacted several members here by private message to get a quick answer to this situation that I found myself in and I am very grateful for their help! I finally now have the time and energy to type it here as I want to relay this and get it off my chest so here goes....
I got a call at 9:30 Saturday morning from Virginia, the woman that I got Sylvester from 4 years ago. She lives in a small row home in Allentown, PA., very narrow streets, little crowded back yards, noisy, not the best area, but she has a heart of pure gold and tries to take care of not only 4 cats inside her house but many strays, she has little homes and huts outside and does the best that she can. We in the past had the Cat Shack do some TNR over there but after that first time they didn't go back, they seem to think that she is very "difficult" to work with, she doesn't drive, she doesn't have much money, her son Frankie isn't very ambitious with helping with these cats, so they don't seem interested in helping her. She has called many other TNR places but most don't call her back, so she is in a bad situation as they just keep coming and coming over there, I have taken several from there to the vet that the Cat Shack did say they would get someone to foster, one got adopted by a vet tech, another is still being fostered but they are at least off the streets. Well, for the last few months she has told me that she was afraid if someone didn't do TNR there would be kittens and there are, she called yesterday and told me that a cat had 2 kittens two days ago and for some reason the neighbor woman picked up the small dog house that they were in, took them into her house and said "I'll take care of them, I know what to do", but then yesterday morning Virginia saw the kittens in a small box in the yard, the mother cat was there but ran off, didn't eat, was probably traumatized by the whole thing, that neighbor should've left them alone of if she took them in she should've taken care of them, ugh.....
So I called a woman from the Cat Shack that had helped us and me in the past and she already knew about it, Virginia had called Perkiomen Animal hospital who called this woman and she texted another woman at the Cat Shack and told me the best thing we could do was to put the kittens back and leave them alone and hopefully the mother would back so I took another little plastic dog house over with a blanket in and we put these two little helpless things in it, the were so small and cute, crying, it made me so upset, but I told her let them alone and watch for the mother. That is when it worried me, these kittens hadn't eaten in hours, I thought they might die without milk, so I bought some kitten replacement milk and was taking it over as she said that she had a syringe and had tried to feed them Carnation milk and water, my thinking was she could at least feed them outside in the dog house and then leave them alone and watch for the mother, if she showed up again great, if not she could at least feed them and possibly care for them inside the house and we could then try to get them fostered. But when I got there she said "they're coming to pick them up!" and I said "who is?" and it was someone from another local shelter Peaceable Kingdom that said they had someone to foster them, so she told them to come over. I was there when the man took them, very nice fella and he thanked us for taking care of them but I thanked him for doing this, we were both at a loss about it, she made the decision and it was hers to make not mine, so that's how it went. I was then concerned if the mother cat would come back frantically looking for the kittens but a decision had to be made quickly, they were cold despite having blankets and they were screaming for food, this way they hopefully will survive and the mother cat will accept it I hope, so I called and left a message with the first outfit the Cat Shack explaining what happened, that someone from the other place got in contact with her and took them, and last night I got an email from them saying the news was "devastating to them" and "you should've just left them there for the mother" and "they probably wouldn't survive" etc so any sense of doing good and helping quickly turned into me being upset again and ticked off, they never called her or me to communicate with us, the other place did, we were both very concerned about their welfare as they hadn't had milk for many hours etc. so I held my anger in check and responded so in a responding email and asked them "how long do you think they would've lived without any milk?: and the answer I got was "it depends, each situation is different. Hopefully Peaceable Kingdom can take care of them and they survive".
So there it is, I talked to Virginia and as of around 8:00 last night the mother cat did not return, and she had been a "regular" eating there, probably so traumatized thanks to the idiot neighbor sticking her nose in and disrupting things. She is going to watch for her, and I told her to call PK and ask them IF she does return and Virginia can catch her can they be reunited? I don't know, it doesn't hurt to ask. But at least this way if they do survive they will be fostered and off the streets of Allentown, I saw the shape Sylvester was in when I got him and it made me cry, so anytime we can get these help we will try. I know it is so very difficult to do TNR and this time of year is so crazy busy for these organizations, but it would take a MAJOR TNR effort to clean this situation up but more cats just keep showing up all the time, she maybe shouldn't feed them but she can't do that, it would break her heart of gold not to try to help.
Any input would be greatly appreciated, I know that I will most likely be involved in more things like this in the future, but if it weren't for her I wouldn't have my baby boy Sylvester, plus I know these little creatures need help.
Thanks again to those who helped me via PM!
I got a call at 9:30 Saturday morning from Virginia, the woman that I got Sylvester from 4 years ago. She lives in a small row home in Allentown, PA., very narrow streets, little crowded back yards, noisy, not the best area, but she has a heart of pure gold and tries to take care of not only 4 cats inside her house but many strays, she has little homes and huts outside and does the best that she can. We in the past had the Cat Shack do some TNR over there but after that first time they didn't go back, they seem to think that she is very "difficult" to work with, she doesn't drive, she doesn't have much money, her son Frankie isn't very ambitious with helping with these cats, so they don't seem interested in helping her. She has called many other TNR places but most don't call her back, so she is in a bad situation as they just keep coming and coming over there, I have taken several from there to the vet that the Cat Shack did say they would get someone to foster, one got adopted by a vet tech, another is still being fostered but they are at least off the streets. Well, for the last few months she has told me that she was afraid if someone didn't do TNR there would be kittens and there are, she called yesterday and told me that a cat had 2 kittens two days ago and for some reason the neighbor woman picked up the small dog house that they were in, took them into her house and said "I'll take care of them, I know what to do", but then yesterday morning Virginia saw the kittens in a small box in the yard, the mother cat was there but ran off, didn't eat, was probably traumatized by the whole thing, that neighbor should've left them alone of if she took them in she should've taken care of them, ugh.....
So I called a woman from the Cat Shack that had helped us and me in the past and she already knew about it, Virginia had called Perkiomen Animal hospital who called this woman and she texted another woman at the Cat Shack and told me the best thing we could do was to put the kittens back and leave them alone and hopefully the mother would back so I took another little plastic dog house over with a blanket in and we put these two little helpless things in it, the were so small and cute, crying, it made me so upset, but I told her let them alone and watch for the mother. That is when it worried me, these kittens hadn't eaten in hours, I thought they might die without milk, so I bought some kitten replacement milk and was taking it over as she said that she had a syringe and had tried to feed them Carnation milk and water, my thinking was she could at least feed them outside in the dog house and then leave them alone and watch for the mother, if she showed up again great, if not she could at least feed them and possibly care for them inside the house and we could then try to get them fostered. But when I got there she said "they're coming to pick them up!" and I said "who is?" and it was someone from another local shelter Peaceable Kingdom that said they had someone to foster them, so she told them to come over. I was there when the man took them, very nice fella and he thanked us for taking care of them but I thanked him for doing this, we were both at a loss about it, she made the decision and it was hers to make not mine, so that's how it went. I was then concerned if the mother cat would come back frantically looking for the kittens but a decision had to be made quickly, they were cold despite having blankets and they were screaming for food, this way they hopefully will survive and the mother cat will accept it I hope, so I called and left a message with the first outfit the Cat Shack explaining what happened, that someone from the other place got in contact with her and took them, and last night I got an email from them saying the news was "devastating to them" and "you should've just left them there for the mother" and "they probably wouldn't survive" etc so any sense of doing good and helping quickly turned into me being upset again and ticked off, they never called her or me to communicate with us, the other place did, we were both very concerned about their welfare as they hadn't had milk for many hours etc. so I held my anger in check and responded so in a responding email and asked them "how long do you think they would've lived without any milk?: and the answer I got was "it depends, each situation is different. Hopefully Peaceable Kingdom can take care of them and they survive".So there it is, I talked to Virginia and as of around 8:00 last night the mother cat did not return, and she had been a "regular" eating there, probably so traumatized thanks to the idiot neighbor sticking her nose in and disrupting things. She is going to watch for her, and I told her to call PK and ask them IF she does return and Virginia can catch her can they be reunited? I don't know, it doesn't hurt to ask. But at least this way if they do survive they will be fostered and off the streets of Allentown, I saw the shape Sylvester was in when I got him and it made me cry, so anytime we can get these help we will try. I know it is so very difficult to do TNR and this time of year is so crazy busy for these organizations, but it would take a MAJOR TNR effort to clean this situation up but more cats just keep showing up all the time, she maybe shouldn't feed them but she can't do that, it would break her heart of gold not to try to help.
Any input would be greatly appreciated, I know that I will most likely be involved in more things like this in the future, but if it weren't for her I wouldn't have my baby boy Sylvester, plus I know these little creatures need help.
Thanks again to those who helped me via PM!
All the reason you need to feel better about where they are now, regardless of how they got there!
