Spyrit Dancers' Musings On All Things Wiccan

We have been taking care of feral cats for a little over a year, and starting this week, have been trapping them, and working with our local S.N.A.P.S chapter, getting them spayed and neutered.

During all this our Mom cat, who has been living on our porch with 4 kittens, took off with the runt of the litter, Two Tone.  Tues they finally showed back up.  Two Tone almost died before we could get him in to see the wonderful angels at the animal shelter.

Now I find out that their wounds were “odd”.  Mom looked like someone tied a rope around her neck, that she tried to get out of, and had cuts all over her neck.  Not scratches like an animal would make, but scrapes and cuts.

Two Tone’s paws were swollen 2 – 3 times their size.  I sat on the floor of the shelter yesterday, holding him wrapped in a cloth while we got an IV and fluids into him.  He was dehydrated, and looked like he had been wet down, then rolled in dirt.

But when the vet tech injected a solution into his paws to clean out the infection, the water poured out of multiple tiny holes…like someone took a needle and repeatedly stuck it in his paws.  We think now he was tortured, neither of their wounds look like they were caused by a wild animal, but human caused. What kind of sick bastard would torture a 4 month old kitten?

They were safe on our property! But we were afraid that Denise (woman from S.N.A.P.S.) who spotted Amelia hiding in the catnip, might have spooked her, and since Two Tone always followed her, went with her.

We have already made a vow that if Two Tone makes it, we will bring him into our home and not let him out again, so that no one ever harms him like that again.  I ask for prayers for my kitty and Mom.

I am a white witch, and have protection spells around my property.  This is the first time in my life I have ever felt like violating the “harm none” law.  I just hope whoever tortured my cats, karma catches up with them.

One of our feral cats we feed, that we have named Auntie Amelia “Ear Hair” (after the fact she has black ears and long white ear hair) has had kittens.  They are living on our front porch, and in some thick catnip we have growing in a front planter box.  Below is a pic of her nursing 3 out of 4 of the babies.  Awwww

We have named the kittens Cream sickle,  (white and orange kitty) Marmalade, (mostly orange tabby) Smoke (mostly black, but his inner most layer of fur looks orange) and Two Tone (a gray and white kitty).  All but Two Tone are shown above.  Mom is a calico, and one of only two of the feral cats we can touch.

Mom moved the kitties about two days after we saw them last.  I was worried about them, visions of hawks or crows attacking them.

Well this morning, it is only 37 degrees out, and the babies are back!  They were out drinking water there wasn’t one speck of dry food left in the feeder for them to eat.  So I put a can on two plates and I no sooner got in the door and all four babies were eating, and mom was guarding them.  I got this pic.

I have no idea where the fourth one was before, although since two look so much alike, one may have been hiding while the other ate and vice versa.  At least we cleaned the windows so the picture came out better.

The babies ate every scrap of food.  I carried out another can spread on two plates, plus their dry food feeder I had taken in to fill up, and now mom is chowing down when I looked last.  It feels so good to be able to help a family in need out.

For a few months now, we have been feeding a wild cat that lives under the empty trailer next door to us.  We started feeding her when we noticed she had two kittens she was caring for.  We left dry food and water under a small tree in our backyard.  Poor thing is very skittish, and we can’t get near her.

Well the temperature has really dropped at night lately, so we bought a dog house for her, and put it on our front porch outside our big bay windows.  We put some blankets in it, and moved her dishes to the front porch.

When I got up this morning, Loki was making wild noises out the window so when I looked out I saw three baby kittens trying to eat out of the big bowl of dry food we had out there.  They were so cute!

I went and got a can of wet food, and put it on a plate and took it out.  The mom was in the yard by then, scared, and the kittens were in the dog house.  Poor things, when I showed them the food, they tried to get out the back of the dog house.

I got back in the house and got the camera, by then Mom and the one kitten that looks the most like her, were chowing down.  I worry because the kitten looks like he/she has blood on her neck, but seems to be moving ok.

Soon the other two came out.  The calico was just shaking (it is only 47 outside), but eating good.  I really need to clean my windows, you can see the water spots.

Mom was yelling at me through the window, defending the dog house when I snapped this last picture.  We have to go to a convention next week for 3 days, but when we get back, I’m going to ask the local shelter the cost of getting her and her kittens neutered.

I’m also going to save up to try and get them all to the vet and get shots for them.  If anyone would like to donate towards a “shots for my wild kittens” fund, just comment back.  Money is very tight for us, and I know its going to cost us 300 – 400$ to get shots Mom and the babies…money we just don’t have right now. 

It makes you feel good though to be able to take care of them.  I’d love to bring them inside, but since they don’t have shots, and feline lukemia is so prelevant…and we haven’t been able to get our indoor cats shots up to date, I worry about making them sick.  It just tears my heart out to see them so tiny and outside.   Not sure what happened to her other two kittens…they would be about 6 months or so old now.  I haven’t seen them around.