There is a stray mother cat and her four kittens living in my backyard (underneath my shed) and I don’t know what to do! I feed them regularly, but they are still scared of me (especially the mother) and the kittens are only about five or six weeks old.
You see there is a huge swamp down the road from where I live, and there are quite a few alligators (clearly I live in Florida) that are known to be a problem. They come out every once and a while and eat the raccoons, armadillos, and sometimes even cats that live nearby. Even worse, an annoying neighbor down the street ad four wolf-dogs last year, but two escaped and are still living in the woods in front of the swamp and aren’t very friendly. Our community already has dozens of cats and small dogs that have ‘disappeared’, and I don’t want to risk these kittens venturing around just to get eaten too.
I don’t know whether to leave them alone, or to call someone to come get them. I’ve tried getting them to come into my house, but the mother is scared so she always runs away. I was thinking I could leave my screen door open and just wait for them to come in, then hand them over to some shelter. I know someone will adopt them, their so darn cute! The Humane society nearby said they could give me one trap for 60 flipping bucks, then to pay for them to immunized and fixed ($50 more bucks a piece) but they won’t keep them anyway, and I don’t have enough money for five traps right now (they only allow one animal per cage). Is there anyone organization in Tampa that can rescue the cats for either a smaller fee or for free? Or maybe they’re just out of luck after all.
