When I brought mom back from the vet, it was clear to me in re-introducing the kittens to her, they are not her kittens. The fact that she was growling and hissing and swatting at them is normal, because they no longer smell like the kittens she remembers- but there was no recognition of any of them for her. Usually, there is a mad dash for mom’s belly as they recognize that although she might smell a bit off- “Mom is home!” None of that occurred so knowing she might have kittens somewhere, I took her back to the farm where she was found.

Upon her release, she did a mad dash for the barn. I followed her and watched her climb the ladder to the loft and then heard the mewing of babies. She has five kittens up there.

While I was there, another long-haired black kitty showed up and if she is 7 months old I would be surprised. She is heavy with milk and I suspect she is the mom to the 8 in the bedroom. They said they have been unable to catch her- so come Tuesday, I will drop off a kitten trap and see if they can catch her that way.

The kittens are rebounding slowly. An accumulation of fluids, Karo Syrup a recent deworming and there is less sleeping now and more interaction. Thankfully, I have found a shelter that if the kittens test negative, they can take them all in a week! I have no problem rescuing these tiny kittens, but I really don’t want to keep them. I will take them in on Tuesday for evaluation and have one black kitty tested and one tuxedo because based on weight and character, it looks like mom was taken by more than one tom.

I decided since I got them so close to Memorial Day to base that on my naming process- either military terms- or famous vets who have given their all for their country. Seems to be the right thing to do. The recent deworming has resulted in blood showing up in the litterpans so although they didn’t have any fleas on them- they do have worms. Mom did a glorious job of eating all the fleas off these babies when she cared for them.