Feral Cat Conundrum

 

I've been trying to deal with a feral cat who has two kittens.  This is a kitty who doesn't want to be a friend, since I am a goblin.   The kittens have learned from her to stay far away.  If I give them food they run for cover and wait for me to go away.  

I'm not going to let these hatchlings rule the yard, so I decided to never feed them.  Then I started thinking that I would be OK with them if they weren't feral.  The mother is too far gone to become socialized to people, but the kittens might change their attitude.  How could that happen?  If they had to approach me to get food, they might get the idea.  So after not feeding them at all for two weeks, I put cat food near me.  But no, they weren't having it.  They decided to try to live on birdseed that I put out for birds.  

I quit putting birdseed out and sat on the back steps with some cat food.  I thought, "Maybe they would decide to come seven feet from me for starters."  I put a tiny bit of cat food seven feet away, and after around ten minutes the kittens came up and began to eat it.  Finally the mother cat joined them.  There was also a little bit of cat food closer to me, so they eventually came right up to me to eat that too.  

So then what's the plan?  Well, number one, I don't want any more litters of kittens in the yard, so either they go to the vet and become barn cats, or they are given a ride to cat heaven.  I might consider adopting the kittens if they were neutered, but I'd rather see them become barn cats.   The adult female either becomes a barn cat or will have to be euthanized.  The big problem has been that they have to be trapped, and I can't convince them to go into a pet kennel to go to the vet without forming a relationship somehow.  The adult cat has been too smart for me so far.   

Well, so far so good.