Help a small (but unfortunately rapidly growing) cat family!

Meet the cats:

Bast - Big Momma, white and orange cat. She had 3 kittens when I arrived; one wandered into a pasture and was killed by a Livestock Guardian Dog, one was rejected by Bast; we tried to help her for many weeks but she unfortunately had to be euthanized due to failure to thrive, and the final kitten, Little Boy, is currently being fostered by myself because he’s very sweet - he has barn cough and is in deep need of a vet visit. Bast has a recent litter of kittens I have not yet found.

Selena Kyle - tricolor calico with a black mask, one of Bast’s daughters. She had her litter in early July, 6 initially with one death for a total of 5. When the kittens were about a month old they started wandering and were in danger, so they are all currently confined on an enclosed porch with their mother where I’ve been feeding them, got a litter box and litter, and have been trying to win over their trust. It is possible Selena pregnant again but hasn’t shown signs yet, I’m hoping to get her to a vet and spayed before she’s released.

Winks - white and orange cat with an eye infection, one of Bast’s daughters. I didn’t think she had a litter but recently discovered she was hiding 3, about the same age or a little older than Selena’s. Beyond getting spayed, she needs medical attention for her eye, an injury on her neck, and general medical support.

Patchwork Quilt - dilute calico cat, another of Bast’s daughters. She has had a litter of kittens a few weeks after Selena, she's had them hidden until recently but has at least 5.

There’s at least one Tom who I never see, possibly two as I’ve gotten different coloration reports, skulking up the hill. The hope is that when we’re ready, we can catch him with a have-a-heart trap to get fixed.

The Background:

I arrived this summer at a friend’s farm to help out between some other obligations; one person who was here said he was taking care of the cats but in general was not, and the owner of the property had given up in frustration because they had cleared out the strays at least once but more were dumped – a common occurrence in rural areas, where a lot of people don’t spay/neuter their animals and think it’s acceptable to drop extras off at farms.

I began with taking in Bast’s rejected kitten and trying to help her to the best of my ability (which involved a lot of hand feeding and grooming because she didn’t really know how to be a cat); after much effort, the vet called "failure to thrive" - there wasn't much we could do, and she had to go over the rainbow bridge. After the person who was initially here left, I was able to start getting to know the cats and get them into more of a routine. I have been doing what I can to keep them fed, but pregnant and lactating cats eat 4x as much food as they do normally, and have needed help from friends to be able to afford it – I wasn’t expecting these expenses, and am struggling to keep this colony fed on my own, let alone to get them all to the vet to address health issues and funds to spay/neuter everyone. I have been in contact with a few local rescue and TNR organizations, but the one that is willing to help with spay has a 6-12 week waiting period I’m still in – everyone is overwhelmed with intact cats and dogs, puppies and kittens.

Unfortunately, cats get pregnant multiple times in a season and can get pregnant while still nursing their last litter; it’s possible some of the mothers with kittens are already pregnant again (Quilt is definitely), so I’m trying to raise money to get the most urgent ones seen and spayed before that can happen, or while the pregnancy is still early enough we could do a spay abort – I love kittens, but the population is quickly getting out of hand. It’s also incredibly hard on the mothers to keep getting pregnant over and over again; they are all underweight and struggling.

Without stopping the cycle, there will soon be dozens of cats living here with no funds for medical support or food, and lots of unnecessary suffering. It’s bad for the cats, bad for the local environment, and it’s our responsibility to help. Since the adults are feral and couldn’t be homed, TNR (trap-neuter-release) makes the most sense for them: stopping the repeated pregnancies, making sure they have all the food they need and support if medical needs come up. The kittens are young enough that we should be able to slowly separate and socialize them as appropriate and get them adopted out to loving homes. In the end, it should just be the four feral adults left, and my hope is that they can be fat, happy, and well cared for even if they don’t want to cuddle. They can also have a job here, helping reduce rodent populations around animals and their feed.

What I’m hoping to accomplish:

- get Little Boy to the vet to get fixed, vaccinated, and treated for barn cough and worms

- get Selena to the vet to get spayed before releasing her, and her and the kittens checked over and vaccinated

- raise money for additional spay/neuter, independently or through the local rescue org we’re hoping to work with

- find an org to help handle the kittens’ spay/neuter, vaccination, and adoption

- create a fund to keep the resident cats fed, build them structures to keep warm in the winter, have funds on hand for any future medical needs, and generally help manage the colony once it’s no longer expanding and stable.

Financial Needs:

~$400 to get a kitten seen for health issues at the vet

~$200 for 2 urgent spay/neuters

~about $200 every two weeks for litter, wet food, and dry food until all mommas are spayed and all kittens are adopted out

$125 each for adults that get spayed through local rescue organization, which will be 4+

Some reimbursement for expenses I’ve paid for but couldn’t afford to; receipts will be posted when I do (as will all receipts for purchases with these funds), but I’m only looking to reimburse myself about $200 which went to litter, food, and flea treatments.

Numbers will get adjusted over time; some numbers I couldn’t get quotes on or am waiting on quotes for. My current goal is $2500 to cover spay/neuters, a few months of food needs, building winter housing, and emergency medical fund while we hopefully get the kittens situated elsewhere and food costs will come down significantly.