Hi Cassandra,
I can tell you by my recent experience with farm cats
that sometimes the momma is so thankful to be taken
care of and loved that the stress goes away quicker
than we think it will. I rescued 6 kittens and a
momma from a farm that sounds as bad as the one you
are describing...except the dog liked the kitties...I
worried about the momma after being in a house but she
is doing awesome!!!!! She loves me now and enjoys
getting petted and loved. Give your farm momma a
chance you might be surprised how thankful she will be
that you saved her and her babies...I know my farm
family is thankful!
Good luck
Sheryl
--- C & J <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> My husband works with a young guy who lives with his
> parents on a farm. These people have barn cats, who
> they basically care very little about. Well one of
> the cats had kittens a couple of days ago, and got
> cornered by a dog. By the looks of how scratched up
> the dog was, she put up a good fight, but the dog
> ate all but 2 of the kittens. The farmers don't
> care about the kittens at all, so they may still be
> in danger from the dog.
>
> My husband, feeling empty and sad by all that we've
> been through, and wanting to make me happy again,
> offered to take the mom and babies.
>
> I seriously don't know what to make of this. On the
> one hand, it is far far too soon for me take in
> anymore kitties, especially three of them. By the
> sounds of it, momma is half wild as she doesn't
> receive much attention from humans. She is used to
> being outside on the farm, and I don't know how she
> would handle coming into a strange house all of a
> sudden. It is possible she might get stressed out
> and not take care of her little ones?
>
> I also wanted to test my remaining two cats for FeLV
> in about 6 weeks, to make sure they haven't picked
> it up. I didn't want to expose any kittens to the
> virus. Plus I don't know if this momma is even
> healthy. She could have the virus herself, or any
> other number of things. She will never have been
> vaccinated. If I was going to get more kitties, I
> wanted to check out their backgrounds a little bit.
>
> On the other hand, these poor kitties may or may not
> survive on the farm. Nobody cares about them.
> Plus, ever since I was 9 years old and watched a
> mother cat give birth and watched the kittens grow,
> i've wanted to experience that again. I know I
> could give them a much better life.
>
> I just know i'm not ready to make this sort of
> decision. I've got open wounds that will take a
> long time to heal, and just replacing my 3 lost
> babies so quickly is not the way to heal. I wasn't
> even sure I wanted to get more cats, and definately
> wanted to wait quite awhile. I felt both appalled
> and excited when my husband told me that he had
> offered to take the kitties in. When it hurts so
> much, sometimes you just want to try filling those
> empty places in your heart.
>
> I know its difficult to give me any advice on this
> one, but I just needed to tell someone. You have
> all been friends to me through the rough times.
>
> Cassandra
____________________________________________________________________________________
Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news,
photos & more.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC
