Upcoming events along the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail

It Takes a Village

Mama's Family

For some time a female cat was hanging out at the cabins. Before we could capture her she had a litter of kittens under the deck at the Creole. We do not live on the property, we live in Carbondale. Trying to plan the capture of the hesitant mama, who had tucked her babies into a safe but inaccessible place, was quite the challenge. Of course, we also had to consider guests.

Another issue was, where were we going to take Mama and her babies? We have three older cats at home. We have Queen Nefferkitti, who barely has anything to do with our other two cats and certainly would have nothing to do with a dominant female. We also have Carlos, our blind sweetie, and our other sweetie Flame, who can be quite skittish.

Everywhere I called the rescues were full. I did not want to risk this family being euthanized. After some planning, we were able to set up an area on another floor of our house, which we have done before while fostering kitties.

Knowing we were in a dilemma trying to figure out what to do about the kitties, the guests staying at The Creole mentioned mama and her family to Jillian, who runs Shawnee Shuttle along with Cobden Spay/Neuter Coalition.

With Jillian's help, we now we had a plan about what to do, it just needed to be executed, and be successful.

We brought out a couple of live traps and yummy treats. The first day did not go well and we had to leave, but the new guests staying at The Creole Cabin were very kind and helpful in our endeavor, keeping us updated as to any action.

All three kittens were caught, but mama wasn't having any of it. Being such a great mama, the guests said she kept bringing her babies food. She brought them a couple of mice while they were trapped. Ahhh. We had to take the kittens home and try again the next day for mama.

The next day the guests caught the mama and then, being concerned there was still another kitten we have not seen, reset the trap after locking mama in the bathroom. The trap captured a feral male - Daddy!

Next problem - recapturing a very upset mama that was being kept in the bathroom. 

My son Alex and I shut ourselves in the bathroom with mama to try and get her into the carrier. That was a hoot. We will upload a video of that soon.

I don't know who was happier to see each other again when we brought mama home to her kittens, who were in a sunroom downstairs. Daddy cat had to go in a completely different room, in his own kennel. Good times, good times...

Next up, getting the parents spayed and neutered. With Jillian's help, we were able to get them both taken care of on the same day. It is always more difficult on the female, but Daddy was able to be released back out at the cabins a day later. Boy was he happy. That video will be posted soon also!

A big thank you to all of our guests that helped to feed and watch out for the kittie. Thank you to Adam and Kari who helped us capture them, and a big shout out to Stephanie Hawk Killion, who generosity has helped with the vetting of the the kitty family.

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Where is the family?

A wonderful family took mama and her babies in and they are living the life in Cobden. We do not need to worr they will be contributing to the population.

We know this is not the last time we will end up having another story to tell. We consider our homes and property to be our responsiblity, so if there is an animal in need, we have to step up. However, we are not going to sugar coat this. Having to face this delemma time and time again is extremely difficult.