Tabz had been hanging around our backyard for what seems forever. She would always come around to be fed when Mrs H brought out the food bowls. Our colony of about eight feral cats had gradually taken over our back yard especially after we added kitty tubes and a covered litter box (it’s hard to poop in the stone covered ground). Tabz was always a skittish and standoffish girl but she gradually started coming up to speak to Mrs H. Churus helped.
When Tabz came of age and started having kittens we tried in earnest to catch her. It was interesting, though; while she ran from us she would bring her sick kittens and put them on our backdoor step. I think this started when on night at about 0300. Mrs H woke up with a start and thought she heard an unusual noise, so she went to check the backyard CCTV. What she saw was blood curdling – a kitten ran after Tabz and fell into our pool. After an unscheduled pool dive, the kitten, soon to be named Luna, was brought inside, dried off and treated for ocular herpes. Luna’s eyes had been sealed shut with gunk that she couldn’t see…hence the accidental dash into the pool. Mrs H went to feed the feral cats the next morning and spoke to Tabz. She told her that we had her kitten and that the kitten was fine. A day later another kitten with ocular herpes was placed at our backdoor. The day after that we received the third and final kitten. Thus was our relationship with Tabz. She would run from us and refuse to get into a trap but would bring us her kittens; first the ill ones, then all the others once they were of age.
About three years ago, we had another major incident with Tabz. One very cold Saturday in January, I started the car remotely to warm it up and took off to do Saturday chores. I didn’t get very far before I started getting engine warning signs and loss of the electrical system. Hours later at the repair shop, we were discussing a new alternator and various belts when one of the mechanics brought in a cat’s tail. Ooops! An $800 reminder to bang on the hood of your car and then bang again, because it didn’t work the first time. I sent a pic to Mrs H and she immediately stated it was Tabz’s tail. Well, shit. If we couldn’t catch the damn cat to TNR her, how could we catch her to take her to the vet for a tail inspection? We sighted the cat several times over the next several days and it appeared that Tabz had enough of a stubby tail left she avoided incontinence problems.
Things continued on like before but with a shorter tail until about two months ago. Mrs H had put an old airline cat carrier near our front door for a feral cat named Friend. He’s our community Alpha who likes to guard the door and watch out for the FedEx guy. Mrs H thought he could use a little shelter so she put out the carrier. Within a week or so we noticed Tabz going in and out of the shelter. Closer inspection revealed four fuzzy kittens just a few days old. Our old dilemma of cat catching struck again and we had to be careful. We didn’t want her to move the kittens. We decided the most logical answer was to wait.
We had removed the door to the airline carrier before we put it by the door so we couldn’t trap Tabz and her kittens with it. We did notice as the kittens got a little older, Tabz would leave the carrier for some RNR and me time. Watch for her departure, we exchanged the old carrier with one with a door, stuffed the old towel back into it, transferred the kittens and waited for the return of Momma Tabz. Tabz noticed the switch but didn’t remove her kittens.
The situation remained static for about a week when Mrs H walked passed the carrier, saw everyone inside, reached down and closed the door. We had prepared our “double-long” kennel in our office for the family and we just placed the carrier inside the kennel and opened the carrier door. Within an hour or two with the kennel covered with a blanket, everyone was calm, making themselves at home. Mama Tabz was wary of us but, oddly, also friendly and seemingly a bit relieved. She gleefully accepted two Churus a day, licking the stuff off our fingers. Perhaps, just perhaps, we’d eventually be forgiven for our catnapping.
A week later we received a request to foster a little lost Main Coon kitten, Freya. She was tiny, skinny and it bad need of either formula or a mama to nurse. We carefully added her to Tabz litter and the momma cat immediately took her in. We think she heard her cry before we came into the room and got interested. About ten days later, our TNR partners came in possession of two kittens who had been separated from their mom by an unthinking human. We kept these two in a separate kennel for about a week for quarantine reasons and they were sorta okay but not thriving. Last week, we let all the kittens play together in our ODC – Office Day Care. This gave Tabz a bit of a respite as her kittens were getting bigger but the kennel wasn’t. At the end of ODC, all seven kittens were returned to Momma Tabz and the two smaller new kittens were brought into the family.
Mama Tabz gave us all sorts of looks and demanded a third Churu per day, but she did take the kittens in and almost immediately started fussing over them. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see and hear two little fuzzy jelly beans respond to a foster mama’s cries and trills and listen to them purr contentedly while being cleaned.
9–So, this is our Tabz. She is a feral momma cat who is just a wonderful mother to not only her own, but also to the three little ones she’s adopted. Once the kittens are grown some more, we’ll have the Humane Society or Animal Services put them up for adoption and we’ll get Tabz spayed. Whether we can keep her inside the house or we must return her to the backyard colony remains to be seen. Watch our social media and our blog and we’ll keep you informed.