Oops…kittens

By Kim Lemmon, Ohio’s Country Journal

I like my barn cats very much, and I appreciate the great job they do of keeping vermin out of my barn, but I like to keep their numbers in check. I’m a big fan of spaying and neutering barn cats and all of my cats have had these surgeries.

Last fall, three kittens showed up in my barn. They were obviously just weaned from their mother. These little critters were cute, but also really wild.

The kittens decided to make my barn their home, and I spent all winter and early spring trying to tame them down enough that I could catch them so they could also be spayed or neutered.

As luck would have it, one week before their scheduled surgeries, one of the kittens that had now grown into a juvenile cat gave birth to three kittens. Uh oh.

The kittens are cute, but I don’t need more mouths to feed. They are also a testament to just how quickly young female felines become fertile. This little cat was not quite full grown herself when she gave birth to her kittens.

The good news is that I have already found homes for the little ones if I can still find them and get ahold of them when the time comes for weaning. The bad news is that I will have to act quickly once they are weaned to make sure this accidental cat pregnancy doesn’t happen again.

Thank goodness for the nice folks that run low cost spay and neuter clinics for cats.