Last summer, we were asked for help by a lady whose house borders farmland. One of the farm cats had taken up residence and had decided to raise her litter in the lady's garden, which has quite a lot of thicket type bushes.
Unfortunately, the kittens were just that bit too old for us to tame, but we did manage to trap them and get them neutered. Mum, however, proved illusive and by the time she arrived back on the scene, she was obviously heavily pregnant again. Sadly, we only managed to catch 2 of the new litter of 6 in time for taming and rehoming as our efforts are hampered by Mum, who keeps taking the kittens back to the farm, where we cannot trap as the farmer in non-cooperative. But in the following weeks and months since the first lot of neuterings, we have now TNR'd Mum and all but one of the last batch of kittens. We are hopeful of getting that one very soon, although obviously the last few are the most slippery!
The thing that is facinating me, and the lady, is watching the way this family work together and interact. Mum, although she has had another litter and been spayed herself, continues to educate and watch over her teenage kittens even though we estimate they are around 10 months now. And one of the teenagers, a female, has been seen baby sitting the newbies and even teaching them how to play-hunt with a dead mouse.
Does anyone know of any case studies like this? I believe this is a unique situation that farm cats have been observed at such close quarters over this length of time.
And BTW, the lady says that since they've all been neutered, they now come in to her house and kitchen, and will happily sit on her sofa so long as the garden door is left open and they have an escape route. She can now touch or stroke most of them and one of the older kittens even sits on her hubby's knees for short periods.
