Just found a cat and newborn kittens in my garden on a low bench. WWYD??

Oh look at those lovely blue eyes!

You do realise, pinot, that these are now the official Mumsnet cats, don't you?!

Crikey Summer - that sounds awful! We have the garden fenced, and he is only off the lead if I am sure that there is nothing around that he could kill/worry. Tbh I am on pins a lot of the time when we are out!

sorry... forgot to spell check that post

Lamb... I meant the people who don't fence their gardens in and let their dogs pretty much live as feral (almsot everyone around here).... obviously a walked doge needs to be left of the lead for a run every now and again..... people round here just don't bother walking their dogs though, they just leave them run free, all up and down the roads, coming into everyone's garden, cattle worrying, hunting rabbits and pheasant, killing lambs, being aggressive with walkers. Twice this week ds2 has been just outside our front door and had a dog bigger than him run up on him (he's 2, and tiny at that and it was a big dog... fair deuce to ds2 he stood his ground and managed to frighten a dog bigger than himself away!)

Pinot - I keep obsessively checking your profile in case there are more pictures!

What a lovely picture that latest photo is!

You're going to have to keep them, aren't you?!

awww! i cant wait till i can give mine cuddles!

too..

I and my gentleman cat, found that the quiet country roads are the worst, because although we'd lived by main roads for years, no problem.. i think he had a false sense of security in the middle of nowhere, he was forever sat by the bank along the road trying to catch little creatures, he just wouldn't listen.

There's maybe 10 cars a day, but when they come they go the full 60 mph.. plus in the summer the tractors' seem to be driven by boy racers, who see animals merely in terms of £££s.

Oh Ouch Pinot, Kitty claws are sharp as little needles, no tights or bare legs for you for a while!.. well worth it though

Completely understand your feelings Pinot.
Many people won't agree but I don't let my cats out the front where the road is, and I'm back to back with other gardens with a large grassy access only alley in the way so they are happy going out the back.

I only let them out when I am there so they never go too long without me checking where they are. If i'm home all day (which I am a lot), then they wander in and out, they've both got bells on so I can hear where they are. I do this because I want to keep them alive for a long time, and not because I want to curtail their freedom. My old moggy doesn't leave the garden anyway but my three-legged youngster had such a bad start in life that I couldn't bear it if anything happened to her, and although she's dexterous enough, she does fall off things and get stuck a lot, so I'm nervous about her getting stuck somewhere. My cats are both happy cats, and I think since the three-legger was chased back into the garden by the neighborhood bruiser cat she's a bit more nervous about jumping the fence now. I would much rather my cats stay alive till a ripe old age rather than have them run over.

Ah yes - the climbing up the jeans/jodphurs. I so remember that now. And then when they try it on bare legs - ouch!

I knew someone whose mother died of cat scratch fever - she had several siamese I think.

Summer - I may be in that circle of hell as my springer spaniel is often off the lead - but only far away from roads and he does have (reasonably) good recall.

Lamb... we live in the middle of nowhere and they still manage to find the road.... and drivers drive even faster out in the sticks

I found Scruffy just moments after he'd been hit... he was the kitten the mother cat dumped on my doorstep first and he was my absolute baby. I was pregnant at the time and had a complete hysterical breakdown sobbing over his poor little body, he was only 8 months

Then the next year I lost another 8 month old, a stunning little female tabby who'd I'd re-homed from a woman who has a colony of feral cats in her garden who she and he husband feed, spay/neuter, and generally take care of.... the mother was the only female she could never catch to get spayed. Tess was the sweetest cat, an hour before she died she was headbutting my pen off the page whilst I was studying and batting my face with her paw. Dp went out to do the coal and she followed him out, normally she'd have been back in in 5 minutes as she never left the garden so when she wasn't back in 30 we were frantically searching the roads.... we didn't find her til the next morning... the bastards next doors dog must have chased her as she was so far up the road (there is a special circle of hell reserved for people who let their dogs run loose imo)

And last month Scruffy's litter mate disappeared.... couldn't find him on the road so one of the hundreds of dogs/foxes/badgers might have got him, despite being a male he never went longer than 12 hours without checking in for some food... he the one on my profile with the white face... a complete dope of a cat but very affectionate and incredibly chatty.

It's the biggest down side of cats.... nine lives or not they seem to find endless ways to break your heart

Heart melts, I think that photo has health benefits for its heart warming effect!

They were Abelard and Heloise, or Abe and Elly for short. She was a tortoiseshell and he was a grey and white tabby. He was enormous. If I locked the catflap at night to keep him in he would headbutt it until he broke out. I would be sat in the chair of an evening and I would hear him crash through the catflap and next second he would leap onto the chair and headbutt my arm, and hurt!

My ginger tom, on the other hand, was the softest cat ever. He would sleep under the covers lying along my body, and sit round my neck when watching tv. If I got up to answer the phone etc, he wouldn't move, just cling on. He was pure ginger as well, with no white on him at all. He was abandoned on the moors and had ringworm when I found him, which he then gave to me - bless.

I would never chose another tomcat though as they are the only ones I have lost to tragic accidents. She cats seem to stay nearer to home. My nerves wouldn't stand another tom - until I get my cottage in the middle of nowhere

Oh god Pinot they are fabulous.

Reminds me of when I got my two - they were 4 weeks old and had been abandoned. Got them from a rescue centre after my uber gorgeous rescued ginger tom (who was the BEST CAT EVER) was poisoned. The rescue centre were not sure they would survive.

I remember the first night with them, they lay on the floor and they were so flat they were almost as thin as a piece of paper. They were weaned though and they soon fattened up. They were brother and sister and when they were 'done' the female got some sort of an infection and developed a huge lump in her abdomen and was in a lot of pain. (Crap vet who has since been struck off!). The tomcat recovered within a day and wanted to play with her but she became very nervous and tried to avoid him. He was such a big bruiser of a cat but absolutely lovely, so affectionate as tomcats tend to be. She never really got over her nervousness.

Sadly he was run over when he was only a year old [sob]. I had the she cat pts last November when she was 21.

Sorry to bore you with my cat tale. But I do so miss her, and can remember as if it were yesterday those first few months with them when they were tiny, and used to sleep in my bed, or I would think I had lost them and then would find them curled up together, asleep in a discarded jumper.

Enjoy

So fluffy! :o

Looks like you are doing a really good job, you are obviously a fantastic foster-mummy.

DD1 is hopping and squeeling