Neighbours kittens

[ShadowsShadowsEverywhere]

We've recently had new neighbours move in next door. Towards the end of last week two kittens appeared in their garden, I'm not sure whether they'd just got them or had been keeping them inside for a few days.
One of the kittens kept popping its head over our fence and watching DCs playing.

Yesterday when I went to take the bins out the same kitten was sat on my path mewing. As soon as she saw the open door she was in the house. I ushered her out the back door, but she spent the rest of yesterday coming back in, or playing with the DCs toys in the garden. Every time something made her jump she ran to me and hid under my long skirt! By about 6.30 she was clearly hungry, had jumped up and eaten some scraps in my kitchen and drank DSs milk, so I shooed her back out the front door where I'd found her as she just didn't seem to want to go over the fence back to her own garden.

She was v v thin and seemed confused about where home was. Yesterday she was coming in the windows from the garden and mewing a lot. What do I do if she comes back today? It's obviously more interesting here as neighbours are out most of the day and we are home from lunchtime onwards most days and have a garden full of toys and balls etc which she spent hours playing with yesterday. I'm worried about how thin she looked but don't know a lot about cats or kittens so don't know how normal that is. Any advice would be v much appreciated!

I have an update, no shelters have the kittens or know of brother kittens that are looking to be rehomed. But whilst speaking to a lady at the local independent shelter I've been told about a 12 week old female kitten who a lady has not been able to sell so she has been in touch with the shelter

Oh Shadows, Ive been following your thread from the start (though think I may have named changed since then!) Have a hug. It's clear that those boys were more than 'just' cats but exactly what you needed - pets can be very soothing. So sorry about the multitude of tricky things you are dealing with. This new unwanted kitten sounds like just the thing to brighten up your forthcoming birthday, and please remember, if you don't see the boy kittens again you did everything you possibly could

Hi, I just wanted to add that NDN may well be trying to do the right thing for your boys by keeping them inside until they are 6 months old and neutered (as they should've done in the first place).

I hope that is the case and that they are being looked after properly.

Glad that you are considering an alternative rescue cat, it certainly sounds like one belongs in your home!

Well I think this kitten you are going to see has lucked out. They get to avoid being in a shelter and end up in a loving home.
We got our cat when we were going through a hard time and just having her to love has made such a difference.

Good luck with the 12-week-old kitten! :)

Good luck shadows.

I've been following this so closely, I'm glad you're going to have a kitten that is definitely yours.

Are your neighbours the sort who'd be OK if you knocked on the door and said you hadn't seen the kittens in your garden lately and are they OK?

Just spoken to lady about kitten and we've said 6pm Friday, with a view to me taking her home either that night or the following day providing we are both happy. Sounds like the lady has children and other cats so hopefully she won't be too scared of my houseful. She's a chocolate brown from a mixed litter, short haired tortoiseshell mother and long haired tabby father. Apparently she is on the small side and so no one wanted her which seems awful.

I've been reading up on what to look for, signs or good health/ not, questions to ask etc so feel like I'm fairly clued up. Shelter lady said to me that they would get health check organised via their vets so that's good, I think I will have support from them if we have any issues. Meant to say earlier that the independent shelter and several others have taken a note of the boys and my phone number so I should get a call if they get brought in. We were out this afternoon for a long time and I was quietly hoping that neighbours would see we were out, let boys out and they'd come straight to mine and be here when we got back, but no such luck.

I still hope you'll get the boys back too.

Me to fluffy, I just don't know how to go about it. They're clearly keeping them in and as long as they do that I can't do anything. I nearly had a heart attack this morning. I was dozing in bed and DD was stood on my chair looking out the window. She suddenly yelled "cat mummy" and I was wide awake and at the window in seconds. It was a different cat. DD told me she was sad because she missed them and we had a cuddle. It's still awful, I'm still checking the garden every time I go past, still waking up thinking I hear the cat flap. I wonder if they miss me or if they've forgotten us already, if they are ok, fed, cuddled. I just feel powerless but keep thinking that surely they can't keep them in forever, at some point they have to let them out. Surely?

Oh massive luck Shadows - roll on Fri evening.

Of course NDN have to open the door sooner or later. DOn't give up hope on getting the kits back to their rightful home (yours) either. Let us know, and we're all thinking of you.

I've just been out the have my evening chat with the chickens and runner beans (I'm sure it encourages them to grow faster ) and I could see into next doors living room as they hadn't drawn curtains. No signs of cats. What I'm finding odd and worrying is that I just haven't seen them, not in any window at any point since neighbours got back. Apart from that one time I thought I heard them running down stairs I haven't actually seen any evidence they are still there. It's the not knowing. If I knew that they were ok it'd be easier. I'm worried this is more about neighbours being possessive than it is about them realising they treated the cats badly and doing their best to rectify it.

And I would have noticed btw, I'm terribly nosey and have got worse since kits gone, I think I must look out the window every few mins!

It's worrying isn't it?.

Do you think they've rehomed all of them?. What breed was the dog?

I really don't know, when they were out for the day on Monday I went and knocked on the kitchen window, and when they were shut in before I rescued them they used to come bounding to the window when I knocked. But on Monday, nothing. They didn't come and I didn't see them. The sound I heard of running down the stairs could easily have been one of them or something else which just sounded similar. Im tempted to start checking their bins for cat litter!

The dog was a sort of staffy cross dog, one that's often a status symbol type dog. It barked all the time, I couldn't walk along my garden without it following along the fence barking and when they walked it past the house it was straining at the lead so I don't think they'd trained it v well. But if they got rid of the dog because of the kittens then it doesn't make sense that they'd get rid of kittens? It's just strange that I've not seen them. I'm having horrid visions of them shut in a cat box or something.

Why don't you just go and ask them?

Really? They broke my fence down rather than knocking on my door when they saw kittens in my garden. I can't leave DCs in house alone so I'd have to take them with me, which I don't feel is wise when they have been aggressive in the past. I think the more interest I show the more likely they are to remain possessive. And most of all, I am having a very rough week and I really think if it did get confrontational I wouldn't be able to handle it.

I've been glued to this thread right from the start shadows. I really feel for you. How do you think your NDN would react if you knocked on the door in a friendly neighbourly fashion to say hi? Could you take them some eggs/runner beans and say you have too many and wondered if they would like some? Surely they couldn't react badly to an act of (faux) kindness? Then you could ask after the kittens? I really hope you get them back.

Hmm that may be an avenue I could try. Don't have spare produce apart from windfall fruit but they've already got lots as it overhangs into their garden. Could possibly be having a clear out and have found some baby bits they might like? Could try and time it when he isn't there, as she seems the most approachable. I'm just wary that it could backfire. And they could get more territorial. There's a good chance those kittens are suffering and the quicker they let their guard down and let them out, the sooner I can get some food into them and check they are alright.

Could you ask the neighbour on the other side to 'mention the kittens in passing'?

Neighbours on other side that I mentioned upthread is the other side of my house, the kitten neglecting neighbours are end terrace.

Ah balls. I understand why you don't want confrontation with them.

That sounds lovely about the little brown female Shadows

But really sorry that you haven't seen the boy kittens yet & are no closer to finding out how they are

I didn't like to say at the time but I did wonder if they had rehomed all of the animals. I guess the only way to find out for sure is to ask the least-bad neighbour - taking baby clothes round seems a good ploy & is non-confrontational.

Still crossing fingers that the boy kits will be back.

Feeling really conflicted tonight. Still no sign of kittens and I'm beginning to feel sick with worry that they've done something to them. She's not left the house since Monday which is also odd. Am going to see this kitten tomorrow but am suddenly feeling guilty. I don't want to "replace" the boys or put any barriers up that may deter them from coming back, and if I've got a small unneutered female I'm going to have to have all windows shut and lock the catflap which means the boys wouldn't be able to get in. I miss the boys so much and their unique personalities, and the way that they would get in the bed with me in the morning; I'd wake up with them under the covers snuggled no close.

I am kicking myself so so hard that I didn't shut them in as soon as I saw that message upthread about it being a good idea etc. I should have shut them in there and then. Instead I left them out in the garden because I had friends round, I took my eye of the ball and didn't even notice neighbours ripping aside lumps of fence. DD has clicked that they aren't just out exploring but aren't coming back (I can't give her fakes hope, she's 3 ffs). She's in hits. She is suspected to be on the spectrum and was SO much calmer with the cats around. She coped with everything so much better, they would come and sit by her when she was getting agitated and she'd rest a hand on one of them while I talked to her and you could see her visibly relax. Normally that agitation would have led to a meltdown.

Today, because we may have a new kitten by tomorrow, I've had to go around the house and remove and wash the blankets that still smell of the boys, wash their bowls up ready for a new kitten to use. It hurts. Everything in my life has started to collapse this week, and whilst I think I've wrestled it back under control now, this is the one thing I can't fix. I keep wondering if they are hungry and distressed and wondering where I've gone and why I let them go. I'm worried they won't come back when they are let out, or that neighbours never let them out again at all. I should have kept them in.

One thing I do know, those kittens came into our lives because they needed us as much as we needed them. Their "owners" don't fucking deserve them and there's no way they can give and gain as much as we could and did from having the boys in our lives. I will look for them every day because they will be sorely missed every day. I really did fall in love with them, we all did.

A and for you Shadows

I think you may have to find a way of asking the neighbours as otherwise you may never know

sometimes even if it's the worst news it is possible to then start processing it & deal with it somehow

please don't beat yourself up about letting them out - you could not have foreseen what would happen and there would likely have been a confrontation about the kittens sooner or later, as the neighbours do seem the confrontational types.

They would have slowly starved to death without you there to rescue them, that's for sure.

And if you do talk to the neighbours and suspect something is not right, you would have grounds to report them I guess

It is horrible to have that "everything is collapsing" feeling. Maybe take back some of the things that you can control - in this case you can choose to look at the brown kitten and maybe keep her and that would hopefully be really beneficial for your DD and give you a little creature to love & look after again. Sadly at the moment the situation with the boy kits is pretty much under the control of your neighbours I think.

As an aside might there be other problems next door if you haven't seen the female neighbour? Have you heard the baby recently?