Hello everyone, I wasn't sure whether to breathe life back into this thread or start a new one, but there's such a huge backstory and it's all relevant to my update that I thought it easier to reawaken the thread.
So we are almost 4 months on from my last update and my two kitties are now huge and have just been neutered/spayed. They go back for a post OP check on Tuesday after which they will have the all clear for me to start letting them out and herein lies my dilemma. The boys next door have had a tough few months. Really tough. Shortly after my last update they started gravitating to a house up the road where they could always get in (window open for the families own cat) and where they were fed. They avoided my house like the plague every time they encountered Pumpkin (my boykitten), proper hissing and yowling at the window etc. A month or so later the family theyd be practically living with moved out. The boys have been scavenging a lot since, raiding bins, a neighbour up the road mentioned them pinching dog food from his spaniels bowl. Then I spotted Tortie out the front having really bad diarrhea so went and knocked on neighbours door and told them, they just laughed. The boys weren't seen for about a week after that but when they reappeared they were both wearing flea collars. They've started ranging a long way from this street, I see them on my way to nursery with DD a mile away from their house, still scavenging.
I was all set to report and then it came to my attention that neighbours are due move in late Spring. I've been dithering ever since. I see them around once a week out the back. Have loosened their flea collars as were way too tight, almost as if they've grown and the collars hadn't been adjusted. I've been putting some food in a bowl outside my back door and they sometimes eat it, sometimes not. Several times neighbours have gone away for the week but rather than shut the boys in, they've been shutting them OUT. I think they assume they hunt, but obv they don't, they just raid dustbins. It's got to the point now that even if I leave a lot of food out they don't seem to trust that more will be forthcoming, they eat some then go off scavenging again and don't come back even if I leave more food out. I think they've learnt that they need to fend for themselves. I can't shut them in here as they really don't like my two and full scale cat fights break out.
My concerns are twofold. I'm wary about letting my two out when the boys clearly see my garden as their patch, are still not neutered so very fighty and seem to have a personal issue with Pumpkin in particular, just seeing him in the window leads to hostility. My girl cat Buttons is still quite petite and I'm particularly worried about her having to fend them off.
My second concern is what to do! If neighbours are moving out in Spring I'm seriously considering "vanishing" the boys just before they're due to leave. I think, although may be wrong, that castrating them would make them less aggressive and that plus flea and worming, lots of tlc might lead to them coexisting with my minimum drama? Or I vanish them, keep them here temporarily and then take them to a shelter and let them be rehomed. I've been able to keep an eye on them here but who's to say that will continue if they move.
Also, with regards letting my two out ... When do I want to start thinking about that? I'm worried about buttons still having a visible scar from her OP, wondering if I should let the fur grow back first, so that if she does get in a fight or anything there's less chance of it getting caught. Like I said, she's still so petite I worry she'll get picked on. Pumpkin is fairly dim so god knows what scrapes he's going to get into!! Makes me very nervous tbh!