Mr Cory and fostering 4 kittens

[Corygal]

Regular readers, and more-than-regular saviours of mine and Mr C's, will know that we live in a teeny flat in central London.

I volunteer at the local charity shop and one of my co-volunteers has 2 cats who have engineered 4 kittens between them. They can't stay in his flat because it's council and he's already been in court for having more than 2 cats as it's against the lease. But he wants to keep the mum cat and has asked me if I could temporarily have the kits and mum at mine while the council does their inspection.

I just about have room for another litter tray and could keep the mum in my bedroom with her kitties.

Is this a disastrous idea? Mr Cory is a friendly soul, but I don't know how he'd take it. Also, he is FIV and I want to know if he could catch anything from potential houseguests.

if it would only be for one day as the inspection would only take about an hour i would say yes to him and just put them in your bedroom seperate to the other cat and your cat should be ok with temporary guests, i foster kittens for a rescue and so far they have not caught anything from my adults or the other way round and i foster them for 3-5 weeks at a time and dont seperate them as they are at mine to get socialised

Thanks a million Issey. Good to know.

Still dithering.

If it's temporary I can't see the problem. But only do it on condition he has them all neutered. Is he having them neutered?

Do you think he's likely to 'forget about them'?

Well, I've told him he's got to, and to be fair the mum cat was scheduled for spaying but got pregnant first. He's not a great one for, er, 'rules'.

I don't think he'll forget, cozie, but I do think he might not look after them very well. Another cat of his died from a suspicious injury when someone else was meant to be looking after them.

Hmmm. I think I'd play this one quite formally and by the book. (Just to avoid becoming sucked into his problems. Mr Cory has to come first.) How do you think he'd react if you offered to arrange for Mum to be spayed and to give the kittens to CPL/CHAT ? (Sorry TCN - I know you're choc a bloc with animals there.)

Ah, are you in London Corygal?

Oops.

Oops, should have read the first line of the OP! OK re-phrase that, are you anywhere near East or South London (as 'central' can mean almost anything).

We can neuter them all if someone can get them to us. We can even neuter kittens at ten weeks old. Do you know how old they are? We could certainly talk about taking the kittens it or at least putting them as 'fostered' on our website.

I have been sucked into his problems, because I am dead worried about the kits, who are a scanty 3 weeks old.

Thing is TCN, he wants to sell the kittens. I don't think he wants to give them away, but I could certainly get one kitten from him (could pay for it).

We are based in Balham where the charity shop is. I will tell him that they could go to you, is that ok? It would be BRILLIANT.

I am so worried, to be honest, that I am considering voiding my savings and buying them all.

Don't void your savings.

I just have a bad feeling about this one, Corygal - which is entirely unreasonable given that I don't know the man and all I've done is read a handful of posts from you.

If he has too many cats for his flat, isn't into 'rules' and has allowed a cat to get pregnant and done nothing about it then I think there's a higher likelihood than I would like of you being lumbered with Mum and kits. As he seems more than a bit irresponsible, are you even sure that they have no worms/fleas and Mom has been vaccinated?

Maybe TCN can think of a solution - I'm a bit too far away.

He sounds appalling. It's obviously not an animal charity that he's a volunteer for as he doesn't have a clue or appear to care about animal welfare. Don't buy them. It's not that easy to sell kittens in fact. There are just too many of them around.

I would agree to taking them in for him temporarily, as he wants, but only if the adults are neutered. If you are able to arrange that yourself with our Lewisham branch and take them in yourself if you can. We only charge £20 for a male and £25 for a female, so get him to pay. If he won't pay, take them in anyway and explain the situation and we'll do it for free.

I really don't know what to suggest about the kittens. I would try to reason with him if you can and, failing that, play it by ear. They shouldn't be taken from their mum until they're ten weeks old in any case.

TCN, that is great. Would CPL be able to foster the mum with the kittens? Now Cozie mentions it, I bet the mum isn't vaccinated - which means I realise that I can't have her near Mr Cory as he is FIV, for both their sakes.

In the meantime, I have a Christmas list for who in the Cory family will be thrilled by a kitten on the 25th.

I'm with Celia Hammonds www.celiahammond.org not CPL. And I don't know, we are very short of foster carers, but please call our Lewisham branch and discuss it. In the meantime though get them both in for neutering and we will give them their first vaccine at the same time.

However, even if they're not vaccinated, if they don't have symptoms of anything then they're very unlikely to be a risk to your cat. And if they're kept in a spare room then really there isn't any danger.

And you definitely don't need to worry about your cat transmitting FIV to them. It's only passed on through biting.

That is fine news, TCN; thanks so much.

I will let you know what happens when I speak to everyone tomorrow. Oh dear, Mr Cory is flat out snoring after cat milk and Gourmet Gold, spreadeagled on his new fake fur coat to which he bears inappropriate feelings, even though I think they are both neutered.

I will think hard about it, as I don't want to disturb his routine but I think sometimes he might get a bit bored.

Is he paying the income tax on the money from the kittens?

Ask him if he declares it to HMRC.

I suspect that this is one of those 'Softly Softly Catchee Monkey' situations, Fluffy. It's awful to have to manoeuvre but sometimes it's necessary for the sake of the animals.