Love, love, LOVE Cats! There is NOTHING cuter than a kitten! Karen it's good that your Momma cat has nice warm, loving home in which to raise her babies. There's a feral female in our neighborhood that has kittens every year. It's heartbreaking. DH and I tried to trap her and her babies last spring. We wanted to get her spayed and eventually let her go again. We are in an apartment and pets are limited here. Anyway, she was too smart for us, but we ended up trapping one of her kittens. We watched in frustration as she sniffed around the trap, then gathered the rest of the litter and disappeared into the greenbelt. Needless to say, we kept the little guy and we love(and spoil)him. We've been beating ourselves up about not getting Mom cat, as she had a fall litter and I assume she's going to have another this spring. But at least we got one Tom off the street. All the authorities will do is transport any strays to the humane society after someone traps them and takes them to the local veterinary for a health check. At least the local humane society is a no-kill shelter. Many are not. Keep those pictures coming...we need those regular 'Awwww' fixes!

Well, antibiotics are NOT going to help with anemia, and without proper veterinary treatment I'm afraid you're going to lose her. Isn't there another vet around who can really help? If she's doing that bad, she may need a blood transfusion which is expensive, but may save her life in the short term. Anemia is caused by something, and unless and until that cause is found and treated Meshka doesn't have much hope for survival. It depends on how far you can go with treatment of course. If you're not going to do anything else for Meshka, please euthanize her. She is suffering, and slowly dying of anemia is NOT a good death- it will take days. I'm glad the kittens are mostly doing well.

This is Biwa (aka Biwako-of-abi) again. Your thinking about these things show that you are a good cat owner. I personally would never trust my cats on a balcony, or high-up deck, again, unless it was on the first floor, and then there would be the problem of their escaping into the yard and perhaps getting run over. Don't be fooled by the fact that your cats have been all right so far on the 3rd floor deck. I am sure they like it, but even the cats in the same family can playfully do something that could lead to one or more of them falling. There is a first time for everything, and depending on what they land on, they could get killed. Suggestions about what you can do: (1) You could always keep the door to your deck shut so the cats can't get out there. They do not have to be able to go out on a deck to be happy. You probably know there are many types of toys for cats to entertain them inside the house. (2) If you own the house and can do what you like to it, you could put strong chicken wire or some other barrier anywhere on the deck where a cat might try to get out, or even build a large cage-like area on part of the deck if it is big enough. (In such a case, even the top of that area should be covered with strong wire fencing.) Alternatively, you could just have some sort of strong screen door where you go out on the deck--I mean, one that a cat's claws would not tear if it climbed up as if the door were a tree. I do think a cat would be miserable if it had to be kept in a small cage in the house much of the time, but that could be a temporary solution for times, for example, when you have guests who might unthinkingly leave the door to the deck open. (3) Climbing is also not necessary for a cat's happiness, although you are right that a 4-month-old kitten, especially, is going to want to climb and jump. For that, you can buy, or get someone to make, a pole for the cats that has 3 or 4 little platforms along it, so they can climb up and rest. (Cats, as you probably know, just looove to be up high and gaze down on everyone else.) We never wanted to spend money on something like that, but you can get the same effect using pieces of furniture that are different heights. You could even provide the kitten with fun and exercise by running around trailing a piece of string for him to chase. Just don't leave the string around where he could swallow it and necessitate an expensive visit to the animal ER. (4) I wouldn't rely on the following trick to keep your cats from jumping up on the railing of a deck, nor would it work to keep them off the deck, now that they know it is a fun place, but I did succeed by using noise to give my cats an aversion to climbing up window screens. You know that cats hate unexpected loud noises. We had moved from a place where our cats had had an outdoor cage-like area (about 6x6x6 feet) right outside a window so they could go in and out at will, to an older house where we couldn't do that, and I was afraid they might try to climb up the screen on an open window. The very day we moved in, I took the time to sit and be on the alert to catch any hint that the cats were interested in those open windows, and if a cat so much as stood on its hind legs to peer out through the screen, I briefly pressed the alarm signal on one of those devices a woman might carry to scare away an attacker. I didn't have to do it many times. My four cats very quickly caught on that something awful happened when they touched a window or its frame, and very soon I no longer ever had to worry about open windows and screening. You could probably get the same effect by clashing metal pots against their lids. However, the noise has to be something that the cats will not realize has a human source. Yelling at them and clapping your hands will only teach them to be naughty when you are out of sight. I hope you will find a good solution for your problem. Anyway, I commend you for your concern for your cats' happiness and their welfare. It's always nice to meet a fellow cat lover. Just for fun, here is a site I love to look at for the pictures of all the things one cat owner did with his house. How I wished we could imitate him, but I am sure my husband would never have agreed, lol. (So I am NOT saying you should fix up your house like his, either! But enjoy looking.)

The 12 week old kittens do not seem to be possessive of their food or toys. They are VERY playfull however and get into everything. They are constantly running around and jumping (like kittens do) and I'm afraid they might hurt one of the little ones. I'm also a little wary of mama cat attacking the 12 week old kittens if she perceives them to be a threat. I've moved the kittens and mama cat into a spare bedroom. Mama cat is not happy with this arragement (wants out) and my four house cats are not happy either. But I couldn't leave the little ones outside. The kittens are pretty happy as they are climbing all over everything and like to pile in the corner to sleep. They are pooping all the carpet however and my fiance is not happy about this. I put a small shoe box (with very low sides next to the mother's litter box in the hopes they will use that but they just poop on the floor in front of the litter box.