For a couple of years now we’ve had feral cats show up on our deck. The first one was black with beautiful green eyes and very small. I gave him/her some food and they came back daily. I tried to get the cat to trust me. I sat in a chair right next to the food and she came right next to me. I was going to take my time and hopefully get her to let me touch her. I would have adopted her but then she disappeared. I was worried and went on Nextdoor to see if anyone saw her. No luck.
In late March this little kitty on the left showed up and I fed her. Soon after I noticed she had nipples so I knew she had kittens somewhere around. We found them in a garden bed along the deck. Three little black ones. I called Henrico Police Department because they had their own shelter, (previously with the other cat I called several rescues and none would help). I was told they would send someone that day with a trap and if we got her, the kittens would be easy. They would fix the mom and the babies could go up for adoption. I was very happy. Around four o’clock the animal control officer called and said he wasn’t coming, that it is kitten season and he had no traps, try again later in the week. I called another rescue, CARE, left a message that no one responded. Tried again on Friday and he told me I could buy a trap for around sixty bucks, call him on Monday, same response.
Before you know it the kittens were up on the deck and the father came too. He had a large open wound on his neck. I was feeding all of them. Every night at 7:30, they all came on the deck, mom looking through the window. I felt terrible, I knew that I shouldn’t feed them, I was losing sleep worrying about them. We were leaving that Saturday to go to NC for a week. I tried more rescues, nothing. I called Richmond SPCA, I spoke to two people who seemed sympathetic and I had to leave a message.
Two days before we left, they didn’t show up, the following day either. For two days there was no sign of them. Honestly I was relieved and also upset about what happened to them. We’ve been home a week now, no sightings. I hope that maybe they were rescued. By the way the SPCA called me back while we were in NC and she gave me another number to call.