ALMOST free of extra cats. Last weekend some lady called bc of a flyer I had put up last November for another batch of kittens, those all gone, and she wanted two kittens for her barn. She had been calling and getting the same reaction that I had gotten, about how cruel it is to put a cat in a barn. HA!!! MY barn has a flight of stairs to the loft, which is flush with hay and very warm and dry. I cut cat holes in the door to the grain room and the door to the garage room of the barn, so they can safely hunt and get away from any predators. I also have a heated water bowl in the garage and I feed them every day. When I was down to one cat in 2015 I was seeing mouse droppings everywhere and had to catch mice in the house. I haven't seen a live mouse in months.
When I first kept horses the farmer never fed his cats. There were plenty of mice and rats and HIS cats were all sick. I fed a stray that showed up one day, and he got filled in and sleek. I visited a nearby farm after he disappeared and saw that he had crossed the road and found better quarters there when we compared notes.
I'll be putting the last two kittens AND their feral mother up on Craig's list this week. Then I'll be down to 6 cats, 4 males and two spayed females. The feral mother has had two litters and doesn't want to stop. ALL of her second litter are female, diluted calico, which my Vet tells me are always female.
Good news! The two that I gave away last week have settled in nicely. Their little girl has fallen in love with them and I was sent a video of her playing with them.