by K L Humphreys

Created on: October 31, 2009   Last Updated: November 03, 2009

Cats are like Appaloosa horses you either lov'em or hat'em - there is no in between. Personally I enjoy cats and find them very amusing, but trying to raise kittens indoors in limited space could change my mind.

Several weeks ago a beautiful gray tabby cat was dropped off in our neighborhood, which is a dead end dirt road, in the pine forest somewhere in south Georgia. Naturally "she" was pregnant and she decided to adopt us at first sight.

We didn't have any pets and so my husband and I chose to take her in and do the right thing. Actually it was cheaper than taking her to the animal shelter because they charge you money to leave stranded animals. Can you believe that?

We named our new member of the family Phoebe and got to know one another. Four weeks later we began bonding with six more family members. Five males and one female.

The first few days and weeks are easy because you don't need much space to contain a mother cat and six kittens, until they out grow their box. We decided that the laundry room and connecting bathroom would be ideal for the kittens to run and play, due to the tiled floors, but there's much more to these two rooms than floors.

Training kittens to eat food and use a litter box is easy, but keeping them from climbing the shower curtain and swinging into the bathtub is a bit trickier. There many areas growing kittens can jump into, pull down, or knock over in a bathroom. A laundry room has a washer and a table where detergents are kept. Keeping the lid closed on the washer is a must and removing all bottles and containers that might be spilt.

Then there are doors to other rooms such as a bedroom, and if a kitten can squeeze it's head through a space it can get into any room. So we used duck tape to attach cardboard to the bottom of the door, and seemed to work.

Keeping up with the litter boxes can be challenging, because mummy has to have her own,and choosing the right litter for so many can be confusing. Their food is a combination of soft and crunchy with a little milk, and it usually ends up all over the floor and in both rooms. Having a broom handy will make cleaning a bit easier.

You also have to remember that the mother is able to come and go, and bits of litter go with her, which finds it's way to more rooms. Needless to say I was anxiously waiting for the babies to become six weeks old so that they could be adopted out, but I have discovered that cute kittens are not attractive to everyone. Even when they are littered trained, eat proper food and purr when you hold them.

The only folks who want a kitten are feline lovers, and probably have ten or twelve cats already and are allergy free. Today someone gave me high hopes that someone with a farm might want them for their barn to keep down the mice. I am waiting for the phone to ring.

The only advice I can give for raising kittens in a small indoor space is think about it seriously. Kittens are very entertaining but they are also a lot of responsibility. As for keeping the mother cat because it was cheaper was false. We have spent money on much more than the animal shelter would have charged, but when all is said and done we will have a beautiful female cat called Phoebe who cannot have anymore kittens!

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