I have to quarantine them both, separately. Just tonight, W's son Z went into the kitchen to get to the loo, and when the kitchen door opened Mommy cat came into the living room - head on with Slinky there. I stopped it before it got too physical.
The thing is, Mommy cat is well able to take care of herself outside. But her kittens are here in our home, and with a compelling need to take care of them while we find them new homes, we have to let Mommy cat into the house too, to let her see them and take care of them as she wants to. And Mommy cat, still a nursing mother (though the kittens are already on solid food as their main diet), needs to eat much more than the usual 1 - 2 meals doled out a day by neighbours or cat-feeders. Nursing mother cats need almost twice the amount of food than an adult cat. Plus, she is still growing, as she was probably impregnated during one of her first few heats just toward the end of her kittenhood.
But Mommy cat is a lovely cat, Slinky aside. She is white, with a short tail, huge bambi eyes, and very vocal and affectionate. She responds meowingly to Andy's meow-calls for her to come home if she has gone outside to walkabout. She looks like Hello Kitty!
Slinky, being black and stealthy, sometimes gets out of the line of sight of Mommy cat. Until Mommy cat saunters too near to Slinky and realises it too late that Slinky was sitting there looking like a bale of black fur in the living room corner. Then, hisses! Scary, especially when in the middle of the night and I have to shout at them to cut it out.
Cat fights aside, the kitchen is a mess - litter box sand all over, kittens messing up my floor rug, the stench of more than twice the amount of poo in one box, the bits of cat food that the kittens leave around (because they chew them down into small crumbs. Think Cookie Monster), and having to close the windows in case Nosey or Snowy decide to start climbing my windows. And, Sayang looks itchy (probably fleas) but I can't bathe her yet till her stitches have fully recovered. For now, it is just Prickly Heat powder. Which means even more of a mess (try powder bathing a cat...).
The only rewards we get out of this: having cute cuddly Nosey and Snowy to play with, and a lovely Mommy cat to stroke and meow with. And at least we worry less, knowing they are safe, clean and well fed at our home till we can get the kittens another home.
