Help! I have a stray cat family...

Hello Petrescue, About 5 months ago a thin mother and two thin kittens (about 6 weeks old) turned up on our door step. We live near bushland. We fed them for a couple of months every day. We have done everything as you suggested on your web page and have desexed the mother (who is social and house trained) but the kittens are very timid to the point we had to trap them in order to have them desexed. They are both female. The kittens are now living in our house while recovering and are fit and well. We have never been able to handle them apart from when they were in a cage (after the op). The problem we are now faced with is even though we want to keep them all the mother has rejected them and goes her own way and only here for meals. The kittens are less frightened of us but still we find it impossible to get close enough to touch them. They miss there mum a lot (even though they are about 6 months old) and when they see her she snarls and they cry. We very much want to keep them but we only see two options. Keep them in doors hoping they will become more domestic and less frightened or let them go and see what happens. Any ideas...? Jill & Will --------------------- Hi Jill, Thanks so much for your email! And good on you for helping out this cat family - you have done brilliantly to have taken such special care of them and to ensure that they don't breed further. Obviously without meeting your guys it's hard to say how to best proceed, but I have been able to find some pretty interesting info on caring for and living with semi-ferals. Taming feral cats Semi-feral kittens Taming ferals (.pdf) There is also a really good cat forum where many cat rescuers hang out here: Cat World Forums I would also suggest you visit your local cat haven to ask them for any trick and tips they have on keeping your guys happy and healthy. Good luck and please keep in touch - we'd be really interested to hear how you go. Cheers, :)shel ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear PetRescue, I have a growing number of stray cats and kittens living on and around my property. Some of them are just tame enough to be patted,others are more timid. I have managed to take a total of 11 cats and kittens to my local vet who desexes and rehomes them, but they can't take any more. Can you help me at all? Thanks, Claire --------------------- Hi Claire, I'm going to refer you to a list of links as per a conversation I had with another concerned cat lover (see links above) - I hope they help you with the fantastic work you are doing, taking care of these cats. Also of interest might be our guide to rehoming pets and our information library article on what to do if you find a stray cat While it's never easy taking care of these guys, kudos to you for helping them out! Keep up the great work and please contact me if we can help further, Cheers, :)shel