Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi everyone

I'm Mia and I'm new to this forum and this story is gonna be a long one

I moved to Cyprus about 1.5 years ago and within a week of moving here I saved a 4 week old kitten who was on the road next to a dead kitten her size (possibly her littermate ) she just jumped on my leg and ofcourse I couldn't let go! Anyhoo Coco is a beautiful Cyprus Aphrodite, an adorable home cat now but she's extremely jealous and territorial yet frightened to death of other cats!

About 3 months ago we moved apartments, bear in mind I'm on the 2nd floor but a large cat can find it's way to the balcony. There are a lot of stray cats about. When we first moved in this place there was one particular female cat which kept coming on the balcony and I fed her a few times but then my cat Coco found out about it and the stray cat kept hissing and screaming at Coco. I had to tell her off as coco was very distressed. The stray cat kept being really affectionate towards me and would greet me and rub herself against me every time I'd come in and out of my flat so I decided to feed her downstairs in the communal back yard and I found out she had 6 little kittens next door! She stopped coming around and started acting really "distant" after a while. I thought she probably belongs to next door and is being fed as she spends a lot of time in their garden with her kittens but everything changed 3 nights ago when I witnessed the saddest thing - one of her kittens was hit by a car on the street that my balcony overlooks (any ideas about how I can get over witnessing that as its been haunting me ever since ) and she was lying next to it and all the other kittens kept going back and forth but she just didn't move. By the morning the dead kitten was gone, I took some food and water to her and she was absolutely uninterested. Again I thought she's being taken care of until I returned home today and I saw her and 2 of her kittens (I think those 2 are the only survivors) and a gigantic male cat on my balcony! I don't think the kittens could make it up here unless she brought them up herself. I'm happy to have them on the balcony as it's way too dangerous for the kittens to be out and about on the street. But the question is why is a male cat following them around? Are they a family or something? When I went out to feed them, the male cat just stared at me while spraying my washing and the walls! For the time being I'm keeping Coco in the back room as I don't wanna stress her out...

Any suggestion/ advice would be highly appreciated as Coco is the only cat I know and I've never dealt with a male cat before!

Oh wow. (And welcome by the way )

Good on you for caring for these cats - their story is heartbreaking. But that tomcat will be hanging round the mother cat so as to be the first to mate her when she next comes into heat ... and give her more kittens ... and in the meantime the older kittens will be growing up and becoming sexually mature ... nightmare.

Are there any organisations near you who will help with neutering/spaying/rehoming kittens? You're doing a great job looking after them but I feel you ought to have some help, if possible, if only with neutering so that you don't have an endless population explosion.

Hopefully other members on here will have more advice - please let us know how you go on, and all the very very best

the male cat is undoubtedly looking to mate with the female, in which case there will soon be yet more kittens

it's very touching she brought the two from her litter to you because she trusted you, but you do need to get rid of the tom - any chance you could get him to a vet to be neutered? the female ought to be neutered too, but he is the priority because he will go round impregnating other females

is there any charity in Cyprus who helps in these situations?

ps have just seen Lilith's almost identical post but will leave mine anyway as great minds think alike

Hi Lilith and hi Kay!

Thanks a lot for your quick replies!

Oh god that's something that I really didn't think about.. a few moments ago I went out to see how the kittens are doing (bless them they were fast sleep cuddling each other!) the male cat got up and legged it straight to the female cat and she started hissing at him but he just lied down next to her chilling! This is turning into a drama series already.

I just came across a couple of Facebook groups in the area hopefully they'll help.

Unfortunately I'm not gonna be here long enough but sometimes I wish I could just drop everything and open a cat sanctuary here in Cyprus... the cats here are just beautiful but the way that people drive in here is not... it seems like people here are forced to drive at 80 mph down a tiny residential road
I've lost count of how many roadkills I've seen during my stay already

Oh, there are drivers like that in my street - complete idiots - I'm lucky to have a secure back yard so the cats can't roam.

All the very best and please keep us updated - I'm so glad these poor cats have found you