My solution to that has been fostering! I technically only have a sensible 2, but there’s currently a total of 7 under my roof, and a few more on the way.

My oldest loves to explore the kitchen counters at 3a. Last week, I found the huge glass jar that I store his kibble in knocked on its side, but thankfully not broken.

Foster! I got in real deep and about a week ago had 12 kittens from 4 litters, ranging in age from 2 days to 2 months. Finally found other foster homes for half of them, so I’m back to just 6 kittens from 2 litters now. Cats of all ages need foster homes! Some for just a few days, others for months, and most organizations will allow you to “foster fail” if you fall in love.

What sweet kitties! One of my foster kitties was recently sitting on my chest, meowing at me, and pawing at my face, all before 7a on a Saturday.

I see some good suggestions from others, but where is her litter box? Are there any other pets in the household?

Did it do the trick?

Starting at that dosage does seem a bit much, but that’s exactly what it took to tame my own cat’s vet anxiety. He was still hissy, but finally just barely manageable.

My 4.8kg cat is very fractious for vet visits, so the vet originally suggested 100mg gabapentin 2 hours before his appointment. Since that wasn’t enough to relax him adequately, for his next visit, they increased the dosage to 150mg, which still didn’t do the trick. Next, they suggested adding a dose the night before, but it wasn’t until we got to 200mg gabapentin the night before, plus another 200mg the morning of, that he finally mellowed out juuuust enough that they could examine him.

Wow, that’s crazy! I foster with an organization that does a lot of TNR, so it’s always great to see cats adapt to the luxuries of indoor life.

Oh wow! I’m currently fostering a litter with a colorpoint, and at 2 weeks she was just starting to show some hints of color. She’s about 4 weeks now and her nose & ears still aren’t that dark. This is her at about 2.5 weeks.

Aww! Is that a tipped ear? <3

Yeah, the low cost spay/neuter clinics around me are booked solid and have been for years. I had to book mine 2 or 3 months out, and it wasn’t even a true “low cost” clinic.

Looking at pricing at regular vet clinics, spay can be $500-700, and there’s extra fees if she happens to be in heat or pregnant when your appointment finally rolls around, and it’s not clear from my brief search whether those prices include anesthesia, pre-op blood work, etc. The low cost clinics range from free to $120 for spay.

Awesome! Indoors will help a lot to keep them warm and safe from predators and disease. In my region, most rescues say they have a minimum 2 week lead time to accept any new animals, so if you’re able to get in touch now and let them know you’re willing to foster them until they’re ready for spay/neuter, that often helps a lot to secure a spot in their program, and they might even provide you some supplies.

Sounds to me that you might be a great addition to the local foster team, and then you could take in new kittens once the current ones are ready for homes!

I have a little family of 3 kittens right now also! :) Mine are fosters and probably about 2.5 weeks old.

Have you helped raise kittens before? Since they have their moms, it will hopefully be pretty easy and pure joy for you, but things can still go wrong, and it can happen super quickly, so it’s great to have some emergency supplies on hand. Do you already have spay/neuter arranged for all of them? Happy to help any way I can!