Several stray kittens and their mothers captured

Eleven kittens and their two mama cats should have new homes thanks to the efforts of one Green River resident and two animal control officers.

Phyllis Baker, who lives near Flaming Gorge Way, has a couple of cats of her own and loves them, but when she discovered two cats recently had kittens near her home, she knew she had to call Green River Animal Control.

Baker said she is always getting stray cats by her house.

“I think maybe people dump their cats off because they know I’ll feed them,” Baker said.

Another theory Baker has is the house behind her home has been vacant for years and stray cats like to hang out there.

One day, while Baker was outside, she discovered a mother cat had given birth to six kittens. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew they couldn’t stay where they were at.

When she went to move the kittens to a better location, they were gone. That’s when she discovered the mother cat had moved them under her house.

“We had it bricked up. I don’t know how they got in there,” she said.

While she was investigating the kitten problem, she soon discovered another mother cat had given birth to six kittens on her back deck. She said it was almost in the same spot the other cat had done it before.

“I’d keep them all if I could,” Baker said. “I’d be the lady on the hill. The cat lady.”

But Barker decided it would be better for all parties involved to call animal control and explain her problem to them.

The first thing animal control officers had her do was hide all of the cat food she had outside.

Next, animal control officers Lydia Holmes and Kim Wilkins set up traps.

It didn’t take long for the mother of the youngest set of kittens to get caught in the trap. Barker said the only problem was it was after animal shelter hours. She still called animal control through dispatch. Holmes showed up took the kittens and cat back to the animal shelter.

Barker said she was so impressed that Holmes volunteered her own time to help her with her problem. She said Holmes opened up the shelter after hours to take care of those kittens and the mother cat.

Over the next couple of days, Wilkins continually responded to Barker’s home to collect the mother and all of the six kittens remaining underneath the house. Barker said the kittens were already about four weeks old and were running all over the place.

“Bless her heart. She was up there with that truck picking up those kittens,” Barker said. “They are all gone now.”

Wilkins said during this time of the year it is common for residents to have these kinds of problems. The best thing for them to do is call animal control and ask for traps, which are free to Green River residents. Residents can have cat or skunk traps for 10 days.

In this case all but one of the kittens made it. One mother and her kittens were transferred to a ranch, while the other mother and kittens are still at the shelter.

Wilkins said they have been constantly petting the kittens to get them used to socializing and humans. Once the kittens turn six weeks old, they will start weaning the kittens and preparing them for adoption. Wilkins said they will not adopt kittens before then because they are too young.

Even though the animal shelter has had kittens coming in, they have been able to have residents adopt them. She said one way residents can look at what the animal shelter has up for adoption is by visiting the website http://www.petfinder.com. All they need to do is type in the area they are looking for a pet and a list of the pets available for adoption will show up.

Wilkins wanted residents to know cats can populate quickly, so if a stray cat is found, calling animal control sooner than later is important. A female cat can have three litters a year with up to nine kittens in each litter.

Wilkins said they try not to release photos of the kittens until they are ready to be adopted. Those interested in adopting one of these black and brown tiger-striped kittens can contact the animal shelter at 872-0570.