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[Enemy post]

I used to volunteer at a humane society. I don't know where you live, but if you know where the kittens are, in all likelihood your nearest animal shelter will accept them if you drop them off.

[methylatedspirit]

Ignore them and expect them to die? That's what happens to most stray kittens that don't get notable care (shots/vet care, food, shelter), in my experience. It sucks (super fucking hard), but after a while you also get used to it. Sorta'.

Good lord, my sister would not approve of that. I wouldn't approve of it myself, but I know I'm not nearly good enough of a parent to not just let nature take its course. Oh god, I'm gonna feel horrible when the kittens inevitably die.

I used to volunteer at a humane society. I don't know where you live, but if you know where the kittens are, in all likelihood your nearest animal shelter will accept them if you drop them off.

Nearest animal shelter/humane society is 100 kilometers away. I don't happen to have a car (or a motorcycle, for that matter), and I can't imagine any of my friends would be willing to drive me that far for an animal shelter.

[bloop_bleep]

You live in an Islamic area right? You could take them to a mosque, I've heard they're rather accepting of cats.

[Naturegirl1999]

What sparked YouTube to recommend me a video where a former CIA Chief of Disguise talks about disguises and infiltration tools during the Cold War?

[Yoink]

You're an unwitting sleeper agent and they tried to activate you already, but the code phrases didn't take. Now they're just chucking stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks.   

[Naturegirl1999]

You're an unwitting sleeper agent and they tried to activate you already, but the code phrases didn't take. Now they're just chucking stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks.   

One of the disguises are called SAM masks, and Sam’s been a character in MOOk for around a week before the video was recommended...coincidences/patterns are interesting, no?

[Rolan7]

You're an unwitting sleeper agent and they tried to activate you already, but the code phrases didn't take. Now they're just chucking stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks.   

One of the disguises are called SAM masks, and Sam’s been a character in MOOk for around a week before the video was recommended...coincidences/patterns are interesting, no?

Oh, your reply makes this XKCD even more appropriate!
https://xkcd.com/842/
(Ironically, it was a little tough to search for)

[Frumple]

Ignore them and expect them to die? That's what happens to most stray kittens that don't get notable care (shots/vet care, food, shelter), in my experience. It sucks (super fucking hard), but after a while you also get used to it. Sorta'.

Good lord, my sister would not approve of that. I wouldn't approve of it myself, but I know I'm not nearly good enough of a parent to not just let nature take its course. Oh god, I'm gonna feel horrible when the kittens inevitably die.

Yeah, you probably will, especially if you haven't gone through the process before. The first few/several times are the worst. The... fuck, thirtieth or whatever still sucks but it's much duller at that point. One of those things you just sorta' get used to when you don't really have the money to be dropping a few hundred USD to save an outside/stray kitten and there's not really any reachable infrastructure to turn to. You still feed and socialize the things 'cause at least then they ain't starving and they're marginally less likely to get run over or whatever, but... yeah. Yeah

Sometimes an outside litter mostly makes it, though! Not... often, but sometimes. Which can be good if you can get them fixed before the next generation starts breeding. Less good when it basically means you just get to deal with the whole rigamarole again, but in greater numbers.

[methylatedspirit]

You live in an Islamic area right? You could take them to a mosque, I've heard they're rather accepting of cats.

I'm thinking of 2 scenarios there. a) Bring just the kittens, and b) Bring Catto with the kittens.

With a), I'm not quite sure that's the best thing for Catto's health. I'm not quite sure if mother cats become distressed if their kittens just disappear, but if the statistics from human mothers apply, they're gonna be either pissed or utterly depressed. Now, I don't care about the kittens, but I do care about Catto. I don't like seeing her in those states, and her reaction would probably break my heart, which is surprising, considering that I'm usually a bit heartless. I care about her. I don't want to do that to her.

b)... do I want to do that? I'm speaking purely selfishly here: Catto makes me happy. I'm not sure if she cares about me as much as I do about her; the whole "is a cat" thing makes me question if she does. I don't really want to just relocate her, just like "Alright, you're going to the mosque now.". Seems a bit much just because she got pregnant, no? She might just find her way back home, probably a bit more pissed-off than before.

[Frumple]

Yeeaaah, cats don't attach at all like humans do to their children. It's not super uncommon for a mother cat to abandon some or all of a litter. It's not unknown for the mother cat to eat some of the litter. Even well cared for, it's not impossible one or more of the kittens die, and the mother cat will... probably just metaphorically shrug its shoulders and go on with its life.

In the many years of seeing mother cats lose kittens for one reason or another, from death to abandonment to adoption, I've never seen a mother cat give much to any sign of caring about it to any significant degree. They'll take care of the kitten while it's there, sometimes, and usually maintain somewhat okay relationship after they grow up (barring the period where the momma cat will chase the kittens off 'cause momma's done feeding the little shits and it's time they feed themselves), but, like. They absolutely are not human on this front.

[scriver]

I wouldn't exactly consider myself experienced in the matter of cat/kit rearing but iirc cats have a sort of psycho-biological "get over it" function in regards to their kittens. Basically, if a kitten goes disappears, the cat will be distraught. But they will only feel that for a very limited period of time, generally only a couple of days (presumably varying on an individual basis), then they just "shut off" and "forget" about the kitten -- I think it's hypothised that this is some kind of survival behaviour to make them not waste time looking for missing kitttens and instead focus on the ones they have left. This means that if you remove a kitten from it's mother (for example to handfeed the runt of a litter), even if you later return it again, the cat might not accept that kitten as being part of her litter. It also means that if a cat goes away from it's litter for a certain time, it might not accept any of the kittens as their own when they return.

[methylatedspirit]

(Yada yada yada, brain slightly drunk)
That "get-over-it" thing where cat parents forget about their missing children after a while... does it happen in other animals too? I'd imagine a lot of other species have as high infant mortality rates (or worse) as cats do, so it would be useful to have evolutionarily.

Are humans unique in the sense that that "get-over-it" instinct is generally forgotten nowadays? Like, human parents will bawl their eyes out over missing children, and it takes a while (up to an entire lifetime) to adjust to that. I'd probably do the same if that was my child that died, biological or not. It's like the infant mortality rate for humans is so low (World Bank says 28 infants out of 1000 die, so 2.8%) that it's become culturally ingrained in most places that children are Important™ and that their deaths are tragic events rather than an inevitability.

[KittyTac]

The family of cats that lives on my street survived fine because a little shelter was built for them out of an insulated with penoplast cardboard box and also people keep feeding them. One kitten got mauled by a bunch of dogs but the mother and the second kitten live on.

It's just nature. Give the kittens away if you want, sure. But cats don't really care about dead or missing kittens as others have said. However they can survive by themselves, cats can have lots of litter so at least one or two will survive.

Said family of cats, in addition to handouts, also kills and eats birds and mice in the area. When spring comes they will also eat frogs. We don't do anything to stop that because that's simply predator-and-prey dynamics. It is their purpose.

[TD1]

Purpose implies outside intention.
There is none.

Do what you feel compelled to do without thinking aboit how things are 'meant' to be.

[KittyTac]

Purpose implies outside intention.
There is none.

Do what you feel compelled to do without thinking aboit how things are 'meant' to be.

Well I don't feel compelled to do anything about them besides making sure they stay warm and fed. Thus I let them do whatever.