Over the past year I have been allowing 5 cats same family come and go into my bathroom to feed. Keep them warm in winter and cooler in summer. I have 3 new little mouths to feed now, one black n white one gray and one black with another half white mustache like it's grandmother has. They are curled up in a corner of the bathroom safe and have their eyes open but still a bit small to take photos of. I will keep an eye on them and make sure they are taken care of. I am pretty sure which cat is the mother because she has stayed in the bathroom for several days guarding them. I believe the grandmother also has another litter somewhere but I have no idea where. I will keep watching for them to follow her so I can feed them on the porch once they start coming with her. Not many stray dogs and most are penned or indoors since all the law changing. They were once allowed to get slaughtered on the highways in this state but while I was gone for 15 years things changed and you no longer see strays on the highways. Today the heat index will hover around 113 and that is with humidity and roving thunderstorms later today. I can handle the storms it's the heat that really bothers me.
Grandmother and Mother of the 4 adults and 3 children in the bathroom crew finally brought the new litter home this morning. 4 Little solid blacks with some white feet. Larger than the 3 new ones in the Bathroom. I took out some cool water and put it on the porch but the sun is a real killer and these 100 plus days are just so hot it will make that water undrinkable until late evening. The cats don't drink often but when they do they drink a lot of water. The new kittens were still nursing and I threw out a bowl of dry food out the window and they are getting their first taste of real solid food. They are large enough to chew it so I will buy some of that softer kitty dry food next trip to the store which will be after holiday. The heat is just brutal and so hot you can only block out the sun here in a window for your bedroom then make it dark and just take a nap while all the heat is baring down. It stays light until just after 8 pm so it is a very long day of heat. At some point the Older cat will learn those new ones to come into the bathroom like the last litter and have breakfast with the rest of the family. The 3 young ones will do the same learning to go out and come back in. I will probably put a box under that vanity and make it easier for them to come and go and they won't have to jump so high. I might even open the lower door and it would make it a lot better for all of them. There isn't much chance of getting a good meal or treatment around me because there is only one place on the end of the street and she has dogs so they won't go over there. Across that short street that comes into my little area is an old woman who feeds cats also but I am not sure if these cats venture that far.
Thomas, you know, of course, that the handwriting is on the wall... Assuming half of those 8 kittens are female, next year there could be 16 more kittens. Maybe twice a year. Better look for a TNR (Trap Neuter Return) program near you.
There was a program some years ago that they could come out to your home and do it. The friends who used them have both died so I would need to call the Vet I have used over the years and see if we still have a program that would take care of that. I don't mind feeding them but like you say the numbers continue to go up.