I got very little sleep this night. Why, you ask? Because I spend four hours crawling through dirt and bushes, trying to catch a little kitten.
I was already in bed, with my windows open, as always, when my female cat suddenly jumped up to the window and started crying for something, almost plunging out of it in her desperation. I live on the third floor, so I grabbed her and put her back down, when I heard a faint meow of a very young kitten. And I mean very young. It sounded like a kitten calling for its mother, and it sounded weak. So I quickly closed all my windows, made sure my cat was not going to jump to her death and went outside. After a few minutes, I saw a small grey kitten hiding in some bushes. It was very skittish and hissed at me. So I sat down a few meters away and waited for a mother or siblings or even a potential owner to come look for it, as it was still crying. Nothing. I grabbed some food and placed it before the bushes, but the kitten was too scared to come out, even though it looked starved. That's when I knew I had to help it. It was almost midnight at this point, but luckily it's summer and the night was warm, so I didn't have to worry about me or the kitten to freeze to death. So I set up a trap. I got my transport box for my cats, and tied a rope to the door, long enough so I would be far enough away from it, but still be able to pull it shut. Then I placed food in the box and put my phone in it, playing kitten noises. Hearing these, the kitten started to scream even louder and finally left its hiding spot. But I was suspicious of the strange box, so I had to lay flat on my belly and wait. Oh, and how I waited. After several hours, moving the box and finding new spots to set up my trap, I finally was able to catch it at 3am. That's when I got the first proper look. It was so tiny! I believe it is around 8 weeks old, give or take. I gathered all the stuff I had brought along and went back into my flat where I set up a temporary kitten camp in my bathroom (bathroom because it is the quietest room in my flat, the door can be fully closed, and I can easily clean up any mess the kitten might make). I didn't want to introduce it to my two cats in the middle of the night, and the kitten was way too scared, so I just put it in the bathroom with everything it needed and let it calm down for the night. This morning, it was sitting in my washing machine and hissed at me as soon as I entered. I believe the kitten is either feral or was abandoned. I still have not seen a mother anywhere outside. I still put up a lost-and-found, but I'm pretty sure no one will respond to that.
So, is this how you get a cat?