I don't have any updates on Pharaoh yet, as this campus has been nearly vacant and my contact people about him are some of the many that are not here right now. But as soon as I hear more about him, I will share. I do, however, have a new development to the whole story - Tuesday afternoon, we found his littermates!
On the opposite side of the building in a secured storage area (not completely enclosed, so there is air circulation and animals can sneak in), the mother hid her remaining five kittens in the corner under a bunch of easels that belong to the art classes. Mama hid them very well, it was hard to get to them! The first time we looked, the mother was out and the little ones were huddled together in a ball, sleeping. Question now is, what to do with these little ones?? The school can't have animals running rampant on the campus, so they had to go somewhere. First, animal control was called. They said there were two options: first, trap the mother and they'd take the whole bunch. Second, don't trap the mother, the babies would be taken without her and they would be put to sleep. Obviously, none of us were happy with that, and from what I hear, animal traps can be expensive if one had to be bought.
I shared this update with my local friends on Facebook, and a fellow cat lover directed me to a cat care group that was dedicated to rescuing stray and abandoned cats and getting them adopted. We called this group and left them a message. Later in the evening, a staff member (I'll call her Sarah here) and her daughter had decided that they wanted to adopt one, maybe two of the kittens and we went back out there to see if we could get to them. This time, mama cat was there, nursing the babies. After a few minutes, she scampered out, showing no signs of hostility, not even fear, really. She herself was a small cat, probably fairly young. After she left, we set to work on extracting the kittens.
Three tables and an easel were moved to the side and four of the five were easily scooped out of the corner and into a box, while the fifth started crawling deeper into the hole. Sarah couldn't reach the little one and her daughter was holding the box with the rest of the litter, so I volunteered to reach in there. Being on the smaller side, I figured I would have a better chance of reaching. I definitely had to reach, as he tried to crawl further away and it was a tight space, but I managed to scoop him out.
All five of them are boys, four of them grey tabbies (two of them have more defined stripes, the other two look closer to just grey fluff balls) and the fifth is black with slight tabby stripes, not surprising as the mother is a grey tabby herself. Their eyes had opened very recently and they were meowing away, not nearly as loud as baby Pharaoh did though! This time, I made certain to get a video recording of them as we checked them out. Sarah and her daughter decided to take the black one and one of the grey ones home to adopt. We then decided to put them back in their hole as the mother wanted them hidden and there was nowhere else to put them.
Yesterday when I got to campus, I got another update. The cat group called back and brought a trap to use for catching the mother, which worked. Sarah took her and the rest of the kittens home to care for. The mother is completely tame and very friendly. So for now, the five babies will stay with mommy until they're old enough to be on their own, then three of them will be up for adoption.
In Pharaoh's case, I'm thinking he was the runt and/or he was just weaker than the others if he was abandoned, as he was smaller and weaker than his brothers when we found him. At least he was on the mend, and Sarah said that Pharaoh can be brought to the mother to stay with her for a while until he's a little bigger if his new owners were up for it. But seeing as the girls haven't been around, they don't know this news and they might not until Fall semester starts up again in a couple of weeks, and by then, Pharaoh will probably be strong enough to be on his own anyway, who knows.
But for now at least, they're all doing well and that's what matters.