"Janet Wilder" > wrote in message
eb.com...
> We are still raising a foster kitten. She's about 5 weeks old now and
> doing fabulously well. She'll go to the shelter for shots and a forever
> home next Wednesday.
>
> This morning our Toy Poodle found three tiny kittens under our motorhome.
> Their eyes were closed. Two were huddled together and the third was off
> to the side.
>
> We waited several hours to see if the mom would come back, but she did
> not. One of them managed to move out from under the motorhome and was
> exposed. I had to put it in a box and take it into the garage as we have
> a lot of large raptor birds around here. Could not bring it in the house
> and possibly expose the kitten and my dog to any diseases they might have
> had.

Probably nothing to fear as I am not aware of diseases that cross the two
species.

> Waited again, but still no mom, so DH moved the motorhome and scooped up
> the other two and took the three of them to the shelter before the fire
> ants found them.
>
> There was no way I could handle 3 babies of less than a week old. The
> shelter confirmed that they were about 4 days old and put them down. (Of
> course I feel horrible, but I can't handle 3 newborns who would need more
> care than I am capable of giving)
>
> My question is why do mother cats abandon their babies? I tried looking
> on the Internet but could not find a reasonable answer. There are a
> number of cat experts here, so I thought I'd ask.

Momma was probably killed by a car. It happens all the time. Or she was
killed by wild animals or domestic dogs.