So yesterday evening I was walking in Oaks Bottom park in southeast PDX when I heard meowing in the woods. Kitten distress call, loud. After a short debate with a small crowd that gathered, I went into the woods and found one tiny stray kitten in the undergrowth, maybe a month old at most, in the underbrush all by itself. I assumed it was lost rather than feral because It didn't run away from me; It let me pick it up and tried to climb up my sleeve like a domesticated cat.A woman from the crowd came in to help, and we found a whole nest of lost or feral kittens nearby. They were a little more defensive and clawed her when she tried to pick one up. At that point I called Dove Lewis animal hospital and asked what the protocol was for this situation. They said to assume the mother will return and check on the nest later.Following their instructions, I stopped by the nest this evening and checked on them. They're still there, but I have no way of knowing if the mother has returned, or been hit by a car, or what. My GF suggested I pick one up and pinch its skin to test for dehydration, but they all shrank back into one corner of the nest and I couldn't reach them without damaging their shelter.Tomorrow morning I'm going to start calling the local non-profits and see if there's a no-kill shelter anywhere that has room right now (apparently kitten season is upon us). I may also call animal control to get their take on it.In the meantime, does anyone have any advice on how to tell if their mother is going to come back? Besides, of course, checking on them every evening to see if they get weaker and weaker.BTW, the one I picked up from the undergrowth went home with the woman from the park. That's probably for the best. It's hard to say if he would have ever made it back to the nest or not.I took video of the remaining kittens in the nest. What's a good piece of freeware for converting a .3GPP2 to a .gif so I can post it here?
tl; dr
upload somewhere, post link