*sigh* A feral cat has had a litter of kittens in my side yard.

[femmedem]

15. If you can get them by the time they are five to six weeks old, they will tame easily.

I have a couple of adult cats that climbed out from under my porch as five-week-old kittens a few years ago. I adopted their littermates out, too, and all of them are tame love bugs now.

If you can catch the kittens that young and either foster them or find someone who will, they will be indistinguishable from kittens born in someone's house within a few weeks.

It will be painful for the mom, but then again, it would be painful for her to lose them to coyotes, too.

I was lucky: I was able to trap the mom at the same time I caught the kittens. I kept everyone enclosed in a bathroom until the kittens were eight weeks old. By then the mom trusted me because she saw me treat the kittens well. The mom went back outside after I got her spayed, but one winter day she walked back into my house and she's been inside again for about a year. She's on the bed with me now.