Yesterday, momma cat walked about a foot in the house. Of course, "daddy" was there. He feeds all of them. I stayed outside where they are hiding and one kitten was brave enough to walk between my legs and starting playing with my pants leg, but when I reached to pet it, it ran away.
Today, momma cat is mad at me because I touched her baby yesterday. So I have named her Miss Snooty.
I had to go to her and start petting her slowly but she wouldn't look at me, so I know she's mad. There is a beautiful dark, smokey gray kitten that seems very curious about me, but won't come near yet. He/she does watch me.
I never had so much trouble with feral cats. I had tamed plenty of them in earlier years. I wish I could sit on the ground. I can get down, but I can't get back up with my leg. In fact, I'd scare them away just trying to get down because it would have to be a "plop boom" style.
Live traps are available from the SPCA but they're horrible people in my area. They would catch and euthanize them rather than allow the babies to be adopted. They also lie a lot. I won't go into all of it, but I've had a few run-ins with them over the years as had other people we know, for no good reason. They've stolen pets from fenced in yards if they happen to go by your house and don't see you with them. Doesn't matter if they are house pets and you just put them out to do their business. A lot more.
I guess all we can do is keep trying. I want them in some sort of shelter by winter. We used to have a nice dog box for our last outside dog but hubby just broke it apart this past winter because nothing was using it. As he says, we'll just have to hope that they either trust us by then and keep doing what we're doing and we'll be the proud owner of 5 cats, or they'll leave and hope they don't get killed on the road.