Adopting a triplet of sibling cats

by JAI SHARMA
(Hyderabad, India)

I recently encountered a post on a social media group where people rescue animals and put them up for adoption. The guy who posted told me that a mother cat gave birth to three female kittens and left them after a while.

He has been taking care of them for the last 2-3 months. The place where he stays is not at all appropriate for cats - no hiding places, no boxes, no toys. He doesn't let them enter his apartment and the poor beings have to roam around outside on the balcony (around 30-40sq ft. area).

This guy has been feeding them properly but they're not getting any affection from the owner. Also, the kittens tend to play and cuddle with each other a lot.

Here's the problem. This guy's neighbors and owner are asking him to get rid of all three because of a couple of reasons.

The playful kittens tend to enter neighbors' houses and sometimes defecate outside their apartment.

One of the three has a different personality and tends to shy away from (or is scared of) human touch. She's not very playful with her siblings either, unlike the other two.

I was ready to take one of them, but I'm afraid I'll end up separating the bond. If I take two (the playful ones), I end up hurting the third one.

I actually tried taking one of 'em yesterday in a cardboard box, but she resisted so vigorously that I had to take her back within 2 minutes of coming out.

I'll be out of town for 15 days starting next Tuesday and I've a feeling that adopting them when I'm not around is not a good idea. There's a solid chance that no one will be willing to adopt all three, not even two maybe.

What's the solution here?

Is it too late for them to get separated? They're 2-3 months old and have a special bond maybe.

Should I just take a couple of them and leave them in my apartment with my other flatmates? They'll feed them but I'm not sure if they'll cuddle and play with the cats. This way there'll be one of them left (shy one) and we can ask someone else to adopt her.

If we try hard enough, it's possible to find three owners taking all of them separately. But how would they react on finding out: change of place and missing siblings and changed owner?