Moving a momma with new kittens

Question
I live in the country. I was planning to adopt a pregnant momma (presently running the streets of a small town neighborhood) The lady who is caring for her has a total of 25 cats/kittens at this time. I was planning on bringing her out here and letting her be an inside/outside barn cat. My children 21 and 16 will never leave her outside. But while I was convincing the lady with the over population to let me help , she had her kittens. % beautiful healthy babies. They are now three days old. Can I move momma and babies to my home? She is use to being out doors so I was going to put her and the kittens in a large dog crate in my garage with the door open so the momma can come and go, but the babies will have the protection of being indoors (sorta). I have two 10 year old fat house cats now but both have been spade/neutered never bread.

Answer
LeAnnie,

Since the kittens are newborn you would probably want to have mom and her babies inside the house, a spare room would do nicely. I don't recommend that you allow mom to roam until her kittens are weaned and ready to go to new homes (about 10-12 weeks of age). Once mom has weaned the kittens (about 8-10 weeks, she will do this on her own) then I would recommend that you speak to your vet about having her spayed. Unfortunately the problem with allowing a cat to be indoor/outdoor is that she can become pregnant again even while she is nursing her little ones. To avoid creating an overpopulation issue for yourself as well as decreasing the likelihood that you might have to hand rear this momma's babies if she is killed by a car or a predator it is best to keep her indoors until she is spayed. Keeping this mom and her little ones indoors will also give mom the opportunity to see your house as her home so that she doesn't decide to go back to where she has been living and continue the cycle of overpopulation. When the kittens weaned it is still best to keep them together with their mom until they are 10-12 weeks old. In the first 12 weeks of a kitten's life they go from being completely helpless to becoming independant. The reason I recommend that kittens stay with their mothers until they are 12 weeks old is so that they can develop socially and become good pets. Kittens learn important skills such as bite inhibition and how to respect  boundaries. At 12 weeks the kittens also have the benefit of having stronger bones which means that they are somewhat less fragile and susceptible to injury and they have received their first vaccines to help them cope with the reduction in antibodies from their mom's milk. I hope that you have found this information helpful. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me again.