Age to leave kittens home alone

Question
Good morning.

For a bit of background, my mother is work-at-home, and I work third shift at a hotel, so there is always somebody physically at home. We have 7 indoor cats (4 males and 3 females, all altered, ranging from 17 to 4 years). We often seem to be the ones that people bring orphaned kittens to, and we always find them homes and when they start hitting 6-8 weeks, we start organizing leaving them with their new parents.

Josie is our newest, found by some friends in a town several miles away. She was 4 weeks at the time and badly starved and had a severe upper respiratory infection, and is now 7 weeks old and quite the bundle of energy. She is not fixed (she's too young for our vet to alter), and regretfully, still haven't found her a home.

The problem I'm encountering is that our resident cats are mixed about her... several are quite interested in her, play with her gently, groom her, etc. But three are very aggressive, hissing and swatting even if she's asleep and they pass her. Coupled with her anxiety when she can't find a human, I've still been bringing her to work with me at night, so that there's a human right there, and then my mother watches her when I'm sleeping. My concern is that she's starting to get to an age where it's going to be best to leave her home at night, but I'm worried about the other cats bullying her or even harming her while she's by herself. My mother would be physically home, but sleeping, and I highly doubt she'd awaken to hear a cat hissing.

Josie is otherwise physically capable of being left home... she knows where the litterboxes are and uses them reliably, she has her own food and water in my bedroom that she can get in and eat out of, and as long as there's toys nearby, seems content to amuse herself. She just seems to panic when she can't find a human, and with the added aggression from our residents, what do you advise?

Thank you so much for your time.
Amanda

Answer
I think the best thing to do in order to keep her safe (and I would agree, she is at an age where she can by herself), is keep her in a closed area where the other aggressive cats cannot harm her. One other thing you want to be careful of is the affect of over-spoiling her. It's a good thing that you've been able to take care of her till this point, but she's also growing and needs to build up her own confidence and realize it's okay when she's by herself and to know someone will still be there for her. Also on this note, I would keep a couple stuffed animals with her to give her a sense of not being alone.

Have you contacted your usual contacts as far as finding her a home? Have you thought about petfinder.com?

Keep me posted.