Cat Family Saga

A colony of feral cats lives in the alley behind my house, in my backyard, and in my next-door neighbor's backyard. The cats move freely between the yards, so we figure they have adopted both of us. My neighbors are in the process of trapping, spaying, and neutering them, and we both feed them daily. This past week offered tragedy and joy. One of our favorite "teenagers" who was almost but not quite tame and very playful, was hit by a car and killed. My neighbors and I realized the depth of our attachment when we lost him. His sister, a pregnant teenager, disappeared yesterday. She was not at breakfast this morning. I feared the worst...another traffic fatality.

When I got home, she showed up for dinner looking very svelte in her new trim body. She obviously had given birth to the kittens. She wolfed down her food, then scurried to the shrubs on the edge of my backyard. There they were. Three tiny newborns. The new little mama was very nervous, however. She kept approaching her own mother as though to ask what she was supposed to do with these newborns. Her mother kept pushing her away, as though to say "Deal with it. You are a mother now."

Little mama moved her babies from the shrubs to my flower bed. She would stay with her babies a little, then leave and look around, then return to her babies. I wondered whether she was looking for safe shelter. I turned an old galvanized garbage can on its side and stuffed an old bedspread into it, but I was not optimistic. I didn't really believe that she would find the makeshift shelter much less take to it. Miracle of miracles, before the evening was over, she moved her babies into it. For tonight, at least, she and her babies have shelter. I'm glad.