Cat and Kittens

Last winter my hubby and I found a stray, wild cat in our yard. We talked about catching her and taking her to the SPCA. We also talked about leaving her along with hopes she would keep the mice population down. Then we discovered that she really was a female and that she was a mommy.

Three of cutest kittens you could ever hope to find in your back yard. So taking Kitty, as we had started to call her, to the SPCA was out of the question until we could find out where the babies were being kept so we could get them also. We never did find out where Kitty was hiding the babies, but they found our back porch to play on.

So we started putting some food out for them. Then we started sitting on the porch when we put the food out. Slowly we started moving the bowl closer and closer to us. Then we started bring the bowl closer and closer to the open back door. It took quite a while to get the babies to come into the house to eat, but Kitty never did.

We let the babies have the complete run of the first floor when they were in. And we named them. Two were kind of a calico stripe and the third was mostly black with a very little white on his neck-chest area. I was told once that male cats do not have more than two colors in their coats, don’t know if that is true or not, but that is why we called Blackie a him. The girls were almost identical in looks, with the exception of their front feet. Mittens had an extra toe on each front foot. The last kitten just acted like the baby of the group, even though she wasn’t the smallest or runt ( that was Blackie), so we named her Baby.

To make a long story short, Kitty, Mittens and Blackie just stopped showing up. But Baby came in to eat that first day without the others, and has never left. Oh, she has been outside, but she hasn’t left us. She is about a year and a half old now and not as skittish as she once was, but you can still get to jump.

Baby is fascinated with the toilet flushing, the bathtub drain and ice cubes. When you flush, leave the lid uup so Baby can watch the water fill up. After your shower, get out of the way so Baby can watch the water go down the drain. And if you want to see a cat play soccer or ice hockey, give her an ice cube. That will keep her happy and busy for quite a while, until it goes under the stove or refrigerator that is.

Baby also begs at the table, wags her tail and grunts at us when she doesn’t like something we did. And when we get home after being away for a night, she greets us from the top of the steps, them her head goes up along with the tail and she walks away from us. You can almost hear her saying “ Oh, its only you.” She hides under the bed, with her tail sticking out. Sleeps on the foot of the bed. And likes chicken (Purdue only) but loves shrimp.

Sometimes I wonder if Baby is a cat that thinks she is a dog. Or is she a dog in a cats body? Either way, that is our Baby. And I wouldn’t have her any other way.