Is it something about Mother's Day?
You may recall that two years ago on Mother's Day, an aged dog stumbled into my yard, missing half her fur and covered with filth and skin infections. I am happy to report that she is still living a life of luxury with a friend of mine, and is in excellent health for a dog of her advanced years.
This year's stray animal surprise was kittens. Two tiny, fluffy kittens. Actually, we found them on Friday, and I can't say they were a complete surprise because their pregnant mom had been stopping by to chow down with my cats for several months. But still, close enough to call it a pattern!
We call the mom Dark Willow, because she looks just like our departed cat Willow, except black instead of tortie. For the longest time, we weren't really sure she was a stray. Most of the homeless cats who find us become extremely dependable visitors. They're on the porch waiting for food every morning, even if they're terrified of us (like the two feral guys we've been feeding since last year). But Dark Willow didn't come every day, and not at regular times, and she always wandered off into the woods again, even though she seemed fairly comfortable around people. So I was hoping she had a home, or at least another Good Samaritan, somewhere nearby. Hey, wouldn't that be great? A cat that I don't have to rescue?
But no. About three weeks ago, she disappeared for several days and then came back, skinny and starving, so clearly the kittens had been born. But where were they?
On Friday, we found a tiny kitten crying outside our basement door. Part of Dark Willow's litter, I immediately suspected -- but where did the kitten come from? And why was it sitting out in the open, when it was hardly able to walk?
To make a long story short, Chuckles finally found the den, and it is literally attached to our house. We have a walkout basement, and there's a deck that runs along the back of the house up at the level of the main floor, and there's a hard, wavy plastic sheet that forms an overhang to protect the basement door. DW had hidden her kittens in one of the pockets formed between the deck joists and the plastic sheet, and one of them had gone exploring and fallen right off.
Now, in my house, the child most likely to fall off a roof is clearly the boy child, so I apologize for my early assumption that this kitten was a boy. Having taken more care to inspect the relevant parts, I can tell you it is a girl, and the timid one who sticks by mom is a boy.
There are only two kittens. I suspect there may have been more earlier, but Dark Willow is a crappy mom. If she were human, I would say she has post-partum depression: she hardly interacts with the kittens in any way, she rarely grooms them, and doesn't seem to care where they are or what they're doing. We put the one who fell right near her when she was having a snack, and she briefly tried to pick the kitten up, then gave up and walked away, ignoring the pitiful cries. We finally had to put the kitten back in the den ourselves. Our last stray cat mom, in contrast, was constantly organizing her kittens and washing their ears and would even wrestle with them sometimes. Perhaps it is no coincidence that she had four who survived.
Anyway, I finally managed to get DW into a cat carrier and got the kittens out of their den and now the whole family is in my basement. I have been told by a reliable source that as long as the kittens are healthy and friendly by the time they're weaned, they can definitely be placed with one of the rescue groups that brings kittens and puppies up to Chicago area shelters, so that is a huge relief.
Finally, I would just like to point out that in the 30 years before I moved to southern Illinois, I never saw a single abandoned dog or cat, and I lived all over the country. Since moving here 13 years ago, I have rescued 15 homeless cats and dogs. And I don't go looking for them! Every single one of them has shown up AT MY HOUSE, except for Sally, who showed up at the house of the student I was tutoring.
What is wrong with people?
This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/430484.html.
comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.
This year's stray animal surprise was kittens. Two tiny, fluffy kittens. Actually, we found them on Friday, and I can't say they were a complete surprise because their pregnant mom had been stopping by to chow down with my cats for several months. But still, close enough to call it a pattern!
We call the mom Dark Willow, because she looks just like our departed cat Willow, except black instead of tortie. For the longest time, we weren't really sure she was a stray. Most of the homeless cats who find us become extremely dependable visitors. They're on the porch waiting for food every morning, even if they're terrified of us (like the two feral guys we've been feeding since last year). But Dark Willow didn't come every day, and not at regular times, and she always wandered off into the woods again, even though she seemed fairly comfortable around people. So I was hoping she had a home, or at least another Good Samaritan, somewhere nearby. Hey, wouldn't that be great? A cat that I don't have to rescue?
But no. About three weeks ago, she disappeared for several days and then came back, skinny and starving, so clearly the kittens had been born. But where were they?
On Friday, we found a tiny kitten crying outside our basement door. Part of Dark Willow's litter, I immediately suspected -- but where did the kitten come from? And why was it sitting out in the open, when it was hardly able to walk?
To make a long story short, Chuckles finally found the den, and it is literally attached to our house. We have a walkout basement, and there's a deck that runs along the back of the house up at the level of the main floor, and there's a hard, wavy plastic sheet that forms an overhang to protect the basement door. DW had hidden her kittens in one of the pockets formed between the deck joists and the plastic sheet, and one of them had gone exploring and fallen right off.
Now, in my house, the child most likely to fall off a roof is clearly the boy child, so I apologize for my early assumption that this kitten was a boy. Having taken more care to inspect the relevant parts, I can tell you it is a girl, and the timid one who sticks by mom is a boy.
There are only two kittens. I suspect there may have been more earlier, but Dark Willow is a crappy mom. If she were human, I would say she has post-partum depression: she hardly interacts with the kittens in any way, she rarely grooms them, and doesn't seem to care where they are or what they're doing. We put the one who fell right near her when she was having a snack, and she briefly tried to pick the kitten up, then gave up and walked away, ignoring the pitiful cries. We finally had to put the kitten back in the den ourselves. Our last stray cat mom, in contrast, was constantly organizing her kittens and washing their ears and would even wrestle with them sometimes. Perhaps it is no coincidence that she had four who survived.
Anyway, I finally managed to get DW into a cat carrier and got the kittens out of their den and now the whole family is in my basement. I have been told by a reliable source that as long as the kittens are healthy and friendly by the time they're weaned, they can definitely be placed with one of the rescue groups that brings kittens and puppies up to Chicago area shelters, so that is a huge relief.
Finally, I would just like to point out that in the 30 years before I moved to southern Illinois, I never saw a single abandoned dog or cat, and I lived all over the country. Since moving here 13 years ago, I have rescued 15 homeless cats and dogs. And I don't go looking for them! Every single one of them has shown up AT MY HOUSE, except for Sally, who showed up at the house of the student I was tutoring.
What is wrong with people?
This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/430484.html.
comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.