IT'S RAINING CATS AND KITTENS!

THIS IS CHESTER.....THE FRIENDLY FERAL

This afternoon I was sitting on my front porch feeding my little friendly feral, Chester, and one of my neighbors happened to be out walking his dog. He's the spouse of the woman who verbally accosted me a couple weeks ago, but he seems much nicer than she. Chester happened to be lying beside me and I was petting him. My neighbor asked "Is that the stray you feed every night?", and I answered that it was. He then told me about another stray, a female, who had four white feet and looked like a calico. I already knew about her - she was behind our bushes as he spoke. I pointed her out and he said, "Yep, that's the one", then said she had three kittens under another neighbor's shed. I asked how old he thought they were. He said "two months".

She must be the one I heard about but never found. Two months.....hmmm, my kittens are exactly two months old. We began to wonder if Kelly and this other cat were sisters abandoned at the same time, by the same person. Kelly came here and the other one went across the street. Was it possible the other cat had been here too, but left before we came home and found Kelly? I'm sad that I didn't know about the other one and her litter. There's no way to know for sure how many kittens she had. Did she lose any? Are the remaining ones healthy?

Well, you know what I have to do. If I can get them to come to me, I'll take them all to the vet and at least get them checked for feline leukemia and get the mama cat spayed. What's another litter, right? There are only three and if they're healthy, I can put them up for adoption at the same time I offer mine. Kelly's kittens and hers may even be cousins!

I'm thinking it would only take four people, each taking two kittens, to have them all in loving homes. See how easy that will be? Right. I may be dreaming here and I might have a touch of Pollyanna in me, but that's ok. It's better than wringing my hands and worrying without acting. Once I know about a situation like this, I have to do something. I can't sit by and let those kittens grow up and have more kittens.

There was a bright spot in today's revelations. I found out the light gray tiger female I'd been feeding at night is the neighbor's cat (so he says). I asked if she'd been spayed and the answer was YES. At least that's one less to worry about but I don't understand having a cat and leaving it outside all the time, and I never will.