Thursday, September 30, 2004

Kitten Drama

We seem to be overrun with cats - not only do we have 4 inside ones of our own but our back porch has become a hang out for the semi feral neighborhood cats. The perils of living in an area undergoing gentrification - they are quite a few homeless cats in the neighborhood. The little old lady down the street feeds many of them and doesn't seem to care that the reproduce at will.

2 young black females have taken to living under our house. One had a litter about a month ago - 2 back, 2 Russian blues. So cute, all big blue eyes and upright little tails. First one black one disappeared, then we found on the gray ones on the back porch with a broken neck. The last straw was this morning when we found the remains of the sole remaining black kitten. We suspect it's raccoons - we know we have some in the area since we've seen them on the porch too. We found the last surviving Russian blue and it's upstairs with Mama who is getting tamer by the minute. I think we've upped our indoor cat population.

The other one had a litter last night. One got separated from the others and entrapped in the Mexican Heather. I cut it loose and luckily found it's littermates and returned it to the bunch. I hope the mother cat won't reject it since I've had to touch it. I also hope Mama moves them to a safer place and that the coons don't decide to come looking for dinner again tonight.

All this kitten strum and drum has taken up way more time and energy than either of us can deal with. I know nature is not kind and that nature is cruel but facing it at 6am in the morning is another thing entirely.

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