Time to Feed the Cats - Day 166 - Daily Haiku

Time to feed the cats
but I only see Momma . . .
where are her kittens???

I took these photos yesterday evening, when I went to feed Momma and her two kittens, and the guinea pig I gave our neighbor's grandkids a few weeks back.

I fed the guinea pig without a hitch, her food and water right where I left them the day before, no surprises. I brought her one of our spare water bottles, and some yummy hay, and Momma kitty had followed me to let me know that, really, she and her kitties were hungry, could I just feed them now?

And I followed her onto the wide porch, to the table where my neighbor had left a large jug of food for them . . . except that it was gone. Vanished. Nowhere to be found. Oops.

I can't even begin to describe how much I hated leaving them without food, but clearly they needed to be fed, and the closest cat food was at my house next door.

So I quickly made the run to my house, reassuring Momma cat as well as I could that I would be back promptly, and grabbed the bag of dry food that I use as kitty treats for our cats, and returned.

Momma was clearly relieved when I returned, and she waited impatiently as I gave her water and set out the food. The kittens are still nursing, I'm guessing three weeks or a bit less, and so while they will eat a few pieces of solid food, it isn't what they're all about. But she was clearly starving.

I've been concerned from the start that the Momma cat is too skinny, though her long hair hides it somewhat. And that may be why she has only two kittens, or at least, why only two survived.

But then, this is how my neighbor came to adopt her in the first place, as he is a contractor, and upon entering the home of a client who had just moved out of state with his family, was greeted by their cat . . . who had been left behind, in the house, without food or water.

I can't even imagine.

In any case, he had his grandson with him, so they brought the cat home, and she is now his outside pet. And, although I immediately gave him the information for the White County Humane Society, which provides spay and neuter assistance, especially in case of emergency adoptions such as this, we now have kittens.

And, like all kittens, they are adorable.

And, as usual, I have no brains when it comes to animals, especially animals in need.

And so, well trained by my friend Joan, who was a board member of a cat rescue in Florida, and fostered a seeming zillion cats in her home, I know that the first thing you have to do with young kittens is to socialize them, to pick them up and cuddle them, to get them used to being handled, and used to people in general.

And, naturally, falling in love with the little twerps in the process. ;-)

The darker kitten is (I believe) female, still a bit young to tell for certain, but she takes after mom to a large degree, especially in coloring. And she is a pint sized hellion, and tried to hiss at me the first time I picked her up - and every time, so far. Of course, then she settles in and starts purring, so all's right with the world.

Her orange tabby sibling, which I believe to be a male, is a serious crybaby, and cries from the moment I pick him up until the moment I put him down. What a whiner! Adorable, all the same, but sheesh!

And Noah and his little sister left some toys lying around, notably a toy truck, so the kittens have been having fun climbing and tumbling over it, as they get used to exploring their surroundings.

So, despite the mysteriously missing food, all seemed well when I left them last night, and I wasn't anticipating any issues when I went by today. And yes, I took food and water with me.

When Marek and I talked about it last night, he made the suggestion that a raccoon may have taken the food, which makes sense, as their keen sense of smell would have drawn them to even a securely closed container. But we'll probably never know.

Anyway, when I got there tonight, I fed and watered Miss Guinea Pig without a hitch, again, and she seemed a bit calmer than the evening before, which is a good thing.

I'm not sure she's figured out the water bottle yet, but it's only been a day, and she did use one before when she was still with mom and her siblings, so it shouldn't take her long.

And Momma cat greeted me by the guinea pig cage, and seemed more insistent than usual that she be fed. Now. Okay.

So I followed her up on the porch, expecting to see the two little ones at any moment . . . except that I didn't.

Like the jug of food the day before, they were simply gone. Vanished. Nowhere to be found.

I was devastated. Yes, they are outside cats next to the woods, and yes, anything can happen. But still, I felt responsible. And, even after only two days, I was bonding with them.

I quickly fed Momma cat, who seemed pretty calm under the circumstances, but then I thought back to the evening before; unbeknownst to me, when I drove over to feed them, Lolo had chased the car, and was suddenly on the porch with me and the kittens.

Now Lolo has long been cat friendly, and was firmly put in his place by Bear, Edit and Nutka as a puppy; and, quite frankly, he was a lot more interested in the cat food than he was in Momma cat or her kittens.

But, when faced with a large, would-be predator on the porch, uncomfortably close to her kittens, Momma cat stayed where she was on the railing, even though both kittens were on the deck below.

Which, from a survival standpoint, was a wise course of action; had Lolo been a coyote, rather than a cat-friendly dog, the kittens would likely have been goners already, and better for her to save herself for the possibility of having more kittens in the future, than to throw herself into the fray and wind up with all three of them dead.

And I started thinking that perhaps it had been a raccoon, or another large carnivore, and she had opted simply to survive. But I couldn't stop hoping that the kittens were still alive.

So, after putting Lolo in the back seat of the car, I circled the house; I looked under the porches, I looked over the railing into the recently-dug up gardening space below, and nothing. I did find a plastic lid, matching the one that had been on the food jug, but no sign of either kitten. Not a tuft of fur, nothing.

And then I thought of having to tell Noah that the kittens he'd been so excited to tell me about were no more. God, no. Please don't let that be.

So I started praying, literally, please God, angels, and anyone else listening, let these kittens be safe and unharmed. Thank you yet again for protecting our animals.

And, as I walked back onto the porch, preparing to take my leave from Momma cat, I saw it: the flash of a dark tail. I looked over the railing again, and there she was . . . the little dark kitten, with her orange tabby brother a few feet away. They were both alive and safe.

Evidently, they had been lounging or playing in the shade beneath the porch walkway, out of my view. I had literally walked over their hiding place to feed Momma cat.

And Momma cat had been doing her job all along, and had kept her babies safe after all.

And I've never been happier to see two kittens in my life. And yes, they both got cuddles, as did Momma cat.

Life is wonderful, and getting better, better and better. ;-)

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