it's happened again.....

For the second time, the other being several years back,  two mother cats have deposited their kittens in the same nest box that sits on my front porch swing.  One set of 4 kittens is about 2 weeks old and I have tamed that mother cat with bribes of Grilled Chicken Tenderloin from Cracker Barrel.  She loves me now and I can even pick her up, so I have named her Aubrey.

The second mother cat is totally wild, and I found her in the nest box this morning.  As I peered in to say Good Morning to the kittens,  I was abruptly surprised by a growling cat inside.  Of course this caused me to jump back, because I wasn't expecting to be startled by a mad, mother wildcat.  Aubrey always purr's if she is in there and she seems glad to see me.  I have kept her nest box safe from predators that might want to harm her precious babies, and I think she knows this.  But, this new black wildcat was not glad to see me, and I don't know where she came from.

Of course being the curious person that I am, I had to take another look.  I waited for about an hour and approached the box slowly and deliberately this time and the wildcat was asleep, or worn out.  I could barely see some tiny new babies way in the back tucked against her, but I couldn't be sure.  The older babies were at the opening of the box all huddled together wondering where their mama was.  I don't think they like this new, mean, growling wildcat mama :(  

Aubrey was pacing on the porch and was even doing something she had never done before.  She was peering in through the front window as if to get my attention.  She got it and I went outside and lifted her near what used to be her nest box.  She saw her babies but she didn't want to enter.  

All that is left for me to do is to wait and let the mother cats handle this mess themselves.  Years before when this happened it involved 3 mother cats who were very close and were always found in the nest box at the same time, making me wonder how they all fit and how the kittens all survived without being crushed.  It will work out this time too, but I will worry until I see Aubrey back in her box and reunited with her little family.

I think I'll call her Aubrey

It stopped raining about noon yesterday and it turned out to be a very beautiful day.  Today the sun is out and the expected high will be in the low 80's.  Our weather here is very touchy in April and May.  We can go from 80 degree weather to freezing temps for our high to constant rain that won't let up for a week.  One year it rained on the weekends for 13 weekends in a row and everyone who had a Mon-Fri work week, including myself, got really fed up seeing Monday morning arrive all sunny and pretty.  Of course after about 3 weekends of rain, I got smart and headed out of the state for the weekends, to where the sun was.

Jimmy and I don't have any plans for today, but we never make plans other than getting up out of bed.  It's because we never know how Jimmy will be feeling.  Now that Spring is here, and the days are warming up I'm more inclined to start making plans again.  Besides, Jimmy has been feeling better and I'm getting used to what and when things happen to him after he has chemo.

We have been venturing out a little farther than just to eat everyday, and Jimmy is doing fine.  I can tell when he is tired, so I don't push it any further.  Even asking Jimmy where he would like to eat is a chore for him.  He would rather that I didn't ask and just take us somewhere.  

Eating isn't as enjoyable to him as it is to me.  He eats only to survive.  Jimmy lost his sense of taste and smell sometime before 2008, we don't know exactly when, or even in what year it was.  I just know that on a trip in 2008 was when I noticed him happily eating guacamole dip.  Everyone who knows Jimmy well,  knows that there are certain things that he won't eat and avocados are on the list and so is rice which he also ate that summer.

Before I finish here I have to tell you some good news.  We have tamed a feral female mother cat.  This morning she got out of her box and came to meet me when I stepped out on the porch.  She has been letting me pet her and I guess in return I get to guard her four kittens while she goes to pee.  One of her kittens is black n white and is marked exactly like one of the big roaming tomcats who stops by this area.  In fact, that tom was laying on our front porch last night, but ran off when he saw me.  I haven't picked up or touched her kittens because I don't want to give her reason to move them, but it is hard not to pick them up and hold them.  They are about 4 days old.  The mothers coat is black and rusty brown and very thick.  I think she is very sweet and craving human interaction.  This is her second litter, and she must be a very good mother because all of her last years litter survived and are so wild that they run when they see you, but we can see them through the windows.  Since Aubrey is tamed now, we can get her fixed once she weans her kittens.  I just hope that she doesn't move her litter, so that we can also tame them and find them good homes.

I don't know where the new kittens are :(

Our neighbor moved his blue truck so now we don't know where the new kittens are hidden.  The gray mama cat always headed for the blue truck, went to the far side of the truck and disappeared.  We made the assumption that the kittens were on the blue truck, maybe on a small ledge or little cubby hole, but now we just don't know.  The next time the gray cat comes to eat we will have to take the time to watch her every move and see where she goes.  She's very cautious to make sure that she is not being watched, so we watch from inside the house as much as possible, moving from window to window.  She wanted to come inside the house the day before she had her kittens, but Jimmy put his foot down to letting a feral cat in the house.  Can you imagine what that would have been like?  Maybe that's just what was needed to tame her, but we'll never know now......

Petey the babysitter

I spoke too soon about our quiet peaceful day. No sooner had I hit the Publish Post button on the previous post than I heard the little cry of a week old kitten and as I looked up I saw Petey, our young tomcat, carrying a tiny baby kitten in his mouth. He gently set the baby kitten down and was trying to get a better grip to carry it off to a new location. Jimmy jumped up from his chair where he was watching Butler & Michigan State play basketball in the NCAA Basketball championships and took the baby kitten away from Petey and put it back where it belonged. Petey didn't like having the kitten taken from him and for the first time in his life he hissed at Jimmy. Thank goodness the mother kitty was outside taking a break, but she does let Petey babysit while she is away. I don't know if Petey had her permission to move her kittens, but I seriously doubt it. So while the kittens were all awake, thanks to Petey, I took the opportunity to change their bedding which made mother cat very happy.

The kittens are all safe with their mother and nursing at the moment.

Just ordinary everyday stuff

Today was spent doing yard work. We mowed the grass, pulled some weeds and Jimmy trimmed some lower branches from the Sycamore Tree and he also weed-eated the whole yard. I did a little house cleaning as well and that's unusual for me on such a beautiful sunny day. We usually save those house cleaning chores, like vacuuming or mopping the floors, for the rainy days when we have to be inside anyway.

My cat Princess Pinky moved her kittens again yesterday, this time to the living room so we could all enjoy them. They'll be 4 weeks old in a few days and will soon begin to start eating some dry kitten food. They're just beginning to play and can barely keep their balance and are still very wobbly on their feet. We've never had 5 (very cute & cuddly) baby kittens in the house before. We once let one mean mother cat keep two kittens in here and it was a disaster. She beat up Jybow & Princess P every time they looked at her or her kittens or she caught them asleep, so we vowed never to do that again...but here we are with five kittens. The difference here is that Princess Pinky is being very nice to Jybow and Jybow is allowed to look at her babies anytime she wants. The problem is that Jybow was trained so well to stay away from kittens that she won't go near them and only sneaks peeks at them from a distance....a very far distance.

Hopalong aka Catzilla needs a dental appointment with the vet. Today as I was sitting with her at the picnic table I noticed that her bottom right tooth was sticking straight out of her mouth. Jimmy tried to wiggle it, but the cat quickly pulled away so the tooth is still attached. I'm hoping that she'll just finish the job herself and lose it during the night. I'm going to give it a couple of days before I make an appointment with the vet. No sense paying a big vet bill when the tooth might just fall out on its own.

So how was your day? Anything unusual or exciting happen? I know it has to be more exciting than my day. The only exciting thing that happened to me today was that my cell phone rang while I was near the riding mower and when I moved away to answer it, I stepped in a big gooey glop of mud and missed the call. It was funny and gave me something to laugh at, but not nearly as much as the phone call did.

Surprise, Surprise....

Count the kittens. How many kittens does Princess Pinky have?

Two of the kittens in this picture are just minutes old and the others were born right before 12:34:56 p.m.