Middle age plus 8/7

Thursday, August 7, 2003

Anyone who says that cats can't communicate, or even that they can't read, have not lived in our neighborhood. When we retired (?) here 15 years ago, we decided to get a couple of cats since we thought two cats were more fun and demanded less attention than having just one. But when we went to the O'Toole's and saw all their white cats and one little black cat, my daughter and I couldn't weed them down to two, so we took the little black kitten and two slightly older pure white cats. After all, outdoor cats in the country often don't live too long and we would probably be down to the preferred two fairly soon. Over 14 years later, we are still being bossed around by these three cats, who are still hale and hearty. But the story doesn't end there. For 13 of these years we enjoyed just the three cats. They had their own little enclosed porch with a cat door, a heat lamp for winter and some cushions and ledges for cat comfort. They were fed in this room, except for an occasional sip of milk in the kitchen when they came in to greet us. Over a year ago we spotted a pretty white cat with a calico tail and calico marking on her face. We would just see her from time to time and though t --hoped, -- she belonged to one of our neighbors. No such luck. She had four kittens under some equipment in our shed. The kittens were so wild that we didn't see them for a couple of months until the Mama Kitty brought them to the house. Neighbors had several free-running dogs which killed three of the four kittens, one at a time. We didn't want any more cats but we didn't want those dogs killing helpless little kittens, so we fixed a safe sanctuary for the remaining little one and her mother. They are still enjoying this spot plus some food and petting. We had the kitten "fixed" and found that she was already pregnant with kittens in spite of her young age. we have never been able to catch the mother cat at a time when we could take her to the vet, so she proceeded to give birth again. This time she had five kittens which she eventually brought to the house. The neighbors dogs were now gone, but one day we realized that we hadn't seen the kittens for quite a while and then saw that the Mama Kitty had not been able to have kittens drink her milk supply and she was in discomfort. We never saw the kittens again but eventually the mother returned to normal. So we now had our original three and the mother/daughter strays. Too many cats but it could work, considering the age of the older ones. We are still trying to get the Mama Kitty to the vet, but have had no luck finding her during the hours the vet's office is open. Then, last week, I woke up at dawn's early light and saw a different cat on the roof of our view room. Maybe it was just the light, and this dark mottled cat was really our Mama Kitty in poor light? No such luck. In broad daylight we still saw it. It was not one of ours. Or we were not claiming it. However, it seems to be claiming us. So were do these cats come from to end up at our house? We have near neighbors who don't seem to inherit cats. I have decided that since I moved my office to the breezeway, they can see me writing for the paper and have decided that they would put out their own Tabby Chronicles. I am sure the want ads read: "Good Food Available. Haven From Dogs. Occasional Kind Words. Apply in Person."

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