Ms. Kitty

It was a warm summer day, and Kaycee was barking at inanimate objects as usual. I had noticed that for a few days now, she had been drawn to this certain spot in the corner of our carport and I figured this might be worth investigating. So I opened the door, and at first glance I saw nothing, but I continued to scan the area until a white blob with eyes caught mine. She was huddled in the corner, behind boxes and foam packaging that were awaiting the recycling fate. Faith renewed in our dog, I called over to Laura that Kaycee had indeed found something tangible, and the white cat that Laura had spotted as pregnant, was pregnant no more. Ms. Kitty had decided to have her babies in our carport.
We knew now, that we would have to keep her close, so one day we could thieve her babies in order to give them a shot at a good life. The plotting began, and we starting feeding Ms. Kitty, who was quite hungry. With 2 little kittens to feed and protect, her hunting had been limited, and she had a big appetite. We fed here morning and night, and with each feeding, she growled and hissed, but would still walk up to the food dish as we filled it. She somehow knew not to bite the hand that feeds her, but she always had a little warning to give.
Ok, so now we have her staying, but how to get her kittens. The plan was to grab them when they were around 4 weeks old. We knew that she left the carport on occasion, and we would have to keep checking until she was “out” for the day, and pick the little guys up. 4 weeks came quick, and now it was our turn to hunt. We kept checking at all times of the day, but she wouldn’t leave! It was like she knew….knew, that we were after her babies.
After the 3rd day of checking, it was early in the morning on a Saturday, and I went to check and no sign of momma. SIEZE the DAY! I hurried into the carport and the kittens that were bold when momma was near, ran and hid from me now that mom was away. Crap! I’m going to need help. So I ran into the house, woke Laura up and said, honey, I need help. Ms. Kitty is gone and the kittens are hiding from me behind some drywall. With lightning speed, Laura was down the hall faster than I was and heading into the carport. We knew time was limited and Ms. Kitty could return at any moment.
We grabbed the kittens…..ok, now what.
Laura had prepared for this day, so we had a litterbox, kennel, food and old towels. Since we had been puppy fostering, we had a pen, but it didn’t have a ceiling, so we knew that they would eventually need to go into our bathroom. Oh well, we would deal with that later, the good thing was we have the kittens. So, our cats go back into their room, Kaycee gets to go outside, Gabby remains the queen of the house, (top dog has its privileges) and we are off to a day of puppy adopting with Pound Puppy Rescue.
Now its time for the real challenge….. trapping Ms. Kitty so we can get her fixed. Now that we had taken her kittens, we thought she would bolt, but she stayed. Stayed for the food and lodging, so we now hoped she would be hungry enough to be trapped.
We rented a trap from the humane society, and god some mackerel to bait the trap. BTW, that crap smells something fierce. The trap went out and there she was, weary of the metal structure, but still hungry. I left her be and went to deposit the remaining smelly mackerel in the garbage out front. As I was in front, I decided to take a peek to see if she was approaching the trap. I was surprised at what I saw. It looked like she was in the trap. No that couldn’t be… I just set it out minutes ago. I raced around to the back to peek over the fence and see if it were true, and behold my eyes, she was in the trap. Well that was easy! I thought for sure it would take quite a bit of luck and coaxing to get her to take the bait. So off the the vet we went the next morning.
When it came time to release her, she was reluctant to leave the trap. I actually had to coax her out with food (clearly the motivator for her) and as soon as she was free, she took off.
I figured she wouldn’t come back, but to our surprise, she did that night, and the day after. Laura and I discussed the best way to wean her from the feeding, now that she was back to being normal and single again. But again, nature surprised us, and as if she instinctually knew that her time with us had come to an end, she has disappeared. We see her around the neighborhood, but she hasn’t returned to the carport for food. Laura and I saw her chomping on something meaty in the neighbors yard, and it looks like she is back to being a stray cat, able to be promiscuous without concern, and roaming the streets hunting her meals.
It was like she knew when to come to us, and when to leave. We are fostering her kittens, and they are healthy and growing stronger each day. In about a week, they will be ready to go up for adoption. You can see how cute they are by visiting Laura’s flickr site.