Okay, a supercrazymagical thing just happened.
We’ve had the cat for a week now, right? Well, we’ve gotten her on this feeding schedule, morning, noon, and night. This morning it was my turn, so half an hour ago I took her out of her box to do the honors. And being as the weather’s freaking fantastic, I thought, “Wow, it’s so nice and warm today, and she’s been staying in that little box, she’d probably dig some outdoor time.” So, out to the porch we went.
The same porch I was standing on when Tania emerged with kitty in her mouth.
Anyway, I’m letting her wander around, and the hounds are playing with her, and she’s meowing, and a couple of minutes go by, and then I hear a second meow. I grip the edge of the porch, duck underneath, and there, five feet away is a cat, looking right at me, meowing plaintively.
I know what I have to do, even though I’ve grown a little fond of the thing. I hesitate for a few seconds, not entirely sure that I wanna go through with it. But eventually, yes, I put the dogs back in the house, then I take the cat over to the break in the lattice where the dogs go under the house, and I put her down. A couple of minutes later, the cat emerges and smells the kitten. Then another cat shows up. They sniff and smell, then one of them takes the kitten in her mouth and, in a motherly surge of adrenaline or whatever cats have, she bounds over the six foot high chainlink fence into the neighbor’s yard.
Then mom goes off for a bit–presumably in search of food–and kitty’s wandering around, meowing some more, not quite sure what’s going on. I’m beginning to think the mother has abandoned her again, but then, I see some movement under the neighbor’s house. Then, more small meows. Then, four kittens, each her size, a couple with her markings, crawl out and inspect her:
The first of several brothers and sisters
comes out to view the new arrival.
A few minutes later, they retreat. Kitty meows a bit more, then eventually gets the picture. And that’s the last I saw of her.
If anyone is inclined to sing “Born Free” or that diddy from Free Willy, now’s the time.
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