Good luck, Mommy Kitty...

I grew up around cats.  Of course, I also grew up in the wilds of Maine, where kitties go in and outside at will, catching mice in barns and fields, or lounging on their human families' couches, depending on their mood.  I am always surprised to see little groups of kitties huddled in alleys and behind dumpsters when I go into the City, and sometimes here, in the suburbs where I now live.  People bustle by, not looking twice, seemingly oblivious to the small, huddled masses of fur, kitties with scared big eyes and muscles tensed to dart away.

I have been working with a local cat adoption agency to find homes for a colony of feral/abandoned cats in our community.  At the risk of sounding like a "Cat Lady", I just can't watch them skitter past my porch, or ignore their "mews" through our patio screen anytime I'm cooking.  Anyway, the good news is that Mommy Kitty, the friendliest of the bunch, leaves tomorrow with 5 kittens to be adopted.  Mommy Kitty has taken amazing care of her fluffy, fat little kittens, keeping them safe and bringing them out to "meet the humans", all of them purring and coming to be patted.  I am thrilled they will have new homes and human families, but am sad to know I will not see them again.  (Our Kitty, Toffee, is not pleased with the feral kitties coming to our porch to eat, and certainly would not tolerate another Kitty inside.)  That's probably for the best, since they melt my heart.

The Teenager and I will be making some shelters for the remaining kitties in the next couple of weeks, in readiness of the cold, harsh Northeastern Winter.  All of the groups in our area have been inundated this year, and are unable to take in more than one at a time.  And the no-kill shelters in the area will not take in any but very small "more adoptable" kittens.  Mommy Kitty and her kittens are lucky to all be scheduled for vet/adoption together tomorrow.  I hope to have the rest of the colony (9 kitties left after tomorrow night!) fixed/adopted or fixed/released, if they are too wild for adoption, before next Spring, so that we do not have a resurgence of kittens again.

I hope Mommy Kitty and her little ones are adopted by human families that love them.  I know that they will at least be fixed, so if they ever do find themselves outside again they will not add to the number of kitties who need homes.