Surviving!

I've had a story in my head but just haven't been able to sit down and write about it yet.  Somehow, I still feel the need to tell the story.  As you all know, I love cats.  I think they are the most interesting creature God created and if I could, I would take in every one of them but I know that is impossible.

Over a year ago, I noticed a stray cat in the field behind my house.  One day I heard her mewing and noticed she was watching as I put out food and water for my own cats.  I called to her but she continued to stay crouched down and kept her distance.  I decided to put out a special dish of food and water for her and as she moved towards it cautiously, watching me, I moved back to give her the space as I could see she was hungry and thirsty.  She began to eat and alternated between the food and the water dish.

I had to keep my own cats away as she would run off each time one would come near and they weren't all that friendly to her either.  But every day, I would make sure there was food and water put in a special place just for her.  She came and gave me a look of gratitude but as soon as one of my cats would appear, she would take off.  I even caught one of my females chasing her away one day so I moved the food and water to another location so she would feel safer about coming to it.

It was late in the fall and this daily routine kept up until mid winter when she disappeared.  She didn't come in to eat or drink and I didn't see her again.  But then one day I saw her prowling around the neighbor's house and learned that she had been coming up to share the food they put out for their cat.  Their cat, Bashful wasn't as agressive towards her and even allowed her to stay around.

Once in a while she would venture over into my yard and if my cats weren't around, she would sneak food or a drink but would run if she saw them or me and there were times when she was chased away as well. 

My heart was breaking as I knew she was relying on catching her food or stealing food wherever she could find it.  She was a pretty thing, long hair with multi colors and big green eyes that seemed to penetrate as they looked at you but yet gave away her feelings.  I knew when she was glad to see me as the eyes weren't searching or looking around but actually watching me and as I said, I could see the appreciation in those eyes.

When spring came, she disappeared again and I learned later that she was living in a shed at the neighbor's house and then he told me that he had heard the sound of kittens and knew they were hidden somewhere in the shed.  He continued to put out food for his own knowing she was eating it as well.  But he really didn't want the mama cat and her kittens and scaled back.

I was busy keeping up with my own brood of cats and new kittens but one night I noticed three little yellow kittens playing with some of my kittens and had no idea where they came from.  When I went out to look at them, they took off and then I saw the mama cat sitting off at a distance.  She began to walk away and the kittens followed her.

There were several days that she and the kittens appeared, mainly at night but then she began coming during the daytime.  I again put out food and water in a special place for her.  She kept her distance from my cats who still didn't like her presence but yet they accepted the kittens as they ate and played with mine without problems.  Mama began to leave, leaving the kittens here to sleep, eat and play but would return as they weren't completely weaned.  But after about a week or so, they were roaming the neighborhood again.  They would appear here, or across the street or would go back to where she had been living.  Then, they all disappeared.  I didn't see her or the kittens.

I learned from my neighbor that he had found one kitten dead in his yard but hadn't seen the others.  I accidentally scared one out of its hiding place and it scampered away so fast that I didn't see where it went too.  I haven't seen the other remaining kittten or the mother for several weeks.

With the excessive heat we have had and knowing how hard it has been on my own cats as I make sure they have a cool place to lay and have fresh cool water, I worry about the mama cat and her remaining kittens.

The one thing I have learned and I really think the reason she was coming around here.  She was looking for a home for her kittens as I don't think she was capable of caring for them.  She was weaning them early and it could be due to her own lack of nutrition, she couldn't provide for them and she was trying to find them a home where they could survive.  However, they loved their mother and followed her.  I discovered again the feelings between mother and children as I've seen so many times with my cats.  The mama cats are protective and provide not only food but protection and care for their offspring just as we humans do and they do it in such loving ways that a person cannot be touched by the scene of a mama cat with her babies nursing and her paws kneading the air and the contentment on her face, or how she gently wraps her paws around them to hold them as she bathes them.  I've watched as they play with their kittens and later as they began the training of the hunt and survival.

I'm sure this mama cat was trying to train her own kittens and at the same time provide the best she could for them.  I can only hope that the mama cat and her two remaining kittens are surviving as she has a strong sense of survival and I'm sure she has passed this on to her offspring.  Feral cats are so prevalent and it is a shame we can't catch them to prevent additional kittens but they also serve a purpose.  With even my own, I know that they catch mice and snakes which only helps me or my neighbors.

And I have to admire her determination to survive and to provide for her offspring.  Not only is she a pretty cat to look at but is pretty inside as she has compassion for her young and as with any mother, wanted only the best for them, even if it meant leaving them with strangers.  That is love.