Kitten Tales

Back in May, my husband, Roy, discovered two tiny kittens in our front yard. They were under a small fishing boat (more like a Jon Boat) that is turned over next to our shed. There was no sign of a mother, so Roy brought the two kittens into our dining room, where I was eating breakfast, and asked if we could keep them. Of course, I said we could keep them. (He later confessed that he thought I would say we couldn't keep them, because I'm not much of a "cat person.")

It just so happened that we were already to take our aging dog, Arlo, to the vet that morning, so we loaded up the tiny kittens in a box and took them with us. I was not originally going to go to the vet with Roy and Arlo, since I had to go to work, but the addition of the kittens changed that. The vet told us that the kittens were about 6 weeks old (I told you they were tiny), and that they were close to being ready to be weaned. They had fleas, but they were otherwise healthy. The kittens received a flea bath, and I went home with a kitten care bag filled, mainly, with Science Diet kitten food. The kittens settled into life in the Van Neste household surprisingly quickly. They were weaned off of formula in less than two weeks, and they figured out the litter box right away. They are much bigger now. Here is a picture of them at the beginning of August.

Meanwhile...

About a week after we found the kittens, now named Tigger and Ludwig, we discovered that the mother cat and a third kitten were living in our shed. Judging by its size, the kitten was part of the same litter as Tigger and Ludwig. Roy and I decided to catch the mother and kitten, if at all possible. We tried unsuccessfully to catch them several times. They disappeared after one of those attempts. We were saddened by this, but we kept watching to see if they would return. All this time, we kept putting out cat food for them.

My younger daughter, Callie, spotted the third kitten one day while we were leaving our yard to go somewhere. On another occasion, we were returning home from an outing and saw the kitten under another car parked in our yard. We didn't see the kitten again for a while, until Roy saw it in the middle of the week last week. There was no sign of the mother cat this time. We decided to try to catch the kitten again, this time using a human animal trap that we purchased for just this reason. We set the trap up last night, and...

WE CAUGHT THE KITTEN!!!

We have not yet determined the gender, so we have not yet named him/her. I'm calling the cat Norbert for the time being. (Roy hates it, so the kitten will be getting a new name today or tomorrow.) Norbert is not feral, but he/she is very scared. We decided not to take him/her to the vet until tomorrow. Right now, he/she is in the basement with Tigger and Ludwig, although Norbert is separated from them by being in a large dog pen. We think this will help Norbert adjust to domestic life. Once Norbert has had his/her shots and anything else that needs to be done, then we can think about socializing the three of them. I'm excited about the days and weeks ahead!

Come to think of it, I don't really like the name Norbert either.