Okay, so I am “owned” by a little feral cat who hasn’t completely understood yet that she is a feral kitty. She understands enough that she doesn’t bring her babies up to the house, which is fine with me; not that I don’t like cats, because I do, it’s just that she has TOO MANY! One time, she brought seven or nine kittens up (I can’t remember which, there were so many of them).
Russ and I met Kitty in April, 2011. We were outside looking at the tomato and zucchini plants I had just planted and this teensy little black cat came walking up to us begging to be pet. Now, Russ was allergic to cats, even though he liked them, but I have no such problems and as I bent over to cuddle her a little I discovered that her tummy was a little too wiggly—uh oh! babies in arrival. This was bad, since she was little more than a kitten herself.
We had a folded tarp hanging from the floor upstairs, along the fence; one morning I looked outside my bedroom window and saw the tarp moving around in an odd manner – she had decided that that was the perfect place to have her kittens. There were 4 of them, and they all survived; however, they didn’t have their mother’s friendly disposition, although they didn’t disdain to eat the food that Russ and I left out for them. (By the way, Russ was responsible for naming her Little Kitty). They left the premises, though, when they were old enough to fend for themselves.
Now, Kitty is still the sweet-tempered little cat she always was; the difference is that she no longer gives birth on my porch (maybe because my landlady took away the tarp; who knows?)She hasn’t stopped giving birth (as you can see from the picture); she just does it elsewhere. She does have one hilarious habit, that had both Russ and I laughing our sides off (I still do): she likes to sit outside in the window, and when she sees us (me) come into the kitchen, she climbs up and starts doing a regular gymnastics routine, right between the window bars and the screen. It was Russ’ idea to make a video and add Nadia’s theme to it. He never got to see the video, but I’m pretty sure he would have loved it. I hope you all do, too. I’m so thankful for this crazy little cat and her gymnastics for helping me start my day with a smile, in a time when smiles are few and far between.
© “K” is for Krazy Little Kitty, Mary Purpari April 11, 2014