What's One More?

I'm really starting to wonder about our house. If you've read here before, you know we have lots of pets. Lots of cats to be specific. Only one of those cats truly belong to us. The others were living in the woods behind our house when we moved here four years ago. Being the animal lovers we are, we had compassion on the cats when they started coming into our yard and eating with our cat.

In the beginning, there was one male and one female cat. The wouldn't let us touch them but they'd eat once we weren't around. We just let them do that because it was evident they were wild and not eating well. About a year after they first appeared, they were finally comfortable enough with us to allow us to pet them. To make a long story short, the female cat was pregnant every time we turned around. There was nothing we could do because she wasn't comfortable enough with us, to let us hold her or bring her inside. She gave birth to at least three litters of kittens out in the woods. Of those three litters, only one kitten survived. It only survived because I snatched it from the mama one day when her guard was down. We brought the kitten inside and he lived there until he was about eight months old. Then we took him to the animal shelter. That broke my heart. We did stay in touch with the shelter and although they would not give us details, they did tell us that he got a good home. About two years ago, the wild cats started to become very comfortable around us. We could pet them and they would even come in sometimes to eat. We decided we would start by having mama cat fixed and then the male cat would be next. We gathered mama cat up and somehow managed to get her into a kitty carrier (don't ask how we ever managed....it was tough!). We got her to the vet so that she could have a pre-op visit before being fixed (the vet required this since she was wild). Well, five minutes into the vet visit, we found out mama was pregnant....again.

Last March, mama cat gave birth to five little kitties, three male, two female. Mama cat was fixed soon after that! Finally! A few of the baby kitties were, well, a little different. Mama cat only had about 3/4 of a tail. She is classified as a bob-tail, although she's not a true bob-tail cat. Two of the babies were the same way, except not. LOL! One baby had 3/4 of a tail with some sort of funky end (it reminds me of a flyswatter), while the other baby has a little less than half a tail. It's strange....and a little creepy. I cannot touch their tails because it grosses me out. Of the five kitties, we only kept two. One "normal" kitty went to a family in our church and the other two normal ones went to the animal shelter. Yes, we made sure that they were adopted. If they hadn't been, we were gonna go back and pay to get them back. Anyway, the two "special" kitties still reside here. The flyswatter tail kitty has some mental issues. Her brother is totally normal, except for his strange, less-than-half tail. He's absolutely wonderful and my favorite kitty, by far. We didn't take them to the shelter because we were afraid they would not get adopted due to their strange tails. I'm glad we kept them because the female is mental and would have had a hard time finding a family. The male kitty, well, he was born just for me. We are soul mates :-o)

All this brings me back to my opening paragraph. I'm starting to wonder about our house. It attracts animals from all over the neighborhood. We don't mind as long as they go home after a visit. However, nature has other plans for us. Somehow, the animals have told other animals about our home. It's a safe haven, a place of animal love, a place to get a free gourmet meal (of special indoor kitty blend food). It's a place to get warm on a cold winter night; a place to sunbathe on our big ole' deck; a place to get lots of affection from the four humans who live inside. So why are we surprised that we have a new arrival and that it appears he isn't going anywhere?

How could you not love this face?

He's not going anywhere!