Friday cat-blogging

In the 90's I lived in a house on a small and somewhat isolated cul-de-sac. It was a popular place for people to deposit unwanted animals and I adopted many of my cats that way. For a few years, there was one fuzzy, multi-colored brown girl kitty that hung around and every spring came marching into my house to commandeer a closet to have her latest batch of kittens. I named her "Mommy Kitty." One year, Mommy Kitty didn't come back. The next year she didn't show up, either, and I knew then that she never would. The spring after that, one day a visibly pregnant near-twin for the old Mommy Kitty showed up on my doorstep. Mommy Kitty the 2nd came and went as she pleased, and when the time came for me to redecorate the closet nursery, she disappeared. I didn't see her for a few weeks, and then one day, she was at the door waiting to come in and eat, skinny and obviously un-pregnant again. I figured she had not been successful in her birthing, and let her come and go, pissing off all of the other cats who were indoors-only and couldn't understand why she got to go out and they couldn't. Then, a few weeks after she had reappeared I looked out on the porch and Mommy Kitty the 2nd was there, accompanied by a little marmalade orange kitten and a fat little white kitten with huge blue eyes. The kittens were wild and ran away from me as soon as I opened the door, so I started setting food out for them and getting them accustomed to the smell of me. After several days, they would jump off the porch but no longer ran away when I came outside. Soon afterwards, they disappeared again, and a clearly distraught Mommy Kitty the 2nd kept running in and out of the house. After close to a couple of days with no kittens around, I was out in my back yard and suddenly heard frantic mewing. I realized it was coming from the garage of the vacant house next door. A couple of days before, the owner of the rental had mowed the lawn. I ran over to the garage and was able to force it open just enough for a couple of kittens to squeeze out and rejoin their mom. They were so relieved to see mommy and were so hungry that the three of them plopped down on the ground for the kittens to feed, and I just stayed there and petted all three of them for a good fifeen minutes or so. As soon as they were done eating, I picked up the kittens and brought them inside. Mommy Kitty the 2nd came and went much like her predecessor, but the white baby and the gold baby stayed. The gold baby, my little shy girl Cinnamon Buns, died last year of feline leukemia. The white baby, Monster, is still with me and was the first of many wonderful kids that came from Mommy Kitty 2.

Meet Katie's older brother of the same mommy, and the senior member of the household, Monster. He is regal of bearing, noble of spirit, intelligent and thoughtful, and while my family nearly doubled because of his younger brothers, sisters, and nieces and nephews, I'll never regret having him and all of the other wonderful kittens that Mommy Kitty the 2nd brought to me over her last years.