As you know, there are several mother cats who come to us for food on a daily basis. They don't live in the house (although sometimes they do overstay their welcome) but know this is the food spot. We had been hoping that when their kittens are old enough, they would bring them over as well. But these cats live on the street side of the house, and their nests are across the street. So we didn't know if we'd ever see their offspring. Well last night they made the trek.
Gladys came over as usual and was eating when I noticed a little face in the window. There was a 10/11 week old kitten there, checking out the food bowl. Slowly, the kitten stuck its head in and started going to town on the cat food. I got the above photos at this point from across the room. The kitten eventually got spooked because I moved in too close. But it came back, and brought with it another kitten. Both were gray tabbies with white undercarriage, and both have the googly eyes like their mother.
They kept eating while Gladys stood around looking nervous. They hopped down to the floor briefly but when I looked over the couch to see them, they bolted out to the stoop. They came back and ate some more but eventually left. I thought that would be it for the evening, but then Gladys came back with yet another kitten!
This one was all white with orange spots and was the shyest of the 3. It would run if I just looked straight at it. Meanwhile, the first kitten was getting braver and actually came into the living room. It roamed around until it found a catnip mouse, which it started playing with. At this inopportune time, Jefe decided to notice the kittens and started going after it. As usual, I think he just wanted to play, but kittens rarely have the necessary insight to understand this. So I locked him in the bedroom for a while.
The kittens had their fill, but hung around the stoop. By the time I went to bed they were huddled in the steps leading down to the ground floor door, which kept them out of sight pretty well. Tonight I'm gonna make a more concerted effort to get them all inside. They're skittish but they're still so young I don't think they're all that afraid of me. My goal this time around will be to adopt them out, as well as their mother. Gladys is pretty darn cute in her own right:
