More Kittens
Early in the morning on Saturday, March 30, I made a wonderful discovery! I was outside on the patio, putting out cans of Fancy Feast for Charlie, our stray-cat friend, when I heard a rustling behind the tea olive by the back steps. I figured it was a box turtle ambling about in the leaf mulch, but then I peeked under the branches—and I spied four kittens! Charlie’s kittens! Rob and I had been searching for them for weeks, and now here they were. This was the exact same spot where Famke had deposited her kittens when she revealed them to us back in September.
I was in awe. The kittens were so small and perfect; they were fully formed, exquisite tiny beings, and they seemed magical and mysterious in the early morning light.
I ran into the house to tell Rob, who was, of course, still sleeping.
“Rob!” I cried. “Charlie brought the kittens!”
Rob jumped up and followed me outside, and I pointed to their secret hiding place behind the tea olive.
“Oh, Charlene,” he said to Charlie, who was sitting on the back steps, “you did such a good job with them! What a nice family you have!”
We believed the kittens were about four weeks old. Since their birth, we’d been trying to help Charlie keep up her strength by feeding her lots of extra food. We were pretty sure she’d hidden her kittens under the house next door; however, we’d never been able to find them, though we’d looked for them many times.
About two weeks after the kittens were born, Charlie went through a period when she was very nervous and upset and refused to eat. We worried then that the kittens might have died and that Charlie was grieving. We’d try to feed her bisque and lickables and pâté and crunchies—every kind of cat food we could think of. Charlie would take little nibbles and licks, but she wouldn’t eat much of anything. Then, miraculously, after a few days, her appetite returned. One day she ate eight cans of Fancy Feast all by herself! We were so relieved.
“I think she’s still nursing,” Rob said. “I think the kittens are okay.”
Charlie became very, very trusting as we tried to care for her and nurse her back to health during her illness. Before, she’d been jumpy and sketchy, often shrinking from our touch, but when she got sick, she’d come and lay her head in my lap. She wanted so badly to be petted and comforted.
After she recovered, Rob said, “I think she’ll eventually bring her kittens over here, to be closer to food . . . and her friends.”
And he was right!
Rob gazed adoringly at the kittens in the leaf litter, behind the tea olive, for a while. Then he said, “I think I need to get a little more sleep.” And he went back to bed, leaving me sitting on the back steps petting Charlie. I was still wearing my pajamas.
I sat there for a while, taking pictures of the kittens with my phone through the step railing. They gazed back at me with fear and wonder.
They were unbelievably small! One was gray tabby, one was white with gray patches, one was white with brown tabby patches, and one was mostly brown tabby with a little bit of white on his face.
Charlie stayed by my side, wanting to be petted. I fed her a lickable treat. Then the kittens began clambering about. Two of them joined us on the steps. Oh, they were very hard to deal with! They were so little and unsteady on their feet that they would fall down the steps if you weren’t careful. I put them in my lap and they got their teeny claws stuck in my pajamas. Because they were so young, they had very little control over their bodies. The two other kittens were fumbling about in the leaves under the tea olive. Charlie seemed stressed out. These kittens were a handful!
I wished Rob were there to help me decide what to do with them, where to put them. They were too active now to really be safe behind a bush. They wouldn’t stay put. And there were four of them! It was too much for poor Charlie, I could tell.
So I ran to the garage and fetched an old cat bed. I put the two kittens on the steps in the bed. They immediately climbed out. The other two kittens emerged from the shelter of the tea olive and started wandering around in the planting bed next to the patio.
Charlie seemed alarmed and overwhelmed. She seemed to be looking to me for assistance. So I scooped up all the kittens, placed them in the cat bed, and carried the bed up to the breezeway. I kept the door open for Charlie, and she followed me inside. Then I closed the door and set the bed down on the floor.
Charlie collapsed into the bed beside her kittens in utter relief. She started purring and nursing them right away. Then the whole family fell into a peaceful sleep.
And that is how it all began. Charlie and her kittens have now been living on our breezeway for two fun-filled, happy weeks. We discovered that the kittens are all boys, and we named them Penny and Jody (from The Yearling) and Merry and Pippin (from The Lord of the Rings). Penny is playful and well adjusted; Jody is extra tiny but has tons of heart; Merry is brave, adventurous, and full of energy; and Pippin is a bit timid but very, very sweet.
The kittens are so, so cute, always wrestling and pouncing . . . or snuggling and hugging. Of course, we’ll eventually have to find them forever homes, but for now we’re really enjoying helping Charlie raise these adorable babies.
(And, yes, we’re going to get Charlie spayed as soon as the kittens are weaned.)
