Saturday, July 14, 2007, 05:12
Here and Gone
Guess what! Guess what!
Momma Kitty brought all the kittens back the other day. All of them! Even the little tabby!
And boy, were they hungry kittens. They could hardly wait to get some kitty food, and when I put some out for them in the barn, they ate as if they hadn't seen any food in three days.
No, wait. That's right. They *did not* see any food for three days.
Unfortunately, Momma Kitty kept them in the barn for a few days, and then Friday evening, we saw her head out into the tall grass with them again.
I'm not happy that the mother cat took off with them again. But I am glad to know that they were all in the barn and okay for the moment when I saw them.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Thursday, July 12, 2007, 06:23
Still Missing
My kittens are still missing.
Even though the old mother cat brought most of the kittens back to the barn Sunday evening, except for the one little tabby female kitten, she did not leave them in the barn. By Monday morning, she had taken the kittens back out.
And since then, only Little Sister has been back to the barn. Early on, she kept one of the little black kittens with her. Since then, she has kept the gray kitten with her. The other kittens are nowhere to be seen.
Randy and I took a hike across the neighbor's field Tuesday evening to see if we could find the babies. We had seen Little Sister coming from that direction and wondered if the rest of the kittens were in the woods on the other side of the field.
We couldn't find any kittens.
I took another trip through the long grass to the neighbor's woods Wednesday evening, but I still didn't find any kittens.
This is becoming worrisome, I must say.
The only bit of good news I've found is that Wednesday evening when Little Sister was in the barn, I checked her belly and discovered that she had recently been thoroughly nursed. I know that the one little gray kitten was not going to be able to use all of the milk from one mother cat. And that leads me to be believe that at least some of the kittens are surviving -- and that they're not too far away, even though I am unable to find them. If it's one thing I know about cats, it's that if they don't want to be found, I'm not going to find them.
Gorgeous Weather -- On a brighter note, after the sweltering heat of last week, the weather so far this week has been beautiful. High pressure. Low humidity. A cool west wind. Temperatures in the 70s. Blue sky. Lots of puffy white clouds. My favorite kind of weather in the summer.
As for our garden, the pumpkins are blossoming and setting on a few pumpkins. This is in spite of the squash bugs. Or maybe because of the squash bugs. We don't have many bees around, but if the squash bugs are moving from flower to flower, they are bringing the pollen with them.
My tomatoes are beginning to set small Roma tomatoes, and a few cherry tomatoes are coming on too. And I have a some red bell peppers beginning to develop. The last few days, we have had 20 to 40 mph winds, and the peppers are leaning a bit. I hope they don't lean over any farther.
LeAnn R. Ralph