A tale of two kitties

A Tale of Two Kitties

This past year has been a banner year for the rodent population, both in the small seed-starting greenhouse and around the Empire of the Happy Hens.  Earlier this year I relocated a black snake to under this building to help with the mouse problem.  I even shoo’ed one into Hattie’s pathway earlier this summer and I gave her credit for the “kill”…..but I’m not always around to find them for her 🙂

So, I put the word out that I was looking for a couple of cats, actually kittens, to help keep the rodents under control.  I know, I know, domestic cats are going to take over the world and kill all the bids and cute little chipmunks, but I’ll let them fight a few battles here on the farm.

My boyfriend came by one afternoon and asked me if I had seen that little kitten up at the mailbox.  I told him no, and as soon as he left I went up there and looked around–nothing.  My neighbor did pull up while I was walking around up at the road so I went over to visit with him for a little while since it had been a long time since we chatted.

I told him I was looking for a kitten and he said he’d bring it to me if he saw it later.  About 30 minutes after I got home he came carrying up two tiny kittens–one a smoky grey and the other one the proverbial black and grey striped cat, both females.

Well, they played and pooped around (mostly on the porch uggh!) for about three weeks and one day I was backing my car out and, well, Smoky is gone.  Bandit was lonely.

As soon as that happened I had to leave to go to town and I stopped off at the feed store and I was telling one of the guys that loads vehicles about it and he said he had kittens to find homes for so we agreed that I would come early Saturday morning to fetch a kitten.

I showed up at the feed store at 6:45 am Saturday morning and he said he couldn’t catch them…..did he say catch them?  Oooo, I don’t want a wild cat.  Oh well, good try.  So, while I was in town I decided to make a run through the flea market.  We have an awesome year-round flea market on Saturdays and Sundays and that’s one of my favorite Saturday morning things to do.  One of the first things I saw was a cage with two gorgeous grey “Smoky” colored kittens with a sign that said “Free Kittens”.  They were friendly, so I took one of them home to keep Bandit company.

I decided to call her Smoky because the names Smoky and Bandit go together and she is the perfect color. Actually the first Smoky wasn’t around long enough for the name to “stick” to a particular personality–you know what I mean?

First greetings with everyone didn’t go so smoothly.  When I put her down on the porch, Bandit and Smoky both said “Hhhhhhhhhi” to each other, in a gutteral sort of way, Hattie ran from her, Lucy tried to sniff her but got a “Hhhhhhhhh” also, then Smoky hid under a pile of rhododendron on the back porch for about 2 weeks.  I had just gotten Bandit to go poop in the yard, and here we go again.  Smoky started pooping in the sawdust pile underneath the table saw in my makeshift wood working area on the back porch.  She has since started going out in the yard.

Ever so slowly she began to come out for longer periods of time…..until this morning I saw this out the front door…..

OMG (that’s oh my gosh)!  Lucy is letting BOTH kittens nurse–she’s not had puppies in years!

Well, I guess the kitties are welcome in doggie world.