Just call me CAT LADY!

Let me set the stage...I had two cats when I moved here. Ringo and Gracie. There was a solid white cat that had been abandoned on the premises that wouldn't let me near her. I gave her the name "Jewel" because of her emerald green eyes. It wasn't long after I came here that I realized that she had babies in the woods. I followed her one afternoon and found the four babies in a log down from my house. I started going down there every day to take food to her and to try to catch the kittens to start taming them. It didn't take me long to figure out that one of them was stone deaf (solid white with blue eyes). I managed to touch her (only because she didn't hear me coming) and tamed her and she became my Scooter. One of the four disappeared, and the other two I named, but have never laid a hand on. They were fast little boogers and I could never catch them. I named one of them Tammy Faye because of the radical coloring around her eyes that looks like smeared mascara. (She had to be a girl because she has at least three colors. It's extremely rare for a male cat to be born with more than two colors.) Magma got his/her name because he/she is solid black, the color of solid molten lava rock. A solid black cat could be either a male or female, so I figured Magma would work either way.

So, anyway, as the weeks wore on, I brought Scooter into the house, showed her how to use the cat door, etc. I then have Ringo, Gracie and Scooter coming and going as they please, I'm feeding Jewel, Magma and Tammy Faye outside and all is well. A few days after I had taught Scooter about the cat door, I came home and found Tammy Faye and Magma in my house. Undoubtedly, Scooter had shown them how it worked. A few days later, I came home and found Jewel in my bed. Apparently, she had been watching her kittens and figured it out, too. Ok, so now I'm up to six cats that I'm feeding, four of which I can actually touch, although Jewel was still real skitish.

Fast forward a few months and I'm planning on taking Scooter and Jewel to get "fixed up" and Jewel disappears. She then reappears a few days later with 3 kittens. CRAP! Ok, so I go about trying to catch and tame them, without success, except for yet another solid white, blue eyed deaf one that I had just started working with. Then I came home one day and found it dead. I hadn't even named it yet, so I just called it "Little One" when I buried it. The two others I named Bruno (he's a handsome young man) and Junior (who looks a lot like Tammy Faye).

Ok, so I then take Jewel and Scooter to get fixed, but I've still got four I can't catch.

Fast forward a couple more months and I'm not seeing as much of Tammy Faye and Magma, but I usually see Bruno and Junior every day. Bruno will actually let me touch him now and has joined me on the couch a few times, so he's going to get fixed up next week. Still can't lay a hand on the other three.

Then, last night, I came in the house and noticed that Ringo seemed a bit strange. He was kind of skulking in the hall looking into the living room. I went into the living room, and there on the couch was Tammy Faye. That totally surprised me since I've never seen her in my living room, much less on my couch. I said "Well hey there Tammy Faye!" and she took off like a bolt of lightening and went out the cat window. And this is what I saw:

HOLY CRAP!! SHE HAD KITTENS ON MY COUCH!!!

I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW SHE WAS PREGNANT!!!

I'm freaking out and grabbed my phone and called lil sis and told her what I had found. She suggested 1) calm down and 2) find a box or something to put them in and put them by the cat door and put a lamp over the box. Maybe TF would come back to them, and maybe she wouldn't, but I had to see.

So, a short time later, I had dumped my laundry basket, lined it with a fleece blanket, scrubbed my hands and carefully placed the tiny babies in the basket.

Finally, TF came back and I stood in the doorway and watched her jump down and grab a kitten and dash back thru the cat door.

I don't know where she took them, but by 1:00 a.m. this morning, there were only two left. When I got up at 6, they were all gone.

What can I say? My "crazy cat lady" status has elevated to a new level!