My new cats

I'm in a bit of a feline fiasco. A few weeks ago, it came to our attention that a family of kittens were living in the woods behind our house. There's grey kitten, black and white kitten, solid black kitten, and their mom.

Chances are that, if left to their own devices, the kittens would have roamed around the neighborhood, never giving our particular yard a second glance. That is, if someone (me) hadn't started feeding them.

Let me first say that I am not a cat fan. Indoor cats can be sweet and loving (I say this only for the benefit of my friends who own cats), but in general I find feral cats to be fairly disgusting.

But these are SO DARN CUTE. (see evidence below) I remember learning that the cuteness of baby animals is somehow tied to their dependence on their parents - I suppose based on the premise that it would be hard to abandon especially cute babies.

So true.

Although anyone that knows me is aware that I am not what you would call an "animal person", I just can't help but feed these little suckers.


At first it was leftover tuna that we had lying around the house. When those ran out, I actually bought tuna for cats (I guess it's just a lower-grade tuna than what they sell to humans. Hard to believe someone could manufacture a food product of a lower grade than canned tuna). We had some sliced deli turkey that we accidentally kept in the fridge for a few too many days and they ate that right up.

I've spoken to my vet friend who has assured me that I'm not doing them any harm, and the ultimate ideal plan would be trap and neuter them and them release them back to the wild. (Although I have nightmares about trapping these babies and separating them, even momentarily, from their family - but that is a different story for another time.)

The kittens have learned that we eat dinner around 7:30 and that's when they come out of the brush and into the backyard. The only problem is their wench of mom, who hisses at me and bares her teeth whenever she sees me. Bitch. Doesn't she know who puts the darn food out there? Haven't we established a relationship of mutual trust? I spend $2 a week buying tuna for your adorable babies and you don't slash my eyes out with your feral cat claws . . . it's pretty simple - stick to the script.