Oh no...(Summer)

We had a frequent visitor in December. There was a stray tortoiseshell we'd see wandering through our front yard, the arena, and even on our porch. Carrie tried, but the cat never let her come close. She'd bolt the moment a door opened or someone made prolonged eye contact (Kila barking and trying to play probably didn't help, either).

You may or may not know this, but tortoiseshell cats are almost always female. It takes a genetic anomaly to even allow for a male to be a tortoiseshell. 

Female cats can be mamas.

Sunday morning, Carrie told me that she thought she saw something run into the pole barn. She thought it was a kitten, but she was running off to foxhunt with Jess. I decided to look into the sighting and put away the ladder Carrie left up after installing a camera (efficiency!).

Our barn is cluttered. There's a lot of mess which left a lot of places for a cat to hide.

I almost missed it, too. While rummaging around, I caught a slip of movement out of the corner of my eye. Without that movement, I wouldn't have noticed the cat.

Unfortunately, the hay barn is highly advantageous ground for critters. Besides the clutter, the gravel can be dug away from the sides for quick egress lanes.

The kitten ran. It was way too fast for a silly human and took refuge in a drain pipe.

Which was it's undoing. Humans aren't the quickest or strongest, but we think and use tools. I bent the pipe up at both ends to prevent a quick escape and carried it off. The old bunny cage was in the barn, so I put one end of the pipe into it and shook. Laura and Amy were doing chores, so I called Amy over to help close the cage quickly while I held the opposite end sky high in case it tried to shoot out like a rocket. 

The kit held on long enough I was starting to feel bad about terrorizing it when out popped, not one, but two kittens.

The gray one was the one I'd seen running around. The black one was unexpected. Gray ran around, full of energy while Black cowered in a corner (probably traumatized from its world being shook quite literally).

It was nearly time for church, so I took a picture, sent it to Carrie, and drove off with Shane. We had plans to hang out with Dylan in the afternoon, so we weren't going to be home anytime soon.

Normally, I let Shane have some say in where we go if we get lunch, but I wanted a burrito! I picked Qdoba.

We had to kill a little bit of time, because of their family logistics and arrived a little while after. Carrie got home and texted me that she'd seen the kittens. 

We were both on the same page: They were NOT coming inside. I had thought it would be more of a discussion, but Carrie firmly agreed with me. Two kittens were way too much.

Shane and I went to Dylan's and I was in a good mood. We'd gone to church, eaten good food, were at a friend's house, I'd accomplished a feat in Carrie's eyes, and she didn't want any extra animals.

Ironically, we were immediately greeted by a new animal at Dylan's: Kyrie.

Kyrie is a golden-doodle. 

Goldie has been having health issues. It looked like the end was drawing near for her. John and Kelly decided it would be better to introduce a puppy to the family now before the kids had to deal with Goldie's passing.

Time warp fact: Goldie's doing much better now! Go figure. She gets along well with the puppy, so there's no drama there.

But back to the present: John bought a firepit from Costco. 

He was thrilled with it and all the kids roasted marshmallows.

The kids played with the dogs, we hung out on the porch, and a fun time was had.

Little did I know the situation was rapidly changing at home. 

It started with a text.

Carrie was worried about the kittens and wanted to give them food and water. Grey attacked when she opened the cage. It tore into her hand and escaped in the confusion. She sent me a picture of the injury.

Now Black was alone. It cowered in a corner, small, and in the cold.....and then in the house.

Carrie was fine with leaving the kittens outside with each other (they'd lived outside all this time already!). But Black was tiny, full of fear, and it looked like Max (who passed away Jan 24th)).

When I called to check in Black was inside in our bathroom.

Carrie couldn't imagine leaving the kitten outside and I wasn't home to discuss/stop the migration. Instead, it got embedded like a tick and I found myself picking up necessities on the way home.

Shane was up for the adventure, at least.

He was excited.

I let him carry the supplies into the room, so that he could see the kitten himself.

Black buried itself under the blankets Carrie put out.

She peeled them back to reveal the tiny thing.

At that point, we didn't know if it was male or female. Carrie guessed from it's development that it was born around or a little after Christmas (aka not too long after we'd started seeing tortoiseshell wandering around).

Little Thing didn't jump at the food when Carrie put it out. It stayed curled up and frightened. 

Carrie eventually got it to eat some by offering it by fingertip. Black actually backed up onto the plate of food before taking a nibble.

Carrie spent most of the evening in the bathroom cooing and comforting the kitten. Grey got his claws into her hand, but Black's claws sunk into her heart. We're back up to four cats and there's nothing I can do about it!