By Rosie Preston
I called a pest control company several weeks ago because in the middle of the night I’d heard a terrible noise under my bathtub, which is one of those new lightweight ones where there is a space between it and the floor underneath. I was positive that it was a raccoon, as we’ve seen one near our home. After hearing the cost of the repairs, I could not afford for someone to come out and find what was going on. I decided to wait it out, and maybe it would go away.
A few days, later my granddaughter Breanna heard kittens meowing, so we knew one of our mama porch cats had delivered her baby kittens under the bathtub. We continued to listen and watch as our inside house cats would sit in the bathtub and then run from one side to another as the kittens were starting to move around. The cats couldn’t see the kittens but would follow them as if playing a game!
What I’m going to share with you next is a traumatic event, both for me and one of those kittens. Our mid-size dog Layla had also been keeping up with the kittens. She already had dug a hole big enough to crawl under the house next to our air conditioner/heating unit, and we had covered it up with blocks and stopped that entry.
Then yesterday I found Layla under the kitchen porch, growling and barking excitedly. We knew the kittens could come out under the porch, as there was a small opening. Sure enough, that happened this morning.
My two dogs had not been outside for two minutes before I heard the loudest commotion. No one had to tell me what had happened – Layla had caught a kitten!
I ran out of the kitchen door just in time to see her cut around the corner of a storage building. I quickly seized a Swifter Floor Clea-ner and chased Layla, who had a kitten in her mouth. I was running behind her as fast as I could and I don’t know how I kept from falling, as I was wearing a pair of flip-flops.
Layla finally stopped and she dropped the kitten. The animal dug its claws into my right hand as I picked it up, so to save both the kitten and myself, I threw the kitten over the fence into the front yard. I could see the it was soaking wet but still breathing.
I ran into the house and woke Phil by telling him not to go into a military mode (he was in the U.S. Air Force and he goes into action when he has to jump out of sound sleep for some reason or other).
“Now, don’t get upset; just listen to me,” I said quietly. “Layla somehow seized a kitten. I now have her in her crate and the kitten in the front yard and I need your help.”
Phil quickly went out the front door. The mother cat was running towards him with the kitten in her mouth. I thought this was one of the most touching moments I’ve witnessed. Luckily, the kitten was still alive, and Phil bathed it to make sure there was no bleeding or apparent injuries.
We’ve had porch cats for several years, and this is not our first time to deal with kittens. We put the kitten in a bedroom with its mother and left them alone.
The kitten is still under the bed as I write this article, but the mother cat would not quit trying to sit in my lap and lick me as I was talking on the phone to Tim the Apple Technician about my computer.
I finally put the cat down so I could use the keyboard to type this article this morning, but not before I had Tim from South Carolina laughing on the other end of the line about the kitten commotion! I told him that if he thought this episode was humorous he should like to read some of my earlier articles. He said that he and his wife have two children and he was sure they would check out the newspaper website and my blog site. I gave Tim fair warning that his name may be mentioned in this article!
I can report that the kitten is still hiding, Phil and Breanna have found another kitten on the back porch and we put Layla on a chain inside the fence until all attempts have been made to save any and all kittens that might still be under the bathtub.
What a life! When people ask me how I come up with something to write about, I just tell them that most of my ideas are usually not what to write about but how to quit writing so that my articles are short enough to be published!
Keep Smiling, Rosie
Please e-mail at rosie.preston@yahoo.com and visit my Facebook page.