Most of you know that Weeble's real mama abandoned him and one of his
sisters last August, when he was only a day old.  The story that I haven't
told here was that I waited about a month, and then set humane trap out for
his mama & remaining 3 siblings.  Mama got caught in the trap ONCE, and went
berserk big time when I approached the trap (my goal was to trap her, keep
her on front porch while I trapped Weeble's three siblings, let her finish
raising the kittens, adopt them out & have Mama spayed & then release her
back into the wild), she managed to escape the trap when I was about 2 feet
away.  She never approached the trap again, although I did reset it & all 3
off Weeble's siblings entered it and were on the trip-plate, it didn't go
off.  We did manage to catch 3 raccoons (or the same raccoon 3 times, since
we just released it (and to me one raccoon looks like every other raccoon) -
and it waited patiently while we opened the trap) and one opossum (and this
one didn't want to leave the trap, I had to pick up the trap & shake it to
get it out!).

I would occasionally see Mama & the Trio (what I called them) crossing the
back yard, or in the hedgerow that separates our property from the
surrounding.  And then she & the trio disappeared.  I have never seen the
trio since them, and have no idea what happened to them.

Mama made an appearance again this spring, and, in the same place she had
Weeble & his sibling, she had a litter of 4 kittens.  I left food out for
her and she continued to accept it and she & the kittens remained there for
about a week.  Then one morning, about 2 weeks ago, they were gone.  I
didn't see hide nor hair of Mama at all, until today.  I was riding along on
the mower, and all of a sudden there was an explosion of black & white cat
darting from under a pine/fir tree (I can never tell pine from fir - it has
the big soft needles), and I look, and there among some dead branches is an
overturned 5 gallon bucket, and dating into the bucket is a kitten!  I shut
down the mower, and went to investigate while Mama high-tailed it away
somewhere.  There are 4 kittens, one tuxedo-like except that the parts that
would be black are grey tiger, one white with even less grey tiger & a brown
spot on it's nose, one white with a few brown/grey tiger blotches & a few
orange splotches, and one white with a few brown/grey tiger spots.  Fearing
that since I startled Mama away that she will abandon them (like she did
Weeble), I gathered them into my (oversized) T-shirt and found a box (full
of yet-to-be-used Foster & Smith goodies) and a scrap of rug & put them on
the front porch., ran to the pet store & got some KMR & some new nipples for
the bottle I used on Weeble last year, the grocery store for some unscented
plain cheap tissues with which to wipe kitten bottoms with until they are
litter trained, and thinking ahead I got some jars of baby food just in
case.

The kittens eyes are open and VERY blue, they have their baby teeth, but
they aren't 'walking' yet, still kinda crawling a bit, almost walking.
Right now they are VERY scared, though they did pee when stimulated, they
wouldn't eat (their bellies are kinda big, so I'm thinking Mama had just fed
them)

They are all females, and I have tentatively named them Eenie (the white
with brown/grey tiger spots) Meanie (the white with brown/grey tiger &
orange spots - and it seems to fit her as she hisses at me a lot), Minie (or
maybe Minnie - as in Mouse?) for the white & grey tiger, and Moe for the one
with brown spot on her nose.  Thankfully I didn't see any fleas on them, but
I'm not going to hold my breath.

I'm keeping them on the front porch so to keep Fat Basta-, er.... Tennessee
from thinking they are food and eating them.