I don't post about MamaKat (Weeble & the FF's birthmother) here very often,
but I know that some of you might wonder about her from time to time.

Actually, I haven't seen MamaKat since before Christmas (when we had a
pretty bad snowstorm, about 18 inches or so) but the three from the litter
she had after I snagged the FF from her are hanging around our garage.  Late
last fall, we purchased a handmade wooden doghouse from a retired gent that
lives near us (kind of expensive, but VERY well made and sturdy).  We placed
it near the garage for Mama & the three.  Lined the bottom with styrofoam
for insulation, and bought some hay for bedding.  They really wouldn't go
*in* it, but they would play on & around it.  We leave the garage door open
about 6 inches or so, and I feed the Garage Kitties (as I now call them)
inside there since only smaller critters can get in there to their food, no
big dogs that may happen to wander by.  Just before we got hit with all that
snow, we decided to move that do- er, CAT house to the inside of the garage.
We also splurged on a heated water dish so their water won't freeze up.

That seemed to suit them just fine.  The dish that I place their food in is
just about a foot away from the house.  When I bend over to dump their food
into that dish, I can peer inside it. I can see two indentations in the hay,
where they've made some nests.  A couple of times I've seen the black &
white kitty in there, peering cautiously out at me.  Sometimes she will
leave the house when she (could be a he, I've never been close enough to
their nether regions to be able to tell) hears me coming in the morning
(I've looked in the house when it's not in there, and can see no evidence of
kittens, TG).  It usually tries to keep about 5-6 feet between me & it,
waiting for me to get 2-3 steps away from the food dish before chowing down.
The other two will flee in terror, one (who is white & grey striped, like it
is missing the black, the other is a normal grey tiger, with white on
face/belly just like it's siblings) will flee to the neighbor's wooded back
yard and watch from the relative safety of a fallen tree branch.  The black
& grey one will just dart under the garage door and wait just on the other
side until I'm almost back at the house, then dart back under and join it's
sibling at the food dish.

When the B&W kitty stays in the house while I'm there, at first I just
looked at it and talked, telling it how pretty it is, and that I'm not going
to hurt them, I'm a good person as I bring them FOOD (the B&W one seems to
find my that somewhat calming).  Monday, I decided to be brave and stick my
hand in the house with it.  I got to within one inch of it's nose.  It
barely blinked, and I couldn't see any movement from it at all, not even
backing away from my hand (the only movement I could see was it's nose
twitching as it sniffed my scent).  I didn't try to touch it out of fear of
getting bitten or slashed (and my reaction to that would have frightened the
poor thing even more).  Then this morning I did it again, but this time I
was able to actually touch the kitty.  I stroked the bridge of it's nose
slightly, slowly withdrew my hand and then left (again, It was chowing down
by the time I had taken 2-3 steps away from the dish).

I think within the next few days/weeks, I might actually be able to give it
a few ear scritchies and maybe some pettins as it eats.

On another note, we had our enclosed back porch opened up to our indoor
kitties, and last night while watching TV, I saw that Lizzie was getting
agitated over something she saw outside.  DH & I went to investigate, and in
the darkness we saw some white.  I grabbed a laser pointer (Moe *loves*
chasing the red-dot greebling) and shined it out through the windows, moving
it around near where the white shape was.  Sure enough, in a minute, that
white shape was chasing the red-dot greebling.  It even went halfway up a
tree!  Since it was so dark, I have no idea which one of the three kittens
it was, but it was still kind of funny to watch that ghostly white shape
bounding around, chasing the red dot!

--?
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)?
email me at nalee1964 (at) insightbb (dot) com
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep