One fine day…..

About a year ago when I had gotten up from a short nap on a Sunday afternoon, I noticed that it seemed that allot of cats were making one helluva noise just outside the house. At first I ignored it thinking that the bunch of cats will go away by themselves. But the sound was persist ant.

So I went outside and took a peek. It was not exactly what I had expected. There was a mother cat with 3 kittens sitting on the driveway. The kittens were really hungry it seemed. The mother cat saw me and just froze. So I backed up a bit and started thinking what should be done next. I really didn't want to drive them away at all considering that there were 3 very young kittens with the mother cat.
After taking stock of the situation, I went inside to hunt for some food for the cat family. Going thru all the food items in the fridge, it was decided that just a plain simple bowl of milk was the best option at the moment. I went off on a bowl hunting mission all through out the house....finally locating a medium sized one after 10 minutes. Looked outside and the mother cat and its litter was still outside. I quickly poured some milk in the bowl and placed it outside near the cat and kittens. All four looked at me and the bowl as if I was some alien from outer space. Noticing that they might run away and not drink the milk, I withdrew to a safe distance and hid behind the car to watch them.
So all four of them looked in my general direction and then at the bowl of milk and then back in my general direction and then back at the bowl of milk, not knowing what to do. Finally, the mother got curious and started investigating the bowl of milk. The kittens followed suit. Apparently they liked it so much that the milk simply disappeared in a matter of minutes. I refilled the bowl of milk so that they could have something whenever they got hungry. After hiding the kittens behind some leftover construction stuff, the mother cat went off somewhere....probably to hunt for food. She used to come by on a regular basis initially, but as the kittens grew older...the visits became less frequent.

Of the three kittens, we gave the first 2 kittens the following names: Softy and blackie. I really do not remember what the third kitten was called. I don't think we ever gave it a proper name. No name suited it. It just seemed so unfriendly and mean.
We really fell in love with Softie and Blackie. We really looked forward to seeing them each and every day. They were real inquisitive, friendly, adorable and it seemed like they really did like us. We fed them on a regular basis with whatever leftover food item we had. Whenever they got hungry between meals, they usually went on a hunting mission to see if they could catch something to eat like a mouse or a bird. As night time approached, they usually found a safe cozy corner in one of the trees or in between the leftover construction material. Early in the morning when I used to go out to get the paper, they used to see me from where ever they were hiding, run up to me and follow me around.

As time flew by, they got older, bigger, bolder, they started venturing more and more outside our property. Pretty soon they only used to show up in the morning and in the evening by our front door and go meow...meow and wait till we showed up with something to eat. They always managed to lighten up our dull day and put a simile on our face. But I guess it was bound to happen. One fine day, they were all gone,and it has been 5 months since then. I think it all started with the meanie cat as I sometimes called it. It was the first one to leave. But it never occurred to me that one day that the remaining two would seek their own place. I guess what they say is true...We don't adopt cats...it's the cats who adopt us. They will stay as long as they wish. Wherever they are, I hope they are happy and in good health.