What's new ?

Glad you asked.
Good thing I can write, because I am still speechless.
About a month ago, I took our adopted cat Midnight to the vets. She spent the winter living in the two story Victorian, and in February, she broke a window and went outside. We found her the next day with her little cat friends. She told me it was an emergency.
I've heard the same excuse from my ewes!
I wanted the vet to make sure Midnight looked healthy and ready to have kittens naturally. An odd request, but the last time we adopted a stray pregnant cat she had a C-section.
About three days later, I found a skinny Midnight, a wet chaise lounge, but no kittens. Oh, I know cats like to hide their kittens. This was the second pregnancy for Midnight, since we met....and I just thought she was exhibiting feral cat behavior. Bad cat....not the motherly type. I looked and looked. I looked under furniture. In open closets. Under the covers on the beds. No little rat-type kittens. I was sad. Midnight still got fed and cared for regularly. It wasn't her fault. But true caregiver style...I blamed myself. I should have been there. Poor kittens!
It has been about a month, and today we both arrived at the big house to finish cutting the lawn. I came in the front door. My husband was sitting at the dining room table on the phone. Midnight had already been fed her special envelope of wet cat food. There she was under the table by my husband's feet. Next to Midnight was a tiny black kitten with it's tail straight up in the air.
Again, Speechless....I pointed under the table. As I stood there, with my mouth babbling nothing, My husband thought. "It must be a snake, or a big spider" Then he looked down and saw the kitten. "How did you get in here?" My mind had made a connection between black Midnight cat and tiny black kitten. But my husband, sure there were no kittens from Midnight, thought there must be a door open for the small cat to get into our house.
I crawled under the table, and lifted the skirt on the dining chairs. One after another little kittens peered back at me. Three kittens....no....four kittens! Where did she hide them? I had turned over the furniture. Crawled under the beds. Looked behind doors. Midnight kept those kittens hidden until they had their eyes open, and were crawling around . I am still speechless. I do owe Midnight some praises. I should have not thought the worst of her. She has a lovely temperment. She loves to crawl up on the bed at night to cuddle.
I take it all back....she IS a good mother cat. I should have had her fixed before February. But I didn't know she would break-glass-in-case-of-emergency. I'm really glad she finally let me meet her kittens.
One is black, one black brown and white tortie, one grey beige and white tortie, and one little black and white. I'll have to spend more time getting them socialized now...before they are totally grown. Good thing I'm a cat person.
Wow...What a surprise!