When Little Joe first started coming around I thought she was a boy so I named her Little Joe. By the time I realized she was a girl the name had stuck and she does turn when you call her so I assume that means she sort of knows her name.
About two months ago I noticed she was pregnant. Bob and I debated this fact because she wasn’t enormous and he thought maybe she’d just put on weight. She looked pregnant to me. The gestation for cats is 60 days so I knew the clock was ticking, I really wanted to catch her and get her to the shelter before she had her kittens. Having kittens under a bush, in the dirt, can’t be fun. But Little Joe had other ideas, she had no intentions of being caught.
Last month she disappeared for a few days, when she turned up again she was skinny again. So either she miscarried or she had her kittens. We looked for them, but lets face it she’s not going to hide them in an obvious location. She came every night for dinner and I fed her as much as she could eat. When she was eating I checked her belly and it was obvious she was nursing. I kept asking her who was kitten sitting and I begged her to bring me her kittens…like she could truly understand what I was saying. Still, I hoped that she would bring them around when they got bigger. I hated the thought of more unaltered cats roaming the streets, making the problem worse. For some reason I felt obligated to help Little Joe, it’s not her fault she never got fixed. She’s a very sweet cat. Recently she’s been very affectionate. I sat down with her for about 20 minutes the other night and she was rubbing up against me and purring.
This morning I came down to the garage to leave for work. Little Joe was in the garage, which is unusual. She usually comes at night. She was very talkative, again that’s unusual for her. I thought she was hungry so I put food out, but she kept talking. I walked to my car and I noticed what I thought was Heatley (another stray we feed) in his bed. Upon further inspection I realized SHE HAD BROUGHT ME HER KITTENS. She was trying to tell me, she was SO proud of them.
We have cat beds in the garage, because we’re crazy cat people. She’d put her kittens in one of the beds. They’re too small to walk there, she had to carry them, one by one, and put them in the bed…all four of them. They’re about 3-4 weeks old (8 ounces), they do that crazy wobble walk and then fall over. This was the opportunity I was hoping for. I shut the garage door and successfully trapped her. She wasn’t happy but I really didn’t want her to take off again. I called the shelter and convinced the animal control officer to come out and get everyone. We had to net poor Little Joe; she tried to climb up the garage door. I know that’s probably not what she was expecting, but this is the best possible outcome. Now she can go into foster care with her kittens, she’ll get plenty of food and everyone is going to get checked out by the vet. When the kittens no longer need her she will go up for adoption. Everyone will get spayed or neutered and best of all, no one will be living on the streets. It felt like such a huge accomplishment, I worried about her and her kittens. Now I know everyone is safe and I offered to foster everyone.
