Recently Gma's cat had kittens. She initially had them in the weirdest/funniest place. A little pot-bellied clay stove thingy (perhaps I'll get a picture to make it clear how funny it was). Six kittens and a full grown mama cat in something the size of a .... lets say 10 quart (if that) pot. Pretty funny! Though the first time I saw them it was POURING outside and this stove wasn't under cover and the chimney, is well a chimney, with a hole. They were all soaking wet! We moved them to a nice roomy (and long time empty) dog house. She apparently didn't like that, as mama cats are prone to want to pick out their own place for their kittens, and she moved them about two days later. Time went by and I wanted to find the kittens before they became six little feral cats roaming around!
I didn't look too seriously until last week. I should add, as a side note of sorts, that mama cat wasn't the friendliest cat. Until, that is, she had her kittens. Apparently motherhood softened her up because she is now very "lovey" and will beg for attention. Anyway, I used this fact and carried her all around Gma's house, looking and listening for her kittens. She didn't really help at all (crazy as that sounds) even when I asked her about 50 times to tell me where her kittens were. *Note: I don't really anthropomorphize animals THAT much! I didn't think she'd actually answer me. Really!* I walked through the field, around the garden, around the barn and garage, through the barn, behind the barn. Looked under overhangs, in bushes, under sheds. You know, in all the places I thought a mama cat would think to put her kittens to keep them safe. I didn't see or hear them.
Finally, I put down the mama, and just stood by the garage. I just stood there and tried to listen for little meow's. Nothing. Mama cat wound around my feet over and over trying to get attention. I stood in one place probably for about 10 minutes before she got bored with me and went a little ways away to drink out of a puddle in the rim of the tractor bucket. Then she came back and rubbed on my legs some more. She decided I wasn't going to pay any attention to her so she went trotting off toward the barn. I thought "yes! She's going to lead me right to them!" When she was a good distance away from me I started to follow her. But, she got to the big willow at the back corner of the barn and climbed right up! Well, that was it. I had a moment when I thought she could have put them in the V of the trunk about 10 feet off the ground but, she kept going up the tree. I knew she had gotten bored with me, and wasn't going back to her kittens. Dad came out about then and asked if I'd found them. Nope. He walked out to me and I pointed out that she'd climbed the tree. He noticed something move on the barn roof. Yeah, it was mama cat. THEN, he noticed something else move. Yep! She'd gone over to the barn roof on a branch from the willow tree to a nice pile of old sticks. She had all six kittens up there in a big bird-cat nest. Crazy cat!
Needless to say, my hinting about feral cats and kittens falling to their doom, led to them being rescued from the barn roof.
Again I say, crazy cat!
