The Cat Daycare

 

We have feral cats in our backyard.  They hang out and leave dead lizards and mice on the doorstep. Being a scientific sort, I dutifully assign each cat a name and note their coloring, etc.  We currently have Otto, NotOtto, and Mr. Fluffikins visiting frequently, with Marmalade and Sissy(my husband named that one) living in the bushes in the corner of the yard. The neighbors across the street have raccoons living in their backyard, so I am okay with cats.

Recently, Sissy had a litter of kittens. Two adorable tiny kittens.  I tried to make sure that Sissy had food and water, and we occasionally tried to check on the babies.  Except that mother cats move their babies often in the wild, to keep them safe. Also, it's difficult to have family bonding time when a large human is poking around because "they're so cute!" and he wants a picture. Completely understandable.  

We did not see the babies for several days, but I wasn't worried. Sissy knew what she was doing.  I drove to work for a few hours, then drove to my oncology appointment.  I then drove to New Braunfels to pick up my son, and we drove home, through the beginnings of rush hour traffic. 

Imagine my horror when we got out of the car and heard VERY LOUD mewing coming from my engine. Go on, imagine it.  I'll wait.  Did you picture me, panicking in the front yard, trying to locate the bar that unhooks the hood of the car?  It took Zane and I almost FIVE whole minutes to get the hood open, because we were both so hysterical. We even called my husband, who was on his way home, to ask him how to open the hood, so then he was also hysterical, only on the phone.  Zane and I finally got the hood up and discovered a tiny kitten wiggling about underneath the hot engine. We were frantic about rescuing the kitten(s)?  We only saw the one baby, and had no idea where the other one might be.  Larry came home and we talked him into removing the bottom part of my car so we could get the kitten out.  We got the baby out, and he seemed to be okay, so I took him into the backyard and handed him to Sissy. 

"What the heck did you do that for?" Larry had dreams of kitten fatherhood, but I thought it best for the baby to be fed by its mother. Sissy sniffed a moment, grabbed her kitten and took off for the bushes.  We searched underneath my car, but alas, the other kitten was gone.  It likely rolled out of my car at some point.  I felt guilty about this, but at least we saved one of the babies. Larry, Zane and I had a family moment of feeling good about reuniting mother and son.  

Until the next day when I got out of my car at the end of the day, and the kitten was right back where we found it the day before!  I waited for Larry and Zane to get home, then we extricated the kitten from my engine.  We were confused now.  What should we do?  Larry decided that he wanted to keep the kitten, who was sound asleep in Larry's arms. I was less sure.  On the one hand, the best place for a baby cat is with his mom.  On the other hand, why is this mama cat using my car as a daycare?  So we let the kitten sleep in our house all night.  The next morning I made an executive decision and gave the kitten back to Sissy.  My understanding is that kittens need to eat every two or three hours, and there would be no one at home to feed it.  Larry was upset, but he understood.  

At the end of the day, I came home, sans engine cats; we checked before I left home.  Larry and Zane get home about 30 minutes after me. He suddenly "had a feeling", and opened up my hood.  THE KITTEN was there again! Sissy had decided that my engine was the perfect daycare: warm, dry, and easily defendable from unauthorized visitors.  However, I cannot tell my boss that I have to stay home on account of cat in my engine. Does that count as carpooling? I gave up after that, and drove my mother-in law's jalopy to work for two weeks until we were sure that the danger of cat babysitting was passed.  

We named the kitten Lucky.