The Story of Mystery Cat & Walnut

Guess what?!  We have two new porch kitties.  Sadly, Dottie, our last porch critter disappeared, and has not been seen for a few months.  We can only hope that she is safe and being well cared for by a new family.  However, we think that the word got out within the stray cat community that we had an open spot for a porch cat because shortly after Dottie's departure a new kitty showed up.

At first, we noticed that our pet sitters had put a bowl of cat food on the patio.  Curious about this, we asked if they had seen a cat around our place.  They had in fact spotted a new kitty.  So, we too started to put food out regularly, but the new cat would only eat the food when we weren't around.  For quite a while we didn't even know what this new mystery cat looked like, but she eventually felt comfortable enough to lounge around the patio during the day, enabling us to catch a few glimpses.

Little by little, we started to cultivate our friendship with Mystery Cat.  We talked to her, sat outside with her while she ate, and got closer and closer to her every day.  And she too grew more and more comfy on the patio and around us.  Finally, one day, Mystery Cat worked up the courage to let us pet her a tiny bit while she was eating, though she let out quite a few nervous protest meows in the process.  With some patience and persistence, over the course of a few weeks Mystery learned that being petted and scratched was quite enjoyable.

Then one day we noticed that her belly looked a bit too swollen, and started to wondered if she might be pregnant...?  Doing what any responsible pet owner would do, we attempted to diagnose her ourselves using all of the veterinary knowledge available to us through a google search.  Thus, we attempted to gently feel her belly for walnut-sized bumps, which would indicate the babies' heads. As you can imagine, Mystery Cat was not entirely cooperative, so we managed a few days later to scoop her up and take her to the vet for a proper check-up. 

As it turned out, Mystery Cat had indeed been pregnant, and had already given birth just a couple of days before.  So, we carted her back home, set her free, and started to feed her lots of food so she could take care of her kittens.   For a few weeks she came by to eat quite a bit of food, but otherwise wasn't around much.  And, because she had tucked her kittens away in a mystery spot, we weren't able to check to see how things were going for our young single momma cat and her new wee ones.  

About five weeks later, J came home to find a tiny white and grey Siamese-ish fluff ball on the patio step.  At least one little Walnut had made it through the the first few weeks of life, and Mystery Cat had decided to bring him to the patio to ween him.  For about a week now, Mystery Cat and Walnut have been munching, cuddling, and frolicking together on the patio.  And, we are keeping a close eye on them.