Volunteers in the Garden

You know how it is… when you’ve had a garden for a while, some times you get things coming up that you didn’t plant.

In the side garden this year, we planted green and jalapeno peppers, canteloupes, and green beans. But this afternoon, we discovered some surprising volunteers.

We found the kittens, hiding out in the cinder-block borders of our raised garden beds.

After we saw all of them, we figured out who the momma is – she’s a black tortoiseshell with a yellow tipped tail. She’s been around for about a year; I think somebody across the street feeds her, but she sort of lives at large in the neighborhood. She used to give our cats trouble, but seems to have settled down.

They’re really cute! We put out some food, and Momma showed up, and we got to pet her and the kittens. We’re guessing about four weeks; after a couple more weeks, with plenty of feeding and handling, we’ll start thinking about what to do with them.

Momma looks exactly like the one on the right, although it lacks her orange-tipped tail. We’re pretty sure we’ve seen seven, although there could be eight; they are pretty skittish.

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  1. alyxavia
    alyxavia says:

    Hey, if you should decide to give them away, or adopt them out, we would really really love to have the orange one. We’ve been looking for an orange tabby for a while now to go with our gray tabby and our black and white. My husband had an orange tabby named Spiffy as a child and has always wanted another. When he I showed him this post he said, “What are they going to do with the orange one?” So I told him I would ask.

    Thanks,

    Alyx

  2. alyxavia
    alyxavia says:

    Hey, if you should decide to give them away, or adopt them out, we would really really love to have the orange one. We’ve been looking for an orange tabby for a while now to go with our gray tabby and our black and white. My husband had an orange tabby named Spiffy as a child and has always wanted another. When he I showed him this post he said, “What are they going to do with the orange one?” So I told him I would ask.

    Thanks,

    Alyx

  3. paroxytone
    paroxytone says:

    Awwww, so cute. Our cat we got because he kept hanging around our house and wouldn’t go away. There are a few other cats around here as well, but none of them have produced kittens.

  4. paroxytone
    paroxytone says:

    Awwww, so cute. Our cat we got because he kept hanging around our house and wouldn’t go away. There are a few other cats around here as well, but none of them have produced kittens.

  5. admin
    admin says:

    There are two orange ones, actually – the tiny one with lots of white, and the other one that hid under the porch is more orange. I’m sure we’ll be looking to adopt them out, within a couple of weeks – right now, they’re about 4 weeks or so, able to chew food but still nursing and hanging close to momma a lot.

  6. admin
    admin says:

    There are two orange ones, actually – the tiny one with lots of white, and the other one that hid under the porch is more orange. I’m sure we’ll be looking to adopt them out, within a couple of weeks – right now, they’re about 4 weeks or so, able to chew food but still nursing and hanging close to momma a lot.

  7. alyxavia
    alyxavia says:

    Well we would be happy with either orange one, when they’re ready. Being a Momma myself I know how important a Momma can be. Ty, our boy cat, came home with us a little to early because the family who had him didn’t want the kittens anymore and we had to take them before they put them out on the street. We had to syringe feed him for a good long while before we could teach him to eat soft solid and then solid food. He’s a great big floofy boy cat now though.

  8. alyxavia
    alyxavia says:

    Well we would be happy with either orange one, when they’re ready. Being a Momma myself I know how important a Momma can be. Ty, our boy cat, came home with us a little to early because the family who had him didn’t want the kittens anymore and we had to take them before they put them out on the street. We had to syringe feed him for a good long while before we could teach him to eat soft solid and then solid food. He’s a great big floofy boy cat now though.

  9. jennfurr
    jennfurr says:

    wow… those are amazing seeds!

    awwwwwww I love the little gray/white one. Now if you didn’t live all the way across a couple of big states 🙂

  10. jennfurr
    jennfurr says:

    wow… those are amazing seeds!

    awwwwwww I love the little gray/white one. Now if you didn’t live all the way across a couple of big states 🙂

  11. admin
    admin says:

    They’re already tearing into hard food without too much apparent difficulty – the little orange one appears smaller than the rest, and he sat face-first in the food dish and ate alone for quite a while after Momma was done. Another week and a half or so, they should be good to go. We’ve begun handling them all as much as possible to tame them; they’re fairly gentle, because they’re still young enough, but I think we caught them just in time.

    I can’t believe they’ve been there so long without us finding them already – there’s a porch they can get under and a shed they can get behind, and I’m pretty sure they were born under the porch.

  12. admin
    admin says:

    They’re already tearing into hard food without too much apparent difficulty – the little orange one appears smaller than the rest, and he sat face-first in the food dish and ate alone for quite a while after Momma was done. Another week and a half or so, they should be good to go. We’ve begun handling them all as much as possible to tame them; they’re fairly gentle, because they’re still young enough, but I think we caught them just in time.

    I can’t believe they’ve been there so long without us finding them already – there’s a porch they can get under and a shed they can get behind, and I’m pretty sure they were born under the porch.

  13. chaosdancer
    chaosdancer says:

    Caption for pic #2: “Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal!”

    (Non-fans of WB cartoons won’t get it but that’s ok.)

    Oh, and they are incredibly cute. 🙂

  14. chaosdancer
    chaosdancer says:

    Caption for pic #2: “Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal!”

    (Non-fans of WB cartoons won’t get it but that’s ok.)

    Oh, and they are incredibly cute. 🙂

  15. julilla1
    julilla1 says:

    Oh, that tortie girl is beautiful! I wish I lived near and had room for another kitty. Already I have two whose shenanigans have left me scarred and our things broken. But I love them anyway!

  16. julilla1
    julilla1 says:

    Oh, that tortie girl is beautiful! I wish I lived near and had room for another kitty. Already I have two whose shenanigans have left me scarred and our things broken. But I love them anyway!

  17. sunflower_andi
    sunflower_andi says:

    I’ve been thiinking of getting a cat – only after my trip. I will contact you on adopting one of these lil’ guys when I make that decision. k? =)

    BTW: do you still have Miro’s fur? If so, I might take it and learn to spin.

  18. sunflower_andi
    sunflower_andi says:

    I’ve been thiinking of getting a cat – only after my trip. I will contact you on adopting one of these lil’ guys when I make that decision. k? =)

    BTW: do you still have Miro’s fur? If so, I might take it and learn to spin.

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