...there lives a feral cat. She is only seen in glimpses, as she is very much afraid of people. She lives on mice and the kindness of employees. They bring in food and treats for her, tidbits of their lunches, and the like. They leave out a "have-a-heart" trap to try to catch her, but she's a cat, and therefore very smart. She knows better than to let herself be caught. If they catch her, they will not take her to the shelter. All they want to do is find her a home or at the very least get her spayed and vaccinated. The employees will gladly donate money for her, but most likely Sears will pay for it.

    One of these employees is my sister. We are quite willing to take this cat in, if she can be caught, and if she can be domesticated enough to get along with our other cats. We've even decided that we would name her "Sears" after her home. We will happily pay for her spay and shots and anything else she needs.

    Because she isn't spayed, she gets pregnant. (surprise!) Her last litter that we know of, was a litter of three. One day one of the guys my sister works with came into the office and told her that he had caught a couple of the kittens, and had them in a box. She asked him how old they looked, he said about four or five months. She figured, "oh great, big kitties", but went to look anyways. He offered her gloves, she started to really worry. She went out to this big box, like a washing machine box, and started thinking that they had probably jumped out by then. She peeked over the side and there, in a corner, were two tiny six or seven WEEK old kittens. They were hardly bigger than my hand, and scared to death. On her lunch break, she put them in a smaller box and brought them home. One was black and the other she thought was grey. The grey one turned out to be grey with splotches of peach, white, and lighter grey. We put them in a kennel to keep them seperate from the other cats, and took them out several times a day to try to tame them. Eventually, we named the greyish one Tragedy, because she had the saddest face you have ever seen. She just looked like her whole world had crumbled. She was very sweet, and purred all the time. The other we had no idea what to name. Less than a week later, she brought home another greyish kitten. She has splotches of white and peach. This one was NOTHING like her brother and sister. She hissed, spit, and tried to bite. A bundle of anger! After Tragedy got old enough, she was adopted out to one of my sister's co-workers from Home Base, her other job. She didn't give them a name, and they decided to call her Patches. She's happily living with a little girl who adores her. The other two, the black one now named Salem, and the other named Happy (which she is mostly not!) live with us. We took them to the vet for their first shots and an initial exame. They both had ear mites, we weren't surprised. I have never cleaned so much filth out of a cat's ears! Even when Sissy came  home, his ears were cleaner! These were positively disgusting! So, our vet gave us meds for their ears, ran the normal tests, and gave them their first set of vaccinations. By that time they were about 3 months old. After that we ket them in my daughter's room, still not wanting to expose them to the other cats. They were just too small to defend themselves in case someone didn't like them. Their ear mites cleared up, and a few months later they went back to the vet to be spayed and nuetered. Up until then, Happy was still very much afraid of us. She would run away and hide, but when we finally caught her, she would realize that she liked being snuggled and petted and purred away. After she was spayed and had healed, we let them out with the other cats. They paid them no attention what-so-ever. Just another couple of cats. All except for Nonie. She had a different idea about these little fluff balls. She adopted them. They were her babies. Oddly, Nonie was spayed before she even had her first heat. She's never had a litter, and never will. Must be very strong mother instincts! She slept with them, showed them were to eat and drink, and bathed them. Her babies, no doubt about it. It's the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Sissy has always been the daddy cat. There was no difference. He plays with Salem, and snuggles with the dainty little Happy. He does this with all kittens. He probably figures that after all the litters he's produced that all cats are somehow related! ~grin~ They are both very healthy, and have adapted well. Happy is still very shy, but has adpted my sister as her human. For some reason, Salem adopted me. He loves to sit in my lap and "help" me surf the net, and read news groups and email. They can't stop purring to save their lives. Salem even purred through his vacinnes! They eat like there is no tomorrow, and are the sweetest things you have ever seen. You can tell they are related, even if they look nothing alike, by the way they act. They are almost inseperable, unless I am in one room and my sister is in another, then they meet up later. We're glad we took them in, they are wonderful pets and we love them very much!
 

This story has a happy ending, but not all kittens are this lucky. Most do not get the chance to live in a warm home with loving humans. This is another reason to spay and nueter. We love our kittens, but we can't take in every one we see. Although we would like to!
 

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