When we go to the bathroom, they sit outside the door waiting. They race through the house like little tiny Cheetahs at 2 a.m.
They continue to grow, and life will never be the same with our herd of cats. They have become a part of our family now. After a while, when it became apparent that the kittens were not going anywhere, Alaina named them Thumper for the gray tabby and Oscar for the pure black one. When the time came for the kittens to be adopted, we were only able to get rid of one of the black ones. Two cats, just right…five cats, too many. We watched and cared for them all the while trying not to fall in love with any of them because we knew we were getting rid of them. She had three kittens, two black males and one gray tabby female. The day she delivered, everyone was out of the house and she hid under Alaina’s bed. We were all enjoying the process thoroughly. I’ve had cats all of my life, but I’ve never experienced having a pregnant cat and having kittens. Before Oreo delivered, people were begging us to have one. We didn’t think we were going to have any problem getting rid of the kittens. And then we discovered Oreo was pregnant! No good deed goes unpunished. She was such a sweet, gentle female kitten Gary adjusted well he didn’t seem to mind her they seemed to get along just fine all were happy. So, after doing a bit of research about introducing a new cat into a home that has been ruled by another cat for years, we finally decided to invite Oreo into our family. It was quite obvious that we had all fallen in love with her. We didn’t want the responsibility of having another cat, but we also didn’t want Oreo to spend nights in the freezing temperatures of the winter and we couldn’t stand to call animal control. Nice neighbor lady said no problem, and she didn’t mind if we took her as our own. Shannon assured her that we weren’t trying to steal Oreo, we were just concerned that she was hungry and Alaina, of course, loved playing with her. One day the nice neighbor lady approached my daughter and said that she had noticed that we had been caring for Oreo. Nor did it appear that they were feeding her. As the summer months turned into fall, we became concerned because Oreo was never going inside at night. So, Alaina began to make sure she had food and water. Alaina (and probably my daughter, Shannon) became concerned that the nice neighbors didn’t seem to be feeding Oreo. Oreo had grown attached to Alaina and would come across the street to play with her. They allowed Alaina and the other neighborhood children to play with the kitten and when they were trying to name her, Alaina even suggested they name her “Oreo”.
Here we are five years later and the couple who lives across the street from us took in a cute little black and white stray kitten last summer. Time flies when you’re cleaning the litter box. Through the years, Alaina has fed them, played with them, and created little box houses for them but eventually they would disappear, and we would dodge the bullet of explaining “no more cats” to her.
There are always stray kittens and cats wondering around. I live in an area of Wheeling where there are a lot of woods, and people dump their unwanted felines. Even if it was a chair I wanted to sit in! I immediately warmed up to Gary and allowed him to casually slip into his position as “king of the house.” Meaning, wherever Gary wanted to lie, he would lay. My granddaughter, Alaina, named him after Sponge Bob Square Pants’ pet snail, Gary, and she called the stuffed animal he played with Sandy. They brought their young, large and loveable short haired yellow cat named Gary. A few years ago, my daughter, Shannon, and her family moved in with me.