It isn’t only that the house is bursting at the seams with cats at the moment, but I am also fighting the fact that I serve up food for their use in a kitchen that is older than dirt! Forty years ago “spacious” kitchens were not the norm. As I scoop out their wet food onto plates, I fast run out of counter space. This morning, even after taking off all the stuff that is on the countertops, I still didn’t have room. If I don’t put the food down all at once, some of the shyer kitties don’t get a chance to eat. I finally devised the “tower plan.” I open up the can of food, scoop it on the plate and spread the food around to line the outside edge of the plate. Then, I take the can, set it in the middle of the plate so I can stack the next plate on top! At the end, I have a towering plate of food, that I can quickly take off and place on the floor for the hungry kitties.

Looks like my crew has expanded this year, as the recent arrivals have not been placed into the right homes. Even with all the ads out, there is still such a shortage of homes for these mites. 🙁 My sister, who also rescues on a much smaller scale (she fosters in Florida) recently received a litter of kittens who were dumped in the middle of the woods near her home. They are such gorgeous kitties, and they made their way into the thickets for protection. This was good for them, but bad for the trappers because they couldn’t trap them all and are still trying. So far three kittens have been saved, but the rescuers can hear the others crying their plight to the world in the middle of the thorny bushes.

Ticks me off so bad when some people decide that life, no matter what type of life is a throw-away life. If you don’t have the time, patience, funds and love to take care of kittens YOU brought into the world by NOT spaying or neutering your animal, than Spay and Neuter! Don’t assume that just because they are cats, they can survive outside, because they can’t! Not unless they have a loving caretaker to see to their needs. Kittens that young, taken away from mom so early can’t hunt because they haven’t learned. Oh, they may go ahead and play with a mouse, but unless they have watched a skilled hunter, they don’t have the capacity to be a skillful hunter. Also a cat on the edge of hunger can’t hunt. Hunting takes patience and time, and a starving cat will make mistakes in his desire for food and the prey will be lost.