Mia and her kittens: Homey, Jeffie, and Bitsy,
and Biffy and Mr. Fluffy, too!

In April of 1991, a small gray feral tabby cat jumped onto my kitchen window ledge, and cried for food. The window cranks open, so she only had about 2" to stand on, but she somehow managed to fit, and cry helplessly for something to eat. The minute we saw her, and how hungry she looked, we grabbed some canned and hard food and brought it out for her. She ate everything, and then left.

Early the next morning, Jeff woke me up and said "Do you want to see 2 kittens??" I had such mixed emotions; I LOVE kittens! But my first thought was, WHO's kittens?! Sure enough, they were Mia's (as we came to call her, or Mama Mia�s) kittens. They both looked just like her. So, out we went with food for 3! They all ate, and then she called to her babies, and back into the woods they went.

On day three, she showed up again, and this time there were THREE kittens. The newest one was a black and white "tuxedo" kitten, with one "sock" up and one "sock" down on his back legs. They all ate, and then back in the woods they went. They wouldn't let us get too close to them. So, they'd all eat, and we'd watch from a distance.

By day four I was worried if there would be MORE kittens, but she returned again with only the three of them. This became a routine, every morning, and every evening about 4:30 they'd show up. They'd eat, and drink, and play in our yard, but they didn't want us to get too close. I did manage to get the tuxedo kitten to let me touch him. We named him Homey. He became my favorite kitten, since he liked me the best... or should I say, he feared me the least? The other two we named "Little Bit" (or "Bitsy"), and "Jeffie". I named Jeffie after my husband - to insure we would always have to keep him! Jeff already promised me we could keep Homey, and I knew that by naming Jeffie after him, he would be hard to let go. And then, how could we break up the family? ...and give Bitsy away? I can be very "creative" when it comes to keeping these kitties. I know that no one could have adopted them. We had never seen a feral cat before Mia. These cats were really wild. They needed a special home, where they could feel, and actually be, safe.

My neighbors do not like cats, and they make no secret of that. As soon as these 4 started hanging around, they started to complain. They were using their lawn as a litter box, and killing the plants, so he wanted them out of there. He threatened to take them to the pound where they would have been killed the same day. My only consolation was knowing how impossible it was for me to catch them all, so I knew he'd have a very hard time; but I was very worried about them.

To make it even more upsetting, the 2 male cats that she had apparently been "dating" (and were the fathers of the kittens) were now hanging around too, and fighting! So, I had 3 cats, and 3 kittens that we were trying to care for outside, and 7 cats and a dog inside that we were taking care of too. We had discussed NOT taking in any more cats in the previous years, and I had agreed that we would try and limit the number. We were already so restricted by the ones we had. So, I wondered WHY I was having all these kitties sent to me when we were already struggling so hard to care for the ones we had? Jeff was also out of work at the time, and had been for almost a year. So, we were really hanging on by a thread. But, we still tried to care for them all, and to catch them. It was a tough time for us all.

On August 20 of that year, our dog, McGee, who we had since she was a puppy and for 15 years, got very sick. We took her to the vet's office. He just told us to watch her through the night. But by 9:30 pm, she was gone. We found out that she had a tumor on her spleen, and it must have burst. I was devastated. It was the first time since we were married that we didn't have a dog around the house. About a week later, my cat Kiki (who was the love of my life) started to have severe kidney problems. We still have to tell his story, but we lost him on September 14. It was about 31/2 weeks after we lost McGee. We had gotten them 3 days apart, and had them both for 15 years, and lost them both within a month of each other. It was one of the hardest times of my life.

All this time, we were still caring for this wild "family" in our yard, and trying to catch them, and fearing that the worst would happen to them if we didn't.

We started feeding them closer and closer to our patio. It took a while, but I eventually put the food inside the patio and they started to go inside it and eat, but they would never all go in together! They ate in shifts! I knew that they knew we were up to something.

One day in the beginning of October, I had an idea. I thought of putting catnip down all around the patio. They came in and started rolling in it, and they stayed much longer than they normally would. I had Jeff crawl around to the backyard and wait by the patio door. Little by little Mia and the kittens drifted in. And they were now ALL in the patio. BANG!! Jeff shut the door. They've been in ever since! We had a mass spay/neuter trip. And they were all checked for FeLV and FIV. Thank God, they were all negative. We kept them in the patio for a few days, and then opened the window and the door from there that leads to the house. They gradually got used it. In November of that year, after watching one of the fathers (Mr. Fluffy) stare in at them for days, we took him in, too.

In January we had the second father, Biffy, neutered. We put him back outside, and he disappeared for about a month. I was so worried about him. Then he showed up again, and stared in our windows at them. So what could we do? Within 4 months we had adopted another 6 cats. Try explaining that to a family that couldn't understand, or deal with, the ones that we already had! Some people think we were crazy, that we should have let "someone else" take care of them, but we knew no one would, and what their lives would be like outside.

So, technically we "rescued" them all. But in truth, it was them that rescued ME. I didn't know why they had all been sent to me, but after losing Kiki and McGee, it was nice having them around to watch, and care for, and spend my days trying to gain their trust. Feral cats have a very special place in my heart. You have to work hard to gain their trust, but without it, unfortunately, they don't stand much of a chance in this world.

Sadly... we lost our sweet, handsome Jeffie on August 25, 2007.
Please visit Jeffie's Tribute Page.

We lost our beloved Mia on May 26, 2007.
Please visit Mia's Tribute Page.

We lost our beloved Bitsy on December 15, 2004.
Please visit Bitsy's Tribute Page.