Shh, don’t tell the others.

Although, I doubt it will come as a shock to the other pets, really.

Let’s just say that this black and white cat (pictured above) was born in the neighborhood about this time two years ago. (wow, time flies, but I figure that she’s just a couple months older than Temmy, who is coming up on being two.) Last December, she showed up on my porch begging for help. I knew some of the others in the neighborhood were feeding the kittens populating the neighborhood. Yet, no one was actually taking care of the problem of the cats having more kittens.

Yes, please get your cats and dogs spayed or neutered. If you’re going to have the pet, take the action.

I have a lot of irritation with the neighbor who let this happen. I know who it is and he wanted cats for his kids to play with, but didn’t want an indoor cat or to claim responsibility for the kittens. It was very unfair on so many levels.

Anyway, Prancer (as I instantly started calling her because she’d prance around my feet to get my attention) was starving. I reached down to pet her and realized she was skin and bones and milk. Yes, she’d had kittens recently and had probably lost the whole litter because she was full of milk. If I weighed her at that time, I bet most of the weight would have been fluid rather than her.

I had to stay outside with her or watch through the window to make sure she got food because several other neighbor cats would come and try to steal her food and she was too weak to fend them off. They eventually stopped coming around because I was such a bully to them in order to protect Prancer. Trust me, they all got food elsewhere and were not skin and bones like she was.

I’ve spent several months now slowly getting her weight up. I do suspect that she has worms too — most outdoor cats do. Merlin loves to play with her and she is not afraid of him at all. She thinks he’s the bee’s knees and just rubs up against him. I do try to limit their interaction, but I realize Merlin probably needs medicated now too, though I do him fairly regularly anyway.

Prancer so badly wants to be a house cat, probably like Bella. And while I have resisted, I see myself taking care of Prancer day after day, so it’s time to step up and do what my neighbor won’t. Next week, she has an appointment to be spayed, wormed, and get her immunizations. Then, she’ll be adopted into our family, even though she has already adopted me.

I hope this gives Temmy a playmate so that she stops picking on Bella and Coville, neither of which seem to fond of Prancer, though Temmy seems rather open to the idea. I’m not sure that 4 cats is a great idea. It sounds as if I’m becoming the crazy cat lady. Last week, I picked up a new oven mitt. I was looking for the one that had dogs on it because I liked the towel the store had hanging, but all they had for mitts was the cat one. The dog one was sold out. I didn’t like any of the other patterns, so I bought the $#^%*# cats! I swear it was a sign from the universe.

So, Coville was the 3-5 day old kitten I took in when I accidentally started draining my pool (I miss my pool) into where his mama had her nest. She moved all the other kittens except for him. I think she knew that I always wanted a black cat, and though he was young, he was strong and healthy. I should have taken in Coville’s grandpa (who I called King – and deserved the name because he had great manners, and Coville is the same way) and his mama (who was just a kitten when King came around wanting me to adopt them). Coville will be 17 years old this year.

And, yes, I do watch over and name all of the neighborhood cats. I don’t often feed them because there are enough mice, squirrels, and birds (and, I don’t really want them hanging out for an easy meal and adopting me). But, I will care for them if they are in trouble, like Prancer (and Bella, coming up below).

Merlin came to us after he’d been abandoned at 7 weeks old. Someone had known that my dad was looking for a dog at that time, but I knew my dad (who was in his 70’s at the time) didn’t need a puppy this young to take care of. I agreed to take the dog for 6 weeks. Yeah, my dad went out and got himself another dog (one which was probably a better fit for him anyway) a week or two after I took Merlin home. Merlin’s going to be 12 this year.

Bella was 2-3 months old when she showed up on my doorstep with cat fever so badly that her eyes were swollen shut. She was crying and scratching at the back door for help. I believe that she was actually born from one of cats born from Coville’s mom in another litter. Bella had two brothers and she was the runt of the litter (at least of the three that survived). All of them were wild and would scatter when I went outside. But, when she got sick, she came to me and you’d hardly have known that she was a feral cat. I really did figure that as soon as she got to feeling better, she’d run outside and never come back. But she adopted us (though she certainly doesn’t like any other cats). This year, she’ll be 10 years old.

Temmy we adopted from Broken Hearts Rescue right before Christmas 2021. I’m still trying to decide if that was a good idea or not. I told my son at the time that I really didn’t need to adopt because pets always found me when they needed me. Ah, I do believe some day she will be a good cat.

Yes, there is a reason my mother always used to read me Miss Lollipop’s Lion and warned me not to become Miss Lollipop. (grin) I understand the warning only too late.

Please spay or neuter your pets. I don’t want to be Miss Lollipop.

Cheers.