It has been a rough weekend. I’m sick and I’m tired and I miss my people and I just want to be at home with my girls or on vacation with them. But neither of those things get to happen for quite a while. My work situation usurped my vacation plans and we’ll have to send our girls to the beach with my parents for a few weeks without us. We’re sad, but it can’t be helped. Everyone we love will be at the beach, I’ll be at work and Josh will be home alone. Not ideal for anyone. But it’s just a season and there are fun days and more beach trips on the horizon, so we’re pressing forward.
On Friday night, I worked until almost ten and then sat on the porch with the cats for about thirty minutes before bed. We’ve been trying to spend lots of time with them and make them super duper snuggly for their new owners. It’s weird to feel a sense of pride on behalf of a cat, but I can’t help but marvel at how well Killer adapted to motherhood at just over 14 months old herself. She was precious with her babies and I have loved watching them play together on our front porch while Copper (the father, we presume) sits watch over them all.
On Saturday morning, I got up early and was headed out the door to spend the day at the office. The girls were at their grandparents and Josh was hanging out for a few hours by himself. As I was getting into the car, I could see Killer laying in the grass. I just assumed she was napping in the sun and walked out to speak to her before I left. She had been hit by a car sometime over night and died in the yard while her kittens slept in the planter on our front porch. We would later find out she died less than an hour after I went to bed and the kittens hadn’t eaten in almost twelve hours. I was a wreck. I was already sobbing before I got into the house and Josh mercifully didn’t treat me like the crazy lady I was. He took care of her body while I drove to work in tears.
We tried bottle feeding them off and on, but they were having nothing to do with the bottles. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for them to take to lapping milk from a dish and have been eating like champs for the last few days. We’re mixing up kitten formula (who knew that was a thing?) and feeding them around the clock every four hours. I feel like a new mom all over again. They are eating and sleeping well and seem to be adapting to life with four human moms just fine.
A little over a week ago, I had to rescue the kittens from a crack in our crawlspace and brought them upstairs to the porch to live. They have been happily sleeping under a bush in our planter ever since. The girls and I spent a few hours outside with them last week, playing and taking pictures of their antics. These are the only photos I have of Killer & Company together and I’m so glad that I have them. We are keeping one of them (and naming her Lola) and my sister is taking the other two for Hudson. Copper has been spending much more time on the porch these days. He followed Killer around like a shadow and I’m hoping that, despite his hesitance towards humans, he will adapt to having Lola around.
You might have seen on Instagram, that Ella didn’t take it too well. What you can’t see in that photograph is the bottom of the poster, which references “payback”. She made the poster to hang on our mailbox so that the culprit would see it the next time they passed through our neighborhood. Fortunately, her daddy didn’t allow the poster to make it to the end of the driveway, but she taped it to the wall in my bedroom and I can’t help but grin every time I walk past it. I’m thankful for a little something to make me smile.
You can see a few photographs of Killer’s first week at the Rock House here.
