The Kettle Kitten

I caught a lot of cats today.

I thought I had seven reservations Monday for spay neuter but then I got the reminder message from the clinic and they said I had 14.  I make these appointments way ahead of time, so if they say I have 14 I likely do.  Ok, I thought, I better get at it then.

I headed out early, 6:30 a.m., to a rural location near Lebanon.  The old woman and her adult daughter who lived behind her in a mother in law house did not feed these cats and they want them gone.

These situations are very hard on the cats, especially not being regularly fed.  My barn cat placement friend has space, and they'll at least go somewhere they'll get fed.

Quickly the one mother cat got in the trap, which excited the adult daughter, or seemed to.  I'd been directed to park, for some reason, down an overgrown old path to the barn.   Later the adult daughter told me if I parked in front of the house, her mother might hit my car when she headed off to church.  I guess she hit someone else once.

Yet I felt more like I was being hidden away from someone.

Next I caught a very skinny adult gray male.   Poor baby, head too big for that undernourished body.

We saw a black cat head towards the barn and headed out to see if we could find her kittens.  The other mom's three kittens had been found, and then she put them in a carrier, apparently by the road, and someone out walking took all three.

Inside the barn, there were boxes filled with items being stored out there.  I walked along beside them, turned and came back towards the big sliding door and heard something.  I stopped.  I knew I hadn't touched a box myself but I was sure the sound was like a plate clinking on a plate.  I replayed the sound over in my mind a couple times before I realized I knew what that was.   One of these boxes had dishes inside and I would bet the bank a kitten was in that same box.

I saw a sort of chest box, that had wee holes where you pick it up, on each end.  Kitten size holes, I thought.  We pulled the lid off that box.   Inside it, there was a tall black mottled light metal kettle with a lid.  The lid was askew.  Ha.

I peeked under the lid into the kettle.  There, trying to be as small and quiet as possible, was a kitten.   I carried the kettle with the lid on it, out of the barn, across the yard, to my car.  I got inside, lifted the lid again slightly, slipped my hand in and got the little guy by the scruff.  What a cutie!!

I put him into the back of a transfer trap.  He went wild at first, clawing at the side, scared, trying to hide under the paper towels I'd stuffed it with.

He calmed down fast and now he's already wanted me to hold him.  Darling little guy.  His name is Kettle!

I got 13 adult cats over the course of the day, to take to be fixed tomorrow, but none are as cute as Kettle.   Kettle will go somewhere else I'm sure soon but for now I get to play with another kitten.  You know how I love kittens!

And for good measure!   How about a bus with a chicken coop on top?   The bus was parked over near the fairgrounds at the park today.