Monday, November 5, 2012

Check for Kittens!



We have a handmade sign, “Check for Kittens!” taped to our dashboard.

Eight years ago this month, on a cold and rainy November night, I hopped into our car for a quick grocery run. Just as I was about to turn the key, I heard the faintest “mew,” so soft I wondered if it could have been my imagination. I popped the hood, and huddled together next to the fan belt, were two tiny, wet, terrified kittens. I brought them inside and shortly they were warm and dry and their tummies were full. A couple of weeks later, the fellow who came to fix our cable asked to take the sisters to his farm, for his daughters, much to the relief of our two upstairs cats, who were happy to have the full run of the house again.

Since then, I’ve found a variety of critters under the hood – including a neurotic squirrel, who liked to gnaw on the electrical wiring – I trapped him, and released him into the woods, but not until after he managed to chew through our phone line. The same fate awaited a fat opossum, though I’m not quite sure how it managed to squeeze through the space to get up atop the motor. Emma and Samantha, pictured above, were caught on the engine just last year--in August--they are two of the most gentle and affectionate cats we have had the pleasure to know.

There have been at least a dozen other kittens found under the hood of our car over the past few years.

PLEASE, be sure to check under the hood, especially now that cold weather is on its way. Who knows, the life you save might just be the lap kitty you couldn’t do without.

We lost Samantha Nov. 9, 2020. Her sister Emma is still with us.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Cake or Death

 Some decisions are easier to make than others...




















(Photo taken in an alley in downtown Indianapolis 10/16/12)