[rgeorg]

Hi - figured I'd join in with my latest cat tale,

In Greece,we have many stray cats unfortunately. A few years ago, we were adopted by a cute, very pregnant, stray who we took in and raised her kittens until we found homes for them all. Spayed the mom-cat and she now has *us* all trained very well and is totally spoiled.

Recently a new young stray has appeared, also pregnant. We feed her, but haven't taken her in because our indoor cat is not the sharing type (among other reasons). She had the kittens one day, but hid them somewhere in the neighborhood. Great, we thought, we can continue to feed her.

Well, a few days later she shows up on our front porch with 1 kitten, still with closed eyes - about 1 week old. We figured that something had happened to the rest of the litter and we felt so sorry for her that we made a "nest" and fed her. After a few hours she shows up with the other 5 kittens! I think she was just testing us.

Now, here is the interesting bit: one day she takes the kittens somewhere else, we don't know where. OK-all seems normal for 1-2 days. Then, one morning she shows up for breakfast very agitated, pacing and mewing - doesn't eat. We figured that the male cat had appeared (we had heard noises in the night) and killed the kittens. She stayed at our house all day, just lying around, not eating, obviously in pain and filled with milk. We felt terrible, but couldn't do anything. In the evening the male cat comes around and she (and she is quite small) screams at him. My husband threw something at him and finally he went away.

The next morning she is happily nursing all 6 kittens on our front porch! Apparently, hiding the kittens and pretending they are dead is the way that she tricked the male. She tricked us too. So now, we are so relieved that the cute kits are OK, that we are caring for them all.

Good new is that a colleague of mine has a dairy farm and needs the kittens - he will give all of them a good home as soon as they are weaned. Maybe he'll take mom-cat also.

I think that she is the smartest animal I've ever known, certainly a survivor. I should probably write that she sleeps with all the kittens snuggled up to her, with her arms protectively covering them and her tail wrapped around them - I'll try to take a picture.