(no subject)

So we have stray kitties. 7 of them in fact. They live in the small wooded area beside our apartment complex. We live in an apartment facing said small wooded area. Mama Kitty (it's what I started calling her to avoid naming her, except it kind of ended up her name) is black, red, and a few other colours. She's not really a tabby, but she's not a calico. I think she's what they call a tortiseshell? I'm not really sure. Anyway, she used to be a housecat. She's very small and relatively friendly, at least with me and to some extent Jeff. She's had two litters of kittens (that I know of and see).

Litter number one is grown up now. In that litter she had two twin orangy/tope tabby cats and one grey and black tabby. All three are boys. The grey one is very people-shy. He won't come on the porch if Jeff is there, even if Jeff is feeding him. He'll sit on the porch if I fed them or am sitting there, but he doesn't come very close. He won't let me touch him yet. He doesn't really have a name yet. The Twins (always together, and actual identical twins, so it's what I call them as a collective unit) are really friendly... with me anyway. They come right up to me, they rub on me, they let me pet them.

Litter number two are still kittens. We've been here for about a month and a half, and they were just being weened when we moved in, so they aren't very old. They still have the cute fluffy kitten fur with the round kitten heads and the huge "LOVE ME" kitten eyes. In that litter are two twin orange and white tabbys and one black, grey, red, green-like patterened like Mama Kitty. Although the kitten's pattern is more discernable, so I think that's what you'd call a true tortiseshell. Anyway, the twins are The Boys (although this sometimes refers to the general group of cats). The other kitten is a girl, the only one. She looks like army camoflauge, so I've gotten in the habit of calling her Camo, though she needs a better name. These little kittens are somewhat friendly. They run at the first sign of Jeff, but they'll stay on the porch if I'm out there. They'll even let me pet them sometimes, but only if they are eating.

I feed them in the morning and sometimes at night. They take shelter on our little porch/patio area when it rains. They play with some empty boxes I've placed out there for them. If it's really cold (which it rarely is) I'll get up in the morning and see them all sleeping together in one of the boxes.

I'm so in love with the little girl kitten, Camo. I'd like to take her and get her spayed, shots, checked out by a vet and then keep her inside with us, but that'd do her more harm then good. She's always been an outside kitty, like her brothers and the boys before her. Besides, it'd be torture for her to see her family all the time but not go out and join them. At least this way I have 7 kitties I don't need to change a litterbox for, and just one kitty that I do change a litterbox for (Maggie, she loves the outside kitties. She tries to play with them through the sliding glass door).

I don't know how many of you care to know more about my outside kitties, but I wanted to share. :)

perceval I hope you like cats... at least aren't allergic to them anyway. Kirk, poor man, would have a devil of a time at my place.