In the beginning

A month ago, our landlord mentioned, "Just wanted to let you know ... there's a feral cat that's been living underneath the porch for a while now. We fed her while we lived there -- she's pretty skittish, but doesn't cause much trouble."

The cat went basically sight unseen for a while, as cats often do. Dan and I shook the bag of crunchies for her occasionally, just to see if she'd come to us. No dice. For the most part, the silver cat would remain hidden until the evening, then wander around to the porch and let out low moans to our cats, Rififi and Orangina, in the night.

A few weeks ago, I saw the silver cat when I went out to clean the pollen out of the pool. She was sketchy, walking swaybacked and heavily, with a waddle that made me wonder whether she was pregnant. I tried to approach her, and she let out a low, gutteral growl and ran underneath the porch.

I knew I had a bad feeling about this.

Now it's a few weeks later, and I'm out cleaning the pool again, and I see not just the silver cat, but more. Two new kittens, barely fluffy, almost still slick from birth. One is grey and one is black with speckles. They're nursing at the silver cat's side.