Spring time came and the little girl had kittens in the neighbor's window well. One day it just poured down rain and stormed to beat the band and Denny went to check the little family and found one of the kittens lost out in the rain, brought him over and dried him off, got him warmed up and took him back to his mama after the storm. We worked with them during the summer to get them to come inside, but no, although Broken Tail started to come in just a little bit. Mama moved the family to our yard in some bushes, around the shed and they would come up onto the deck and play.
When the weather started to cool off and head towards winter the four kittens were playing on the deck and I slid open the door and put some food about four feet inside it and they actually came in to eat. While they were eating I slid the door closed and they went ballistic, but I kept them in. We didn't want them to go through a winter like their mama and uncle Broken Tail did. Northern Illinois winters are not at all warm. We named them Tillie, Misti, Pippie, and Tut. By that time Broken Tail was coming inside regularly so when he came in again the little ones weren't quite so afraid.
A few days later it was cold and rainy and I saw Mama on the deck and slid the door open so she would come in and get food. She had started to slip in a little ways at a time to eat, but this time I had the food further from the door than usual and slid the door shut when she was all the way in. She didn't go quite so ballistic as the babies, just a little. A few days later she gave us some more kittens....behind my computer desk.... seven of them.... all grey. Broken Tail was a daddy.
Sid, Nancy, and Goldie weren't too sure about those little bitty things, but they caved and played with them when they got old enough to play. Tut was the first of Mama's "teens" to tame down some, then Tillie tamed down a bit to where we could pet her and eventually hold her. Tillie was a bossy little thing. Pippie would come down stairs and Tillie would chase her right back up. Seth was living with us for awhile and had been there several months and one day saw Pippie and wondered where the cat-with-the-crazy-eyes came from, when we got her. Told him she'd come with the others.
Mama had taught her kids to stay away from two-legged-tall-walkers, they weren't to be trusted. She taught them well! Tut is tame, Misti we can pet but she is still skittish, Pippie we can pet once in a great while. Those two still remember Mama's teachings and they've been with us for....eight years now. We did try to give them away. Someone came and got Tillie, since she was KIND of tame. They brought her back the next day, Tillie was just frantic.
