Newly Arrived Feline

Up in Fujiwara, we "have" a semi-feral cat, that we have named Stevie, who deigns to allow us to leave her food out. In return she occasionally catches mice for us. Or should we say, to paraphrase Ringo, she has us.

A couple years ago she became pregnant, and brought a single kitten out from the derelict hotel, where we believe she had nested them, and stashed it in a kind of cat box thing we had constructed. It was a cure little thing, we guess about 4 or 5 weeks old, and the spitting image of Stevie, but it only survived a few days. A combination, we think, of inexperienced mother cat and cold nighttime temperatures.

Anyhow, she was pregnant again recently, and at the end of July started acting like she'd had given birth: disappearing over to the derelict hotel for almost 24 hours a day, returning to grab snacks, and then heading straight over again. Almost 7 weeks later we are wondering why she hasn't brought anything out, but is still going back over constantly, so we had to assume something was still happening over there.

Yesterday she finally came out with the big reveal. Again, a single kitten, and again, it is the spitting image. I was working in the garden when I spotted her coaxing it towards the house, but when the sprog saw me it bolted for its life.

Stevie seems now to have moved their abode to under some rocks at the base of a massive tree at the bottom of our patch of land, near the river. It HAS to be a far nicer spot than the disgusting derelict hotel. This kitten is noticeably larger than the one she brought out the previous time, so maybe our guess on the age of that one was close, and the weather is still pretty warm so we reckon it might make it.

I tried to get a few snaps without stressing them out, so apologies for the graininess, I was miles away. It has a lot of energy and is currently hunting and attacking small branches and tails.