A few weeks ago I was in the music room, which looks out ground-level at our back yard. I noticed an adorable kitten just outside the window, so I called Mer down. We then looked out the window and discovered there were five kittens and the momma kitty. The momma kitty looked to be the same kitty that had kittens under our porch three summers ago, and she was back with a new family. I had no idea what to do – we certainly did not need five new kittens, but I went outside to see them, which made the momma kitty upset. The next day, I had to free a kitten from being stuck in our porch screen door, and the momma kitty saw that as well. I think she had seen enough, because the next day the kittens were gone.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to last Friday. I was walking to work, and I happened to look over at the back porch of our neighbor’s house. There was a big mound of fur in it, so I went to investigate; it turned out to be the momma kitty and four of her kittens. They all scattered as I got close. One of the kittens went inside through a basement window that was slightly open. That worried me very much. Our neighbor’s house is currently empty (no one living there for the time being), and I was afraid that the kitten might have fallen into the basement of an empty house.  Moreover, as the kitten ran in to the basement, I heard another kitten crying from the cellar. I was afraid they might both die, so I tried to find a way into the house. All the doors and windows were locked, but out of frustration, I pushed on the partially open cellar window. It moved slightly, so after a minute or two of wrangling, I had it open enough to wiggle though and let myself in the basement. It was more or less dark, and I could not find the kittens, so I let myself out through a door and went home and got a flashlight. I went back, and found the first kitten on the sill, sitting among the floor joists. I grabbed her and brought her home while she tried desperately to get away (and she had very sharp claws). I went back and searched hard for the second kitty, and I finally found him on the sill, hiding in the floor joists, but halfway around the basement. I think he had climbed all the way over there and then could not figure out how to get back. I grabbed him as well, and he did not struggle too much – I think he was scared and I’m pretty sure he had been in there for some time, so he may have been weak as well.

So, we now have two adorable kittens living in our guest bedroom. I got tired of not having names for them. I thought the male kitten was an alpha-male because he was big and he was the first to explore the room. The other kitten was clearly a runt and was scared, so I joking called her the omega-kitty. So, we have been calling them Alpha (“Alphy”) and Omega (“Megs” or “Meggie”). This has some irony since it has since become clear that Megs is the bolder of the two kittens, and Alphy is even scared of the mouse toy that Megs plays with. They still won’t let us pet them, but they do both come out while we are in the room, and we can play with Megs using the mouse toy.

I have no idea what we will do with them once they are used to people. I know I will not break them up. We may try to find a nice home for the two of them, but we may also keep them. While we never intended to have more than two cats (and this would bring us to five), they are very cute and I may not be able to give them up.