When I was catless

Back in early May, when I was catless, I did not know how cute kittens could be.  I did not know how much you can love an animal.  I did not know that cats have very distinct personalities. I did not know that I would not mind getting up early to feed them. I did not know I would not mind spending hours stroking their fur and petting them.  I did not know so many things.....

I had never had a pet before and I thought I was never going to have one.  My brothers and sisters had pets when I was growing up but I did not care for them at all and most of the time I wish they were gone.  I especially had a horrible time when my sister had mice as pets.  I would had moved out if I had had a place to go.  When I met Don, I was happy to know he did not have pets and he did not care for them.  He was allergic to cats and dogs and I thought I was too so we never considered having one.  We did have beta fish but after seeing a couple of them die, we decided we could not go through the same again. I always thought that people were crazy for choosing to be responsible of another being.  Who needed to complicate their life with a needy pet?

Then, we met Lovee. She was a skinny black cat that was kind of friendly.  We could not touch her but she would not mind to get close to us. She started to come around and Don had the great idea to start feeding her. He went with Carlos or Titi and got her a big bag of food.  That was our big mistake.  Then other cats started coming.  I think the next one was Stripes, a very handsome tabby cat.  Then, Shadow, who we think is Lovee's sister.  Then we met a huge black cat that seemed menacing at the beginning and then we discovered he was the sweetest thing, scared of everything, even his shadow.  He jumps and runs if anybody moves.  He hates sudden and loud noises.  We named him Diamond.  And then there is Big Face or Fat Albert, a not very nice looking tabby cat.  He has a very funny face and is huge.  We don't particularly like him but he does not come every day so we tolerate him when he is here.

We noticed that Lovee seemed pregnant but we did not do anything and she had her 4 beautiful kittens in our backyard.  There was a hole made by an armadillo and she used it as her nest.  Don discovered 4 bright pairs of blue eyes staring at him from that hole.  Carlos called them and 2 kittens came to him, a black one and a gray one.  The other two were not friendly.  One was kind of aggressive and would hiss at us and the other one was a scared one.  She would go into the hole or behind her brother as soon as she saw us.  When I read that feral cats needed to get used to people as soon as possible, we decided to keep the two friendly ones to make sure they would be domesticated and then we could find homes for them. 

In the meantime, we realized we had a huge problem in our hands.  People started noticing all these cats coming to our house and started making comments.  I learned that people hate people who feed feral cats.  I also learned it was illegal and we could be fined.  I rented a trap and started catching and sterilizing the older cats.  First it was Diamond, then Stripes and then without wanting, we catched the two little kittens that were still in the hole.  I took them to the clinic to see if they could do something and they were spayed and neutered as well.  The aggressive one turned to be a boy and the scared one a girl.  The people at the clinic said they were true feral cats and there was nothing we could do for them but to release them and care for them if we could.  Luckily I did not listen and as soon as we got home I released them into separate bathrooms to care for them during their recovery.  Well, the aggressive one turned to be a needy little cat who wanted to be held and stroked all the time.  The scared one had a harder time letting us touch her but once we did she liked it and then she would cry to ask to be held.  I spent many hours talking and stroking the cute little babies.