humor » Moodle

19th March 2008

Sometimes being kind can backfire!

This winter I kept smelling pee in my house. Over and over again. It was almost always in the kitchen (the one place you really don’t want to smell pee!) and it would come and go with no real rhyme or reason. The first couple of times I thought surely my puppy had an accident, but I could never find a puddle. Never mind the fact that dog pee does NOT smell like a litter box, at least not if you clean it up right away!

One day as my husband was yelling at our older dog thinking he must have done something, I suddenly remembered that we had this same problem last winter. Then, along with that thought another memory came rushing forward. This one was of our contractor telling me that if we didn’t block off an area under the back porch animals might move in there over the winter. The kitchen had been expanded over part of the back porch many years ago according to him. That meant that there was access under a small part of the kitchen from outside. Needless to say, we had not blocked that area of the porch, and I realized that indeed an animal had moved in. Judging by the smell I assumed it was a cat.

I was right.

At first I was determined to catch the cat and get it to the shelter. After about 3 weeks I realized that it was too wild for that to happen. So my next brilliant plan was to start feeding it, gain it’s trust, and then catch it. What a great idea - and I just knew in my heart that I was going to tame that cat and save it. I knew it! My back-up in case I couldn’t tame it was simply to catch it and have it fixed so we could at least reduce the cat population.

So, I started feeding the cat each night, at first at the entry under the porch, and eventually moving the food up onto the porch where I could try to see the infamous cat. Eventually we did see “black and white”. A pretty long-haired feline, white with black spots and a half black, half white face. She was so pretty, but skittish as could be. If we even walked into the kitchen she would run. However, I knew I could save her if I just took my time, so I continued to feed her and watch.

Then one day I looked out and saw not black and white, but blacky. Blacky was a skittish black long-haired cat who looked a bit more run down than black and white. I felt bad for blacky too and decided I would allow him to eat at our home too. After-all, this winter has been sooo cold those poor cats would have had a hard time finding food!

About two weeks ago I saw a cat eating on the porch (did I mention that I was putting more and more food out at this point, because it seemed no matter how much I left at night it was all gone by morning?) and I went to try to sneak into the kitchen and get closer. As I entered the kitchen I was shocked to see that it wasn’t black and white, nor was it blacky. It was a cat I now am calling gray kitten. Now, gray kitten didn’t seem to show-up until the weather was nicer, and she didn’t seem as afraid as the others. However, I noticed that black and white was sitting on the step watching gray kitten eat, which made me think they must know each other. Right?

So I got closer to gray kitten through the window, and she ran. About ten minutes later black and white started to eat on the porch, and I left it at that.

The next night I thought I saw black and white on the porch, and tried once again to make it to the back door to sit and watch her in hopes of “taming” her. I was actually able to sit down and started watching, when suddenly black and white looked up at me and I was shocked to see it wasn’t black and white, it was “black and white #2!” This new black and white cat looked just like the other, except her fact was all white. She stared at me with her Puss in Boot eyes, and I melted. What a darling cat! But, it wasn’t meant to be, because no sooner than she looked at me than she ran.

A few nights later my son came down to get a glass of water. He is standing in the kitchen and yells “Mom! There is a raccoon eating our cat food!” I didn’t believe him, until I went in and saw the beast for myself. Beast is an understatement. Monster is more like it. That raccoon did what none of the cats would do, it sat there looking at me while I looked at it through the door. It ate, and I stared. It watched me as I watched it. Raccoon even let me try to take pictures, none of which turned out. Not once did it flinch at the flash. Amazing!

I got greedy after awhile and decided to open the door and try to take a picture of my 30 pound raccoon. At that point he ran. Oh well, now I’m left with nothing but my stories.

My son informed me that Raccoons have worms. Worms that people can get. Yuck. So I did a little research and he’s right. (amazing what those 5th graders know!) I also learned that Raccoons will go as far as to try to pick locks to get into homes if you start feeding them and stop. Yikes! That is just the tip of the iceburg - there are lots of reasons not to get involved with those super cute coons. I decided that I must not encourage the monster any longer, as I didn’t want worms or a house vandalized by a raccoon. The only way to get rid of the raccoon was to get rid of the cat food.

So - now I am loosing along with the raccoon four feline friends. I’m sad about that, although my efforts to save the one under the porch were already backfiring. While I think black and white was the stray under the kitchen I cannot be sure. Since feeding her started attracting so many other strays I probably am increasing the cat population instead of decreasing it. They probably ate and mated all on my property. HAHA. I guess if kittens start showing up I’ll know!

Hopefully the raccoon goes gracefully, he has gotten into our trash a couple of times but I pray that was all that it will be. However, who knows how long he had been coming and eating cat food off of the porch before we actually saw him….