I foster cats for a local animal rescue
group, and sometimes I take feral kittens
in for socializing. One summer I had 12
orange feral kittens, born 1 month apart
to orange sisters. 4 were 3 months old,
the rest 2 months.
At first, I kept them all in a bathroom.
I had 3 litter boxes in the bathtub, two
under the sink, one behind the toilet.
Water was kept on top of the toilet, and
there was just enough space for a big bed
for the kittens to snuggle in.
I went in to care for and work with the
kittens several times a day. Each time,
as I was leaving, I would count the
kittens to make sure that all were still
there. One afternoon, I counted only
eleven! It seemed that Kapteyn (one of
the older, shyer kittens) had gotten
out somehow.
For the rest of that day we tore the
house apart, looking for Kapteyn.
No luck. We started looking again the
next morning. Still no Kapteyn.
Finally, I went into the bathroom to
feed the other kittens. I noticed that
the door to the medicine cabinet had
been slid open a fraction of an inch. I
looked inside, and found Kapteyn! He was
jammed up underneath the glass shelves,
petrified with fear. He immediately
jumped out and ricocheted around the
room before settling down behind the
toilet.
I think that I must have slid the
door shut, without noticing that he was
there! <8-P
I ended up adopting him 8-).
Submitted by reichert@mcst.gsfc.nasa.gov on Wednesday, March 01, 2000
