Monday, June 4, 2007

Mamacats, blacksnakes, and Bumblebees

Awww.... isn't this adorable? I should have had this for Mother's Day! It makes me think of my friend's cat with four kittens. My friend has a heart for animals. She has a tiny old Shih tzu dog named Sasha that will steal your heart and a Mamacat with four little babies. This week has been her Wild Kingdom week. She is so afraid one of the wild neighborhood tomcats will kill the babies her Mamacat (named Kitty, of course) had on her tumbled and cluttery front porch. The babies were securely stationed under a little pile of bench, bucket, rug, stash of ??? who knows what. They were in a good spot, but heaven knows any tomcat can find a good spot. She spent the first week and a half of their lives getting up every 20 minutes all night long. We all kept telling her that wasn't good enough and while she was gone somewhere, an old tomcat would slide in and get them. One day last week she was outside eating her breakfast and planting beautiful flowers in every receptacle imaginable in her yard. She noticed her mama cat jumping and attacking something in the grass, and it was a HUGE blacksnake, about four feet long. She hates snakes about as bad as she hates mice, which is an amazing hatred steeped in screaming. Well, she decided to chase Mr. Slither through the yard and up a bush. "He stuck his tongue out at me!" she hollered in my ear on the phone. "Where were you?" Well, I'm here to tell you my friendship might include writing her curriculum, hauling her little butt to town and to the doctor, being there for many crises, but NOT coming to her rescue if a snake's involved! Nope. I'm not that good a MOTHER, let alone friend. I hate snakes MORE, is my motto. She lost the snake as it slithered around bushes, up trees, and out of sight in its S-ing movements so quickly through the grass. She had called the local snake lover, who happens to be a doctor. (Snake doctor?) and he was out of town, and my friend was out of luck. Anyway, it put a big damper on her fun in the yard. Later that night she stepped barefooted on a bumblebee, which stung her big toe. She wasn't much for the camping lifestyle any more. (It was huge fun to tell her I couldn't see any difference between her right foot, which was really puffy, and her left, which is kind of skinny.) Anyway, she decided to get the cat carrier for the kitties, and she convinced (by chasing her and a stolen kitten down twice) the Mamacat to let her put the babies in the carrier. The mamacat comes and lays on top of the carrier, and my friend keeps her in there a few hours, lets her out, and she comes back. It's a great system, and one that will salvage those babies for a bright future as little cats! They are adorable, but I am not getting one. I don't think the above picture is at all the representation of my cat Sally if I brought in one... unless it is actually a Mamacat strangling and tasting a baby???? eeeek. Have a fun day.

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