These are my furry neighbors, aka my stray babies. When I grew up I watched my mother, who always has had an undying love for animals, take in strays and care for them constantly. I guess I've inherited that from her. These cats live outside two houses directly down my street. One house belongs to a Spanish family that speaks very little to no English; one house belongs to an old lady who has her granddaughter come over on ocassion to help her. These cats... Well, they are the product of not getting their cats spayed and neutered. As such, they've populated far beyond lengths that they can care for or control. I've tried calling all the local shelters in the area, as well as the animal control and was told more times than I can count that there was no control in the city for cats. Cats, according to one officer at the animal control, aren't our business and that I could call back when they were dead for pick-up. All the shelters in the area, none of them are no-kill, told me that I could drop them off if I agreed to pay a substantial abandonment fee per animal, despite the fact that they aren't mine.
So, I got fed up with the local authorities not helping, so I took matters into my own hands. Every day I walk to work and school I bring to big ziploc bags of food and feed the kitties. I've even named a few of them. Precious (picture one, middle cat with black coat and white paws) is clearly the oldest. I believe he has mange or cancer as all of his hair is falling out and his gonads are getting rather... droopy; Mama (picture one, gray tabby) is the unspayed female--or the only one I know of that is for sure a female--and is the mother a majority of these kittens, I believe. Chubster (picture three, orange tabby at the top left) is the only one that looks reasonably healthy and well fed, he was born last winter; Tux (picture five, top row, black and white) has a mustache; Leo (picture five, top row, next to Tux) has leopard spots; and Mocha (picture five, top row, black and brown cat all the way to the right) has a beautiful tortoise look going on, but is blind in one eye.
These kittens know me by footstep sound now. They can hear me walking down the road to bring them there daily breakfast; in fact, I'm going to go do that as soon as I get off of here and eat something myself. Because I was worried about some of the smaller ones surviving this upcoming winter, a winter that we think will be bad, my boyfriend and I are going to try to put together some cat shelters similar to these ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/ucl/sets/72157602171198946/ ). I also plan on buying both households a giant bag of cat food for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, with a little holiday card explaining what the shelters are for, how they're used and asking them to please accept the free gift as a gesture of kindness and love for the animals. There's a girl at work who speaks fluent spanish, so I plan on having her write the card for the Spanish family for me.
I want to give these babies the best shot at life I possibly can. I can't take them home with my, I already have three, but I can love them just as much.
