An Overabundance of Kittens

So, for a while now we've been noticing more cats that usual in our backyard. We found a hole in the cement underneath our porch and realized that one or more stray cats were using it as a shelter. Eventually we started seeing kittens.

A few of days ago, the power company came to trim the tree in our backyard and they stopped up the hole. The girls informed me that it was possible for a kitten to get in, but not an adult. Shortly after the plugging up of the hole (that I didn't know about until later), the girls saw some of the kittens wandering around. I went out and saw that there were at least five kittens, though I didn't see them all at one time and some of them were in the park.

I could see that they were all panting heavily due to the heat and maybe dehydration. So, I went and got some water in a bowl and some food and put them out on the porch, intending to just leave it there and go back inside so that they could hydrate themselves without the crazy scary humans hanging around.

Saren took the more direct approach and caught two of them.

And I'm a big softie/moron, so I brought them inside to the nice air-conditioned house and shut them up in my bedroom with some food and water and a small litter box.

It turns out they took to us crazy scary humans almost immediately. They also used the litter box immediately. It almost makes me wonder if they were born in someone's house and were abandoned sometime afterward, instead of born under the porch like I originally thought.

The next morning, Saren saw another kitten outside and opened the back door. It pretty much just waltzed right in.

It is insane to have five cats in our house right now, I know that. Lickorish and Angel are pretty peeved, but they are slowly acclimatizing. The kittens are mellow with all the uproar from the other cats, and whenever Angel hisses at them, they look at him and say, "Chill, grandpa." All three of them are so sweet and loving and they all ate the raw chicken that I set out for them immediately (the other cats are too set in their ways to deviate from their regular crappy dry food, even though I told them it would make them less enormous and more prone to, you know... continue living). The only weirdness so far is that one of them likes to sleep in the litter box. I guess there's also the fact that they are super annoying at night and in the early morning when they come up near my head and purr loudly, threatening to wake up Irina before she's ready. But they're so cute!

I'm looking into finding homes for them. I just haven't actively done anything.

Yet.

I will.

As for the other cats left out there, I am looking into some programs that they have at a couple of no-kill shelters around here where they catch feral cats, sterilize them, and then release them where they were. I haven't seen any of the other kittens. I hope they are okay.