Note: No disparaging cat comments will be allowed. I will delete you. And enjoy it. This is my site so be nice, even if it is an effort.

We have a kitten in the engine of our car. Not sure which car at the moment. The kitten seems to like them both. (As do we, but I guess that is a bit off topic…) And I am distressed. I have spent the last several hours trying to coax the kitten out of the engine with a baby back rib. (That’s what she dug from the trash two nights ago, so I figured he/she was into pork.)

You see, a Tomcat (or so I thought) has roamed our neighborhood for years. A white calico who loves to torment the local mockingbirds (Which is not a bad thing. We have street gangs of mockingbirds that spiral about the street, generally wreaking havoc on all moving things.) and generally slink around. About a month ago I observed the “Tomcat” dozing on our front porch and…Oops! Must be a “Jeanettecat.” Definite signs of suckling. This and the fact that she must have done some birthing recently assured me that this was indeed a girl cat. (I’m a smart one, ya know?) My infinitely quick brain (don’t spew that coffee, it’s bad for your keyboard) began to piece the clues together…mama cat, birthing, suckling, birthing…right on cue, a kid yelled “Mom! There’s a cat in the garden! With KITTENS!!!”

At this point people began arriving at my house for dinner and several of us trucked ourselves out to the garden to see. They were gone. We finally figured out that mama cat has been raising her kitten in our tomato plants. (Which are tall and bushy enough to hide a small colony of capybaras, so four kittens were nothing.)

These kittens were no longer tiny, so when the next weekend hit and the plan was to remove the unruly tomatoes, (They were blocking all walkways and were probably the reason we had not made it to the back of the garden and seen the feline family.) I figured they were big and independent enough and would move on. I ripped out the tomatoes and left the garden bare except for the blackberries and our one jalapeño bush/tree type thing.

We have since seen the kittens (4 of them: smoky black, orange tabby, white calico and another dark one that I have not seen, but am taking Parker’s word on this) roaming about our yard and surroundings. The orange kitten hangs out in the storm drain behind our house. (and did fine with Ike, we saw her yesterday) (Ike did blow down our pepper plant, and I am a bit bummed about that, know a good way to store jalapeños?) The smoky black kitten lost a battle with a car in the alley right beside our fence, I am very, very sad about this, I have not seen the other dark kitten and the white calico is hanging out in the engine of my car.

Fortunately, I did not drive my car yesterday. Monday morning we found “someone” had carefully torn into our trash and cleaned off some baby back ribs. David said it had to be one of the kittens. We looked and looked but found nothing. He went to work and my car sat. Last night, some guys came over to watch football and I went to bed before the game was over. I heard David come to bed really late and said “hi”. I heard “The kitten is in your engine. I have been talking to him for over an hour, but I can’t get him to come out.” I jolted to alertness. “My engine? Oh no!” “Yep.” He replied. “After B and S left, I heard crying in the garage and there he was. I talked to him and he meowed back, but wouldn’t let me see him. Are you going anywhere in the morning?” “Yoga.” I replied, “But I don’t have to go.” David told me to get him up before I left so we could make sure the kitten was out before I turned on the car.

I got up and walked this morning, as I came into the dark, quiet house I heard the plaintive cry of a kitten. Over and over and over. So sad and pitiful. I slowly opened the door to the garage and all sounds ceased. I heard small movements from David’s truck. Aha! I raised the hood and there in the far, back corner of the engine area was a small white calico kitty all curled up and snug. So cute. And so far away. You see, David’s truck fills the garage bay from front to back with only an inch or two to spare. Certainly less room that I would require to actually walk around it.

Kitty and I watched each other silently for a long time. When I moved closer, he/she slunk out of sight into the recesses of the engine. I could peer in and see two little eyes watching my every move. I would venture to guess that these kittens have had not had direct contact with people and they seem fearful and skittish.

Update: (I know. Is it really an update when I haven’t even posted this? You ponder that a bit and get back to me.) We got my car out of the garage so it is cat-clear and useable, and we set out a dish of rice milk and one of salmon. We are now all four hunkered down on the floor of the garage silently waiting for little kitty to get hungry enough to venture out…

Update #2: I abandoned the thought of yoga, David took my car to work, Kitty periodically meows at us from various sites inside the car frame, no interest in the food yet and we will check back later.

Update #3: Spooky (as I have named him) cleaned off the rib and ignored the rice milk (Hey! It's all we stock.) and the salmon.

Posted by stephanie at September 16, 2008 09:33 AM