Birdies and Kitties

After I hung a little candle lantern on our front porch, a lovely birdie decided it would make a great house for her babies this year. She wasted no time in making her lovely nest (though didn't use any of the useful tools I left for her, dryer lint, dog hair, little pile of lovely soft twigs) and apparently we missed the entire egg period and went straight to the arrival of the fluffy babies.

I guess 'tis the season of birth - we went down to Twain Harte, CA to where Kyle's first house is. We are in the process of renovating it to rent it out (anyone want a lovely, secluded cabin in the Sierra Foothills???) We are having a big onslaught of it at the end of May but this weekend we needed to go and pick up the tractor and some of Kyle's heavier equipment as we are growing hay at Shoo Fly and are in desperate need to get it cut!! So we traveled down and on Saturday night the doggies were going nuts trying to get into the old blocked up fireplace. We muted the movie we were watching and heard little Meows....oh boy.

The following hour was spent with Kyle trying to shimmy down the chimney (Kyle is skinny, how the heck does St. Nick fit!!) and use kitchen tongs to grab the two kitties that were about halfway down the chimney. After that failed we bust open the fireplace, rescued the two of the kitties that had fallen there and Kyle was able to reach up and grab the kitty further up the chimney. At this point mom had taken off so we put the kitties (days old, their eyes were still closed) together in a big cushy box all decked out for them and placed them high up in the garage with some Fancy Feast kitty food for momma and hoped that she would come back and find the new location of the kitties.

The next morning, Fancy Feast gone but so were the kitties. I guess she didn't like our makeshift home so she relocated them to a place she liked. We had already blocked off the chimney altogether so she wouldn't make that mistake again. I just shudder of what would have happened if we hadn't gone to the house this weekend, at least 2 lost kittens and maybe 3 and mommy. We are just glad that they are all together again and we now have 4 feral cats around there...good thing there are lots of mice!