Where you take over. Just email anything about almost anything to peter.b.abrahams@gmail.com. And now over to Karen Moffett for the kind of post that might make Chet a little uneasy:

I recently sent in the story of Putter, The Godfather in this House of Many Cats. I thought perhaps I should tell you the story of his two newest minions, MadMax and BabyBiscuit. They are the latest, and Mom swears, the last additions to our cat family. Max is a beautiful solid black male, long and lean with a thick tail. Biscuit is a buff colored male, a little more round than lean, but certainly not in the BigTiny category. He was showcased in a couple of the photos I sent in of Putter.

Let me lay the groundwork of how they came to join our little family.

Mom lives with her sister, our Aunt Linda. It is an arrangement that benefits both of them with the added perk of Aunt Linda also being a cat lover. One of Aunt Linda’s daughters lives around the corner and down the street a little way. She is an animal lover with self-control. She and her family have a border collie but no cats. Her husband is allergic. In spring of 2021, he was out messing with his boat when a large cat (his description) leapt out of the boat and ran off. He was happy to see it leave and only mentioned it in passing. Shortly after that, he was preparing the boat for a predicted severe storm and he startled a cat in the boat who also jumped out and ran off. A much thinner cat, he mused. After he went back inside and the storm was cranking up (and probably mentioning it to wife Devon) he realized that there may be kittens trapped in the boat. Out he went in the storm to search for and rescue four newborn kittens.

Now you are probably thinking all this detail is about the birth of Max and Biscuit. But no, it is about how Devon came to own Mama Kitty and her first litter of kittens. Mama Kitty is a great mom to her kittens and she is allowed to stay there since she also proves to be a great hunter of mice and rabbits. She continues to nurse her 4 kittens even as she begins to pack on some weight. Could she possibly be pregnant again even though she was still nursing? Absolutely not according to Mom. BUT….we all learned something new. Cats can get pregnant while nursing and that’s what had happened. Early August, Mom and Aunt Linda get a frantic call from Devon that Mama Kitty is dropping kittens all over the back patio. They scurried over to help, but by then Mama Kitty had gathered her newborns and moved them under the porch of a playhouse in the backyard. Devon is ripping up the floorboards on the playhouse so she can reach the new babies. NINE

new kittens!! Two of which were a tiny black male and an equally tiny buff male. Mama Kitty had her paws full nursing these nine along with the original four (which refused to be weaned).

Mom and Aunt Linda went over often to help socialized these kittens so Devon would have an easier time finding them homes. One afternoon, Mom was holding the wee buff kitten who had barely just opened his eyes. He started purring and making biscuits with his tiny paws. That sealed his fate! How could Mom, foster failure extraordinaire, not give this tiny fellow a home and help her niece at the same time? And how unfair would be to bring this tiny fellow into the House of Many Cats without a companion his own size? Max was the only black kitten in the litter and Mom has always had thing for black cats. So the selection was made and they moved down the street and around the corner to the House of Many Cats at six weeks of age. They are both extremely attached to Mom but mostly, they are part of Putter’s crew. The Godfather once again.