Cat Days of Spring

Just as we start gliding from springtime into summertime, the universe offers us a purrfect surprise. Welcome to the cat days of spring.

Don’t jump to any conclusions, we’re still a one dog and no cats family. Yes, Carley is intrigued and oh-so curious, but I’m still allergic. So, no, we’ve not adopted cats.

But they’ve adopted us! Or, at least they’ve adopted Rosslyn’s deck. More in a moment, but first a little context for the cat days of spring.

Perhaps they were pursuing
the cat days of spring,
that toppled torrentially
down the heavy clouds,
clawing the air in protest
and leaving wet streaks
to mark their steep descent.
Grounded, their paws danced
lightly atop the puddles,
as they gathered strength
to spring aloft once more
into the bright spring sun.
When the dog days arrived
those cool cats were gone;
vanished; evaporated.
The pursuit fruitless,
the dog days panted.

— Brian Kunde, “Dog Days“

Soon enough these cool cats will be gone. Adopted and re-homed. By the dog days of summer, they’ll hopefully have been adopted by families yearning for kitty cat companions.

But today, they’re happily sojourning at Rosslyn.

First I received this message from our neighbor, Cole.

Hey George, this is your neighbor Cole in Essex… Wanted to let you know there’s a cat + a litter of kittens living underneath your back porch! (Source: Cole Trager)

Wow! News to me. Cole followed up with an email and a phone call to fill in the blanks.

The mom showed up at our place and we tracked her back to yours where the litter is.

Some folks from Willsboro already adopted two of them, but I just wanted to check in with you to see if you had any strong feelings about finding homes for them, etc.

We’re keeping an eye on them now and feeding the mom at our place when she comes over to say hi…(Source: Cole Trager)

Never a dull moment. Susan is the consummate hostess, but this sort of houseguests takes things to a new level. Apparently, mama cat simply moved in uninvited and gave birth to a new family.

Here’s Glen take.

Apparently you had unknown residents sheltering under the porch. Long story short, I saw this cat on the property and up the street for the last two weeks. Just looked like it was passing through. Neighbors… said this cat had a couple kittens at their house, so they put a tracking collar on and followed it to Rosslyn. They think someone just dumped it because they knew it was pregnant. They were able to grab the kittens with some coaxing (wet cat food) and they are probably taking to SPCA. They seemed conflicted on keeping or not! (Source: Glen Gherkins)

So, there you have it. The cat days of spring!

It sounds like Cole has done a wonderful job of rehoming the kittens, but please reach out ASAP if you’re interested, and I’ll pass your message along.