It's a zoo!

I made reference to this in my last post and figured I had better clear up the confusion. I have cats. Well, sort of. I had noticed a stray hanging around the house for the last year looking for scraps or anything the dogs dug up. I would shoo her away assuming she belonged to a neighbour. Last month I went outside to water my plants and this stray went darting out from underneath the deck, across the driveway and into some bushes. I didn't think anything of it until something else caught my eye. I turned and looked around again and saw a small procession of kittens following their mom from underneath the deck over to the bushes. First one, then another, then another and then a straggler! I hung around outside for awhile and thought I counted five kittens!

The Sperm Donor happened to be over that night so I called for him to come outside. By now the kittens had disappeared but I explained what I had seen. His response was classic as always. "Kittens!?! How did that happen?" I stared at him for a minute then looked down at my rapidly expanding belly before saying: "Well, if you haven't figured that out by now..." the Sperm Donor laughed and went back downstairs. Of course, being the softy that I am I couldn't let those poor kittens scavenge for food so I snuck some cream outside for them (without the Sperm Donor knowing).

The next day when I got home from work there was a bag of cat food on the kitchen table. What the hell? Apparently the cuteness of the kittens had gotten into that concrete heart of his and he had decided to feed them. I for one was thrilled! I couldn't stand the idea of the poor kittens having to go through trash to find food. I happily put out food and water and waited to see what was going to happen. Here is what I saw...

Ignore the fuzziness of the pictures, I had to take them through my (very dirty) kitchen window.

Feeding time at the zoo!!!



This is when I realized that I had gotten it wrong. There weren't five kittens, there were seven!



With full bellies, it was time for a nap.




The boxes they're laying on were actually set outside so I could take them for recycling. They have since been turned into a bed/playground for the kittens. As much as I hate it, I'll suck up the white trash look of a bunch of messy cardboard since it makes them so happy!

So what to do now? They're sticking around and get quite demanding if I don't feed them on time, but they won't let me get near them yet. They are easily at an age where they can be separated from their mother yet I have no idea how to go about doing it. We have homes for all of them we just need to catch them! Any ideas? As cute as they are, I can't afford to feed eight cats forever!