Newsletter – July 31, 2026
We were surprised!
We started putting out the animal traps to catch the kittens and send them to the Humane Shelter, but Tommy (the tomcat) decided he’d like a bite of that kitten food and walked right into the cage on the porch.
Clang! The door slammed shut when he put his weight on that metal plate.
Tommy is practically identical to Tabitha, the older mama cat, and resembles Rocket as well. He’d been hanging around again and had taken to standing in the driveway singing the blues. The “Baby Daddy Blues,” that is. Most of the kittens look like him so we assumed he was the father of them all. Maybe the father of Rocket, and Tabitha as well.
Cats don’t have qualms about incest or other human mores.
Tommy didn’t go quietly. He hissed and thrashed about. He even scraped his left eyebrow—if you zoom in you can see the blood.
Poor guy just wanted a bite of food. Among other treats.
Tommy would come within a few feet of me when I sat and petted Rocket on the front porch, but dashed away when I stood up. He shared food bowls with the kittens as well, no bullying or manspreading.
Now he’s off to get snipped and clipped.
They’ll neuter him so he stops adding to the wild cat population and then clip one of his ears so anyone will know that he’s been fixed. The fellow from Animal Control told me that the shelter will try to find him a home, maybe in someone’s home, maybe as a barn cat for chasing rodents. If not, they’ll release him in the neighborhood where he was caught.
Meanwhile, on the back deck, Shadow walked into a different, smaller trap. His siblings scattered but Rocket watched me with wide eyes as I picked up the cage and took him inside. Shadow was terrified and huddled in the cat carrier we set up in the basement bathroom.
Here he is huddled among the towels:
You see the worried look on his face? Heartbreaking.
He spent two nights crying from about 4:00 AM to 6:00 AM. The second night I went down there at 5:00 and just sat with him. He was fine with getting petted, but the challenge was reaching him in the back of the cat carrier.
We sent Shadow to the shelter shortly after that. I fell a little bit in love with that sweet kitten, but knew we had to say goodbye. I’m sure he’ll get adopted very quickly.
Tabitha and her trio hightailed it to the woods when Tommy began his mating song, and Rocket took her remaining four kittens away right after seeing Shadow brought inside. We can’t catch the any more if they’re not around.
It’s too, too quiet around here.
TTFN
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Quick update: these two kittens of Tabitha’s walked into cages on Tuesday morning. Moth, the tabby with a brown patch on her forehead, and Smokey, the black kitten almost identical to Shadow. If you’re keeping track of the genealogy, these two would be Shadow’s aunt and uncle (or two uncles or two aunts, I didn’t go poking around in their privates).
The fact that both mama cats had litters of tabbies with one black cat is further argument that Tommy is the Baby Daddy of both litters.
We were glad to see them cuddling together for comfort. I’m afraid the third one will have to brave it out like Shadow did.
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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles
Eric Margerum 