They paid off the dog

They paid off the dog. That's the only thing I could think of as I watched three 6 month old feral kittens playing on our children's swing set the other morning. I admired their acrobatic moves, especially as we have one of the old fashioned metal swing sets that don't allow for climbing with, or holding on with, claws; or at least so I thought until I saw two of the kittens have a play fight from the top of the set while they plotted who jump from the top to pounce the third kitten. Very cute I thought, and very annoying, as I'm tired of cats running through our yard, marking their territory and annoying our own cats. However, it was then I saw the 4th cat. The momma cat. Grendel!

About 4 years ago, a feral cat gave birth to three kittens in our yard. There was a calico, a light brown tabby and a darker tabby with yellow eyes. They grew up used to us but always kept a cautious distance when we were outside (better then when a stranger showed up). Yet they remained very curious about our activities, climbing on our roof, over the fence, climbing onto the screen door top peer in (nothing like walking into a dark room and see nothing but two eyes staring at you from outside to wake you up). As they were all females we knew we had to do something or we'd nave a cat-trastophy. To get them to be a little more trusting of us, we started feeding them. Slowly, they came closer and closer to us. Then one winter evening my wife put some food in a cat carrier. They started going in, always on the lookout, waiting to hear the back door open so they could escape. Finally, one night, my wife saw a few tails sticking out of the carrier and pounced! We got two, but Grendel escaped.

The two we captured were neutered and released to the wilds of our house. It's taken a few years but they've become somewhat tame (well at least the tabby has, the calico still doesn't trust us, unless we have food).Grendel , on the other hand, remained outside. We tried to catch her for many months, but ultimately failed even though she was very trusting of us and even let her pet her. Finally the day came when she no longer trusted us and we stopped feeding her (though, since it was summer and our son was 4 at the time and prone to dropping food all over the yard, she continued to eat well. Her visits to our yard slowed a bit when we got a dog and then our yard completely fenced in. She still showed her kitty face, looking for food, but soon left for greener pastures.

She was the runt of the litter and, when she didn't get pregnant right away, we assumed she couldn't. Bad assumption, as we discovered when we saw a plump Grendel one day a few years ago. We assume she gave birth but never saw the kittens. A thinner Grendel roamed our yard for a time and then one day we realized we hadn't seen in her a while. For a long time after that, we figured that what happens to many feral cats happened to her. Then one day, we saw her again -- long story short, she showed us why we never see squirrels or other small animals or birds in our yard. I guess those critters are quite nutritious as she looked pretty big -- oh no! Not again. Sigh. This time we saw at least one kitten one day but never saw it again as Grendel disappeared once again.

These days I see her roaming the neighborhood now and then, sneaking through backyards yet always headed back home to ours. I suspect she struck a deal with the dog and now lives unmolested under our shed, apparently leasing space from the neighborhood groundhog, Chuck II (we used to have Chuck I until he disappeared one day, the following spring, while cleaning the shed, I discovered what happened to him). Now when we see strays roaming our yard, we send the dog out and he generally chases them away. Yet the strays keep coming. We couldn't figure it out until the other morning. There, in full view of our lazy dog enjoying the morning sun on his belly was Grendel and her brood. We didn't actually see them wink at each other, but there is no other obvious answer -- Grendel bribed the dog, who is looking much fatter himself these days. Either that or she threatened him, but our dog is usually too dumb to understand what a threat is. He's the type of dog to go "Oh, my stinky black and white critter friend. Let me go bug him by barking at him even though he is going to spray me. Such a clown." No, we're pretty sure she is paying him off with some treat that only dogs like. Meanwhile, we wish she'd stop paying us rent. I'm tired of disposing of her "gifts" to us.