Bringing Home a Stray
We already had two cats when my mother brought home a stray kitten. She couldn’t bear to know it was going to go hungry. A few years later and we now have five dachshunds, and the kitten is a very cute and healthy cat.
One day I go outside to feed the dogs. One of them was sitting by the little doghouse, two were just sniffing about idly, one was laying in the sun and the other was missing but probably just in the doghouse.
I fill their bowls, go back inside… and then immediately stop in my tracks the moment the door closed. Something didn’t feel right.
I don’t know if it was because specifically the matriarch of these dachshunds was sitting by the doghouse, or if it was because she was sitting directly in front the doghouse entryway like they never do,
or if maybe I just unconsciously noticed how attentive this normally scatterbrained dog was being, but I rush outside and make eye contact with her.
She moves over and sits facing the entrance and up-nods her head/nose which she’s been trained to do when she is pointing to something that needs our attention. The cat had kittens!
It was surprising because she never had a span of noisy weeks when she was in heat, we always assumed she was spayed, and she carried three kittens to term without anyone noticing despite her being fed and given the same amount of attention as the dogs got.
And the mom of these four dogs knew if her children were allowed near them, they’d get eaten, so she was keeping guard.