Bonaire Porch Cats

There are a few houses in our neighborhood where feral kitties can find food, shelter, a kind word, a comfy pad or rug to nap on and safety.  Ours is one of them.

Currently, we are feeding and caring for five.  The first, a girl we call Clementine (Clemmie), started it all about three years ago.  She took up here and we started feeding her.  Before long, she brought her kittens and we fed them.  Life on the outside is hard on kitties and some of her babies have not survived.  We hope that some have moved on to other neighborhoods, been rescued and are still alive but we have no way of knowing that.  We take care of the ones who come to us and nobody goes hungry around here.  And you can always nap, no matter your species.

I've started taking pictures of them out on the porch and posting them on Instagram.  Bonaire Porch Cats is what I'm calling them.

Clemmie is getting old.  She's in rough shape with a mangled ear from various tom cats and she keeps pink eye.  We are attempting to catch her tomorrow and our neighbor has arranged for her to be spayed and her ear and eyes seen about.  Our neighbor also intends to rehome her to a family in the country.  I will miss her immensely but I want her to be happy.  I want her to live out her last days comfortable and safe.  No more toms and no more babies.

This is the best picture I've been able to get of her.  She just looks so sad.  Hang on, Clementine Ruby, help is on the way, baby.

Clemmie has one set of kittens who are almost a year old that still come around.  Daisy May and Delilah Jane.  They are identical so I have no idea which one this is.

And the wee babies, Lucky Joe and Lily Belle, who hitched a ride with us to the movies a couple of Sunday afternoons ago.  They were in the tire well of the truck, just chillin'.  Lily jumped down, jumped back up in there and was seen by a group of teenagers who waited beside the truck until we came out of the theater.  We were too afraid to try to force them out, for fear they'd run and we'd never catch them, so we left them in there and drove home, me frantically looking in the rearview mirror for one of them to fall out and get run over.  That caused me SO MUCH stress and anxiety!

I have become such a softy where these cats are concerned.  Larry, too.  He goes out in the mornings before leaving for work to feed them and I refresh their water bowls with cold water throughout the day.  And then we feed them again before bedtime.  There are several ladies in the neighborhood who also feed them but evil thrives everywhere and we've had people threaten the kitties, too.  We haven't seen a tom in months, just Clemmie and her four babies.

Anyway, here's Lucky, looking up at me from the flower bed.

He had just pooped and was saying, "why are you watching me potty?"  :)