by K L Humphreys

Created on: January 19, 2010

Experience is a good teacher some say, but when dealing with kittens and finding good homes for them, experience might be too harsh.

My husband and I were adopted by a beautiful gray tabby cat last summer and of course "she" was pregnant and all six arrived Labor Day weekend.

We did very well with our new family members, but I knew that we did not want to keep all six, and new homes must be found.

So I took pictures of the mother and her brood and posted them at the small resale shop where I work. I received lots of oooohss and ahhhhhs, but no takers.

Then when they were six weeks old, suddenly two were adopted and we were left with four wonderful, liltter trained little boys.

They were short-haired and long-haired. One was black with cute little white paws and one was the color of peanut butter. Oh yes they were backyard show quality, but alas no one was interested until they turned three months old.

A friend that does odd jobs for us needed all four kittens, because he had five children in his home, and someone had given one a kitten and he needed four more to end the fighting.

I sent him on his way and called my husband so he could round up the kittens, and their blankets. Well there's more to adopting out kittens, particularly when they have lived on a dead end dirt road, in the pine forest somewhere, in the deep south.

These cute little bundles fur had never been around anyone else but us, and there was a van load of children heading their way. Life would change for them and my  husband, and we would gain some experience.

When they arrived the children quickly jumped out of the van and proceeded to run around the yard shouting, "here kitty kitty" and those kittens probably thought aliens had landed.

My husband was able to catch two and hand them to the children, but the other two hid. They searched high and low, but when children calmed down, my husband was able to remember to look under the hood of our truck.

Yep there they were sitting there as if they were invisible. He reached in for the one we had named Peter due to his peanut butter color and this sweet ball of fur became teeth and claws with a strange hissing sound.

Now you may think that locating a kitten under the hood of a truck is difficult, but crawling on your hands and knees in the palmetto bushes is harder, especially when you calling Peter with British accent.

The story ends well, the kittens were found and handed over to the family and they all went rattling down the dirt road, to their new home.

Unfortunately for the kittens their new home was on a busy road next to a high school, dogs, neighbors and yes the children, and I heard that Peter spent the first three days in a tree.

Rule #1 Never give kittens to children or adults they don't know. Invite the new family over for a visit and experience will be good teacher.

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