How it started when she came wandering to my back door starving and super skittish in 2024.
Now, laying on my wife's legs after tenderizing them as part of her nightly ritual.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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Oh, gorgeous! She is a worthy house panther.
Years ago, we got adopted by a big stray Tabby tomcat that my son befriended, and named Jake. He began using our house as his base of operations, and soon brought home his gorgeous Siamese girlfriend, and her three little kittens. We went from no cats to five cats in a couple of weeks. No humans were consulted in any of these decisions. We were at the mercy of these adorable feline squatters.
Over the last 18 years, we watched that entire cat family grow up, enjoying their interactions and rivalries. Jake was a wild man, and used up all his nine lives, and borrowed a few from timid cats who weren't using them. He was shot twice, drowned once, lost fights with raccoons, won many more against lesser rivals, adopted lost kittens, and more. He was a force of nature. I've never known another cat like him.
The past few years have been heart-breaking as we lost them one by one. Each of our little cat family was beloved in their own unique way, and we miss them desperately. Only one is left, and she's a little old blind lady with arthritis. She mostly just sleeps in her bed on the couch next to my wife, whom she adores. I doubt she'll survive the year, and they'll all be gone.
It will truly be the end of an era for our family.
Wonderful story!
Kittens: WE ARE LOST AND SCARED IN A BIG SCARY WORLD!!! HISSSSS!!!!!!
Cats: Come snuggle with me, cat brother! We own this house, and this human slave who harvests our poop for some reason......but it doesn't matter. We run the show! Now let us snuggle and sleep for 19 hours a day.
the poop must flow. We assume.
Aww, cuties! My wife and I just took a pregnant stray in a month ago and she wound up delivering a few days later. Here they were the other day 
The black one on top is the runt, we're calling her nugget, the white one is already spoken for and her owner named her Luna, the black one on the bottom is named tater cause he's the chubbiest lol
We got adopted by a new mom with three kittens, and one of them was much rounder and chubbier than the rest.
18 years later, and they're all gone except that little chubby one, who still looks young, even though she's 18, blind, and arthritic. The last time we took her to the vet, they were like "Are you sure she's 18? She looks a lot younger." We're sure, we knew her when she was still nursing.
Those roly poly ones tend to be the healthiest.
Ngl that's the post that inspired me :D
It feels like every other day I see a post of someone finding lost kittens outside somewhere. How? How does that even happen? I never see tiny lost fluffballs outside! Only ever bigger fluffballs who act like they own the place...
I've never paid a penny for a cat. They just show up, and won't leave. It doesn't matter if you feed them, give them a name, a box to sleep in, with a blanket, and some toys, then you let them in your house, and they start sleeping on your lap and purring, then they're sleeping in your bed and purring, etc.
No matter what you do, they just won't leave.
Oh no, what a terrible predicament you're in! Well I'm gonna be very mean right here and say that I hope it doesn't get better. I hope they never leave. Muahahaha >:3
My last kitty came up on my porch outta nowhere and meowed at me till I loved her. That neighborhood had a feral cat thing going on though.
The last time I had kittens their mom (a neighborhood stray) stashed them under my car. Getting the sharp, squirming lil tykes out of the engine block in Texas summer heat was a memorable experience.
Just gotta live close to a cat colony.
Sometimes your house turns into a cat colony. We had five.
my neighbors had 3. who they were desperately trying to fix, but they had a vet that didn't do kitty abortions. i get it. but like, it was first their cat and two strays. momma was pregnant. vet said bring her and the kittens back 2 months after she gives birth. neighbor brought all 7 cats in now. momma and one of the littles were pregnant (by an outside cat. i don't know why they didn't keep them inside. maybe she did?). so they got working on finding homes but now momma and her daughter gave another couple litters. We took one of those to try to help out but at that point four of the cats were pregnant when she took them in. The doctor just gave her a really serious look and did the spayings.
i know she said she was trying. but she had 19 kittens. that's toooooo many kittens to be able to think. and she started the year with 3.
We were up to 7 at one point. It's way too many
Five was the perfect number. More entertaining than cable tv.
It is rare! These rescues came to us through a friend of a friend in the southern USA (Los Angeles, i think), and wended their way over here in BC Canada. I think in warmer climates you'll see it more.
yeah, i'm by San Francisco and part of my daily leisure bikeride is stopping to take photos of the kittens at the cat colonies
Does your area have catch, spay/neuter, and release programs for strays?
Usually you get surprise kittens when either someone's unfixed animal gets out and gets pregnant/gets another cat pregnant, or when kittens are dumped because some people aren't good, or unfixed strays get pregnant and have babies.
Some areas may have predators that would deter cats (humans, coyotes, large snakes, alligators, crocodiles, puma/mountain lions etc). Some areas aren't hospitable (weather wise) to strays.
CDS strikes again!
Cute
*checks clipboard*
Mm hmm . . . Mm hmm . . . Yes, everything seems to be in order here
(≧ω≦)