12.11.02
On one of the nicer days, mom chucked the kittens outside to acclimate them to their future environment.
Several hours later, I went looking for them, and had no luck. As they are now too big to eat without leaving a considerable mess of evidence, I figured that they were hiding somewhere.
I circled the house and surrounding property for a while, calling, "Kittykittykittykittykitty! Kittykittykittykittykitty?" but didn't get a response. Until I walked past the outside windows of the sunroom portion of the kitchen area, and a little black paw snaked out and grabbed my pantleg.
I had looked through all of the latticing that marked off the underside of certain sections of the house, but I apparently hadn't looked far enough into the murky depths of the niches, because I missed the two frightened little dirty kittens cowering in the furthest corner away from where the other cats were lazing about the house.
When I bent down and looked in, they both scampered over to where I was, mewling piteously and thrusting their paws through the lattice, trying to squeeze themselves out from their prison. Obviously there was some sort of way in, but neither of them seemed to know where it was.
And whatever I tried to do, they stayed put, getting antsy as other cats crowded aroudn to see what was going on under the house. Eventually I dug a large hole under the lattice, creating a place for them to come out when they wanted to, and they both did in their own time.
Strangely, both of the kittens have become more docile and lovey-dovey. Cricket even likes to be petted, and has climbed into my lap, or curled up next to me on several occasions. Talk about spooky.
What's in your head?