It all started one morning when there was a knock at the back door. All my human family members were at work, so I carefully peeked through the curtains on the door and saw that it wasn’t a burglar, the fashion police (I know they would never have to come after me, but they might have been looking for my Mom) nor animal control, so I felt it was safe to open the door. As I swung the door open I saw the most peculiar sight….
It was a raccoon, who I had never seen before, cradling a kitten in her arms. I must say it was an amusing sight! I knew this raccoon and I were going to become fast friends as she had an adorable hat perched perfectly on her head.
The raccoon introduced herself as Roxanne Raccoon, who was in town visiting relatives. She had originally come to help her niece with her litter of babies, but they were grown up enough now where they didn’t need looking after. She thought she might earn some food for her niece’s large family by helping the other critters in the area tend to their springtime litters. She had found the little kitten she was holding just wandering around crying and she hoped I would know to whom the kitten belonged.
I told Roxanne that I believed it was one of Dot’s little ones. We had a couple of new litters of feral kitties in the neighborhood, and I knew Dot was one of the proud mamas. I told Roxanne if she wouldn’t mind waiting, I would send Steve out to find Dot. I’m sure Dot was worried sick about her adventurous little kitten!
I went upstairs and awakened Steve from his nap in the music room and asked him to go find Dot and bring her to the backyard. He yawned and just stared at me. Then I remembered what my Dad does when he wants Steve to go outside – shake a bag of kitty treats. I went down to the den to find the kitty treats. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and shook the bag as hard as I could. Sure enough, Steve came trotting down the stairs. I opened the front door and threw some treats out and he went right out after them. As I closed the door I told him now he could go find Dot.
By the time I returned to the back deck, Roxanne was loaded down with kittens!! Evidently, word spread quickly that there was a critter willing to take one’s kittens off one’s hands for a few hours. All the worn out momma cats had rushed over and deposited their kittens with Roxanne. I imagine most of them were heading home to get an undisturbed bite to eat and a nice long nap. The kittens took an immediate liking to Roxanne as she patiently cuddled them and gave them gentle tummy rubs. She seemed to be in heaven. She was a natural born nanny!
Steve returned with Dot, who was quite relieved to be reunited with her kitten. She was quite pleased to meet Roxanne, and asked if it was okay if she met her back on the deck the next day, so she could have a few hours to herself. Roxanne said she would love to – they agreed to meet back the next day. Roxanne stayed out on the deck all afternoon playing with the kittens. I’d pop out every now and then to join in the fun or just to check to see if they needed more milk.
After the last kitten was retrieved by its mother, Roxanne knocked on the door to tell be goodbye. I gave her a bag of peanuts as pay for all her hard work, and she seemed most delighted. She happily headed for her niece’s nest, balancing the big bag of peanuts in her little raccoon hands.
I made sure to be up early the next morning so I could greet Roxanne when she arrived for work. Hours passed and I answered the door several times to moms wanting to drop off their kittens for a bit. I apologized and told them to check back later.
Around noon I heard a very hard knock on the door. I was hoping it was Roxanne. I swung open the door and was shocked to see Preston!! He was wearing Roxanne’s hat! I asked him quite pointedly where Roxanne was. He looked offended and told me she was tied up and couldn’t make it, so she had asked him to take her place taking care of the kittens. He told me he had lots of experience taking care of babies and he had heard I would pay a bag of peanuts for an afternoon’s work.
I didn’t feel good about the whole thing…something didn’t seem quite right. Still, if it was okay with Roxanne, I guess it was okay with me. Preston said he had to run out and get some supplies, so if anyone showed up I should tell them to wait.
By the time Preston returned, the deck was filled with kittens. I left him to his work and went inside. After about an hour, it started getting rather noisy on the deck. That was odd, because it was so quiet when Roxanne was out there yesterday. While I didn’t want to have to deal with Preston, I wanted to make sure everything was okay. I stepped out onto the deck and could not believe my eyes…
The kittens were running amok!!!!!! Preston must have stopped at the carnival a few blocks down and taken some of every kind of junk food he could find. There were corn dogs, fried oreos, turkey legs, French fries and a huge bucket of Kool-Aid. The kittens were eating all this fried food instead of lapping some healthy milk!! Not only that, but I saw one kitten running around with a pair of scissors. First of all, I don’t know where the kitten found the scissors, and second of all, I don’t know why Preston didn’t stop him. After surveying the situation, I decided that Preston did not, in fact, know anything about taking care of little ones. Some of the kittens were all hopped up on the sugar from the Kool-Aid and fried oreos, while the others were just sick from eating things they shouldn’t have eaten. I had to remove one kitten from on top of a plate of French fries – the poor little thing had quite the tummy ache!
As I was busy collecting all the unhealthy food from the kittens, our neighbors called over the fence to me. They wanted to know if I knew of any raccoons living in the area. I told them about Roxanne, including the part about her not showing up for work. They told me I needed to come to their yard for a moment. I piled the food just inside the back door and headed over to the neighbor’s yard.
They led me to their shed and swung open the door.
There was poor Roxanne – duct tape on her mouth and hands. I knew it! That devious Preston did this! I rushed to get the scissors (with which Preston must have cut the duct tape) so I could get the tape off Roxanne without ripping out bunches of her hair. The neighbors helped as well, and soon we had Roxanne free with relatively little hair loss. She was a bit shaken up, but generally fine.
I confronted Preston and told him I didn’t like liars. He said he didn’t lie. He had told me she was tied up and couldn’t make it. He admitted that, okay, he should have said she was TAPED up, not tied up. And maybe she didn’t exactly ASK him to take care of the kittens for her, but surely she wouldn’t have wanted the kittens to be unattended, right?
I snatched Roxanne’s hat off his head and told him to leave. He asked if he could have the bag of peanuts first. I just stared at him until he mumbled something and stalked off. I should have known he was going to be trouble.
I apologized to Roxanne and helped her take care of the kittens until their mommas came to get them. I begged her to not hold Preston’s terrible behavior against the other animals in the neighborhood. She said she wouldn’t, though when it was time to go back to her niece’s nest, she said she would be heading home the next day. I told her if she was ever in the neighborhood again that she should stop by to say hello. I gave her two bags of peanuts, and a big hug before watching her disappear into the trees.
I hope sweet Roxy comes to visit again. I will be keeping an eye out for Preston. Every time he shows up, something goes wrong!
Please make sure to stop by next Friday, for a special blog tale. I’m going to visit the Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary this weekend and I will tell you all about it next time.
Have a great week!
Love & kitty kisses,
Josie
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