I was nearing the end of my morning rounds, walking past the kibble house, when I spotted something both adorable and heartbreaking.

A new kitten.

A tiny, cold, wet, alone kitten.

It was not there when I did their kibble. I did a head count and I think I counted 25 in total, with 3 or 4 of them being adults. Even Rolando Moon showed up for breakfast.

Because it’s so small, I was able to pick it up and try to warm it up. It is so young, its eyes are still blue! I put it near some kibble, and it completely ignored it.

Eventually, I put it in the cats’ house, which is the warmest, driest place for it. It stayed there for a while, but when I came back later and it saw me, it started coming out. Then more cats came around.

It kept going from kitten to kitten, looking for mama. I put it inside the kibble house – it’s so small, it can barely climb over the board that keeps the trays from being knocked to the ground.

Rosencrantz was the only mama around at the time. The little one was meowing for mama, and Rosencrantz did come over to give it some sniffs, but later on, she growled at it.

I eventually put it back into the cat house and quickly left, as seeing me (as well as it can see at this stage of life!), hoping it would stay. We will have to check frequently, to make sure it doesn’t end up stuck outside. I don’t think it can climb into the cats’ house on its own.

I am hoping that its mama – whichever cat that is! – has decided to move her litter into the cats’ house, and that this is the first one. If I’m right, I hope that means we’ll find a litter of babies tucked away safely in the warmth.

It’s the middle of October, and we’re getting snow.

We will monitor and see how things go. If necessary, I’ll contact the cat lady for advice. She’ll be giving us dates for two females (Tissue and Big Rig being the last indoor cats to get spayed) and one male (whichever of the male yard kittens we can grab this are old enough) soon. She’s also looking to get ahold of some donated cat food for us, too.

On top of all this, I checked my mother’s car. It took several days, but her tire is flat again. We won’t have room in the budget to get it fixed until the end of the month, so we’re going to have to use our van to drive my mother around. *sigh*

Now, excuse me while I have my lunch while worrying about a teeny, tiny kitten outside!

The Re-Farmer