Today's Tail-of-Five-Cats

Today's tail-of-five-cats (SWIDT? Never mind.)

Back when we already had 'way too many cats, there was a feral gal who hung around a while, then disappeared for a while, then showed up again, very pregnant. Don't remember what we called her other than Momcat.

She dropped a litter of five, nursed them just barely long enough, and then dropped dead.

The five kittens were two gray brindles and three whites.

The brindles were a hefty-size medium-hair boy, and the runt of the litter, a short-haired girl. Him, we named Sasquatch, a/k/a Bigfoot, because, big foots. Her, we named Zebra, also Spider, among other names. They were both around for a couple of years, then one day they just didn't come home, both on the same day. That still hurts, years and years later. I fantasized they had found some Granny lady neighbor who took them in and fed them well. Yeah. Probably not. Rural life is tough.

The three whites were identical all-white sisters, except, one had a small gray stripe on the left side of her head, another an identical stripe, but on the right side.

One of the gray-striped sisters - Beauty - met a really hard end early-on. Young Daughter was running through the living room and stepped on her. It was instantaneous, at least.

The all-white one also met a tragic end when not much older. The only pet I ever had to scrape off the road. It's a long drive to the gate, and the cats didn't wander that far, so it was curious. Near as I can figure, the phone co. - we found out - sent a truck to our place while we were away. I presume that Snowy got up on the truck unnoticed, and jumped off after the truck exited the gate, and either didn't survive the jump or got hit immediately. Lots of surmising there, but it's the best I could deduce.

The remaining white sister, Grace, lost her gray stripe after that. (No longer needed for us to tell them apart, is my superstition.) She lived for many years, a wonderful kitty - but finally succumbed to a bad tumor near her eye.

Pet ownership - joys and tragedies.