In the Beginning........

We live out in the country and have been blessed with eight feral cats that migrated from the neighbors to live on our 3 acres. We already have five indoor cats, and with one being a diabetic, and all five of them on special food because of the diabetic, it is an expensive endeavor already. Now we are feeding the eight feral cats plus our east side neighbor's cat too.

Earlier Last Year:
Our neighbors’ (to the west of us) daughter had to move back home earlier this year because of her husband’s health issues (pancreatic cancer) and his inability to work anymore and the daughter had brought two strays with her. Then we noticed about a month or two after they moved in, there were 3 kittens over there too. We wondered if they would get them fixed...........

Then around August, I happened to look out my window and saw about eight more kittens running and playing under some cars the neighbors have parked out back.......Apparently they didn't fix the cat!!!

So fast forward to:
Around November 11, 2013, I was feeding this stray cat we call Missy Hisser, 

Missy Hisser  on 11/11/2013

(Funny name, I know, but when she rubs on us and talks to us she hisses instead of meows. Fortunately she has been spayed... I know this because she visited us in May and I noticed she didn't have any claws, and she looked familiar, so I called my other neighbor that lives to the east of us and she said that was the stray cat I gave her a couple of years ago that she had spayed and de-clawed and then it ran off! I had suggested NOT to de-claw the cat when I gave it to them. I don't think Missy Hisser liked the little dog they had, it always barks, but she likes to make the rounds in the neighborhood to see people and get a variety of life) and the 3 kittens from the neighbor’s house (to the west of us) who are about 6 -8 months old now, a black one and 2 white ones, came over whining and trying to get Hisser’s food. They were acting so hungry, so I fed them. They gobbled it up like they haven't eaten in days.

Shadow on 11/9/2013

So for the next few days I kept watching out my window to see if any of the people next door would come out to feed them, the daughter did a couple of mornings and one night and that’s all I noticed. So I kept feeding them when I fed Missy Hisser. Then Missy Hisser left in a about 4 days. I guess it was because she didn't want to be around the other cats, the last time she had stayed 2 weeks. So I stopped feeding the others, I figured maybe if I didn't feed them they'd get fed at their home. Maybe that's why I never saw her feed them, because she saw me feeding them. Well, the 3 of them came to my back door whining two nights later. When I fed them, they ate so fast that they were either not getting fed or not getting enough food. Broke my heart! My husband told me to just go ahead and feed them on a regular schedule.

I had been feeding the 2 white cats and black cat for awhile, and they had started staying over here, lounging in the fenced area and playing on the log piles. It is like a kitty jungle gym over here, so many things to climb up and on! One night as I was heading to the back porch steps, I saw 2 shiny eyes peeking up at me! It startled me because at first I thought it might be a skunk!

Tuffie on 11 18 13

The kitten was very hard to see because it was a tortoise shell and about 3 months old. I thought, 'Oh my God! It's one of the new kittens from next door!'

I spoke to it but it ran off back to the neighbors. 

The next day my husband went into our shed to get ice out of the freezer. He said when he opened the door, four little furry faces and the Mamma Kitty were looking at him from inside the crate I had put a blanket in for Missy Hissy when she was here. I figure the other kittens had told them there was food here so they moved in too. 

So what am I supposed to do? Call the pound and then they'd be put down? NO WAY! So the hubby said to feed them too. 

And so begins...The Chronicles of the Shedley Cats!