Nearly eight years ago in July, a stray cat came to our property and changed our lives. She chose our property as the place to have her kittens in a protected bouganvilla vine. When the kittens were old enough they appeared out of the bushes. The mother was a skinny small common looking tabby who was feral. She grew to have some trust as we fed her and her kittens. The kittens soon became independent and as time went on they seemed to embrace us into their world. They entertained us for hours, running, bouncing, pouncing on one another, climbing trees, following one another like a chain-link bond. Eventually they worked their way into the house to take naps on their choice of comfort.
The three were the perfect combo. All three boys, sharing the same mother, but were all different in appearance and personality. We had them all fixed and came to refer to them as the Bros. Our concern was always to protect them from predators such as owls and coyotes. We brought them in for dinner early and kept them locked up until the morning hours after making certain they were out of arms way of danger.
To our disbelief the link is now broken. A foggy morning at around 9:30 am, a coyote walking by Harvester Road grabbed our Bogey. The coyote left when a passerby appeared. We had to bury our boy.
You can never be too careful-watch your small dogs and cats as the predator will fly down from a tree or leap a 7-foot fence.
Linda Gould