Still Summer: Surprise!

Besides generating perspiration from our brows, this week's heat wave induced new life – brought forth by Tickles.


Aaron's mamma cat gave birth to quintuplets after yesterday's 94ºF/35ºC heat. Tickles announced their arrival – immediately after the boys and I arrived home from the cross-country team dinner – by jumping onto the back step.

"Hey! Tickles is skinny," Aaron said and took off running to the nursery box prepared in the three-season porch. As Noah unlocked the back door, Tickles ran into house seeking fresh water. I lingered outside listening and heard:

Mew. Mew. Mew.

"Hey, Aaron. How many are there?" I asked thinking "grandpa" was handling his pet's babies. Poking his head around the house's corner, he said, "They're not here."

I beckoned, "Listen."

Soon Aaron heard the tiny voices and said, "They're under the step."

He crouched down looking between the slats and counted five kittens.

"They're all orange! Guess we know who the dad is," he said referring to our neighbors' orange tomcat with which we'd seen Tickles frolicking a couple months ago.

At the time, we'd guessed he was the father of this year's spring batch which also produced five marmalade kittens. The difference? The April 23rd litter had two females and three males versus four males and one female in this batch born September 5th.

Aaron said, "This IS the best day ever. First I was voted class president of the sixth grade. Now Tickles has kittens!"

I encouraged President Aaron to leave Tickles and the babies under the step for the night. "It's cooler there than in that inferno of a porch," I said. "Besides it's too noisy with Dad still working on the roof and the siding."

My advice worked overnight.

By the time I returned this morning from walking our dog Moose, Aaron had the kittens in the nursery box with the porch door shut tight. He'd worried all night about the kittens' safety against the very beast that sparked their life. Truly the diplomat, President Aaron said, "George has got a tough job."

I sighed thinking: What about the president's mom? Besides household duties, this one's got to manage student schedules, homework and remodeling projects in between a kitten nursery... going into the autumn.

What was Tickles thinking? Her babies won't be weaned until November. Maybe Tickles knows something I don't. Maybe summer won't end and this heat wave will go on and on...

Or maybe,
it's high time to relax:

Forget the worries, seize the moment and enjoy a cuddly bundle.

Afterall, Tickles does. It's when this mamma cat focuses on nurturing her young that she looks and acts most healthily.

And so, for the moment – out in our porch – it's Still Summer: Surprise!