On Wednesday morning, Jenn thought she saw a rat on our front steps. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a kitten — in fact four kittens!

Apparently a mother cat decided that under our steps was a nice place for them. She wasn’t wrong; there is a perfectly cat-sized space under the lower steps, with a larger sheltered space further back. The kittens look about four weeks old to us, so were likely born somewhere else, and moved in there recently. 

We’ve been feeding the four kittens and their mother, and keeping an eye on them with a camera. We’ll try to socialize them, and get them fixed, to try to avoid the feral cycle. The best thing for them would to get them adopted by loving families, but if that doesn’t work out, we’d be okay with them remaining on our property as groundskeepers, to take care of mice etc around the homestead. We’ll see how that goes!

Here are three of them:

The mother initially brought them a mouse, but has been able to relax a bit more once she found our food:

Peeking, playing, eating; where the one is peeking out of is the cozy protected area where they are sleeping:

Our cat Pippin noticed the strange cat on the screen:

They may choose to move on, but if they stick around, we welcome them. It’s unexpected, and potentially costly and a hassle, but all part of homestead life.