Agent Orange

Kittens having kittens...

While visiting my parents, I've been feeding 3 cats: Puma, Snaggletooth, and Miss Thing**. Well actually... I've been feeding one cat, and co-feeding the other two...(Snaggletooth and Miss Thing are also fed by a neighbor. He feeds them more than enough to sustain them, but that doesn't stop my parents from putting out a bowl every morning at 8.) For a long time, the system was perfect. My stepmom had three bowls, and the three cats had 3 spots picked out by the door.

That was until Agent Orange started coming around - a pink tabby kitten - maybe 3 or 4 months old...? At first she didn't eat so much...just a little bit out of Miss Thing's bowl. She mostly hung around to play. She loved climbing the trees, and swatting at the other cats' tails. She was clean, fluffy, and energetic. We all assumed she had a home in the neighborhood, and was just coming by for the extra food and company.

Almost overnight she has become much more aggressive. First pestering the others while they ate, she now actually pushes them from their bowls in an attempt to eat the canned stuff I add to the dry food. It's gotten so that I have to stand guard over Puma's dish, because he won't stand up to her.

A little more than a week ago, I noticed that her tummy was too large for her body. For maybe a second, I thought to myself, "she's getting fat from all that food," because her winter coat was filling out, as well. But her tummy seems rounder. And it is her tummy that continues to grow. I think Agent Orange is pregnant.


**The names have been changed to protect their privacy.