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Chloe came to us about two weeks after we took in Fiona, another beautiful stray cat who found us. We fostered Fiona through PRBJ until she found a wonderful forever home. Chloe, like Fiona, just showed up in our back yard one evening as if to ask if we had room for her. She was very small, and we actually thought at first that she might be one of Fiona’s kittens. However, we later found out that she was an adult cat and about the same age as Fiona, just very undernourished. It’s quite possible that they may be siblings since they do have some similarities in coloring and body structure.

 

We gave Chloe food and water that first evening, which she quite gladly accepted. She was very cautious with us, yet extremely friendly. She even allowed us to pet her and purred loudly, arching her back into our hands as if to ask for more.

 

In spite of her friendliness, Chloe refused to let us pick her up, and proceeded to run back into the woods behind our house after finishing a satisfying meal. We watched for her the following evening, and sure enough, she came back around the same time asking for more. While still a bit timid, we realized Chloe was actually quite playful and affectionate. She would butt our legs with her head and rub her front paws on our pant legs as if to stake her claim on us as her new family. We had to be careful though, because her claws were razor sharp from not being trimmed, and we received some affectionate scratches in the process.

 

Chloe continued to visit us daily in the evenings, about an hour before sundown. On some days, she even came by in the mornings. By now she had trained us quite well to know when to put food out, yet she still wouldn’t let us pick her up. We tried to lure her into a crate with food, but she was too smart and would have nothing to do with it. On one occasion though, we were able to pick her up quickly and put her in the crate. You wouldn’t want to hear what that sounded like – let’s just say she was not happy! Unfortunately my daughter made the mistake of trying to put some water in the crate before we took her in the house, and Chloe bolted out the minute the door to the crate was cracked open. She didn’t come back for two days, but finally showed up again the second evening. She quickly rubbed up against us as if to say she forgave us; just don’t try the crate thing again.

 

We continued to feed Chloe daily, play with her, and give her lots of love and affection, though we were still unable to hold her. Then a strange thing happened. The day we took Fiona to an adoption meet with her new owner, Chloe let us catch her and bring her inside! It’s as if she knew we had an opening in our home and was ready to take the spot. We immediately bathed her and trimmed those razor-sharp claws and, surprisingly, she didn’t protest much. After her bath, we discovered she was even more beautiful than we already knew.

 

What we didn’t know but found out soon enough: she was pregnant! We already were convinced we were going to be “foster failures” with Chloe and make her a permanent member of our family, yet a litter of kittens was another new experience for us. We educated ourselves about feline pregnancy – a great homeschooling lesson for our family – and prepared for the impending birth. Little did we know that Chloe had other plans. She decided to sneak into our room one night before bedtime and gave birth to the kittens while we were sleeping!

 

Our talkative little girl was as quiet as she could be, so we didn’t even realize she had her babies until we went looking for her the following morning. We searched the house calling her name, thinking she might be in labor. When she came running out of our bedroom and down the hallway looking a lot less like a football cat, we knew she’d had the babies. My daughter checked and, sure enough, there were four beautiful little kittens underneath our bed. We got them out from under the bed and put them in the nesting box we already prepared for the occasion, and Chloe went straight to work with her new assignment of being an awesome momma cat.

 

We feel very blessed to have Chloe as a part of our family. We’re extremely grateful that she chose us to take her in and help her babies get the best start possible. We can’t imagine what would have happened to her children if Chloe gave birth to them in the woods. We feel privileged to foster Chloe’s babies until they can find their new forever homes. They’re all very unique, yet have wonderful temperaments like their mother. You can visit their web pages for more details.