Stupid cat

We have a mama cat that's always having kittens. We don't spay or neuter because farm cats are hard to keep around with the coyote population. She has had 6 litters in the last 14 months; of those this last litter is the only ones to make it 6 weeks.

She's really a horrible mother. Most of the litters we never saw, we would just notice she was fat one day and skinny the next. But never saw any kittens. Two litters we did see when we lived in the rental, but she would hide them in the dumbest places. Like in the hitch of the camper. Or the bed of a pickup.

This spring I noticed a blob laying on the back patio. Upon further inspection I discovered it was a newly born kitten. She was in the dog kennel cleaning herself up, so I scooped it up and put it in there with her. I walked around the house and found another one on the other side of the patio, another by the garage. I put them all in their with her along with some food and water and locked it up. The next time I came to check on them, there was a mama and NO kittens. So, I drew the conclusion that she has been EATING her kittens all this time! EWWWW!!

The end of June I noticed she was fat once again. The next day she started having the kittens in the back of my old Bronco. It literally took her all day long. But I kept checking and the litter didn't appear to decrease in size, just increase to finally four kittens. For the next couple weeks I kept an eye out. She moved them from the back to the front of the vehicle, I kept bringing her food out there hoping she would stay. But soon she decided to move them to the burned out shell of an old pickup. After a couple weeks, she would move them to an unknown location, then again to the old work pickup that Jeff unknowlingly left the windows rolled down on.

But by now they are mobile. Jeff needed the truck and caught them all and moved them, but the dog got a hold of one. She didn't mean to hurt it, I think Scarlett just loved it to death, literally. Down to three. One went back into the work truck, I caught and put it back in the Bronco.

Yesterday, mama put one on the spare tire of my good pickup. And I can't reach it. This morning we heard another one crying by the side of the barn. Turns out one was stuck in an old muffler from a semi truck laying out there. Jeff put the fire rescue skills to use and cut it open to extracate the poor kitty. So two are accounted for.

But, we've come to the conclusion that this mama cat must be the stupidest cat to walk the face of the earth. If she doesn't eat the darn things, then she doesn't know a good safe spot to put them, though we show her plenty of good places. I used to think cats were natural mamas, but not so much anymore.