This afternoon, we found a litter of three kittens hiding behind our shed, in the corner of the yard. We've noticed an unfamiliar yellow-eyed black cat prowling around our yard lately, and now we know why. They seem to be about five weeks old - old enough to be calendar-cute, with fuzzy fur and big blue eyes, but not old enough to have quite mastered the skill of walking around. They sort of 'creep', rather than bounding around like you'd expect. Two were hiding just at the corner of the shed, where Dad could grab them easily, but he had to clamber around all sorts of stuff to get to the third one, who was lounging placidly under the side of Dad's makeshift towing trailer. His hand scrabbled around as I peeked underneath and directed him, "A little more to the left. -- No, my left. Yeah, there you go, you've got him!"

He finally captured all three of them - all gray tabbies, one light, one medium, one dark, all with huge blue eyes, and all (apparently) female - and the four of us stood around cuddling them and talking about what to do next. It being Memorial Day and all, no adoption center was open, so we ended up putting them in Gabby's old crate, with a fluffy mattress pad for a bed, and putting the crate back behind the shed. We propped the door open with a stake and set up low barriers to block off both exits from behind the shed; that way, the mother cat can get in, but the kittens can't get out. We figure they'll be making a racket if the mother doesn't come back by tomorrow morning, and either way, we'll probably take them to some adoption center or other tomorrow. It won't be a problem getting rid of them; they're certifiably adorable and exactly what every visitor to those centers is looking for. The four of us aren't cat people (largely because of Catie's allergy), but even we have to admit, they're precious. The problem is that the mother cat needs to be turned in too, otherwise she'll just keep producing litter after litter - but we don't expect we'll be able to catch her. Who knows - she may be outside moving those babies to a new location as we speak. Ah, well, I guess we'll find out in the morning.