Sometime last winter, a litter of kittens was born underneath my house.  There were three in all, a calico, a solid black one, and a black and white kitten with a mark on her mouth which makes her look like she has a perpetual smirk.

But who knows, maybe she is just a smirker.

I can understand after being abandoned by her parents and all.  I don’t know if she is a female or not…how do you tell with a cat?

One day while I was visiting at the garden gate with my neighbor, Judy, she mentioned she was feeding three kittens.

“Well, so am I,” I declared.  No wonder they were so healthy looking.

Judy moved away last January and took the black kitten with her.  That left two. I don’t know how she ever caught the cat.

Then, a month later, I was driving down my street, and I saw the calico had been run over.  She was the wildest of the litter, a real Rebel.

Smirk, on the other hand, rarely leaves my front porch.  She won’t come near me, but she often scratches on my window in the morning…hungry I guess.

When the temperature dipped to single digits, I made a house for her out of a packing box and put in an electric blanket.  She survived and thrived. 

Each day I go out and put food and water in her bowls.  On Thursday, after having lunch at Old Waverly I brought her a shrimp salad.  The shrimp were undercooked to my taste, but Smirk was delighted with her “doggy” bag. 

She has real potential for becoming the fourth member of my family.

Suddenly she has been very affectionate.  She even let me pet her today.  Next step is to try to introduce her to Lucky Dawg and Rebel.. If anyone knows how to do that without a tragedy, please let me know.