Look What the Fog Brought In

"The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on."   ~ Carl Sandburg

Two mornings ago, we awoke to a dense fog.  All was quiet, white, and wet when I went outside to take care of the morning chores at the barn.  After taking Mira down to the front field, I turned to go retrieve Lance to bring him down, too and as usual, cast my eye on the dog runs to check on things.  But, this time there was a sight which caused me to look, and look again, and look a third time - not believing my own eyes!  There in the large run with two boarder dogs, was a tiny orange kitten, just walking about with the dogs!

Though there was no distress on the kitten's part, I ran in quickly to scoop him up and found him to be dirty, thin, and full of burrs.  The remaining blue in his eyes told me he was still quite young, and he was also rather weak.  I gave him a meal of canned cat food and milk and he ate heartily which greatly encouraged my concerns for his welfare.  

Our dogs were very interested in this new little creature, and Chloe even showed signs of wanting to protect him, but her great, huge size was a little dangerous for the tiny guy.  So, what to do with the baby? Spying Jack the rabbit's lawn pen, I wondered if Jack might be a comfort to this young kitten and if indeed Jack might even enjoy having a companion - so, we decided to go for it and put the kitten in with Jack.Sure enough, they took very well to each other, and the now-fed and tired kitten spent most of the afternoon sleeping in the grass cuddled next to his new friend.  Since then, while the kitten - now named "Carly" in honor of the poet - prefers the company of humans, Jack has proven to be an acceptable kitty-sitter and we are vastly enjoying watching their interactions.