"Hey guys!! Free FOOD!!"

I don't think I've ever mentioned the fact that we have tons of stray cats in our neighborhood. I don't know the full story, but I think it goes something like this:

Some woman decided to feed a stray that then had kittens and they have continued a little colony in our neck of the woods (literally). They live in the woods behind our house that our quiet little creek runs through. They would be the ones that have left us our various gifts of dead mice around the yard and driveway.

Try explaining the idea of mouse death, heaven, and eternity to your 4 year old as you toss it's tiny little carcass into the creek.

"Mommy, will he go to heaven?"

"Yes honey"

"But Mommy, the creek doesn't go to heaven, I thought it was way up in the sky...why are you throwing him in there?"

"He's just going to go for a little ride first honey, Jesus will pick him up around that little bend in the creek there."

Huh?

Yep. I'll probably go to hell for that, but otherwise I would have been stuck answering questions all day and all I wanted to do was get it OUT of the yard before Landon tried to "pet" it.

Oh well.

Kelly has accused me of feeding these stray cats numerous times, but alas, until today, I had never given in to those sweet little meows and sad looks through our side lights at the front door. They even come to the basement door and scratch like they want to come in...the boys kill me when they go and talk to them through the glass. How much more guilty can I feel?

It's torn at my conscience for a while now. I guess maybe because today was Easter Sunday, I must have been in a giving sort of mood. There was a small, skinny, little calico cat sitting on our front stoop and looking in the window. Colin came running to me to let me know about our visitor and then ran back to talk to her through the glass.

My heart broke just a little, so I snuck upstairs and grabbed a cup of cat-food to put outside. (shhhhhh...don't tell my cats because they would FREAK!) I even stuck a little dish of water out there for her and told Colin that it was, "our secret".

Have you ever wondered if cats communicate with each other? Well, I'm here to tell ya that they do.

Little Miss Calico happily gobbled up her dinner and then she went dancing down the street telling all of her buddies that the neighbors had a free buffet goin' on. Before I knew it there was an orange tabby, a snow white cat, and another calico begging on my front stoop. One even went around to the basement door to see if he'd have better luck there.

I guess the secret got out eh?

I wonder if Kelly will suspect that I've fed them?

I think he might.

It's either the buffet line winding around the house or the fact that Colin is running around the house saying, "Mommy, I didn't tell Daddy about our secret", that just might give it away.