I debated about posting this… there’s probably a few ways to say either 1) I’m lying, or 2) I abuse animals. Those of you who read this blog know better… so I will go ahead and share the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me!

I was mowing my yard, and it’s 74˚ today (which seems HOT after snow last week), so I go inside and get a drink. I come out, forget that I only have a smidge of grass to mow, and I walk over to my flower bed that I’d turned over with a shovel yesterday. I’d also shoveled a layer of manure on top of that, and I knelt down to start breaking clods and mixing the layers. I had my audio book going… hmmm. That’s a weird bird call. What kind of bird is that? I turned off my audio book so I could hear better.

Well… that’s not a bird… it’s a… kitten! Booger must have had her kittens! But where was it?? Did she just have it out in the grass? There was Booger, outside my yard… Yup, sure enough, her hefty tummy is now slim and loose. But where was the kitten? I stood, tilting my head, trying to pinpoint the sound.

I took a few steps, opened my gate, and left my yard. No… the sound is back where I was. I returned… I had moved some flower pots around so I peered inside, behind, around them all. No kitten.

But there is that distinctive high pitched mew.

I move to the wood shed… no, that’s not right. I swear it’s coming DIRECTLY FROM MY FLOWER BED.

Again, I kneel. I rake my hand moving a few handfuls of dirt. Eden is right there next to me, ears pricked, tilting her head side to side, echoing what I had done a minute before. I nudged her back with my elbow and right then…

RIGHT THEN!

This grey furry *thing* rises up through the dirt! HOLY MOLY!!! I’m not ashamed… I SQUEALED! THERE’S A KITTEN BURIED IN MY FLOWER BED!!!!

Now my iPad is right next to me… remember my audio book… so I grabbed it and took this photo.

Two seconds later, I had the kitten out of the dirt and in my warm hands.

Poor little thing was dry but cold.

HOW THE H*&^ IS A KITTEN BURIED IN MY FLOWER BED????????????????

I wander around, looking here and there for the rest of the kittens, but don’t hear or see them. Booger is there, and on closer inspection I decide she is looking worse for wear, matted and wet like she does when Eden “plays” with her. EDEN? Hmmmm.

Booger lays there, soon purring as I rub her back. I place the kitten next to her, and she grabs it, almost biting (not the gentle pick up and carry bite)… I take it and place it at her belly again. And again. The fourth try finally she licks it once, twice, and rolls over to give it access to her belly. I can see she’s been nursed, so there are other kittens!

Booger’s patience has worn thin though, and she jumps up, picks up her kitten, and marches the few steps to the wood shed, where she ducks under the floor to relative safety.

My conclusion? Booger had her kittens this morning under the shed. At some point, Eden reached under, though she can only get her head under the wood shed, and drug Booger out… probably simply to see what the mewing was about. Perhaps little “Lucky”, as I’ve named it, was enjoying it’s first meal… Eden doesn’t hurt Booger, but she will mouth her, so I imagine she was relatively gentle. Booger escaped, but that left Lucky to Eden’s devices.

What does Eden do with things she wants to eat or play with later???

She buries them.

In a flower bed I’d just broken up the day before so the soil was soft. I could have stayed in the house. My lapse of memory about finishing mowing my yard sent me to the flower bed. I decided to whack the clods of dirt with my heavy hand rake just inches away from Lucky’s hiding spot.

That kitten was meant to be found.

When it gets bigger, you bet Lucky will be the star of the show around here… but for now, he/she is staying safe under the wood shed.

What a weird life I have!