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The kittens who live in a tree
A feral mother cat, one of the feral cat colony we care for, had her babies up in a 10 1/2 foot tall tree. It had been struck by lightening years before and the tree is dead, so it has a big hollowed out spot down in the middle of it and the top has been cut off leaving short stumpy areas sticking out.

The neighbor had to climb up a ladder, shimmy up the tree the rest of the way, then hang upside down in the tree to get the babies out when they were a about three weeks old and we trapped the mama to be spayed during a big snip weekend at Alley Cats. They were able to stay with her there and come home with her afterwards where we'd set up a little house for her to keep them in. We'd also set up an alternate location near the tree--a building that we'd scattered a bunch of straw under--in case she wasn't content being so visible.

Brought Mama and her babies home, put babies in cat-house, let Mama out of crate. She went and hid, so we left the babies in the cat-house and checked on them a bit later. By midnight, she had all four of them back up in the top of that freaking tree! And there they stay, over a month later. Here are the pics to prove it.
June 20111 - 31 of 31 Images548 visitsAlbum by Mary YoungPhotos by Mary Young
Enlarge photo 1 Home of the kittens who live in a tree
Enlarge photo 2 Enlarge photo 3 Can you see them? There are two in this pic.
Enlarge photo 4 This one's easy..well, easier. Isn't he cute??
Enlarge photo 5 Enlarge photo 6 Easier, but there are two in this pic...do you see them both??
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Enlarge photo 9 Blurry, but at least you can see I'm not lying--there are definitely two in there!
Enlarge photo 10 Enlarge photo 11 Enlarge photo 12 This little guy never moved a muscle...so stoic!
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Enlarge photo 17 Enlarge photo 18 Enlarge photo 19 Enlarge photo 20 Finally! Both little faces are clearly visible. :)
Enlarge photo 21 The little black one looks exactly like her mother and sister. There were four in the litter, but we've only seen three all at one time since right after we brought them all home. We know they were all taken up into the "nest" initially, but we have only seen one black kitten at a time since.
Enlarge photo 22 Enlarge photo 23 Enlarge photo 24 Love this one! Couldn't believe how clear this pic was considering how far away I was.
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