No, not more cats for the house, but we seem to have an “infestation” under the house.  We’re on a major pathway between two possible “problem” houses for cats.  One is our next door neighbor to the back who has a sort of a pet cat he lets live in his garage.  He’s allergic to cats but has taken a fancy to this cat.  The cat’s a male, and I doubt he’s been neutered.  He’s marked similarly to our Roxy, so when Roxy showed up, I thought she was him.  Nope.  I figure there’s a good chance he’s Roxy’s brother or father.

Then there’s Derrick’s (the “stray” cat we found at the end of May) house across the school parking lot from us.  There are lots and lots of cats there.  The neighbor’s cat wanders over there to “visit,” and the cats at Derrick’s house traverse our yard — either along the fence or underneath the house — to visit the buffet at our neighbor’s garage.

I’ve sensed there was something going on for a couple of days.  Millie has been particularly interested in the back steps on our evening walks before the dogs get tucked into the garage.  I’ve seen more cats than usual in the yard.  Tonight, hubby happened upon a young cat marked similarly to Roxy (but much smaller and with more gray) on the back porch.  He tried the lure the cat to him.  The cat was interested but not trusting enough.  We walked around the house and saw two more on the front steps.  So, it appears we have a young litter of kittens who look not too many weeks removed from mama cat that are hanging out under the house.  The local gray tabby had kittens around early July.  I learned she belongs at Derrick’s house, and her name is Stripper (maybe because of her stripes?).   These kittens are probably from that litter.

One of the things on our to do list (there are hundreds) is to enclose the area under the house.  When the previous owners were doing the central heating and air conditioning work (and probably the plumbing and electrical work, too), they pulled out a lot of the bricks that comprised the skirting around the house.  Unfortunately, they never put them back, and the good bricks managed to disappear when they moved out (they weren’t supposed to).  This leaves several access points to get under the house, and local strays use it regularly.

When we first moved in, a stray dog was under the house.  Eventually, she had puppies.  Nobody could get near this dog, and it threatened a few kids.  We asked the animal control officer and gave him permission to remove the dog and the puppies.  I had visions of packs of dogs breeding and living under there and eventually, because we’d allowed them to stay, people would presume they were our dogs that we weren’t taking care of.  Thankfully, the dog and puppies have been gone for about two years now.  But the cat problem is increasing.

Unfortunately, as long as the neighbors don’t get their cats spayed and neutered, we can see this going on for a long time.