Since it's raining this morning (and I can't possibly vacuum or dust while it's raining outside), I thought I'd show you our new Ice Cream Shoppe :-)

In the picture above, you'll see Mama Patches and her 3 babies: Chocolate Chip, Orange Sherbet, and Creamsicle. (Ice Cream Shoppe ... get it??!) Patches had never been a very good mother and this time she totally abandoned her babies. Weldon rescued one that had been dropped in a mud puddle and he gathered all three to a dry location. The next day they were crying their little hearts out - HUNGRY!! What could we do but start feeding them with an eye dropper. After a couple days of that, we decided we had to catch Mama and make her do her duty. It took some doing, because she's never been very friendly, but we got her into an animal trap and put her babies in there with her. By the end of the day, all three babies were contentedly nursing - and I don't think they "let go" until sometime the following day :-) After 5 or 6 days in the trap, we decided we had to open the door and see if Patches would come back and continue caring for her babies. She did!! And what a fine mother she has been since then. And Patches even lets us pet her now and then. The kittens are fat and healthy and beautiful. Two of them are possibly adopted to good homes already. Yeah!!!