rescue

B should really get all the credit.  If she had waited longer to poop on ourwalk this morning, we would have gone our usual route.  But she pooped early and I didn't feel like toting the little plastic baggie around for our whole walk so we changed course and went to the closest park (where there are lots of garbage cans). 

After depositing the baggie, we continued around the path on the edge of the park and as we headed towards some large pine trees, I saw some movement.  Two movements, actually: two fuzzy, gray and white kittens jumping around under the trees.  Unable to resist, I called "here kitty-kitty" and the kittens made a beeline for me, pulling up short when they noticed the dog.  I made B sit, told her to "leave it!" and kept her on a short lead, and the kitties came right up to me.  The littler one started purring right away, punctuated with growls at B (who, to her credit, was being Very Very Good); the slightly bigger one allowed me to scrinch behind his ears, but he growled incessantly: "Don't even think about it, you dog you." 

B and I continued on our walk and the kittens ran back to their tree.  As we went around the park, I looked into peoples' backyards, hoping to find some sign that this kittens belonged to somebody.  They were thin but not scrawny, obviously used to people and too little to be out on their own.  Someone had obviously dumped them.

When we got back to the house, I cut some holes in the top of a paper carton, lined it with a towel and entered the address of the city's animal shelter into the GPS.  The kittens were still there when I got back to the park but this time they'd climbed the tree and were huddled there together on a branch.  I lifted them out of the tree which they didn't mind, except that a man walking a husky stopped to watch, at which point the slightly larger one started hissing and plunged his claws into my shoulder.  It's been a long time since I've held a kitten: they can be sharp!

They didn't much care for being shut in a box, complaining and reaching their teeny little paws out through the ventilation holes, but when we got to the shelter they were calm and curious and the little one started up his massive purr again.  The animal control officer asked me where I'd found them - and I also mentioned that I'd put signs up at the park, describing the kittens and where I'd taken them - and then took them out of my box and back into the shelter.  And that was it: kittens in my life for just under an hour.  I would think that someone will be quick to adopt them - they clearly weren't feral - and I'm glad they didn't spend any longer out on their own.  I'm also glad B pooped when she did or we never would have found them.

Oh, and H had a good samaritan moment of his own while all this was happening.  He had just covered 5 miles out of his planned 30 mile bike ride when he came upon a cyclist who was walking: flat tire.  He offered to help; the guy asked if he had a spare tube.  H did, and even though it was his only one, he gave it to the guy - and luckily made it the remainder 25 miles of his own ride without needing it.

We decided that between the two of us we'd racked up SO many karmic points today that we could treat ourselves to some ice cream.  But that's another post.