Quadruplets

Remember Charlie (right) and Cheeto (left)?  Long story short, these two con artists work the entire neighborhood for  food and treats.  They look convincing, don't they?  They have perfected the please-help-me-I-haven't-eaten-in-days look, yes? 

We eventually discovered that Blankey, nee Charlie Brown, is owned by a neighbor, and his sidekick is a friend that we have called Cheeto, as we do not know her name.  Cheeto is really feral or, as the girls and I like to say, "Cheeto is skittish."  Charlie/Blankey is very affectionate, but I have never gotten within two feet of Cheeto.  They have previously been bullied by a couple of larger neighborhood cats, and I have tried to bolster their confidence by pointing out that there are two of them, that they could work together to assert themselves versus being driving away from their home by interlopers and forced to beg at other residences.  The bottom line is that Cheeto is not someone you can depend on to have your back in a fox hole... or a bar fight... or any other metaphor that you prefer.  She will bolt at the first hint of duress. 

These two have formed an alliance, nonetheless.  Of course, I was skeptical when they told us they were just friends.  In fact, I was in the process of devising a scheme to coordinate spay/neuter services when I learned that they actually belonged to someone else. 

Because it is probably bad form to spay/neuter someone else's pets, I let the matter drop. Not surprisingly, we noticed that Cheeto was packing on a lot of extra pounds over the past few months. Then, she was suddenly not heavy again, but there was no sign of any kittens. About a week ago, we saw Cheeto on the porch in her usual begging position, but this time she had a miniature version of herself with her. I heard Skip say, "Well, I guess we now know what happened to the kittens." He was not excited at all, but I bolted immediately out the front door to see them. Cheeto has trained her brood well. They sprinted away immediately, and I did not see them again for several days.  By my count, there were at least three, possibly four.  Those kitties are just as skittish as Cheeto. They are straight up skitties!

Over the weekend, I got another glimpse of them playing in our neighbor's yard. Forgive the photo quality, but I couldn't get any closer to them without Cheeto's defcon level being raised from her usual 3 to a 1.

There are four kittens in total, two resembling Cheeto and two resembling Charlie.

I want them all.