When Robin Williams and her partner started hearing high-pitched meows coming from their porch one fateful morning, they weren’t exactly taken by surprise. Baby Cat, a vocal neighborhood feline, had a habit of paying them a daily visit, and she’d use her meows as an invitation to join the party.
“Baby Cat has been coming to our house for the past year now and has always been very loud,” Williams recounted. “She would come to the door, and she would meow very loud to get our attention.”
But this time, something in those meows was different.
You see, Williams and her partner were no strangers to meowing; their house was a hub for stray cats seeking affection and a good meal. But within minutes of meeting Baby Cat for the first time, they could tell that she was unlike any other.
“She trusted us from the first day we met her,” Williams said. “Baby Cat was always with this older gray cat. The older cat was too scared to come and get food from the porch, but Baby Cat would walk right up to the door and get food from us.”
And so, the saga began. Baby Cat started making regular appearances at Williams’ home, transitioning from a cautious visitor to a trusted companion.
“She was always willing to get close to us, and as time went on, she got more and more trusting,” Williams recalled. “She went from coming over for food to letting us give her pets, and then she started coming inside the house to eat food. Then, it got to the point where she would spend a lot of time in our basement, sometimes overnight.”
A few months into their heartwarming routine, Williams noticed a change in Baby Cat’s physique. This once petite feline was now growing, and the couple quickly realized that Baby Cat was pregnant. They hoped that she’d feel safe enough to have her kittens near their home.
“We even thought that, because she spent so much time at our house, she would end up having the kittens in our basement,” Williams said.
However, just as Baby Cat would visit their porch every morning, she’d always disappear at night. But one morning was different—Baby Cat stopped by Williams’ house for breakfast, and things felt unusual.
“Her meows were different that morning — they were deeper and went on for longer than her normal meow,” Williams said. “We just figured that she was just really hungry, but then we went up to the window.”
Peering through the window, Williams and her partner were surprised to see Baby Cat looking skinny once more. They quickly rushed to get her food, but when they opened the door a few seconds later, Baby Cat had vanished.
“Then, when we put the food down, we saw her coming onto the porch with a kitten in her mouth,” Williams said. “Once she dropped off the first baby, she ran off of the porch and ran to the house two houses down, which is an abandoned house.”
Baby Cat’s partner followed her to the abandoned house, hoping to find all of her kittens, while Williams placed the first baby in a cozy bed. Baby Cat continued to bring each of her little ones over, one by one.
“We found four,” Williams said. “We named them Eeny, Meeny, Miny, and Moe based on the order that we met them.”
With all her babies safe and sound, Baby Cat stepped inside Williams’ house and started caring for the kittens instantly.
“Baby Cat immediately started to feed them and clean them,” Williams said. “She is a great mother.”
In Williams’ basement, she created a sanctuary for Baby Cat and her tiny family. As the weeks passed, the once-stray cat blossomed into a loving and wise mother.
“She is still very vocal, so there are many times when we just hear her talking to the kittens and the kittens talking back to her,” Williams shared. “Especially vocal when the kittens are doing something that she doesn’t approve of, like trying to climb out of the box or jumping on one another.”
As the kittens grew older, their unique personalities emerged.
“The kittens are great,” Williams said. “We have one that is shy and timid, one that has the heaviest little stomach and is the first to try to climb out of their enclosure, and the other two are a mixture of timid and rambunctious.”
Now a few months old, the kittens will soon be ready to find their forever homes. While Williams wished she could keep Baby Cat, the strained relationship between her current cat and the stray meant it wasn’t possible. So, Williams is on the hunt for the perfect family to welcome Baby Cat into their lives once her kittens find their forever homes.
Until then, Williams and her partner will continue showering the tiny, fluffy family with love. They never expected that opening their door to a vocal stray would lead to raising a litter of adorable kittens, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.