One evening after grocery shopping, I saw a very hungry looking black cat (Billy) in the Safeway parking lot, running around looking for food. I tried to get her to come to me, but she wouldn't. I took my groceries home and returned with some cat food and tried to find her again. I drove all around the Safeway and neighboring parking lots and I was just about to give up when I saw her hiding under a car.

I put out some food for her and I sat on the curb. After a short wait, she came out and started eating like she hadn't eaten in a month. A few minutes later, another cat appeared (Stubbie). I started going out to Safeway twice a day to feed them (after a couple of weeks I dropped down to once a day).

I eventually was able to identify a family of five cats (3 young adults, 2 kittens) which was living in the heather bushes at the edge of the parking lot. These cats were not just ordinary stray or abandoned cats - these were "feral" cats. I spent hours and hours sitting in the Safeway parking lot, feeding them and talking to them and trying to get them to like me.

The Safeway employees didn't quite know what to think about me - the ones who got off work at ten or eleven o'clock would see me sitting out there or waundering around the parking lot every night. One day at noon when I was feeding them, the store manager drove in and he came over and talked to me. He said that he would be delighted if I were to trap them and take them away.

The summer was rapidly coming to an end, and I couldn't stand the thought of them being out there all winter long in the cold, wet weather. An even bigger threat to their well being was the fact that on one side of the heather bushes was a busy Safeway parking lot, and on the other side was a very busy 4-lane street.

About six to eight weeks after I first discovered them, I decided to rescue them and find them good homes. I rented a "humane trap." It really worked well - I eventually caught all five. My original intent was to get them healthy and try to tame them somewhat and then take them to the humane society - if they couldn't find homes for all of them, then I would keep the leftovers. However, I have had them for about 8 months now and I have pretty much decided to keep them all (those of you who know me probably knew all along that it would turn out that way). This brings my total cat count to 9 (a lot of cats, but still in the single digits)!