2 Kitties, 1 Kitty, 6 Kitties!

So we are still cleaning up the gardens and lawn, mainly by raking all the leaves.  I went behind the garage this afternoon to get another garbage can, and was stunned to see this scene!  It is 5 newly born kittens, less than a week old, I think.  They are lying on polyester fill that was torn out of an old cushion that was back there.  I could not believe my eyes!  How strange for a mother cat to have her kittens out in the open like that!  I showed Kathy, and she was stunned - yesterday, it seems, she went behind the garage, and grabbed an upside down garbage can and walked away.  It is apparent that THAT can was covering the kittens!  She never noticed.  So they were out in the open all of last night!    Well, with their mother covering them up as much as she could.  And the forecast for tomorrow is heavy rain!  Yikes, how would they survive that?  The mother was nowhere in sight - we think she was out hunting for food.  So I used some bricks for spacing and put the garbage can back over them.  Then we put some food and water out for the mother, and I covered that with a small sheet of plywood, to protect the food from rain.  At about suppertime, I saw the mother cat - she looks just like the little white and gray babies - sitting on the patio, looking around to see if it was safe, I think, before going behind the garage to sneak under her empty trash can home, and feed her babies.  Wow, they sure are cute...   It's a slippery slope, isn't it!