And then there were two...

Mama cats are supposed to know how to take care of their kittens. It's instinct, right? But sometimes, it makes no sense what she's trying to do.

For the first week, she was happy to leave the kittens in the box. Then one day, they're gone. We found them in Sarah's closet. We put them back in the box. Next day, same thing. Now Sarah keeps her door shut.

One night, I'm sitting on the couch. Mama cat brings a baby and drops it in my lap. Hmmm. You want them in the living room? We'll bring the box here. All is well for a couple of days. Then Sarah left her door open, and we found kittens under her dresser. She doesn't like them in there, so we put them back in the box and keep a better vigil on the door.

"The living room isn't private enough," David says, and moves the box into our bedroom, to his side of the bed. That worked for a few days, but then again, no kittens in the box. We found them in the back of the closet, behind the clothes hanging on the lower rod. You like the closet? We'll move the box into the closet. Keeps the kittens corralled, and we know they're safer that way.

Another day, more missing kittens. This time they've been hauled downstairs to the bathroom cupboard where we keep the towels. We move kittens back to the box, she moves them back to the bathroom. (The litter box is in that bathroom.) She even figured out how to get the door open to get the kittens in there. But it's not safe because they're getting big enough to move around, and they could fall off the top shelf. Mama cat doesn't realize this, but we do.

Then today. All four kittens are in the box when the kids and I leave for school. Half an hour later, when David leaves for work, he finds one kitten behind the clothes and puts it back in the box. After school and work and a trip to Costco, we get back home about 6:45. Always one kid or another goes to look at the kittens. Today it was Lexi and David. No kittens in the box. David finds them in the back of the closet, under the clothes. He pulls them out, and two of them have died. We don't understand what Mama cat was thinking, but we suspect the kittens tried to crawl away, got caught in the clothes, and suffocated.

So now there are two. And it's a sad day.