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The strays were well known in the neighbourhood. Feral, but well fed. They didn't let anyone touch them, but a few soft hearted folks left a bit of food out for them.
Most everyone took to calling the big brownish one Adam. He seemed to be some sort of moggy, a mixed breed. Some speculated he was part Maine Coon. Others thought a Ragamuffin had to be in there. Old Sera on Way street swore he looked just like her Norwegian Forest Cat from when she was a little girl.
He seemed deeply in love with an orange tabby moggy they called Eve.
They were never far from each other and despite their closeness they never seemed to have kittens, so most figured one or both of them had been caught and fixed at some point.
There was scratching at Lilith's door late one night and when a quick search made her realize she hadn't seen her little Lucifer in a while, she rushed to the patio door, sure he'd snuck out as she was bbqing for a couple friends in the neighbourhood earlier in the evening.
Instead, the deep golden eyes of Adam were looking up at her, a tiny newborn held in his mouth.
He dashed inside before she could stop him and hopped up on her couch, dropping the little brownish kitten on her new throw blanket and preceded to yowl as a second baby came out.
"MY COUCH!" Lilith fretted. It was barely a year old. And white! Which was fine for her little Lucifer, a pretty white Munchkin she rescued much in the same way during a rainstorm some five years ago, but a cat giving birth on her couch was bound to stain it.
Adam gave birth to seven more babies. As Adam settled in and made her couch his bed, Lucifer appeared. Using his little stairs, he climbed up to the couch and looked at Adam and the babies curiously.
Lilith almost snatched Lucifer away, who knew what kind of diseases or worms Adam had, when Lucifer jogged away.
She scooped him up and put him away in her bedroom for safe keeping.
Rummaged around in the storage room in the basement, Lilith found her old dog kennel. Before Lucifer, she'd been a dog person, these days she didn't have the time for all the walks and trips to the park and after her childhood pet passed, she didn't get another dog, but she still had a few of the old things kicking around. You never knew what might come in handy.
The basement and the garage were too cold for the kittens, so she set the kennel up in the kitchen, close to the vent, and turned up the furnace a degree to keep the littles warm.
She would miss that baking pan, but it was getting discoloured and old anyway, and she poured some litter in it for Adam. Lilith put in couple of Lucifer's old bowls, ones she may or may not have used to feed Adam and Eve on occasion, and filled them up with food and water.
Next would be the tricky part. Getting Adam and the kittens into the kennel.
Grabbing her oven mitts and a raincoat, she donned both the try and keep mama cat from scratching her up too much.
Adam hissed and spit, yowling at being picked up, but dug his skinnier frame into the food bowl and chowed down once he was in the kennel.
Into a small box she moved each kitten and grabbed the throw for good measure. She'd throw it out later.
Putting in the blanket first, Adam let her set the box inside.
She left him to do the dirty work of taking his kittens out of the box and went to bed.
-
Lucifer woke up and stretched. Lilith was still asleep, so he went downstairs to visit Adam.
"Hello!" He sat on his butt on the outside of the metal gate keeping him out of the kitchen. Lilith set it up the other morning to keep him away from Adam and the kittens until the vet was open on Monday.
He wasn't sure what exactly Monday meant, but Lilith often complained about it and having to go to work on it. If Lucifer remembered right, the next day should be a Monday, but sometimes he was wrong.
Adam ignored him and fed his kittens, as Adam often did.
Lucifer tried again, but Adam ignored him once more. So Lucifer went back upstairs to eat his breakfast.
When Lilith was awake she gave him love and affection. Petting him and giving him a treat.
Running off with the dry morsel, he hid it in his stash of treats.
By the time he made it downstairs she was already in the kitchen, making herself food and feeding Adam.
He mewled pitifully, the way that sometimes got her to share bits of her food, and let him sleep on the new couch even though she'd tried to stop him at first.
Lilith scowled him and shooed him away.
So he bided his time.
That afternoon, Lilith slipped up. As she was walking through the gate, she was looking at her phone, and he dashed into the kitchen without her seeing.
"Hello, Adam." He brushed against the fur poking out of the kennel.
It seemed he was finally wearing Adam down as he turned his head towards Lucifer. "What do you want?" The much large cat grumbled.
"To say hello! I'm Lucifer! I wanted to bring you treats or a toy the other day, but Lilith put me in her bedroom and I couldn't get back out."
Adam perked up. "Treat?" He stood up, letting his kittens stay in their tiny sleepy pile.
"Treat!" Lucifer confirmed. "I can bring you treats or a toy for the kittens next time I can come in here."
Purring, Adam rubbed against the bars of the kennel before curling back up around his kittens.
Lucifer scurried to the gate and called for Lilith.
"What are you doing over there? Lucifer!" She scolded picking him up. "Come on. You're going into the bath to make sure you don't have fleas or something. Oh no, my couch might have fleas. And then some dewormer to be safe."
He yowled and turn his claws in. Lilith shrieked and dropped him. Lucifer booked it to hide under the bed, but he could hear Adam laughing at him, and even if he was caught, it felt worth it to make Adam happy.
-
Adam was grumpy when he got back to the human's home from the vet. The humans made his eat some weird stuff, they held him down as they looked through his fur, stuck things on him, and someone stuck something up his ass!
Even worse they took away his kittens.
Double checking again, Adam counted them. He sniffed the three orange ones like their father, Eve. Two boys and one girl. Three more that were brown and white, all boys. And two more tricoloured girls that looked most like him. Everyone was there.
He wished Eve could have seen their kittens.
Most males Adam had mated with in the past didn't stick around, but Eve had. He had become more than a mate, he was Adam's friend. They had done everything together the last few years. But never had a litter before now. Despite all of Adam's years of mating this was his first litter. They were surprised, but happy.
Eve had been out, finding food, when he was struck by a car. Adam had found him a few days before their litter came.
Adam missed Eve.
When he came back, Lucifer greeted him warmly. Lucifer licked him and the kittens, snuggling up to them. He tried to give the kittens a little feathered thing that jingled, but they just slept, so Lucifer came back with a mouth full of treats he'd been saving and dropped them at Adam's feet.
While Adam ate, Lucifer groomed him. Where Lucifer could anyway. Adam grumbled, but let Lucifer climb up on his back to reach what he couldn't from the ground.
Lucifer tumbled down when Adam finished the treats and stood up.
He pawed at the blanket he'd given birth on and curled up on it, around his babies, for a nap.
Purring, Lucifer joined him.
"What are you doing?" Adam sighed.
"Making a new friend!" Lucifer cuddled in against the babies that were hard for even Adam to reach and keep warm. Adam was grateful for that.
He hadn't been too sure of Lucifer. Stubby short legs and overly affectionate.
Adam had seen Lucifer in the window of the human's home when he and Eve would come for an easy meal. He always looked so excited to see them but Eve said Lucifer was trapped in the human home, like he had been.
Eve hated humans.
Adam had never lived with humans, but Eve had. Back then humans had called Eve, Pumpkin.
How things in the home had been packed up and taken away until all that was left was Pumpkin's things. Then the humans left.
He waited alone for several days and nights. Until he finished the bowls of food and water and was hungry and thirsty before strangers opened the door and he ran out to find water and food.
When Eve came to this place, Adam had already been living there for a year on his own. The humans named him and gave Eve his name later after they became friends. Eve preferred the new name to Pumpkin.
Eve didn't trust humans anymore, but was willing to eat the food they left out for them.
Adam had became scared when their first baby came. He didn't know what to do all alone and went to find the closest human he felt was safe. Lilith never tried to pick them up, or even touch them, and Lucifer seemed well fed. Adam had hoped for a safe spot to give birth and then to move on.
Then he'd been trapped, but unlike Eve in his stories, Adam hadn't run out of food, and Lucifer didn't act like Adam and his kittens were in trouble.
The vet wasn't nice, but now he and the kittens were allowed out of the kennel. Not that he would allow them out anytime soon. And Lucifer was allowed to visit them.
He would miss Eve dearly, but Lucifer seemed to want to be his friend, and that was nice.
-
"It's the darndest thing." Lilith sighed. "The vet said that Adam seems to be a chimaera or maybe just intersexed? He wouldn't be able to tell without genetic testing. So, well Adam appears to be fairly male, and with the tricolours he would normally be a sterile one at that, he has a female reproductive organs as well and it was likely that, given how long he and Eve were together without kittens, he has a very low fertility chance." She looked over at the mewling kittens feeding from the large mother... father? Parent, and her own Lucifer, doting on Adam and the kittens like he fathered the litter, and took a sip of her coffee.
"At least you already found homes for all the kittens." Old Sera from down the way had invited herself over to check the kittens out. She herself was taking home one of the male orange ones, already naming him Abel as it seemed fitting given their parents were Adam and Eve.
And it was true. Barely a week old and the kittens were the talk of their neighbourhood. Between Adam giving birth and Eve not only being male but his body found on the side of the road the morning after the birth. Their favourite strays' little miracles had all swiftly been claimed even though it would be a few months before Lilith was willing to let the kittens go to their new homes.
Lilith wavered on if she should try to Adam fixed. It seemed complicated. And the vet said Lucifer was already fixed when she took him in.
She's put up posters for Lucifer, but no one claimed him. After a few weeks, she was pretty sure she knew why.
Originally, she named him Snowdrop, but the short legged kitty managed to get into the darnedest of places and into all kinds of trouble. She used to have plants.
Of course she couldn't let him outside, she was rather against that practice, but also the one time he had slipped out, she found him in a tree and yowling at the crows while trying to get into their nest.
He was the reason for the nice new couch. Lilith was stating to think she couldn't have nice things.
There was a crash and when she looked, Lucifer had some how gotten into the bay window in the living room and knocked over a decorative ornament she kept there as he ran back and forth, smacking the window and hissing at the ducks in the pond across the road.
He was obsessed with those things.
At least Adam seemed calm.
-
"Hi Adam! Hi Adam! Hi Adam!"
Lucifer zoomed around in circles. Skittering on the tile as eight kittens bounded after him in a chorus of, "father!"
Adam's kittens nipped and jumped on Lucifer.
"Father! Look at me!"
"Got you! Got you! Got you!"
Abel bit down on Lucifer's ear and mewled. "Did I do good, father?"
"Good job! Good job, kittens!" Lucifer praised before running by Adam kennel again. "Hi Adam!"
"Hello, Mother!" Each kitten called out as the ran passed to chase Lucifer some more.
"Children." Adam greeted them back and stretched out with a yawn. His kittens were nearly old enough to go to their homes and almost completely weaned. Adam was looking forward to it.
Lucifer explained it all. Instead of going out into the woods like he and his litter had after they were old enough, the humans that had been visiting and interested in his kittens were going to take them to their homes and take care of them.
"It's what happened to me." Lucifer assured Adam. "And they're nice people. Lilith wouldn't let our kittens go to a bad home."
"Our kittens?" Adam asked and Lucifer started to groom him.
"Yeah. I decided. I'll be their father. They need a father to show them how to play."
Adam began to purr as Lucifer cuddled and licked him. "Hmm, okay."
He told their kittens about Eve. And Lucifer told them about his last home, of when his name had been Sammy. Betty had been old and one day she didn't wake up. He tried staying nearby the house, but she didn't have much family so he was very lonely. And hungry. Lucifer had been build for cuddles, not hunting. While Sammy could hunt bugs in the garden for fun, he hadn't faired well in real nature, and during a bad storm Lilith had found him.
Lucifer zoomed by again and Adam called the kittens in for dinner. They crowded his belly these days and nursed, needing more than he could provide in milk. Adam pushed Cain and Abel away, as they had gotten to the milk first and had their share already.
Helpfully, Lucifer guided the two quarrelsome kittens to the dish of kitten food and they two happily ate their share. Lucifer did the same for each of the kittens. Reminding them they had more to eat than milk, and to not get greedy.
Once everyone had their fill and Lucifer helped to nudge them to bed in their blanket, he and Lucifer went to their food bowls and ate.
"Lucifer. Adam." Lilith called and Lucifer ran over to her, Adam sauntered. "Babies in bed, boys?" She chuckled as though she's told a joke and scratched behind their ears. "Movie night, if you're interested."
She went to the couch and pulled down her new blanket to lay under.
Hot on her heels was Lucifer and he bounded up the stairs by the couch to settle on her legs. Adam hopped up behind them and joined Lucifer for a little cat nap.
-
"Just one this time?" Lilith raised an eyebrow and sighed at her boys. "Guess you weren't fixed after all." She scratched behind Lucifer ear. "Time for a trip to the vet."
Lucifer purred. He liked the vet.
Their new kitten mewled. Wet and blind. She didn't have his stubby legs but she did have his colouring. She nuzzled into her mother, and Adam cleaned her off.
Lucifer helped before dashing off to get Adam some treats from his hidden stash.
He dropped them in front of Adam's face and Adam purred as he ate the fishy treats. They rubbed faces and Lucifer curled up with Adam.
While he loved the kittens from the first litter, and they often met up with their babies for kitty family play dates, Lucifer rather hoped Lilith would want to keep this one.
"How about Charlotte?" Lilith asked as if she could read Lucifer's thoughts. "Charlotte's Web was my favourite book as a kid. I've always wanted to name a pet that. Although, if the kitten is a boy, I guess Charlie would be nice."
Lucifer meowed and licked at Charlotte's fur. It was a pretty name.
He was excited to be a father again. It had been fun the first time.
Adam yawned, relaxing as Charlotte nursed and the event was now over, Adam purred himself to sleep.
They were so cute together and Lucifer was so happy.
Yup. Lucifer couldn't wait to have more kittens with Adam.
-
Lucifer zipped and zoomed, Charlie right behind him. It felt good to have the cone off and he wasn't sore anymore. That was not a good vet trip. Usually he got pets, called the cutest widdle baby ever, and treats for being a good boy during his shots. He spent the night away from Adam and Charlie though and he didn't like that one bit.
Good sleep though.
He leapt right over Adam eating and Charlie crashed into her mother. She wasn't weaned yet and stopped playing to eat.
Adam laid down on his side to give Charlie better access and knocked some food out of his bowl so he could still eat his own lunch.
Popping up on Adam's other side, Lucifer leaned over with his stubby legs and booped Charlie on the head to get her to come play and she mewled, "stoooop," and went back to eating.
Lucifer sighed and lay on Adam's side. It was too bad they didn't have a bigger litter so he could keep playing.
Twisting a little, Adam turned and licked Lucifer's face.
"She just needs her lunch and then you two can keep playing."
Purring and leaning into the grooming, Lucifer let himself be comforted by that. Adam was right.
It wasn't like Charlie was going anywhere. Lilith had decided to keep her instead of finding her a human to care for her.
They would play after lunch.
He yawned and rubbed his face into Adam's fur, in the meantime he could take a nice little nap.
-
Lucifer yowled and paced back and forth in front of the couch. His little stairs had been pushed back as Lilith cleaned the house and he couldn't get up to Charlie and Adam on the back of the couch.
Charlie was grown now, nearly as big as her mother, and could easily make jumps Lucifer stubby legs just couldn't.
Adam sighed, he hopped down to the cushions and leaned down. He picked Lucifer up by the scruff and carried him up to the back of the couch.
Purring as he was set down, Lucifer marvelled at how different everything looked with all the furniture moved around and away from the wall so Lilith could vacuum.
She'd moved on to do the upstairs and would put everything back later.
He continued to purr as Adam licked him clean. Lucifer liked being groomed and showered with affection.
As Adam sat back satisfied, he gave Lucifer one last head rub, then shoved him off the back of the couch to the floor. Then he walked over to his sleeping daughter, licked her forehead, and shoved her off too.
Charlie landed on Lucifer and both startled, they took off running.
Adam stretched his full length out and watched as the startled, panicked running, turned into a game of tag between father and daughter. He yawned, closed his eyes, and smiled as he heard Lilith scream as the two high energy terrors ran her over upstairs. He'd get a good nap in now with the couch to himself.