Our cat Lucy is a stray. Her mother was dropped off when she was pregnant several houses down from us and left to fend for herself. After the kittens were born,I would occasionally see them around the neighborhood until they were about two months old and then they all disappeared along with the mother. All except Lucy. Turns out we have some people with two Lab mixes and a doberman that let their dogs go loose at night so they won't bark. They killed all the kittens and the mother. A couple of months later, I found two stray kittens which still hadn't opened their eyes and the bodies of their litter mates and their mother. I found homes for them. This is natural for dogs, what isn't natural is that in our neighborhood, people would rather let their dogs loose than teach them not to bark all night. Go figure. All you can hope is that cats won't stray into your yard. If they do, unfortunately they are fair game, literally.
P.S. Cats are safe with Ricky only because they are bigger than him.

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: MHMama ]