By Tim Kelly
It was the cat’s meow. Times four.
Shoemaker Lumber at 12th Street and West Avenue hosted some uninvited company of the feline variety recently, when an apparently homeless and still unnamed female cat decided to move in.
The black and white kitty began hanging out under the elevated stacks of wood and molding at the yard about a month ago, according to Janet Young, a Shoemaker Lumber co-owner and longtime member of the staff.
“She showed up,” Young said of the cat. “She was friendly, and she became fast friends with the guys in the yard. The guys gave her plenty of affection.”
But then something changed. About 10 days ago, the cat began acting and looking differently, Young said.
“We could tell she had given birth to some kittens. Her body had changed so much it was obvious that she had been nursing some little ones.”
It took a few days before the kittens finally ventured out from beneath their mama’s warm embrace.
“They were healthy and full of energy … and so cute!” Young exclaimed.
Young said a cat at the lumber yard is not unprecedented. Her husband, Dick, a former longtime Shoemaker Lumber employee, entered the yard many years ago, and was followed closely onto the premises by a local stray.
“He told me, ‘We better get some cat food,”’ Young recalled.
The cat, named Slic, wound up living at the 2.2-acre yard for the next 13 years.
This time, the situation was a bit different, as a total of four babies began scampering around the lumberyard, an iconic Ocean City business since 1902.
At that point, it became obvious the kittens were strong and healthy enough to be rounded up and prepared for adoption.
While the lumberyard had previously been the home to a cat, it was never going to house the litter. The happy news is the kitties will enjoy the next best thing: forever homes with members of the Shoemaker Lumber 20-person staff.
“Two have already been spoken for,” Young said, “I’m certain the mama cat will be adopted, and it looks good for the other two kittens, also.”
Young said the gender breakdown of the four kittens had not yet been determined, and that the father cat was also unknown.
“Isn’t that usually the case?” she said with a laugh.
The kittens don’t look much like their mom, she said. “None of them are black and white.”
Currently, the mama cat and babies are under the care of Cape Atlantic C.A.T.S. (Citizens Altering the Strays), which operates a thrift store, Mew to You, at 959 Asbury Avenue, which helps to raise funds to help other strays.
“We enlisted the help of Judy Cantin (of C.A.T.S) to help us to do all that was needed for the cats to be ready for adoption,” Young said.
The cats are currently receiving all of their immunizations and being altered to prevent any more unplanned litters.
And that, said Diane Joseph, another Shoemaker Lumber employee, amounts to a happy ending.
“We all need a good kitty story sometime,” she said.
