D'ni has such an interesting story that I've split it into three parts, with separate pictures.
TreeshD'ni
We discovered D'Ni when she showed up in our backyard in September 2000. She was pregnant and we only saw fleeting glimpses of her. Our backyard is fenced and has a lot of wildflowers, bushes, and other places for things to hide. DH started putting food out near the bushes where D'Ni often hid. Sometime that fall D'Ni gave birth, but we never found out what happened to the babies. We suspect that they died. One morning I heard pathetic meowing coming from a neighbor's garage and I went to investigate. The door was unlocked and when I opened it, D'Ni shot out. She must have gotten trapped there. She continually prowled around another neighbor's shed, howling. I think she was looking for her lost babies.
We started moving her food up onto the back porch. We set a kennel out on the back porch on top of a blanket, lined it with towels and sweaters, and wrapped a down jacket and a blanket around it to try to provide her with a cozy house. We also had an open cardboard box lined with bedding for those warmer days. And she could always jump into the shed and sleep in the straw bales. By the end of November, D'Ni was brave enough to sniff our fingers. But, at the beginning of December, she went into heat again and toms I had never seen lined up to service her. We began trying to trap her in earnest. But she was quick - very quick. She darted out of the kennel and away from the porch the moment she heard us. We began to despair of ever catching her.
