"The fog comes on little cat feet."

Carl Sandburg has obviously never been to my house. There is nothing silent about the haunches moving around in here. I am certain that my downstairs neighbors moved out because they got tired of hearing the fog roll in like thunder at about 2 in the morning.

Since I last blogged about my four-legged companions, the feline contingent in my home has doubled in size. Perhaps if I spent more time blogging and less time collecting cats, I wouldn't have these problems.

The $800 alleycat will celebrate his ninth birthday on Saturday, along with at least four humans that I know. I find it rather amusing that I know so many people born on Halloween; I can't think of any other day of the year that's a common birthday for more than two or three people.

The first new addition, no longer an alleykitten, has grown into a pretty pastel tortoiseshell about half the size of her big brother. She still thinks she's tougher than he is, though.

"The littlest one" is technically a "foster cat" on a long vacation from the House of Mews. She broke her leg last summer, and it had to be amputated. She came to stay with me as she adjusted to life on three legs, and instantly developed a crush on the alleycat. It's hard to argue with true love, so she ambles about on her unique version of "cat feet" and still expects to be congratulated when she jumps onto the dining room table.

"The baby" is still technically a kitten, yet she's bigger than the littlest one (obviously). She appeared one night in the parking lot outside the restaurant where my fiance and I had just had dinner. My fiance made the mistake of saying, "oh, baby, you can't rescue all of them." Determined to prove him wrong at least once, I managed to load the wide-eyed, skittish kitten into my car. Amazingly, she rode all the way home without a sound. She has found her voice (I think the alleycat gave her some lessons), learned to like being cuddled, and enjoys chasing her older siblings around the house.

Which sounds a lot more like a stampede than fog rolling across a bay.