It was a sunny March afternoon in Campbell, California; a standard town on the peninsula near San Francisco Bay. My dad was on the phone with his boss, and I was playing make-believe in our backyard. The backyard was a small backyard with a wooden deck and lots of plants, such as birds of paradise, a lawn, and some trees.
     Three feral little kittens and their mom were hiding out in our backyard, but no one in our house actually knew. They were hiding in a little space under the chimney to be exact. Eventually our dog Kodi caught onto their scent and began sniffing for them and trying to hunt them down. We noticed, but didn’t exactly know what he was looking for.

     Later that evening, Kodi had finally found them, but couldn't quite get under the chimney. He began barking and digging furiously trying to reach them. After digging he reached in and got his paws on the kittens, after the mother had already fled.

     “Daddy, Kodi’s into something!”
     “What’s he doing?”
     “I’m not sure!” Kodi was in the backyard and seemed to be up to no good...as usual; but this time it was much different. We just didn’t know.
     “Coming.” He opened the sliding door and hurried out to see what Kodi was up to.
     “Cats! Kodi found a group of feral cats!” he said, surprised to find three tiny grayish-brown kittens that hadn’t even opened their eyes yet.
     “Yay! Cats!” I was happy, lacking the knowledge that my dog was actually trying and almost succeeding to eat them. My dad was separating Kodi from them.
     “Three kittens!”  he yelled.
     “What happened?” My mom opened and closed the sliding door with a slam and then hurried out to see what was going on.
     “Kodi found these three kittens. Looks like he already hurt one of them. Watch the kittens, I’ll bring Kodi inside.”
     “We should keep them!” I had no idea that they were hurt and didn’t know what it would take to raise kittens, but all I knew is that kittens were fuzzy, and I really, really, wanted them. By this time, my dad was back and and was busy picking them all up and inspecting them.
     “I don’t think this one will make it. It is so young and defenseless. I think we should put it out of its misery,” he said.
     Later that night, we took the two cats that survived in, fed them, and sheltered them...for the rest of their lives.