“We’d obviously not prepared …”
Skyler and his partner, Nikka, thought their evening would end with tacos.
After catching a late movie last Thursday, the couple left the theater around midnight feeling hungry and decided to head toward a restaurant.
But when they realized the bus they were waiting for was making its final run of the night, they worried they might not have a way to get home afterward.
So the taco trip was canceled.
Instead, they headed toward a nearby gas station to pick up a few snacks.
That small change of plans ended up completely altering their night.
“As we walked up [to the gas station], we saw a round black and white cat sitting on the pavement next to the door, just staring her big beautiful eyes at us,” Skyler said.
He cautiously approached, expecting the stray cat to run away.
She did the opposite.
The cat immediately welcomed his attention and seemed completely comfortable around the couple.
Looking at her belly, Skyler suspected she might be pregnant.
Gas station employees and people in the area told them the cat had been living outside and was occasionally fed by customers, but no one had taken her in.
“We found out from one of the other locals and the gas station attendants that she was occasionally being fed by the patrons, but no one had a home for her,” Skyler said.
Skyler and Nikka couldn’t leave the friendly cat behind.
They brought her back to their apartment and planned to take her to a veterinarian the following morning.
Once home, they gave her a bath and created a comfortable sleeping area using a pillow and blankets.
Skyler kept checking on her every few minutes.
Then he noticed something completely unexpected.
“I looked in to see two little heads poking out and nestled up to her,” he said. “She’d started giving birth on my pillow.”
The couple had brought the cat home less than an hour earlier.
Now they were suddenly helping her through labor.
And two kittens were only the beginning.
Over the next several hours, the mother cat gave birth to seven healthy babies.
“We’d obviously not prepared for her to give birth within an hour of getting her into the apartment,” Skyler said.
The couple quickly assembled a makeshift nesting box and ordered food and other supplies so the new mother and her kittens would have everything they needed.
While the kittens were arriving, Nikka shared updates about the unexpected situation on the r/TrojanCats subreddit, a community devoted to stories about rescued cats who surprise their new caretakers by giving birth.
That is also where the mother cat received her new name.
People suggested calling her Taco in honor of the dinner Skyler and Nikka never managed to get.
The seven kittens soon earned equally fitting nicknames.
“We’ve been calling them Taco and her 7 Seasonings, or Taco and her little Frijoles,” Skyler said.
The family’s progress is now being shared through Taco’s Instagram page.
Looking back, Skyler still finds it remarkable how many small decisions had to line up perfectly for them to cross paths with Taco that night.
“If the bus schedule had been a little different, we would have gone to get tacos instead of going to the gas station,” he said. “Just a lot of perfect timings.”
Skyler and Nikka now plan to care for all seven kittens until they are old enough to move into permanent homes.
Taco herself won’t be going anywhere.
The couple has already decided to adopt her, along with at least one of her kittens.
Their taco run may have failed, but it ended with eight cats finding exactly the help they needed.