The State of the Kitteh Nation

While the dog is away the owner will play - or try to - with cats :)

The wild kittens cohabiiting between my house and next door have reduced in number to two. Two very pretty little long-haired pusses. Two nights ago, I sat outside with a box of dry food and threw it a few feet away from me and then sat there as the two kittehs came out tentatively from under the house. I rubbed some of the dry food between my hands before I threw it. They were wary indeed. But they ate, looking over their shoulders at any sharp movement from me, ready to run.

Later that night, I sat outside on the step, in the ring cast from the front door light. I had heard one of the kittens mewing, as I can hear it today also. As I sat on the step, the lighter coloured tabby came from around the corner after hearing its brother or sister's call. The other kitten is the same colouring but with a darker face. So cute. As I sat very quietly on the step, both kittens passed me in their travels. The lighter coloured one even stopped directly in front of me, sitting down four feet away and curling it's tail neatly around the bottom of it's feet, in the tidy way of felines. I have visions of the kittens and the cat and the dog and me all sleeping together on my bed :)

That doesn't mean it's gonna be happening :)

Last night I went outside with a tin of food. As I was mushing it out into the bowl, I felt a warm, softness brush past me. And there she was. The mother cat. I haven't seen her for over a month. She was skinny. I think she has been lying low, letting her leg mend. She was so hungry that this petite-sized puss with the grey and white markings ate three quarters of a tin of cat food. She hissed at one of the kittens, who was trying to make an approach. I wondered if perhaps these kittens weren't hers after all. Would a mother hiss that way at her own kittens?

But then, these kittens are probably three or four months old now. Old enough perhaps to make their own way. I don't know. I wouldn't know about the lifestyles of almost-wild cats. And this mother looks young. She is a teenage mother, struggling with twins :) Perhaps her wounds preclude her from feeding her babies in the way she should.

That's where I come in :) The budget shall now stretch further to a can a day. Not just for the babies but also for the mother. I loved the feel of her fur under my hand, the way she purred as she ate. I look forward to assisting her in the bulking-up process.