Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Kittens under the Stairs - Update

I'm sure a few of you at least have been waiting for me to announce a new family member ... well, you'll have to continue waiting. We were able to resist the cuteness of the kittens and Rogue remains an only cat. This is mostly because the kittens were moved before they reached the irresistible stage of development. Last we saw them, their eyes were just barely opened and they were wobbling a bit, but pretty much staying close to the kitten pile and their mama. Here's what happened.

We came home from Dubai after a fun weekend with our visitors to find posters inside the villa. One said, " Keep the doors closed." and the other "No feeding of cats." We also had a note under our door from the management telling us to move the cats and kittens as they are not allowed inside and had been disturbing the other tenants. Yep, someone had 'ratted out' the little cuties and since we had been feeding mama, I guess they thought we were responsible for moving them outside.

Actually, we were happy about this because it gave us the chance to move them somewhere safe. Our fear was that the villa management would have had them killed. So, we moved them to our back patio (much to Rogue's chagrin) and set out some food and water. I don't think Rogue moved once from the window that night and mama kitty seemed just as bothered by Rogue on the other side of the glass.

A day or two later, as I was getting ready for work, I heard some mewling, and after some investigation realized it was coming from the front of the villa. In our car park area I found one of the kittens all by himself - strange. So, I scooped him up and carried him back out to the patio at the back of the villa. That's when I saw mama kitty scaling the patio wall with another of the kittens in her mouth. Ahhh, she was moving them. I waited a bit thinking what to do with the one I 'rescued' when mama came back with the same kitten followed by another Tom cat from the compound. Lots of hissing and spitting and mama brought the kitten back to the box with the rest of the family.

Not much I could do to help so I went off to work wondering all day what I would find when I returned home.

You guessed it, all the kittens were gone. :( But I can certainly understand why - she had Rogue looking on from within the house, a calico Tom patrolling the garden wall and a very fluffy Orange guy/gal who stops over every couple of weeks to torment Rogue. Not a very safe place for a new batch of kittens.

Since then, we've only seen the kittens once, but my neighbor had them in her patio for a couple of weeks and now they're old enough to hunt and fend for themselves. Glad they've survived so far and really glad we weren't more tempted to bring one in the house. It's just better if the cats in the house are outnumbered by the people. :)



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