I’m a City girl!
At least that’s my excuse for knowing nothing of the country living, meaning gardening and domestic animals care.
Not even a pet!
I know it’s disgusting, but that’s what it was, until we bought the house in Jacksonville, Florida; an old Victorian home, red brick with white columns at the entrance porch and a large back yard.
Then, I had to learn something about gardening, as I had to keep up with the neighborhood. I learned to plant flowers and take care of them, to water and cut the grass, and rake the leaves.
We learned, my sister Mady and I, how to plant citrus trees beneath the canopy of the majestic oak trees already in the back yard.
We arranged white patio furniture, the old fashion one looking like white lace, in the back yard, table and chairs, and we inherited with the house a fine outdoor fire place, or barbeque pit, built of concrete blocks with an iron grate in top of it. We never used it though.
Now, all my neighbors have cats and dogs; I don’t have a pet and do not desire one. Too much work to clean after them!
Nevertheless, cats are roaming the neighborhood and end up lounging in my shaded back yard.
The other day Mady, my sister, was telling me:
“Go and look on the back of the oak tree, next to the fence, what it is?’
I started to look and saw a cat squeezed in a small place at the base of the tree between the fence and the tree. I probably looked more fearfully that the cat, and the cat did not move. Judging by her small head it was a young cat, spotted white with black.
“Maybe she is sick”, I thought, and “maybe she will die and what then, What am I going to do with her?”
“Well, nature has its course, I don’t need to interfere,” I reassured myself and tip toe I departed from the tree.
Next morning, first thing, I went to check on the cat. She was still there squeezed between the tree trunk and the fence, but she was not dead. She did not move, and looked at me with calm eyes, all knowingly.
Again, I thought, "nature has its course". "It’s not for me to interfere."
But inside, I was worried," why she has not moved? Is she going to die?"
The following morning, when I approached the place, the cat sprang out. I looked and saw four, four, little cubs on the ground, very small, the size of half of my palm, spotted like their mother, white with black and one entirely black, all alive. They were moving, raising their small heads and looking at me, trying the strength of their legs, crawling one in top of the others.
Now everything was clear to me. The Cat was giving birth to her four cubs.
The following day, watching from my observation point, sitting on my chair, I saw the cat taking the cubs, one by one, within her mouth, by the skin on their necks, and transporting them in a more spacious and secure place.
And what was the place? The enclosed barbeque pit, covered with the iron grate.
I swear, I had nothing to do with it! It was her decision and her action alone!
I could not believe how smart she was: she was looking for a safe place for her cubs, where the big birds could not see them and snatched them; first the groove at the base of the tree, squeezed next to the fence, and then the fire pit. She had all planned in her head, and acted upon it!
Who said the animals do not think, or have feelings, or have strong maternal instincts. She proved to be smarter than me and more courageous, for sure!
Cats instinctively know where their best place to have kittens (not cubs) is. And, if they feel disturbed or threatened, like by you, they will quickly move them to someplace safer.
It's a great story so far, but the kittens will grow up and add to the massive feral cat population if they are not taken in by somebody and neutered. Maybe that's another story about how you handled your surprise litter.
I see a parade of cats in my yard every day, hunting for birds, a little love (among cats) or something else from my next-door neighbors' collection. I certainly don't hope that they will have kittens in my yard, but if they do, I now call.
Young Sasha, a little bear orphaned as a cub, finds new friendships as he struggles to realize his potential. But as he does so, danger awaits in the jaws of an evil wolf * the much feared * Rasputin. In his time of need, can Sasha overcome his fears
The Cat
