kittens

Two kittens have taken up residence on my doorstep. As you can imagine I find this absolutely brilliant and have taken measures to ensure that they stay (I gave them a box to sleep in and some milk). At first they were too scared to go near either. I tried to tell them that the box was comfy and that all cats love milk, but they're too little to understand.

My housemate is allergic to cats so they can't come inside, and she'd probably be horrified that I'm encouraging them to stay, but I think she will also give in as soon as she sees them, and hopefully let them live peacefully in our yard (bonus: she is out of town this week while I do lots of things to make them feel at home).

There was terrible wind and rain last night, which is probably why the kittens were huddled at my doorstep in the first place. I worried about them a lot, and checked up on them at 4.30am.

This is what I saw when I opened the door:

















Yes, it's a terrible photo, but it was 4.30am so I wasn't going to stand there forever just to get the picture right. The black thing under them is one of those inflatable pillows you put around your neck when you're sleeping on planes. I have about three because Jetstar give them to you, so I shared one with the kittens. They loved it.

At about 6.30am I could hear them crying a lot, so went looking for them and found two kittens with the mum (who I'd met before and given some tuna), and discovered a third kitten caught in between the fence and the gate. The whole situation was so cute, albeit a little distressing for the mum. One of the kittens ran away when I came to help, so then I had to find it and put it back on the right side of the fence. Up until then the kittens had hissed at me when I went near them (kittens these days, where to they learn to hiss so young?). But this time, even though the kitten was scared, it let me pick it up and carry it back to its family. I was very happy. And now there are three!

Earlier this afternoon I dropped in at home (for other reasons that conveniently allowed me to check on them), and noted that Kak Ani, our helper (helper is the word I use instead of maid because it makes me feel better), was terrorizing the kittens and they'd resumed hissing at humans. In fairness, when I say terrorizing she was actually trying to be nice to them but was getting annoyed at their hissing so started hissing back. It's not a healthy relationship. But at least she is letting me keep them.