Bit of a Downer

I detect in F's look a sense of a responsibility that she didn't really want....

Around lunch time we heard the unmistakable sounds of kitten distress calling.  F was on her way out anyway and found a tiny bundle of fur huddled up in a concrete corner of the backyard, crying its wee heart out.  It was so small it hadn't even learned to hiss at humans yet and snuggled into the crook of her elbow when F picked it up.  It quieted immediately and after checking if over (even the lowest part of wall that it could have fallen from is a terribly long drop for such a little kitten) F gave it some reassuring petting and tucked it into one of the cat houses that she had built and put into our parking area.  It snuggled into the old jumpers and seemed immediately quite at home.

Miss Calico, she of various rescue operations in the backyard last summer, was sitting under the nearest vehicle maintaining a close watch on the whole operation.  If we had learned one thing from her and her siblings, it was that there was no point putting the kitten back on the wall, it would only fall (or jump) again, and there would be day after day of distressed kitten noises.

F continued on the original errand to buy some thread to sew Laura's dress, (and while she was out bought some kitten milk because, well you know, just in case...) and when she got back could hear another kitten distress calling from somewhere up high.  No 1 must have a sibling. 

Siblings. 

Miss Calico was sitting on a high part of the wall looking DOWN at a ledge from where the mewling was apparently coming.  From our balcony, looking DOWN, we could see two more tiny bundles of cat fur huddled into another and more perilous concrete corner.

Out came the ladder and a bag and by standing on the very top of the ladder and reaching as high as she could F fetched them both DOWN and put them in the cat house with No 1.  They all seemed healthy enough and well fed but the last 2 were dirty and smelled like stagnant soapy water - human drain smell.  (You know that washing machine outlet pipe smell!)

Half an hour later a quick peek revealed Miss Calico had checked into the motel too and the little family was reunited.  

Teenage mother of 3

She is barely a year old and only half grown herself and here she is with 3 kittens of her own: 'Miss Calico, teenage mother of three!'  There is no way she was going to be able to carry even a tiny kitten back up the wall so we got to wondering whether she had decided to drag the other two across the back yards up above us and get them DOWN our back wall to join No 1.  She cannot possibly have planned for F 's involvement in getting them DOWN safely, but she was clearly out of options when we saw her looking at the two stuck on the ledge.

As long as no dogs get into our parking area they are all safer DOWN at our ground level than at the ground level of the apartments on top of the cliff behind us. F intends to visit and check on the kittens every day and supplement their food (we have kitten milk now) so that when they are big enough they can easily be taken off to the vet for vaccinations, worm pills, flea treatment, ear checks (all that stuff I hate) - and yes the 'snip' (they are all jenny cats).  No more teenage pregnancies in that family.

I think F rather wishes she had been permitted to simply look the other way...

PS: F tried to get all techy and open blogger on her phone to attach the photos.  She ended up deleting my entire dictation and we had to start again. Not happy.  As a result, we can add an update that this morning's check revealed kittens all clean and with full tummies.  No 1 is already trying to explore 'outside the box'...

Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.

Arthur Schopenhauer

....or woman

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

Immanuel Kant