The Good News about Raising a Group of Stray Cats

in thegoodnews •  7 years ago 

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This post is about we adopted a bunch of stray cats, or should I say how they adopted us.

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Meet Leia. She used to rest on our window sills for her afternoon naps to beat the strong Chennai heat.I was spending my time divided between Chennai and Kodaikanal and had noticed her frequenting our house seeking out comfortable resting places. I started leaving behind scraps of food, over which a friendship soon formed. Our house became her usual dwelling as she had found shelter and meals. We noticed her getting fatter by the day and intially assumed it was due to the generous helpings of food we left her. It turned out however that she was actually pregnant. On October 5th of 2016 we discovered three little kittens that she had given birth to.

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Meet Han Solo. He started visiting our house too and we deduced from the kittens coats that he was the father. Leia didn't allow him too close to the kittens though.

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For the first month or so we let Leia take care of the kittens who we named Obi, Wan and Kenobi. Yes, Star Wars fans, that genealogy doesn't make sense but it was one of the only three syllable names belonging to someone awesome. We weren't about to name our kittens after that new age emo villain. Anyway, Leia was fiercely protective about them and they were too young to be handled by anyone else. Soon, she started bringing them with her to introduce us. The kittens were initially prone to run off upon sighting us and were generally terrified of us. With time, they eventually warmed up to us and didn't scamper off upon sight.

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As with their mother, the kittens' friendship with us was cemented when they made the connection between us and food. We started with milk and bread but as they grew older we started buying large amounts of cat food for the five hungry cats that surrounded us.

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As the kittens got older we found ourselves in the position of pet owners. We had to do the responsible thing and get them vaccinated and neutered. This wasn't easy as cats don't take too kindly to being trapped in boxes when it's not their choice. We borrowed a cat trapping device from a friend and lured the cats in there with food. We started with Leia and then moved on the kittens.

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In this process, Wan was too cunning and elusive to trap and transport to the vet. Han Solo has always been skittish and also eluded our attempts to catch him. As of now, Wan is off wandering the lands on his solo adventures. He'd always been the most apprehensive of the kittens and even the comfort and food of our house couldn't tame his wild spirit. We still see Han Solo on occasion, and Wan on even rarer occasions. I assume they are happy living and hunting by the code of the street cats, pride and testicles intact.

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Leia, Obi and Kenobi still live with us. They've been allowed access to the house and spend their time in and out of it. They're still stray cats, but have been domesticated to be comfortable in human company and even occasionally seek out cuddles. My father who's always been a little apprehensive around animals has also warmed up to them and can be found stroking them sometimes. In fact, he suggested I write about our cats on my blog. They've added an extra energy to our household and having them around brings joy to everyone.

Fun Fact: A group of cats is called a clowder. Did you know that?

As a little bonus, and also because the app is addictive, here's some cat fractals to end with.

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| PAL-Minnow Support Project | Homesteaders Online |

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Cats can be enjoyable and also crazy lol. When we bought our house, we noticed that the backyard had multiple mice holes. Having young children we thought the best way to go by making sure we dont have mice in the house was to get a cat. Much better than the kids finding a mouse trap...and dead mice. So we now have Mr. Poppers. He isn't a year old yet and we are still trying to figure him out. Even though we have had him for a few months, the kids still get surprised by him. You did a good deed for these cats. They have a bright life I'm sure as you gave them a good start.

Haha, they're definitely mysterious creatures. I love the name Mr. Poppers, hope he's an effective mouse catcher and the kids get used to him. It took us and the cats some time to get used to each other but they're an integral part of the family now.

He is a good mouse catcher. He caught us 2 mice right at the beginning of living in this house and haven't seen another since. The kids love him but are sometimes scared of him because of his playing habits. He is still a kitten, a big kitten so he is still crazy lol.

Awww, I love this post about a clowder of cats! What a lovely thing to bring these little friends into your home. I also grew up with a lot of cats...once bringing home a group of stray kittens to my parents...so I relate to this post a little too much! :)

Thank you, fate dropped them at our doorstep one day, and it's nice to have that cuddle puddle around. We didn't have too many animals around the house as kids. The whole family has grown to enjoy cat company now though.

One reason that kittens sleep so much is because a growth hormone is released only during sleep.

That's interesting. I didn't know that. Thanks for adding a cat fact, haha :)

Perhaps the most famous comic cat is the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. With the ability to disappear, this mysterious character embodies the magic and sorcery historically associated with cats.

catfacts, did you know its a bot (i think). If you reply to it, it will keep adding more catfacts? I just found out about it recently lol

Omg cat fractals 😂😂 @soulturtle, this was such a touching tribute! Your dad was right that you should share it. Sweet story ☺️

Btw, what app is that? Lol!

Thank you. They've really brightened up the house. It all happened so spontaneously as well. One day we didn't have cats, and the next we had 5, haha.

The app is called Mirror Lab, I have it on android.

Hi @eloniy like me follow me thank you :)

That's not how it works. Write some good content and the right people will automatically find you. These kinda comments can be construed as spam and won't get you too far. They might even get you flagged, just a heads up.