Had a terrible problem with kittens this summer, lots of them hanging around, more than we've ever had before. Most of them have gone now however, with the exception of a tabby kitten, which is quite sweet and very friendly, not wild at all, and not wanted by us. We already have a cat, although I must say, she's not the best at seeing off the intruders. Anyway, this tabby seems to have adopted us and learnt very quickly how to use the cat flap, which is partly why we've been unable to get rid of it. The cat flap is open all the time for our cat and we couldn't really start shutting it now, plus the front door is open most of the time during the summer what with the kids and the guests being in and out all day anyway. We are still deciding what to do, although we'll probably end up keeping it as we couldn't abandon it and no-one will take it from us! Looks like a trip to the vets in the near future. More money.
Also had a problem a week or so ago with a little black kitten. Now this one was very wild, not at all tame, not at all friendly and not a all safe to go anywhere near. This one also learnt how to use the cat flap. Now there is a big difference between a domesticated cat in your house and a wild animal in your house. And much as we didn't want to, we had no alternative but to run a 'catch and release' program. We went out one afternoon, left the cat transporter basket thingy in the kitchen, and fixed the cat flap so that the cat(s) could get in, but not get out. Sure enough when we came back it was in the kitchen. After a little chasing, Adrian managed to catch it and then after a bit of a scrap to say the least, it was a vicous little thing, managed to get it into the cat box. Into the car and off for a little drive. Dropped it off in farm land so it would have plenty of food in the vicinity and it legged it without a look back. Now, I know that lots of you will be tutting away at me, but this was a wild animal, in no way domesticated, there is no 'animal sanctury' anywhere near here that I am aware of, and quite frankly, the irresponsible people at the end of the day are those that allow their cats to bread prolifically in the first place and then don't take care of the offspring. Every year we have kittens around the place looking for food and shelter. It is not nice.
And so onto part three of the cat stories. Adrian found our neighbour's cat at the side of the road yesterday morning, it had been run over and looks like killed instantly. It was in the middle of the entrance to where the bins are for our hamlet (no, the bin men do not come to our door, so think yourselves lucky next time you poms are whinging about your refuse collecters), so Adrian moved it onto the grass at the side, a little more discreet. What to do? Well, we decided if it was our cat, we'd like to know, so we went round to their place but they were out. Later on I saw the wife, just coming back from the bins, she hadn't seen the cat there so I gave her the sad news. She didn't want to see it, said her hubby would deal with it later. Well, it was fortunate that Adrian had moved it earlier because there would have been no avoiding it when she went up to the bins and that wouldn't have been very nice for her. Anyway, once we had confirmed with the wife that it was probably hers (it had a distinguishing mark) Adrian went and got the cat and put it in a box and we kept it until Mr Neighbour came home later that evening. I showed him the cat's mark (we'd covered it's face) and he confirmed it was theirs, but he said he couldn't deal with it, so could we bury it please?! Well, couldn't exactly say 'no' could we? We've thought of a nice spot for it, but it's in one of the gite gardens, and we have guests in there at the moment, so we'll have to wait until monday morning when they've gone. In the meantime, we have our neighbour's dead cat in our garage.
On another note, we were having a bit of a chat whilst he was here, and the subject of the many kittens came up and he said, 'one of them was a lovely little black cat, been around recently although haven't seen it for a few days, so sweet - did you see it?' Aaah - no! The way he was talking I thought he'd have taken it on instead. The guilt! But then after further discussion I realised he was talking about a different cat black kitten (ie a friendly one, with different markings). Phew. I would have loved to have offered him the tabby, but that would have been bad taste.
And just to prove that we're not entirely mean, animal haters, we did actually save the life of a hedgehog earlier in the summer. Adrian found it in the swimming pool one morning, frantically swimming around, unable to get out. So he fished it out and brought it back to the house. It was in a bit of a state and you can't easily dry off a hedgehog, but we wrapped it loosely in an old towel anyway and put it in a box with a bit of cat food (apparently they can eat that) and it snoozed the day away in our kitchen, aprat from waking up to poop occasionally). In the evening, it woke up and we released it into a sheltered spot in the garden. Again, 'catch and release'!
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