Surprising Backyard Finds and Keeps!

If you have never read Anna Botsford Comstock’s brilliant chapter on cats in her Handbook of Nature Study, I highly recommend it!  Not only does she cover the information in a most engaging manner but she also provides many thought provoking questions for observation.

A few months ago, we discovered, much to our surprise that a cat had birthed a litter right in our own backyard!  Eventually, Mama cat carried each of her young to a safer place, since our backyard is frequented by our neighbors’ pet dogs who are excellent watchdogs and not in the least partial to the feline species!

The mother cat (whom Ria named Cassie) was extremely wary and although grateful for what we fed her, was particularly fearful of Adam, who, to be honest, was only sympathetic to the cat because of her having birthed the kittens in our yard.  He strongly avowed to NOT being a ‘cat person’ having grown up with dogs most of his life.

Needless to say, he gradually won her confidence and now not only does she eat right from his hand, but she will first affectionately purr and rub against his ankles before she partakes of her food!  Of course the big surprise was the dramatic change  in Adam, who discovered that the ‘cat person’ had surprisingly emerged in him, despite his adamant stand (pun intended!)

Of all the four kittens, it appears that only one survived.  When he was eventually strong enough to follow his mother, he was extremely skittish and fearful, bolting at the slightest movement or sound.  Brandon noticed a white stripe on the top of his brown patched back and named him Stripe.

True to Anna B. Comstock’s very entertaining narrative on cats, Stripe not only gained confidence but actually proved very intelligent.   He knows he is not allowed beyond a certain boundary and I don’t have to say “No” more than once!  He is also extremely curious!   They truly do have away of acknowledging their gratitude and sometimes come just for ‘loving,’ almost tripping us up in the process.  It is very difficult when you have a cat weaving in and around your feet while you work in the kitchen!  Both mother and son have endeared themselves to us. They visit at three strategic times in the day and now we save all our meat scraps and even purchase some raw chicken meat for them!  Occasionally the cat cuffs Stripe on the ear when he gets too greedy for his own good but it is quite a delight to watch them stretch themselves on the door step or in the yard, contented, especially after a nice saucer of creamy milk.  It almost seems as if they have claimed us as theirs as well!

It has made for every interesting and pleasurable nature study not just for the children but for us parents too!

Cassie and Stripe are definitely part of the family now!