Love Beyond Comprehension by
TIT FOR TAT
Action speaks louder than words
Cats´ Action
Our Actions
What an HONOR - Bunny Feet
In the afternoon of 10 Nov 2016, we received the least expected present, 2 bunny feet, from a group of feral kitties. The feet were placed on our backyard porch, where we fed the kitties.
POPULATION CONTROL - Action to be taken
One important thing to do to help stray and feral animals is to CONTROL their POPULATION.
Although every person is willing to adopt a cat or a dog; however, our population growth rate cannot catch up with the cat or dog population growth rate, meaning that there is not enough family for kitties and puppies. A young and fertile female cat such as ours can produce 20 kittens in a year. And then those kitties will start reproducing in about 6 to 9 months.
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Other than being welcoming to the feral cats that came to our house, we set traps in our garden to capture and neuter them when they had reached an age safe for surgery.
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Luckier cats that are welcomed like ours might be taken care of in some ways. However, many other cats were just being considered as PESTS. In order to protect their offspring from an uncertain fate when adoption fails, population control is the key.
Since I kept bunnies and chinchillas as pets in the past, I was, in fact, rather upset seeing the surprise gift. Du´s uncle comforted me, and I knew it is a great HONOR receiving presents from wild cats that do not trust humans.
He told me that the kitties were hiding and gossiping about our response to the gift when I packed them inside a plastic bag. Later, I joked with him that we should consume the bunny feet raw directly as how the cats do in front of them, such that we do not break their hearts. Luckily, the cats should be disappointed to see that we wasted their hunt, and they never gave us such surprise again.
The complete story is explained further below. This photo shows one of the rabbit feet that appeared on our backyard porch.
​​​Another PROOF - animals got souls
Below is the long story explaining why we were rewarded with such an honor. Isn´t our present of bunny feet a solid proof that animals do have souls, they can feel and know who is kind to them, and they may even want to return the favor, how can someone without souls have such honorable act?
​​The BEST REWARD
The best reward is not a bunny foot, but TRUST. It is the most rewarding when we gain the trust of an animal.
Capture and Neuter
Postponed Action due to Du´s sudden farewell
We had been waiting for the time to trap and castrate the cats, when the time was ready, we asked our vet to borrow us a cage. He could not recover the cage he borrowed to one of his clients. Instead of waiting endlessly and missed the time before our kitties got pregnant, we ordered a big cage that can capture 2 cats at the same time.
The cage arrived about a week before Du was rushed to the first emergency vet clinic. Suddenly, all our focus was in rescuing our dear family member, Du the best Lion. After Du was gone, we needed a week to recover the mind and mood before we took action to capture the cats.
The female cat, little Leo, was our first target, as we did not want her to start reproducing. However, she was too smart and skillful, we tried many times, and she just walked in and out of the cage at ease. Instead of capturing her, we got her boyfriend, Mancha. He was given a girl´s name, as we thought he was a girl, as he had not grown to full size yet.
After adding a string to pull the trigger, Little Leo was trapped and spayed. More feral cats that came for regular meals were also captured for neutering.
Mancha, is our first cat caught. He was sent the next day to the vet. This photo was taken in the morning that he got his very first car trip. He was rather angry with the vet, but he was behaving very well with us, as he was fed by us for nearly half a year before his capture. After the surgery, he disappeared for a week and finally returned.
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In fact, what Mancha used in our house after his castration was related to what happened next when Du returned to visit us. Du recycled it and spoke to us through it.
How the feral cat story began?
Even though we welcomed the cats for months, Du still said ´´NO WAY´´. He hates cats, cats stole his SALARY from his food bowls when he was in Hong Kong. He always fought with cats to defend his salary and territory. Du confronted the mother cat, Kitty, and she always adopted a submissive position in front of him, she knew Du was the only barrier for her to join our family.
There were 5 kittens born inside our goji bush. They were the first batch.
​In April 2016, upon our return from hiking in Tetas de Viena with Du, I saw a cat drinking fertilized water from our garden pot on a Friday afternoon. I saw her the next day hiding under our car. That time, I also discovered that she was heavily pregnant. Just one day later, Du´s uncle discovered she just delivered 5 kittens inside our goji bush. The mother cat slept deeply after her labor, and in the meantime, Du´s uncle try to kidnap all her kittens. His idea was to let them have some warm bedding, instead of getting wet by the automatic watering that might spray on them.
We named the mother cat Kitty
Kitty took her kittens to a construction site just opposite our house. She returned daily, as we prepared food and water for her. She got a huge appetite, she ate at least 5 times the volume of food that Du needed, when Du was double her weight. A month later, in May, we returned to Hong Kong for a few weeks. We left a big pot of pellets that could last for the entire period when we were away.
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Pregnant again!
Upon our return, we were thinking that her kittens had reached weaning age and would be independent soon. On 11th July, Kitty came with a male cat, which we named Leo. By that time, we were shocked to see that she was very pregnant already. Counting the time, she had been pregnant while she was still taking care of her first batch of kittens, no wonder her appetite was so incredible, she was feeding herself, 5 kittens and some unborn kitties inside her.
Just 3 days later, on the French National day, we noticed that her going to explode tummy suddenly disappeared and her tummy skin became very loose. That means the second batch was born, but they were not born inside our garden this time. When she carried the first batch of kittens, she looked normal and healthy, and this time she became super skinny. The born and unborn kitties had drained her completely.
Bonnie, one of the kittens from her second batch. She is the most friendly and easiest to be tamed. She liked playing inside a pipe which we bought for planting strawberries. We believe she was taken by one of the neighbors as pet at about 5 months old when she was last sighted.
Happy Surprise
One night in late September 2016, when we returned home from a meal, we saw many cats in our front porch. We were thinking why there were so many cats. With a closer look, actually it was Kitty with 3 kittens. The 3 kittens were frightened to see us, they immediately hid inside Du´s kennel that was left in the front porch.
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Kitty was happy to see that we were delighted to see her kittens, she left them with us and left. We did not know why. She returned shortly. She and her kittens started eating the food we prepared, they were very hungry.
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I told Du´s uncle that Kitty is very polite indeed, she made an official introduction of her family to us. If we have the chance to deal with animals, we will discover that they got their ways to communicate to humans, even they are feral.
From 3 Diablos to double Diablos
Since that day, the kittens lived inside the goji bush. However, at the beginning, we thought she was exhausted in taking care of the first batch of kitten, so she could produce only 3 kittens the second time, which we name them as 3 diablos. However, one more kitten came per day after her official of the 3 diablos. So at the end, we got double diablos, 6 kittens in total.
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The mother cat, Kitty, seldom talk. Whenever we listened her, she was talking to her kittens. Those sounds are not MEOW, they are like some commands. The day after her entire family received a warm welcome to our house, I listened her MEOW to me for the first time. Other than MEOW, she even PURRED loudly. She must be delighted that we were good not only to her, but to her entire family. Being welcomed is significant to them, meaning that they got a permanent home.
I gave each of them a name, Kitty, Little Leo, Zorro and Bonnie all recognized their names. Pequeña did not show up regularly, and it was the first one that disappeared. The two black cats should be the only males, as they were much bigger in size since the beginning. They were close to each other and left at the same time when they weaned at 4 months old.
Little Leo is the most gifted one in agility. When we named her Leo, we did not know her gender. As her face resembles her father, Leo, so she was named after him. She liked looking to us through the glass door.
Terrified kittens hid inside the kennel after Kitty left them alone with us.
Hungry kittens ate the food immediately.
Since that night, the kittens stayed inside our goji bush in the day time and only went out in the evening when Kitty returned.
Little Leo and Zorro is the pair, they enjoyed staying together. They also slept together during winter to keep each other warm.
How we gained their trust?
Since the day that Kitty made an official introduction of her family to us, we spent at least half an hour daily feeding them in the evening. After less than a week, they got closer and closer to us.
Within a month, they could even come to our door for food. We noticed that they got parasites, in order to let them stay as close to us as possible, we gave them food that they love. We waited until they were older to give them the parasite neck dip. None of them enjoyed the dip and fled, but we kept trying for their health.
3-month-old kitten Zorro was very timid. We managed to let her come close with an incentive of food.
All kittens dared to come very near during feeding time.
All their needs fulfilled
We provided them not only food, fresh water, clean bowls that are washed daily, but also boxes and cage to choose for sleeping. The kittens loved sleeping on the hanging bed inside the 1.4m wide cage.
The hanging bed was designed to support a cat of about 5kg, so it collapsed twice with the growing weight of 5 kittens. They were in deep sleep when the bed collapsed. The artificial grass carpet underneath the hanging bed protected them and granted them a soft landing.
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Du´s uncle is allergic to cats, so they cannot stay indoor, even we allowed them to enter, they did not trust us enough yet. Therefore, I ordered heating pads to keep them warm in winter, as temperature could be subzero in the coldest months.
This is a cat house we bought just for them. Kitty liked sleeping inside it at night.
Kitty liked having a siesta while enjoying sunbathing during the daytime.
Five 3-month-old kittens enjoyed their siesta on the soft hanging bed inside the chinchilla cage.
Other than the cage and the boxes that were dedicated for them, the kittens also conquered our chairs. The 2 kittens were about 10 weeks old by that time. The mother cat, Kitty, used the chair for monitoring while enjoying a nap.
Kitties, where are you?
Our PR
Little Leo is our Permanent Resident. We believe she spends 90% of the time inside our garden. She is very cautious and alert, a normal trap is impossible to trap her. Besides, her ear was cut to indicate that she was spayed, so she is no longer a target for capture and neuter. Mancha does not show up until night time in general. He is the best companion and defender of Little Leo, defending their home in our garden from other feral cats that come for regular meals.
Zorro is camera-shy, so she turned the head away. Despite the balloon shape, Kitty was still very agile.
Kitty put on much weight once she forbade her kittens from drinking milk from her once they reached 4 months old. Zorro was 5-month-old already. She was the closest to her mom.
About a month before rushing Du to a 24-hour vet clinic in an emergency at midnight, Kitty and Zorro disappeared for weeks. They went to our house for food and accommodation daily for more than half a year. If they did not show up for so long, there was a high chance they were captured, neutered, and released by the town hall, which had been aggressive in capturing them.
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Before our focus turned to rescue Du all of a sudden, we drove around nearby zones where we might locate Kitty and Zorro. However, cats are nocturnal animals; we could not spot them during the daytime. Besides, although we managed to find them, Kitty and Zorro might not follow us, as they still kept a meter away from us. Their capture was upsetting, but it does not stop us from helping more stray animals.
Don´t find Fault,
find a Remedy.
Henry Ford
Good actions
give strength to ourselves and
inspire good actions in others.
Plato
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
Abraham Lincoln