Ally and the Kitten - Part 2

Ally and the kittens

I love watching animals and their behaviour to other creatures and to their own kind. We’ve had all sorts of different animals over the years, and not just cats and dawgs. We’ve had a goat, a horse that used to live in our paddock, guinea pigs, mice, rats, ants and chooks. I think that’s about all. Nothing particularly exciting except for the echidna that got stuck in our laundry. But that’s another story.

Shortly after I got Ally, my dawg, I acquired a cat we called Purzah. Before I had a chance to get her fixed she came on heat. So for 5 weeks, I had this screaming, female, feline who nothing more than to find the nearest man and root herself silly. But I was adamant. I was not going to have kittens in the house. I was not going to have any more animals. I had two cats and my dawg, and that was sufficient.

Finally the caterwauling diminished and I let the cat outside for the first time in weeks. She disappeared for about 3 days, and yes, 9 weeks later, she had four kittens.

As many of you are aware, I’m a sucker for a pretty face, and Ally appears to be as well. They were bedded down in the bottom of my wardrobe and Ally and I would lie on the floor together and contemplate the miracles of nature.

As Purzah became more confident, I was allowed to touch her babies and Ally was allow to lick them.

Over the next few weeks, the kittens grew and began exploring their new world. Ally followed them around like a mother hen. When Purzah went outside to do her business and to get something to eat, Ally would watch over the kittens. She would lick their bottoms ever so gently, and they would snuggle up to her, just like she was their mother.

As they got older, they would climb on Ally. She would lick them ever so gently. However, as they got bigger, you could see that Ally was aware that they were bigger and stronger, and she would push them, again, gently, and play with them. Exactly at the level they could handle. Never once was she ahead of them.

It was amazing to watch. This little dog, who had never had a litter of her own, knowing instinctively, what these kittens were capable of.

Ally has her own chair in the lounge. As the kittens got big enough to climb up on the chair, they would and Ally allowed them to. You could almost see the look of pride on her face as they learned to negotiate the chair, and improved their climbing skills on Ally’s favourite chair.

More time passed, the kittens got bigger. One day I heard Ally growl. Something she rarely does. I turned around and there she was growling at one of the kittens. Ally had decided, as do all good mothers, that this chair was hers again and the kittens were now big enough to be told that it was time for them to move onto other people’s chairs and to claim hers back.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 18 January 2006

Ally and the kitten (part 2)

As you can see I wrote this in 2006. Last night I went to visit friends who have recently acquired a kitten called Taffy. He is a gorgeous little, yes, ginger, kitten. As usual when I visit these friends, I took the Ally dawg with me. Their dawgs and The Ally Dawg are great mates and we visit regularly. Ally and Taffy had met once before. With this initial response:

Shortly they decided to ignore each other. This kitten has no fear. He lives with a border collie and a golden retriever, both big dogs, and little Ally is not frightening to him.

Moving forward a couple of weeks. I went to visit these friends again and Taffy and Ally met up for the second time.

After a few initial moves of “who are you?”, “what the .... are you?”, and “do you play?”, the two animals spent the whole evening chasing each other around the house. Now Ally is not a pup. She is not a young dog. I got her in 2000 and at that stage she was supposed to be 2-1/2 years old, which would make her 11 this year. Her face is very gray and when puppies want to play, Ally quite often will get cross with them, and warn them off with a growl.

But a kitten !!! A totally different kettle of fish (or kittens as the case may be).

Taffy hid under the bed. Taffy pounced at Ally from under the bed. Ally nuzzled him with her nose. Taffy hid under the bed again and played with the ruffles and Ally talked to her “Come on out. You’re cute”.

I got there at 8 p.m. and left after 1 a.m. We sat and chatted for hours. And the two fur kids played as well.

Taffy only stopped twice for a well needed rest, but only with coaxing – like being held on someone’s lap and constantly patted until he went to sleep. These were literally cat naps and didn’t last very long.

The whole time Taffy was sleeping, Ally was watching him for any sign of movement and then they were off again.

This one’s quite fuzzy. But you get the idea.

However, old dogs pay the price the next day, same as humans. This is Ally this morning.

One tired little fur kid.

Madeleine

Sunday, 11 May 2008

p.s. The font keeps changing on me for some reason.