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The mother cat in our house, nursing its kittens..
The Cats in the house:
On July 12th,2007; the local "rouge" cat, (the most notorious rogue cat in the locality!) gave birth to 4 cute little kittens on the attic. They were, as all kittens are when born, helpless with their eyes not opened and could barely crawl. The cat attended and nursed its kittens the entire day, and does not go anywhere else on that day. You could get quite bored observing it lick itself and its kittens all day!

      Cats are mostly selfish creatures, & I don't have any liking for them. I would go for a dog rather than a cat any time. But, it was really interesting & fun to know their ways. So, here below, is an account of the experience & observation made by me during the birth & the growth of the 4 kittens..

NEW!! CAT PROFILES :
More details & images of the cats in our locality, their behavior & character. Starting from the local "rouge" cat that gave birth to the four kittens..

MORE..

AFTER BIRTH:

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There is nothing extraordinary or anything out of common in the above account, as it is just how all cats behave. (See Cat's Behavior)
As the kittens grew, they could crawl more efficiently and now, they are nearly walking. It took them about fifteen days, to open their eyes. One of the two bigger ones opened its one eye a day before the other three did, then the other bigger one, also opened its eye. Within a day or two, they had now opened both eyes, followed by the two smaller sized kittens opening their eyes in the following days. As the kittens grew, they could crawl more efficiently and now, they were nearly walking. It took them about fifteen days, to open their eyes. One of the two bigger ones opened its one eye a day before the other three did, then the other bigger one, also opened its eye. Within a day or two, they had now opened both eyes, followed by the two smaller sized kittens opening their eyes in the following days.

The cat, is a very sensitive animal, and it has its own sign language to communicate with fellow felines, and through which it tries to communicate with us humans, which is sometimes misunderstood. It was a coincidence that, around a week these kittens were born, I stumbled upon a TV program in Animal Planet, as I was surfing through the channels. It was very useful to me in such a time, as I came to know about certain gestures of the cat & what they meant. For instance, if the cat, while looking at you closes or, nearly closes its eyes, it means friendship, and trusts you. If you do the same by nearly closing your eyes, it means something like that you have accepted the friendship. The cats constantly give and look for gestures and signs, and sometimes may misunderstand any of our gestures or movements as it might mean something else in the cat's language. for instance, an aversion of eyes and turning your face away can be misunderstood by the cat as a friendly invitation.

Yawning in front of their owner and blinking behavior is common in cats and may be a sign of trust or affection. Some cats will respond to a human who dramatically yawns or closes and opens their eyes by reciprocating the action. I have tried this with our local cat myself. I blink back when it does so, & if I give it a blink or slowly close my eyes, it also does the same. You can try this with your cat & this might just help improve your friendly relationship with it!
Purring is a sign of content, & I have noticed our local cat purr when stroked or rubbed or being petted. It also purrs pretty loudly when the kittens are feeding on its milk. Even a local male cat, (the only male cat that I have seen not to run away from us humans in our area) that used to come to our backyard demanding food, which liked very much being petted, also purred quite loudly while being petted.

Of the 4 kittens, 2 male, & 2 female(not for sure, as the kittens are too small), the male ones are comparatively bigger in size than the female, and also appear to be the more aggressive than the latter. The kittens, in their mother's absence once came to the edge of the attic & fell down to nearly 7 feet below, & apparently, incurred no physical damage! (They were very frightened, of course & were screaming at the top of their voice.) Just imagine what would happen to a human baby of proportional age if it fell from such a height!
This ability for cats to land on their feet with little or no injury, is the "Righting Reflex". They can do this more easily than other animals due to their flexible spine and lack of a collar bone. Cats also use vision and/or their vestibular apparatus to help tell which way to turn. They then can stretch themselves out and relax their muscles. Cats do not always land unharmed, and can break bones and die from excessive falls.
The cats can never be controlled by force, as they do only what they wish to do. They don't like to be chained or imprisoned, but like to be free. The cat only does what it likes, & will not submit to your wishes.

Well, now the kittens are walking, & pretty soon will be running around all over the place!



AFTER A MONTH:

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All the pictures of the cat and the kittens are after the kittens started walking. At this point of time, they are about a month old and are proving to be very playful and curious explorers, exploring their territories!

The kittens are now trying to eat solid food with their little teeth. One of them must have tried to gobble up an entire chunk of dosa, & was uneasy, crying out in a strange tone as though something was stuck in its throat. It finally vomited out a little chunk of food. They are learning their ways one by one..

This local cat gave birth to its first kitten outside our house. There was only one surviving kitten as I remember, & when it was about a couple of months old, was killed by the stray dogs. The next time, this cat had given birth to 3 kittens at my neighbor's place. It must be around 4th or 5th time this cat has given birth (could be 5th, 6th time too. Don't know for sure. It's after a year or two it has shown up regularly here.)

AFTER TWO MONTHS:

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The kittens now keep playing all over the attic. Its real hard to keep things clean up in the attic and the place now stinks real bad of the smell of kitten urine+stools!! We have kept a sandbox, but still the stools are found around it too. We've got a hard time cleaning up the attic now & then. But, with all the troubles, its a real joy watching the little ones play. A person not knowing any better might think they are fighting, but right now, its all play for them.

The mother cat keeps bringing some creature or the other, half-alive, to the kittens. Once, when I saw a bat in its mouth, almost dead. The cat & the kittens managed to finish of the carcass & I never found the bones of the dead bat. The creature it brought most recently for its kittens was a half-dead mouse. The kittens try to gobble everything, but still they just cannot eat everything. The count until now is, 3 rats and 2 bats. The half-eaten rat was found in two cases, but any remains of the bats are not yet found! The kittens are right now real cute, & very playful. The two kittens, #1 and #3, purr quite loudly when getting petted, but mostly will be biting or scratching our hands or fingers. Must be their kind of "play". Kitten #1 the largest in size of the four, is the one on the right in the image below. The other two, however do not like being touched by humans and are somewhat cowardly when they face humans. Below is the most recent picture taken of the four kittens. From left to right, kitten #4, #3, #2, #1.

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