Both me and my husband (Aneesh) are animal lovers and always like to have animals (dogs, cats, birds etc) around us. However, we do not keep pets in the house as there is no one who can take care of them, while we are away on the job during the day. One fine evening when I came back from work, I could hear a kitten crying somewhere around the house. I was alert immediately and wanted to find him. Even after searching for quite a while I could not spot him, by then Aneesh was back too. We searched the whole area outside the house once more, yet could not find him. We decided to try our luck once in the morning as there was not much light there. Whole night we could hear the kitten crying.
We searched the area in the morning again, found him inside a carton box which was lying in one corner outside the house. He was trying to come out of it, as the height was too long for him to climb up; he was not able to come up. Seeing us he was quite frightened but when I slowly started patting him, he calmed down. I slowly took him out of that box, took him inside the house and gave some milk for drinking. The way he drank milk showed that he had not eaten anything for the whole night. Ideally he should have been accompanied by his mother, as he was very small. Definitely he would have got lost, or the mother would have abandoned him. After feeding him we gave him a box to sleep in just outside our door and left for office.
Evening when I came back, I saw there were 3 more kittens along with the mother just outside the main door. I was so happy to see the mother feeding all the 4 kittens. I don’t know how she found one of her kitten was with us, but there was a sense of relief on her face.
After some time she started communicating with me, meaow meaow! Though I didn’t understand what she was saying, I thought probably she was hungry. I gave her some milk… kittens also started sipping in from there. I was right, she was very hungry. Her eyes were thanking me when I served her milk. By that time Aneesh had also came back, and he was delighted seeing the new visitors. However, neither the mother nor the kittens allowed us to touch them. I expect that’s natural characteristic of cats, they don’t allow anyone to get too close to them, unless they are fully confident that the person is harmless. We kept the door open to see if they come inside and to let them know we were harmless. We just wanted make friends with them.
Initially the kittens were afraid of coming inside the house; however they started getting more comfortable as time passed. Their mother would sit just outside the door and the kittens would come inside the house, play with carpet, wires etc. They were obsessed with any kind of moving object, therefore would try catching everything which is moving. Once they caught my toe finger as I was moving it! Within few days they grew up quite a bit and became friendlier than earlier.
They are playing hide and seek!
We searched the area in the morning again, found him inside a carton box which was lying in one corner outside the house. He was trying to come out of it, as the height was too long for him to climb up; he was not able to come up. Seeing us he was quite frightened but when I slowly started patting him, he calmed down. I slowly took him out of that box, took him inside the house and gave some milk for drinking. The way he drank milk showed that he had not eaten anything for the whole night. Ideally he should have been accompanied by his mother, as he was very small. Definitely he would have got lost, or the mother would have abandoned him. After feeding him we gave him a box to sleep in just outside our door and left for office.
Evening when I came back, I saw there were 3 more kittens along with the mother just outside the main door. I was so happy to see the mother feeding all the 4 kittens. I don’t know how she found one of her kitten was with us, but there was a sense of relief on her face.
After some time she started communicating with me, meaow meaow! Though I didn’t understand what she was saying, I thought probably she was hungry. I gave her some milk… kittens also started sipping in from there. I was right, she was very hungry. Her eyes were thanking me when I served her milk. By that time Aneesh had also came back, and he was delighted seeing the new visitors. However, neither the mother nor the kittens allowed us to touch them. I expect that’s natural characteristic of cats, they don’t allow anyone to get too close to them, unless they are fully confident that the person is harmless. We kept the door open to see if they come inside and to let them know we were harmless. We just wanted make friends with them.
Initially the kittens were afraid of coming inside the house; however they started getting more comfortable as time passed. Their mother would sit just outside the door and the kittens would come inside the house, play with carpet, wires etc. They were obsessed with any kind of moving object, therefore would try catching everything which is moving. Once they caught my toe finger as I was moving it! Within few days they grew up quite a bit and became friendlier than earlier.
They are playing hide and seek!
This is called affection for your sibling!
One evening when I came back home I found the mother missing… the kittens were all curled up just outside the door. The moment they saw me they started calling meaow meaow. I knew they were hungry so quickly gave some milk to them, called their mother for quite some time but she never came. Kittens would not stop meaow – ing even after drinking milk. I wasn’t sure what the reason was, may be because their mother was not around that why.
Mother cat never came back till date. As if she wanted to find a nice caring home for her kittens and leave them there. Now all four kittens live just outside our door and come inside the house occasionally. All four have become so friendly that they don’t mind us touching, patting or adoring them. They sit on the carpet with us and watch TV. They adore us by licking and rubbing their face against us. They don’t stay inside the house but have become integral part of the family. We know even if they go somewhere, at the end of the day they will come back to us.
I am not sure what to call it. Technically this is passive petting, but I think this is pure love, care and trust.
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