Tess and her
kittens |
Tess |
Tess is about three years old and has been
known certainly by my children (though not to me)since she was 8 weeks
old. At a year old she had her first litter of four kittens to be follwed
a year later by a second litter of four, one of which was Toby. At no
time did her previous owner attempt to have her naeutered and so eight
months later she became pregnant for the third time. |
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Finding that she was pregnant again her
owner no longer wanted her. I was told that cat homes would not have
her as she was pregnant but I now suspect that was a lie as cat homes
would not turn any cat away. My children were saddened by this and she
was the mother of Toby so I decided to take her in with the intention
of letting her have her kittens. Afterward when the kittens are weaned
I will let her have her injections and have her neutered. |
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March 30th 2009 The photo below was taken
by my son. In the five weeks since I have taken her in Tess has come
on in leaps and bounds. She now has a beautiful shiny soft coat and
is much more contented and tamer than the kids have ever known her.
She is also a very attentive and protective mother to her three kittens.
She is neither a fussy eater or a demanding cat. She is just wonderful, |
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April 21st 2009 - Now the kittens are weaned Tess is thinking less of them and more of the next generation she is going to bring into the world. She is once again in season and she is confined indoors. She spends her days pacing, rolling around on her belly and yeowling as loud as she can. She has even tried getting out of the bedroom window but the space is far too small. She is being neutered in one weeks time and it cannot come fast enough. At the moment she is submitting to anything that comes close be it human or cat. Here Sammie spends some time washing Tess's ears. |
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| May 1st 2009 |
Well Tess was neutered three days ago and
she is doing so very well. It was an early start that day and she wasnt
operated on until the afternoon so it was the early evening when I finally
saw her. I was surprised at how small her wound was. The next day she
was fine and ate reasonably well but the next day she was sick and was
much more subdued. She was very quiet and didnt miaow much though I
am told the operation can give them a sore throat. |
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Here is Tess three days after her op. This
morning she was still subdued but she forced herself outdoors as I opened
the door and she really seemed to perk up. I wasnt supposed to let her
out for seven days but she looked so alert and perky that I let her
have a mooch round for a few minutes. Then when she jumped up on the
fence I brought her back with a shake of her treat box. I think the
fresh air did her the world of good. She is continuing to eat each and
hasnt been sick again. |
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Tess is brilliant at stealing my chair.
As soon as I have left it she jumps up to take my place. Then when I
return a few minutes later she looks at me with those eyes that say
I am so comfy here and I have really been here for ages. You are
not going to disturb me are you! Naturally I sigh and find myself
another chair and Tess has won again hehe. |
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Here is Tess posing for me. If you look
closely you will also see Sammie trying to play with her tail. |
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May 6th 2009 and Tess has recovered well
from her operation. Now I am seeing her in a new light. For the first
time since I have known her she has really started to play. Quite spontaneously
and not even with kittens around she will start playing with the toys
and chasing all around. She has also now found her favourite spot away
from the kittens and can often be found asleep on the end of my bed.
She still does pay the kittens some attention. Ever so often she will
wash their ears and last night when I came down after I had been to
bed she was feeding all three kittens. What a fantastic mum she has
been. |
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May 17th 2009 - Well Tess has shown her
abilities as a very effective hunter once again. The last week was very
warm and saw her in the garden more than usual. Going to hang out the
washing it looked like mass avian slaughter had been carried out. Grey
feathers were strewn all over the lawn. I looked around looking for
the victim and the guilty cat who had done this (though I suspected
I knew already) Deep in the undergrown I found the poor bird, a very
large and frightened Wood pigeon with Tess crouched nearby watching
avidly. Wood pigeons are very large birds and I had to be careful here
not to scare it and cause any more injury than possible. Gently and
slowly i lifted the birds into my arms and after an initial short struggle
it sat and let me inspect it. Initial examination was encouraging. Maybe
the bird was just shocked and winded. I stretched out the wings, obviously
not broken so I looked underneath and that is when my spirits took a
serious nose dive. There was a massive gaping hole between body and
wing showing his insides punctured. The vet was not much use. He said
noone would treat pigeons as they are considered as vermin and if I
brought it in it would just be put to sleep. This bird would have a
nest of young somewhere and Iwas very sad. It certainly wasnt an injury
I could deal with without help and the bird would not get better on
its own. In the end I had to take the very sad decision to put the bird
out of its misery. I did it with a very heavy heart and thought that
sometimes there was a downside to keeping a cat. There are ways you
can discourage cats from killing birds and certainly for Tess it is
something I will have to work on but for now I will mourn the passing
of that beautiful bird. |
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| June 20th 2009 |
Tess is now really starting to calm down
a little bit. In the last couple of weeks I have seen Toby walk right
passed Tess and she has even gone up to him and sniffed his face and
she hasnt hissed at him. We have also had some lovely dry sunny weather
and Toby and Tess could often be seen chasing each other round the garden.
Tess would hiss at Toby and chase him then the roles would change and
immediatly Toby would turn around and chase Tess. All in good fun! There
is now alot of mutual grooming and sleeping together going on. It looks
so cute. |
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