Although I am definitively not a cat person, I am unfortunately not made of steel either, and my past cat encounters have ended in a pretty dramatic disastrous way. Only one of the kittens that were born in the garden made it a month later, only to be run over by a bike (which made her lose an eye). I contemplated rescuing her and actually went as far as to introduce her to our guard dog, but he tried to eat her, so I figured life on the street was better than being shewed by a vicious dog. Last I saw of her, she was picked up by the mad woman of our street and I have not seen the kitten since.

Then another litter of kittens (far too young to be out in the streets on their own) ran around my feet as I was heading for work. I assumed their mother was nearby, but found them all dead a few days later - the mother included. Sad stories indeed.

And so when Ali came a few days ago to inform be that there was another ‘dan musa’ (son of a cat) in the garden, I did my best to ignore it. It turned out the little skinny creature had found an abode in the goat pen, which, next to the garage, is the only place where the dog has no immediate access.

We left it there for 24 hours (listening to some very pitiful cries), but when even my sister (who is so not an animal person) started to feel sorry for him and I could tell the mother was not coming back for it, I decided I could take no more dead kittens any longer and offered it some of the dog’s leftovers.

The kitten was reluctant at first, but then hunger got the best of it. Even vegetarian food (you didn’t think the dog would leave any meat, did you?) is edible to the greatest of carnivores…

Dennis is not all that pleased about the latest changes (after all, he is notorious for killing cats, not making friends with them) but the kitten is safe behind the fence and when she grows to big for her area, I expect her to emigrate elsewhere, because although the dog has been forced to share his food, he is unlikely to share any of his space.

Wishing he could go hunting….

The cat and the dog on the same picture

The kitten is not all that scared of Dennis, but it has the safety of the fence all figured out by now… When in need of company, it seeks refuge with the goats (who for some reason like cats and not dogs) and when it wants to play, it attacks the sack of horse feed. This is not an official Ishtar adoption for at the current rate of kitten births, we’d have a cat refuge center within weeks! No, the idea is to keep the kitten alive but semi-wild, and once it’s skilled enough to kill pigeons on its own, I’m pretty sure it’ll move out of the enclosed area and start mingling with all the other stray cats in the area.