Friday, August 03, 2007

The Cutest Kitties in Chacala

Gracie, otherwise known as Whispy (by her other owners), has been sharing my life in Chacala for about five months. Her four kittens are now 4.5 weeks old.Gracie is a great Mom, and the kittens are so precious. And cute, and sweet. Two tigers and two black/whites. I haven’t checked their sex yet, and don’t know if I could tell anyway. Gracie only goes out for short periods. Once at night and once in the day. Sometimes she sits in the doorway, enjoying the sunshine. She meows loudly if I try to shut the door while she is sunbathing/kitty-sitting. She licks the kitties, and plays with them, and lets them nurse fifty or sixty times a day.

The kittens come to me for petting now, and sometimes fall asleep on my chest if Gracie is outside. B., my neighbor up the road, loaned me a book that about explained about cat language. So I talk back to Gracie when she talks to me. I am half kidding and half not kidding. We meow back and forth, and it seems like we are conversing. Gracie probably thinks I am nuts.Gracie is also a very ferocious hunter. Every day she brings her trophies up on the patio for my admiration. At first I tried to stop her from hunting. Or at least bringing the half-live bodies up on the patio.

But I read in Betty’s book that if I want Gracie to be self-supporting (food-wise) I should praise her when she brings home frogs, baby iguanas, teenage iguanas, little birds, and today a big, big black bird of some kind.

So I praise her and go inside or down to the garden while she tortures her prey, and then eats it. Usually there are just a few feathers left when Gracie’s finished. Then she comes right in the house and eats the kitten’s food. Well, Gracie and her babies are sharing their food right now. She is teaching them about drinking evaporated, non-sweetened milk, and chewing on tiny pieces of kitty kibble.I am going to miss the little guys when they go to wherever they are going. There is a nice family here with two little girls, and I am hoping they will fall in love with the kitties. But, who knows.

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