The kittens are now over seven weeks old, all eating well, all house-trained (by me) and we're looking for homes for three of them. I'm going to keep two for myself and fingers crossed we find some nice homes for the others - we haven't had any interest yet - this is high-season for kittens on the island unfortunately....
Over the last few weeks, I noticed a growing collection of dead mice and lizards in their room. I think the tally so far was five mice and six lizards. I was baffled as to how our little kittens were catching all these, particularly as I didn't think we had mice in the house. I thought they were just leaving little gifts for me as a thank-you for looking after them.
When I went to feed the kittens this morning, Uncle Baggy was nowhere to be seen. This in itself is unusual as he's often right there at feeding times, seeing what he can steal from the kittens or Little Red. And then I saw him coming in from the fields, dead mouse in his mouth. He brought this in and deposited it in the kittens' room. Mystery solved - the kittens haven't been catching things, it's been Baggy who catches them and brings them for the kittens. There was something quite endearing in the realisation that he's been busy catching things for the babies. Maybe that's why he feels justified in eating with them (or trying to). I found it all very sweet, he looks after them as if they were his own and at times you'll find all five nestled into him as he cleans them in a very thorough fashion. He gets excited that he's got five playmates but doesn't realise that they're much smaller than him. If the playing gets a bit rough, you'll hear a sharp squeak from the kitten who's being tumbled around. I worried at first that he might hurt them but after seeing the way he looks after them and hunts for them, I don't think I need to worry about him at all!
I don't know who caught the rat today though. It was huge and I can't bear mice so seeing a big dead rat lying in the kittens room made me feel quite awful! But I wanted to get it out into the garden so I covered it with some kitchen towel and tried to move it out with the broom. In the middle of this drama, just as I'd got the rat outside, Little Red came along, grabbed the rat, ran off with it and then brought it back into the room! I had to start all over again.....
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