It is now nearly two years since we became aware that a small and very nervous black cat was raiding our vegetable bucket, almost daily, and to our great surprise was actually eating carrots, cucumbers and even lettuce leaves. We found that he or she was living among old boxes and general builders’ rubbish behind the shop next door, Enquiries indicated that there was no-one admitting to ownership, and it soon became apparent that this poor little mite was not only hungry, but also very pregnant. We then started to put out food, which disappeared with great speed and regularity. We could hardly believe that this small cat could consume such large quantities, and it was then that we discovered that there were brothers and sisters too; hungry, very wild and with females in various stages of pregnancy. Oh dear, what had we let ourselves in for?
Fortunately, at this stage we were approached by Lesley "The lady from the Cats Protection" who was already aware of this little colony, and was endeavouring to catch them in order to have them "seen to". Lesley’s love for cats is closely matched by her ability to delegate and I soon found myself in possession of a large cage trap, which after a few modification and TLC started to catch cats. Unfortunately it cannot distinguish between ferals and domestic moggies, but after the release of a few, wearing collars and puzzled expressions, plus a couple of indignant hedgehogs, we finally caught "our lot" who were then suitably dealt with.
We then learned that four of these cats would now have to be returned to what was questionably their original home. It had never been our intention to become cat owners, and in any case it was probably too late for them to become domesticated or even housetrained, but we did have a soft spot for the little "puss" who we had first fed some months before, and who had now after decent food and care, become quite bonny, albeit much smaller than her three companions. We therefore decided that we would endeavour to provide in our quite large garden, some suitable shelter for their comfort at night and during the winter. My bright idea was to obtain a dog kennel, and to replace the access hole with a cat flap. In the event the supplier, a garden shed maker at Danbury, when he heard what we had in mind exerted his entrepreneurial skills and convinced me that what we really wanted was a "Wendy House", which after all, if as was very likely, the cats moved off in the future to pastures new, we would at least still have a tool shed. So, we went out to buy a dog kennel for a cat, and came away with a Wendy House! There must be a certain logic to this somewhere!!
Suitably sited and erected, sealed, ventilated, and heated the "Moggie Motel" stood, awaiting its first tenant, a small feral who had no idea of how to use a cat flap, and who would certainly not allow me close enough to touch her. Fortunately or unfortunately, dependent on how you look at it, one of the other three who had been returned next door, was a large black ex-Tom, who had no such inhibitions and very quickly took up residence, and showed not only our little friend how to do it, but also introduced his two other brethren, and you don’t have to be a
mathematician to work out that we now have four furry lodgers, who after nearly a year, show no signs of wanting to emigrate.
This family of four, now have separate bed, which they share very happily, have also been given names. The large all-black ex-Tom is Big Frank, the small blacks are Brownie (because she is not jet black) and Blackie, who certainly is black. None of these three have any white on their coats at all. The third is a quite elegant Tabby, who is slightly aloof from the rest, and who has been away on a couple of occasions for some 36 hours but so far always seems to return and this one we have named Tiger.
One thing we have found is that they have become very territorial, and where we used to often see visiting cats from round and about, these days we hardly ever have feline visitors, and those that do look in are usually given short shrift by Big Frank, who seems to have taken on the role of father to the family.
As I mentioned earlier it was never our intention to become cat owners, and having now had experience of these four furry friends, I don’t think that they would want to be owned by anyone, and we are content to regard ourselves as nothing more than their guardians with a watching brief, and that in itself is very satisfying.