It all started with Romeo... some good Jaffa news
First there were the rats, a lot of them and they took up residence in our staircase. Now, i truly believe in the importance of squatting as a valid alternative in a time of too little public housing and am open-minded as to the exact identity of my neighbors, as long as they're peaceful.But rats.... mmm, gotta be honest, i DO have a problem with them.
They would drive my neighbor's big & mean rotweiler in the yard crazy, but he didn't do much about them, as the rats knew the length of said rotweiler's chain only too well.
Enter Romeo; Street cat with a squatter's mentality as well as good at dealing with rats. Only, Romeo got kind of fat, very fat.
Romeo had been so named by the neighbor's twin daughters and i never really thought much about it. They took care of him and gave him a cat box at the bottom of our cluttered stairwell, right next to my-shiny-red-not-so-new-anymore bike. Occasionally Romeo would enter my flat, when i left the door open. I love cats but am allergic to them. He really was getting VERY fat. i started suspecting something was not all it was supposed to be in the feline gender department
Until today: Everybody is downstairs, where eh Ro- no, Julia is giving birth. So far we have 2 kittens, and more appear to be on the way. Julia's cleaning them.
We have a family now.
22.00 update: there are three kittens, all are doing well, Marzipan you have competition!!
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17 comments:
Tricolors are always female.
So Julia is tricolor...
In a past I did have lots of time, had a rowingboat and did some fishing, every time I made the walk along the fields to the boat I was followed by Foundling.
He/she was adopted by one of my friends and like all cats loved fish, and me.
Did park Foundling on the bow, when pulling up the first net she had the start of her day, every fish stuck in the maze and thereby damaged the skin was hers.
You never know if there is food tomorrow so better take in some extra today, when returning to shore it looked as if Foundling had swallowed a football.
If a cat has a fur that is of three colors... she's a tricolor :)
You can also tell the difference between cat genders by the shape of the head - males have much wider jowls and larger heads than females.
Additionally, males move their shoulders before pouncing and females move their tails. I have no idea why this is, but it holds true to every cat I know.
thanks for the information
thanks for the information, the kittens are too small and close to Julia, so we cannot really see what's their gender at this time.
But as two are tricolor, i guess it implies they're females.
The other one is "gingy"
Here's a cool site if anyone is looking to adopt a cat in Israel(neutered and vaccinated and are waiting for you).:
http://www.letlive.org.il/english/about.php
Btw Yudit ... great fun and exercize having a bike !! do u go on any tiyul's with the bike?
Hi,
First of all, thanks for the link, although at this time the kittens are too smal and need to be with Julia. From what i read they should stay with her for at least another 7 weeks or so.
As to my bike, it's my prime means of transport in the city, quick, no parking problems, ecologically responsible.
A long time ago one of my collegues told me the grey ones with black striping (Tigerprint?) to be males.
i doubt that. Although i know little about cats, the stripy type is very common here and they are both male and female
At school we had to learn about the dominance of color (black is allways dominant), these was discovered by if I remember well Mendel.
By the way, to satisfy the dog lovers, what about a next large picture of a mean, mean dog.
We do have a large rotweiler in our c yard, which officially is our common proerty, however said rotweiler really owns it.
It IS mean by the way. I guess because its owner keeps it on a very short chain.
A kind of familiar story, when young I got a German short haired pointer as a birthday present.
When the dog (Nimrod) was praised it was our dog, if he killed a stray chicken it was J.P.'s dog!
Actually, the dog belongs to the guy living downstairs. He uses it as a guarddog.
It indeeds barks at anyone entering the yard, me included.
It's on a very short chain. My neighbor once convinced me to come sclose to it, while he wort of held it. I stroked its head, and all seemed well, the it suddenly jumped up and tried to bite me.
I usually am not scared of dogs, but with this one, i hope the chain won't break, as i think it is rather dangerous.
It is, I do not know if you are a member of a library or do like reading at all, there is a book by Stephen Budianski The Truth About Dogs, to your neighbours animal the yard is his territory, when like you wrote the "boss" is near the animal behaves.
If the chain might brake or by accident you might come within the range of it I can assure you to have a problem.
In the US or other bear country people are advised to carry a can of pepperspray along, from what we read in the paper it is advisable for a lot of your inhabitants too to carry an of course smaller can of it with them.
Even when its boss is near, the dog tried to bite me. Which is why i think it has become dangerous.
Even its boss cannot entirely trust it. As it is a huge rotweiler, it scares me.
i just hope its chain will never break
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