Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Cat Gardeners!




Does your cat help you in the garden?

I have a nephew and a niece at home. They are 12 and 15 yrs old. They live with us with my mother. We also have a dog, cats, goats and many chickens. But among them, the cats live with us inside the house.  We have 2 females and 1 male cats. Allen call the male as Pusa, the local term for cats. The females are called Maripusa and Muningning. "Muning" is another endearment term for cats. So you can see that all the names denote cats or "pusa". Allen is naughty, so are his cats. But they love each other, Allen love the cats, and the cats love him in return. You might ask how!

 Eriel a few years ago, now she is 15.
 Kittens are always curious on what people are doing, that somehow they normally become nuisance.

Looks like it is helping Eriel cut the grasses, but when you are not quick you might
cut off its feet when it suddenly lunges on the scissors.

Allen sleeps with his mother and Pusa (male one) has a way of getting to him early dawn unnoticed by anybody. Allen's mom doesnt like cats going to bed, so she always shoo them off before bedtime. However, the cats have silent ways of getting-in unnoticed. It crawls under the sheets, and somehow Allen's hand always find it. So the cat and the hand pet each other under the sheet unnoticed, while Allen was supposed to be sleeping, or is pretending to be so!

The Mom gets off the bed early every morning to prepare for the kids' food and needs  for school. Hardly did she realize that an ongoing rendevouz and elicit affair happened at dawn. She realized just recently that it has been ongoing for a long time. And she can't complain but laughed with it.

 Muningning when still young and naughty, see it picking on the guinea pigs!

 Maripusa (right) is actually the mother of both Pusa and Muningning (on her left)

 They give birth maybe 3-4 times per year, and it became a problem to look for
adoptors. The 2 mothers also have 2-4 kittens per delivery.

 These are some of the weanlings. Allen and Eriel always have some tears when they part with the kittens, but we cannot afford to have a cathouse: aka people living in a cathouse.

The kittens love sleeping like this, or on top of TV or laptops.

The two females almost always give birth simultaneously, maybe 1-2 wks in between. What is unfathomable but remarkable is that no matter who gave birth first, it always is Maripusa (the older mother) who takes care and feed both her kittens and her grandkittens. Even if Muningning gets her own kits out of the box, Maripusa will surely get them back to nurture them herself. And even if Muningning and Pusa are already both adults, they can also seep her milk once-in-a while if they want. And Maripusa allows them to do so. Can you imagine that from a mother! We shoo them away if very obvious, because the small kittens might be deprived of their rights to have enough milk. However, they still go on with their habits. Muningning can look for new mates because anyway her mother takes care of feeding. So she seems to have kits ahead of her mother most of the time.

Obviously, cat culture is very different from what we culturally know. Remarkable maybe, but incredible!

 Allen (left) and Eriel (right) with their kittens.

24 comments:

  1. Very cute cats! and nice blog, look forward to see more

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  2. Andrea,

    Very cute cats! Around here we have so many strays getting the cats fixed is a wise choice. Our female Valentine kills anything she can catch, no moles or mice in the garden. Grumpy the male chases away all the stray cats that is his job.

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  3. The cats and kittens are very cute. It has bring back a lot of memories for me too. Me and my sister were doing the same thing raising cats when we were young and living in the countryside with lots of land to play around. I am always amazed at how all their hairs appear to stand on ends whenever they see an enemy, e.g. a dog! Our cats do not like getting wet and taking baths.

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  4. Andrea, How did you get those kittens to face the same direction? Beautiful photos.

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  5. Though none in my life, delightful cat/kittens :)

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  6. I enjoyed reading about your niece, nephew, and all those cats. It's a good thing you don't keep them all, or they would eat you out of house and home.

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  7. Hello, thanks for stopping by my blog. Your cats are cute. What I do not understand is why you don't have the male and two females sterilised? Then you would not have to worry about all the kittens. :-) Just a thought!
    Best wishes from Germany,
    Andrea

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  8. Adorable cats, Andrea..... I had a cat when I was in high school... Her name was Snowball--and I loved her so much. When I left home for college, she died a year later (of old age). I still miss her.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  9. Please consider having your cats neutered and spayed to release them from this never-ending cycle of reproduction. Kittens are adorable, but there are too many homeless and unwanted ones in the world already. We don't need to add to that population.

    And yes, my cat does accompany in the the garden. I wouldn't say "help" is exactly the right word!

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  10. Thanks for stopping by my blog. You certainly have a house full of cats. I don't understand why you don't have soem of them spayed.

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  11. Your cats are just so adorable, Andrea! I have a couple who go outdoors who help in the garden, mostly by supervising me when I'm out there. One of them only goes outside on a harness and leash, but he enjoys that and we are greatly amused by his antics, always.

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  12. Intersting post about your cats! I don't have any cats now, but I did when I was growing up. We were always sad when Daddy had to thin out the cat population! I dearly love the last picture of the one curled up in the cap!

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  13. Enjoyed your post, Andrea. Those are some cute photos! I like the one where they are all posing for you.

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  14. That is so interesting about the grandmother cat taking care of the grand cats. I love kittens but we don't have them around here. They are surely most playful and the shot of the cat on the guinea pigs is precious!

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  15. I do miss my cat - she has been gone a couple of years now and I still expect her to come running when I open the tuna can! Very sweet pictures.

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  16. Very cute kittens. Our neighborhood has many stray cats, all having kittens. The neighbors feed them, but I am worried for what will happen in winter. I have two cats that I brought into my house that were out in the winter cold.

    I really like your photos too. Welcome to Blotanical. I could tell by your comment on my blog that you have lots of questions. If you want, email me and I will help if I can. Donna

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  17. I am a dog person but my heart melts when I see these adorable cats.

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  18. Your cats are adorable! My step daughter has 4 cats; her fiance has 1 cat. They will be a family of 5 cats when they marry. My husband and I like to play with the grand-kitties when we visit.

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  19. Wow, maybe Blotanical really brings some magic to a blog. Imagine i just joined in after blogging with you for a long time, and suddenly after joining i had 20commententers for a night! And that is even if my post is not about plants and gardens but CATS! Hahaha!

    Thank you everyone for all your appreciation, your kind words, and your positive energies for our world. We certainly are spreading wonderful vibrations to the Universe, and much much gratitude to you all. God bless everyone.

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  20. They are beautiful cats and I enjoyed the stories as having two cats myself I understand....Michelle

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  21. awwwww Andrea - they are lovely and cute.

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  22. The cats and kittens are so very adorable, but is it not the custom to neuter pets where you live? Here in Seatlle, in the USA, we take them to the vet to make sure there are not too many kittens or puppies, so all that are born can get good homes. But kittens are so fun when they are small!

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Your comments inspire me to post more, and our conversations make life and gardening more meaningful.

However, Anonymous comments and personal back links give me problems, so i don't publish them. Anonymous + back links = SPAM = DELETE

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