I know some of you will think that I share a great deal about my outside cats. What surprises me and makes me think is their behaviour. I have always had a dachshund and only after his passing after 15 years, we are not keeping any more pets. The dachshunds in my life have been around since I was a child. The sum and substance of this is they were all cat chasers. I love cats also but once our cat passed away after twelve years, the rest behaved like dogs and went for walks. The outcome was they were fearless and imagined that all dogs were their friends and they were killed by stray dogs. So we stopped keeping cats. Moral is if you keep cats and dogs together, keep a cat first and then a dog.

Grandma, mother and son cat

Well now in our balcony we have a family which comes and goes. What is extraordinary is how much the mothers dislike their kittens, once they are older. I have a grand-mother, mother and son eating their meals with us. The son is a gentle kitten and he is slapped by his mother who eats and sleeps in his bed. The grandmother arrives as she has had a set of kittens and I cannot send her away. She slaps the mother and son, eats and naps and leaves. In this drama, I can clap my hands, wave a broom, but it has no affect. It is as if I am a piece of wood. The mothers behaved impeccably when they brought their kittens across for food. The grandmother would ferry them to the balcony, making three trips. Now one of the daughters did the same thing with her two kittens. At the time it was raining very heavily, it was our monsoon and she was saving them from the rain by carrying them several times in the day. Now only one is left and he lives in the box.

Who‘s the boss

I see this behaviour several times in the day and the Moti Lal, the kitten is slapped by his granny and mum. They come running in the morning when I play the chants. It makes us smile, I do not like waving the broom and since no one moves until they have finished their meal, it is a futile exercise. I am only letting them know that I am the boss, and they know that they call the shots. They are sure that they will not go hungry. Now when I am working I have them looking at me unblinking, in turns. My objective is to protect the youngest and not encourage bullies.

Aim Hrim Klim