The Story: Feral Cat Gave Birth and Never Left

 Here's the story of the Feral | the Baby | and The Handsome DUDE

That is Mitten, the only litter of Grumpy. Grumpy is one of the many feral stray cats in the neighborhood. For some reason Grumpy chose our garage as her very own maternity ward and gave birth to a single litter sometime in September.

The Discovery

While bringing out the trash during garbage-pickup day in September, a feint meow can be heard. Bowing down and looking down under one of the vehicles, there it is, a frail small kitten. Not really a cat person (have pet dogs while growing up), but it can be assumed that Baby at that time is only a few weeks old. Grumpy is not under the car maybe the reason why Baby is meowing.

Anyway, upon opening the gate to bring out the trash, Grumpy is on the street. Maybe going back after a night’s hunt. Didn’t really mind her and her litter. It’s all good as long as they don’t poop and pee anywhere around the house.

The Setup

Now we can’t have Grumpy and Baby living under the car, some large empty cardboard boxes has been setup (complete with comfy rags) for them to stay on. Have position it near the car so it would be easy for Grumpy to relocate to her new home.

The Hiss and The Broom

Interestingly, one day to check the freeloaders out, Grumpy HISSED. This is a new experience… really it is. All the stray neighborhood cats will scramble and flee when seeing people. But Grumpy hissed, LIKE A SNAKE!

Surprised, a nearby broom was quickly picked and raised due to muscle memory kicking in. Upon seeing this, Grumpy ran from the cardboard box, jumped to the fence, and quickly hurried off to the streets.

The Research

As mentioned, having dogs as pets while growing up, this hiss is a new experience worthy to be researched. As it turns out, a cat’s hiss can be likened to a dog’s growl. Cats will hiss if they feel threatened and does it to scare away the source of fear. Also, it is like a maternal instinct to protect their young. Which in the case of Grumpy, it is totally understandable and quite obvious to protect Baby.

The Two Types

Discovering also from the recent research, it appears that there are two types of strays – the feral and the usual stray. Ferals are like the type of cats that didn’t have any human interaction and will run away (or hiss depending on the situation) if a human tries to approach it. On the other hand, the non-Feral stray has some form of human interaction but became a stray due to being abandoned or any other reason (running away, lost, etc…)

The Mutant Grumpy

For some reason, Grumpy is like a breed of a feral and non-feral. She appeared to be trained and showed intelligence in different scenarios already. For instance, she did not repeat when she was called out peeing in one of the water basins; she only approach when being called with a certain sound (kss kss kss). However, her feral side appears and expects a hiss when she is shooed (chase away) or when her sleep is interrupted.

In fact, she will also hiss if it takes too long for the food to be placed on floor. It’s like saying, put down the food you slow handsome hooman.

The Present Situation

It has been months and Grumpy has somewhat mellowed down. She no longer hisses but also doesn’t meow (which is actually quite strange). And in the rare chance that she will meow, it is very little/small and barely audible. It is actually more like a Squeak

Mitten (the baby’s name) on the other hand struts like he/she owns the place (the handsome DUDE does not know her gender). Always running with tail straight (and the tip shaped like a question mark) to The DUDE whenever he goes outside from inside the house. Additionally, Mitten has a loud meow whenever Dude does not interact or does not gave any food

© 2020 to 20++ mixjikz.blogspot.com | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT LAW