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| A marauding tiger |
Mostly, I like cats. Indeed, since I have five of them (it was once seven), all of whom are currently spread out all over my bed - roasting gently on the electric blankie or snuggled up to the dog's bum - then I had better do! But, anyone daft enough to be a regular reader here will also be aware of the existence of our UNfriendly neighborhood marauding tiger, who has been terrorizing us since the spring or early summer. That is one flamin' feline I cannot get along with.
Yes, he is still around, unfortunately. Goodness knows how many times I have chased him off, the dog has chased him off, all my boys have tried and got a right pasting and a bloodied ear for their trouble, but he just keeps bouncing back.
He is uncatchable: you can't get within 30 feet of him, otherwise I would and take him straight to the vet to have his "attitude rearranged". I'm not sure I really want to try even, because he's been seen hauling a bag a trash that my neighbour said she had trouble lifting herself. But, at least her catching him in the act, finally, let mine off the hook from false accusation in The Case of the Constantly Strewn Rubbish. Night-time, mine are indoors and have watertight, cast-iron alibis!
Recently, we've also been "watched" by another black and white cat. It wasn't one of my two b/w's, because they were both
Last week too, we were thrice visited by a scrawny black tortoiseshell. Khan literally bumped straight into her (I am assuming it was a girl) as he stepped out of the house one morning. Kitty was nearby and hissed and Khan chased her off down the field towards Juan's chickens and ducks - the latter "kindly" letting us know, with much quacking and squawking, that they had encroached their territory. Cacophony was raised again later when she mistakenly sat on the outside windowsill to their "dining room" at feeding time and, the dog nearly tore my arm out of it's socket when she saw the same cat slinking off into the vines at dusk. Thankfully (touch wood) that one seems to have taken the hint!
Tiger face, on the other hand, seems to have got himself a bike.
Before his untimely arrival we'd had many other cats visit, some had waited around for daily meals even without upsetting anyone. Now any "foreign" feline presence gets the spitting going and the hackles to raise. It seems incredible that one solitary cat with a bad attitude can change the entire landscape.
The woman who lives across the valley from us mentioned the other day that she has three new born kittens, two girls and a boy, but I would be merely casting aspersions if I claimed that tiger had anything to do with those because I haven't seen them, but who knows? (Later observations suggested that he did.)
Oh, I also suggested to her that she get them *fixed* before they create a population explosion, but I truly doubt she will. People don't here. I've met many adults who have no idea what it means, because I am constantly explaining why my five do not become five million. And others, grown men even, who have a vague notion of "operations to stop babies", but are totally unaware of, for instance, the physical and behavioral differences between a vasectomy and total castration. (Bet they'd notice if they had the wrong one performed on 'em!)
Yes, mine all are fixed. This is a good thing, but, apart from the fact that the locals are mostly ignorant of the fact that my boys are therefore no longer even disposed to be noisemaking fighters, also puts my "pussies" at a bit of a disadvantage when they are picked on by wild, intact toms.
One of our pathetically unsuccessful methods of attempting to discourage tiger's visits is to make regular patrols of the backyard with the dog. She can leave her scent there and I hoped that regular canine and human presence would deter him from hiding in the approximately 250 foot jungle of fruit trees, vines and weeds. It has made a difference. He waits in the weed jungle just at the side of next door's field instead now. And he is there, ready to ambush my poor cats (and make my dog bark), as soon as they put their paws outside the front door. Poor things have got to go out, but it is becoming something of a suicide mission.
While I was at the end of the garden, I spied three small kittens hiding between the plant pots on Juan's patio. There was a time, really not long ago, when I'd have found this cute. Now, it filled me with dread. The three kittens on Juan's patio are a tabby and white, with a ring of white around the base of the tail, almost identical to Kitty. Another is black and white, with a distinctive white splotch in the middle of it's back, an uncanny likeness to her brother Khan. And the third is a stripy tabby tiger, just like the marauding bastard.
Why do I even worry about this? Well, I'm a foreigner here. Therefore, I am going to be in the wrong, by default. Think this is myth? Try living here. And it doesn't help that my neighbour is my landlord's brother. There is NOBODY else who actually looks after cats here. The ones that sort of have homes are never let inside them and are generally expected to go self-catering. They may as well be wild. Effectively, they are. Mine, on the other hand, are well fed, doctored, pampered and brought indoors at dusk for the entire night, every day, to prevent them from getting into fights, making a noise or disturbing the neighbours. On purpose. This is something I have always done in 40 years of being owned by cats - for their own safety and the selfish reason that it saves on vet bills, but I am more particular about it here, because I know I would not be given a second chance if it were thought that I was causing a problem. And let's not forget that I rescued them and took the problem off their streets in the first place.
But, when all these loose, wild cats make a noise, fighting and screaming like babies in the dead of night, who do the neighbours automatically assume the noisy cats belong to? Yes, they always come complaining to me. It's only going to be worse if they look so similar and mistaken identities become that much easier.
Already, since this tiger menace has been hanging around, I have had to firmly explain our "lock down procedure" on more than one occasion, stating simply and outright that my cats can NOT be under their bedroom windows when they are under my bedcovers and, I've underlined the fact several times that this stray cat is also causing me problems, so that they are fully aware that it is not mine, nor am I about to adopt it. This should be an inconsequential and unimportant matter, but it is actually making life like walking on eggshells 24/7 at the moment. As much as I love cats, more of them around here only spells trouble.
