A Cat's Tale

About two weeks back, a stray cat followed me into the HDB lift when I returned from work. I didn’t know that she was pregnant at that time as it wasn’t obvious. I pressed the 5th floor and when the door opened, she went out. I proceeded to go to the 8th floor where I stayed. On reaching home, I told my children about how a cat followed me into the lift and the younger one said, “Cool!” The next couple of days I observed that our outside shoe cabinet’s doors were left ajar. And when I opened it the paper linings for our shoes were all crumpled up. I had to rearrange them properly and put our shoes in place. Little did I realise that our neighbourhood feline had anything to do with it. 




My wife also related an incident when the cat also followed her into the lift one day and brushed herself against her leg. This gave her a fright as she does not like furry animals. It was a sign of affection that the animal has for humans, so says the info on the net. My children and I again saw the cat on several occasions near the lift on the 8th floor. It followed us into the lift when we went downstairs. Our neighbour also related to us that at one time the cat went into her flat and into one of her rooms. She had to chase it out. Our neighbour has been very kind to the cat, feeding her food. That could be one reason why she came up to our level, looking for food, and probably looking for a place to give birth.


According to the net, a cat giving birth is happy with paper or any material which she could shred. Preferably they should be put in a box so that it would be a cosy comfortable place for her. On 30 Mar 2010, when I returned home from work in the evening I remembered that I ought to change the crumpled papers in the shoe cabinet. However, when I opened the cabinet door, I got a fright when I saw the cat with newborns inside; there were blood stains of course. I went into house and told my wife and children about it. The children were naturally excited and I asked them to go and see for themselves. My first thought was to call the SPCA but my wife said she’d call her friend, who loves cats, to see whether she would like to have them. Her friend didn’t want but said that the SPCA would put any animal to sleep if there’re no adopters. My wife called my neighbour, who was not at home during that time. My neighbour aunt said she doesn’t want to keep the cats either; she would return and take a look.


When she came home, she helped to clean the shoe cabinet and left a small blanket inside for the kittens. She said that there were three kittens, but one died. She also cooked fish for the mother cat to eat. The mother cat has been nursing the kittens eversince. She left them to sleep in the daytime while she goes downstairs probably to hunt for her own food. In the evening, she’d return to the cabinet to feed her young. The kittens’ eyes are still not open yet and they spent a substantial amount of time sleeping inside the shoe cabinet. Our children, especially the younger one, are happy to be able to handle and play with the kittens whenever our neigbour comes out to feed the mother. Occasionally, they would hear the meowing of the kittens outside and usually, one of them has fallen out of the cabinet. Sheryl is usually the one who would rush outside to put her back in.
Well, we do not know how long our children would enjoy the company of the cats. When kittens’ eyes are open, anytime between 9 to 14 days, the mother cat would probably bring them away. If any of you reading this care to adopt them, do let me know. We are truly amazed at the way God has in-built into a mother cat the instinct to look for a home for her young.