kittens at my home

A stray cat happened to find shelter for its kittens at a cupboard
inside my home. Didn’t feel like chasing her away. But of course
couldn’t allow her & family to stay there. Apart from the hygiene
aspects, I got hissed at every time I introduded into “their” home.
And of course fear of eviction for myself when my Mom who was out of
station would soon return from out of station.

So one day when the cat took her family for an outing, I shut all the
windows. She came back after two days, and wailed all night to let her
in. I turned over and covered my ears and fell asleep. Next day
neither mother not kittens were to be seen. It was good timing, thats
when my own mom came back. The cats were not to be seen for a week,
and I wondered how they were doing.

Then one night I heard the cat outside my window (all windows were
closed). My mother said no question of opening the window again. She
told me forget it, nature has its own way and they can take care of
themselves. I agreed and abandaned the idea of helping them. The next
morning I found the kittens scattered all over the place in the
compound. They kept going into my aunts house, or my neighbours house,
wherever they found the tiniest gap to slip in, and got chased out. I
felt they were desperately searching for a home.

Luckily the weekend came, and I built a makeshift shelter at a quiet
secluded place in the backyard. One of the kittens was inside my aunts
home, who for some reason was more terrified of it than it of her. The
mother and other kittens was nowhere to be seen. I picked this one up
and relocated it to its new place. I also kept some food there. And as

I expected, the cat eventually turned up, found the lost kitten, and
the rest of them followed and settled down there. Mutually convenient
deal with a free meal included in the bargain. For me no more
disturbances at night – and an an extra bonus is when I got to take
some shots.

I didn’t give any more food after that, didn’t want to build a
dependency or make them tame… they’ll be better survivors as strays
and I avoided interference as far as possible

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I realized one thing when I was with the kittens. That I call my house
as mine – because my grandfather had bought it paying money he had
earned, and had a document to prove it, and I could prove that I was
the rightful inheritor of my grandfather’s property. All this is legal
as per the laws of the Indian government, recognized as the lawmaking
entity in this part of the world. Hence I could prove that it is my
house to any person in the world who questions me.

But one strange thing about this entire establishment is that it all
comprises of only humans.

What about this cat which had ventured in, what does it know of this
system, and by what means would it buy some property and call it its
own? It has absolutely no place at all !

Comparing this with other species, other species too mark their
territories with scents or pug marks etc, just like we have a compound
wall around the perimeter of our territory. But one fundamental
difference is that wrt other species, their territorial lines are only
relevant to others of the same species! Whereas we humans, our
territorial lines apply to all species of life!!

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