Irresistible little Tigers

Young lad: "When these cat babies are still in the womb of the cat mother, don't they scratch her?" There are many things in life one doesn't really need, cats are necessary, I believe. Of the normally 4, sometimes 6 kittens, usually 1 resembles the mother, the others are a mixture and proof the  lady cat got more frequently engaged than just once. Amira e.g. has a streamed boy, Tiger,black, brown and white, a golden- yellow girl, Sandy, another one white with golden coloured patches, Soleigh, and one girl resembling mummy, Bijoux, 4 colours: white, brown, black and golden-yellow. Most cats have white "socks and bib". I would lie if I would say they all get on well with each other, like us they make friends with some cats and don't seem to like others for no obvious reason. Some are gentle and appear to be liked by all, never willing to fight, let cats even steal their food, while others quickly get jealous. In a group you may even find some kind of bullying for unknown reasons. Several are happy to belong to a cats' community others, though, would prefer to be an "only child".  Sandy is like that. She loves to sleep next to me.  I don't know how she does it, but I often wake up holding her in my arms.  Her brother, Tiger knows the same trick, but being 'a gentleman' he makes space for her and sleeps at my feet, whenever she wants. A fostered cat can afford to be less grown up than those that are homeless. Previously I only had experience with male cats, not by choice, it just happened to be like that. As my 4-legged family got bigger, I decided to have only the males operated (family planning and avoiding the marking of their " hunting area", my house, with urine). The advantage: avoiding the bigger and more expensive operation as well as the poor female getting partly shaved (hair growth again at a slow speed). I wasn't aware of the females' suffering while "on heat". Kitty sits on the roof terrace, looking down and calling, on the search for a fiance. She twice managed to even get out on the street , hiding underneath cars. Not so easy to get her indoors again. She expressed her dislike by scratching me, just as well I don't intend to enter a beauty competition in the near future, besides I am married already and my cats don't care for my looks. They'll cuddle with me and my husband anyway. Fancy having breakfast with 2 or 3 cats on the lab? They enjoy it and so do we. It would be nice to let cats out on the street and have their adventure, but there is a high risk of them getting run over by cars, I viewed this happening to a lovely baby cat and two adult ones, it was horrible. Four accident victims are living with us now. We managed to reduce the cases of kids throwing stones at cats, kicking or hitting, but it still happens. Some with a twisted sense of humour think it's funny to have a dog chase cats. Only the other day I told a young man that at his age he can be expected to use his brain and stop leading his big dog towards the cats, several sitting in front of my entrance door. He was trying to tell me the dog is a gentle female and likes cats, would never do them any harm. The dog's reaction was quite a contrast to these words, growling and pulling hard, wishing to chase my little treasures. Amira used to be a street cat, on the few occasions when she goes out now she has enough of the street after two minutes. Cats here learned to mistrust and fear children, which I don't consider a normal cats' reaction otherwise. The usual ear-splitting yelling of the kids makes me nervous, it must be torture for cats' ears. Most people either got used to it or they have given up. I've been told not all cats I feed are necessarily homeless, some clever folks save money that way. From time to time my plastic bowl with croquettes gets stolen either by cat or dog owners.  At least it still serves its purpose as animal food and I learned already quite a while ago that it is better not to put a nice potery bowl outside. And yes, I have to keep an eye on my expenditures, I would love to do so much more, cats are a special gift from heaven. They have a lot of love to give and they are grateful and modest, we can learn from them.