My beautiful Wild Family and Lovely Visitors

 "He who tosses worms in the river isn't necessarily a friend of fish. All the fish who take him for a friend, who think the worms have no hook in it, usually end up in the frying pan." Ubuntu African Proverb   "The more I get to know humans, the more I love dogs" Erich Kästner.                                        Knowing that many very young kittens tend to suffer a sudden death, in particular those coming from the street (or are brought by not very animal dedicated families), every morning I check whether my new family additions are alive and more or less well. Now I usually discover running noses, some "sealed" eyes, or even pus, maybe that black staff ( parasites) in the ears and lately diarrhea. I learned what to use, but my cats hate it and I don't enjoy the procedure either (in particular for the more wild little treasures), but anyhow, as the British say: it keeps me off the street.... My sweet kitten, Black Diamond, surprised me with a bleeding wound near his mouth. I don't know what happened, injury from a fall or attack by another cat inside my house? He is a quiet gentle cat that loves to cuddle.  Black Diamond hasn't eaten, not sure he drank water and it is Sunday. I am gonna see how he is on Monday and decide then wheter he needs a veterinarian. My little ones get on well with each other, they love to stick together, only at feeding time some try to secure more food for themselves (can't use a seperate bowl for each cat, 25 adults and 15 kittens), anyhow, in the end none remains starving. Then it's time to attend to my guests at my Cats' Table. There are my regular ones arriving (occasionally one or two missing breakfast time for a couple of days), looking perfectly clean and gorgeous. I don't understand how anyone can indicate that cats are dirty (only a sick one is maybe less clean, not unlike humans after all). The most beautiful ferals I have ever seen I discovered in Tunisia, sadly on the street, some regarded elsewhere as very expensive breeds. I guess several were orginally brought by foreigners and certainly kept in houses. The poor little treasures have to put up with a lot. Amazing that they still manage to love us. When you see cats running away from children or expecting stones when you really throw them a piece of sausage (called salami here), you can imagine their bad experiences. A young woman from the neighborhood saw Fleur's kitten Perl, a Siamese beauty and asked me if she could take her. I explained that I don't want the devoted mother (dark fur with blond streaks) and child separated. She agreed to take both in a week's time, but didn't seem to know much about keeping cats, e. g. thought that cats eat "what we eat". I was going to advise her and offer to do so and help also in future. It turned out that this isn't needed as the young woman changed her mind, perhaps was talked out of it or didn't get the landlord's permission. Sadly she was too embarrassed to speak to me and chose to pretend she doesn't see me on the street. Lately the croquettes that I leave outside for my feral guests get stolen again, together with the bowl. Regarded as convient take-away food? Sweet Mary who luckily returned after 5 worrying days of absence, likes to spend some time of the day outside as I have too many cats inside for her liking. In the evening she arrives for a play of "hide and seek" before coming indoors. This means she runs a bit, then waits to give me a chance to catch up with her, hides underneath a car, when I discover her, she comes out, runs a bit more and then finally allows me to catch and carry her back to the house. I feel honored. Mary is so sweet. She doesn't want to fight with  kittens and allows a black one, daughter of a black and white cat, to chase her away. The mother and child duo lately occupies Mary's space in front of my house. Mary is not happy with this, but remains non-aggressive towards the occupiers. For unknown reasons Suzy and Alien decided 3 months ago to hate Riccardo, they try to seriously attack him. All are approximately 4 years old and have been living together under my roof for most of their life. I have to separate them. Riccardo was quite sick for a while and is generally quite gentle, but so are Suzy and Alien. All like to cuddle with me. I don't know what went wrong. I try to treat all my cats equally, though some require more attention than others. Hopefully the winter won't be too hard, thinking of all who have no family, no house. Winter here usually means cold nights, a lot of moisture in the air, spells of heavy rain falls, possible floodings, sunny days, my cats sunbathing on the roof.