It is evident watching the development of young children that having an animal around the house provides the opportunity for them to address an important side of their character which basically makes them the boss of a small creature, giving them responsibilities and obvious consequences for their actions. Back in my London life I was very much a cat person and while we do still plan to aquire a dog to aid us with our security here, a cat was the obvious choice to get my children started on the great journey of caring for animals.
A month ago we put out the Universal Call and received a bunch of different options. Turns out loads of people have kittens! The energy flowed us in the end to an off-grid house in the middle of a forest where we first met our new family member.
Esteban & Luna have been very patient and diligent in their preparation.
The cardboard box cat house was finished some weeks ago.
And I am happy to announce she seems to enjoy it!
We also bought a cat tree which has some quality scratching posts. I like my sofa the way it is ;)
She is an incredibly relaxed cat and appears to have taken to me instantly. Here she is sleeping on my lap on day one.
At night she chooses to sleep on our bed, always next to me.
In our courtyard she is perfectly camouflaged against the rock of the mountain. Something tells me we won't be seeing any mice around here any more.
Esteban is still learning how to hold her. And she is being very forgiving!
In time I think Esteban will learn, just by watching me. So much of our experience with animals is about listening to them. They don't speak with words so we must open ourselves up to them and feel what it is they are asking.
Here he is learning how to switch on the "PURRRR" machine ;)
It is a great feeling watching children learn to express love in a new way.
And as I said, there are sometimes immediate consequences if one doesn't learn to listen & feel out her mood. Esteban received his first little scratch here. And for some reason thought it was very funny!
Luna has been playing it more cautiously, using the stick & ball to keep a little distance.
All in all I am very pleased with how this is going. She does not yet understand how to poop in the litter tray and desperately wants to explore beyond the boundaries of our courtyard but this is to be expected. For now she must learn to see her new environment as home. It is my understanding that she needs a good month for this to happen.
In time we intend to train her to follow us to the garden/allotment where we always spend a large part of our day. And I hope she will come with us on our evening/sunset walks around the village each night.
Her name continues to allude us but day by day we are feeling out her character and perhaps in time the children will come up with something we all agree on.
"Poopy" just didn't feel right.
Love & Light everyone π±
i recently stumbled upon a great tip by @ewkaw... it involved leaving cardboard boxes on the floor... quite an obvious one really... building a whole cardboard house with doors, windows and a flamboyant paint job is definitely taking it above and beyond... your kids will be perfectly trained hooman cat servants, I am sure of it... lol...
oh and i have a cat tip for you, too... !CATtip 100 CAT
That puts my fancy box to shame! :D
I guess any old box will do really!
I just enjoy putting the kids to work ;)
Yeaaaa.. here it would have to be me. So kitty will just get a regular box :p
I bet kids also enjoyed building it.
your tip of 100 CAT towards @samstonehill was sent successfully
You are right about those cardboard boxes. We have a few of them around the house and she clearly loves jumping in and out them ;)
Thanks for the CATtip! Feels great to finally have something to post in the caturday group.
If you are reading this and love posting about cats, come on over to discord: https://discord.gg/JCJVUYb
Hey, that cat is greatly behaved with kids! Nice!
She really is. This is why it was important to get a kitten... so they can all grow up together ;)
She is gorgeous, it is so important for kids to be around animals, they learn so much having them around and they really enrich their lives. So nice to see your family expanding Sam, much love to you and your beautiful family xxx
This has been so long overdue! And now that it has finally happened perhaps I will be able to stop thinking about having a third baby ;) x
soooo cuuute π»πΎ
@tipu curate :)
Upvoted π (Mana: 0/21)
Thank you for the tip :)
She really is super cute!
Love having her around.
In love with the nameless kitten! I connected a lot with her story because just around here, we are also learning how to live with a kitten, and wow it has been wonderful!
Enjoy the journey! How blessed we are to have such amazing creatures around us :)
MEOWTH! @fraenk has sent a tip of 100 CAT your way.