Today is Saturday...sorry, did I type that with an S? What I meant was Caturday!
Henceforth, (at least) one Saturday a month will be devoted to the things that my foster kitties get up to. My aim is to raise awareness for cat rescue, shine a light on cat behaviour, and promote appropriate care and handling of our feline friends.
As I've said before, I am a feline foster carer. I currently work for Brisbane Valley Cat Rescue. I got into animal fostering in October 2009, after returning to Australia from Vancouver. I began as a foster carer for the Animal Welfare League, before moving to Little Paws Kitten Rescue in December 2009, and then finally to Brisbane Valley in mid-2013. It was at Little Paws that I met my then coordinator and current "boss", Tennille, who now works with Louise, the head of Brisbane Valley.
Today's photo is of my foster kittens, Luc and Lea. Luc is the one standing on his hind-legs with his face buried in the food bowl; Lea is the one sitting sedately beside him.
Y'know, I don't think I've ever had a more mischievous kitten than Luc. One of his nicknames - as you may have already guessed - is Luki, a play on the name of the Norse God Loki, because Luc enjoys promoting chaos, panic, and disorder. One of his favourite pastime is to find the nearest high surface with items near the edge and to push them off; I caught him knocking his sister's collar off the table this afternoon, and interrupted him in the process of sending my iPad cleaning cloth and styluses to join the collar. He does not do this because he enjoys the sound of things crashing to the floor; he is, as mentioned in a previous post, deaf. He does it because he is not content for a system (i.e. the house) to reach its natural state (i.e. disorder) in its own time; he wants to give it a helping paw.
Tonight, my mum and I were feeding the cats, and apparently we were not moving fast enough for Luc. He climbed over me and out the window in an attempt to help Mitzie finish her second course (Mitzie is fed at the dining room window, as she prefers to dine al fresco); when I brought the bowl inside, he stood on his hind-legs and grabbed a hold of the food bowl so he could eat, not being content to wait the three seconds it would take for me to lower the bowl to the floor.
Each and every cat has their own distinct personality. People tend to generalise when it comes to cats (as we do with so many things): cats are all aloof, cats are all independent, &c. &c. But cats are as unique and individual as humans: some are aloof and some are affectionate; some are independent and some will meow outside your door until you let them in for a snuggle. Some are sweet, some are cheeky, some are hunters, some are lazy, and so on and so on until infinity plus one. My cat, Mitzie, is independent and only likes occasional cuddles, but will potter around with me when I go out to the garden or down to the forest. Luc is, as we know, mischievous; his twin sister Lea is sweetness and light. Wendy is affectionate, but skittish with a wild streak; Cody loves a good belly-rub or head-scritch, but detests being picked up and cuddled.
The point of this treatise is, I suppose, to tell people an important part of feline adoption: don't just consider colour and age when adopting a cat or kitten; consider temperament and personality, too. That may seem like redundant advice, but temperament and personality are two key points that a lot of people forget to consider when adopting a cat. They have in their head an image of what a cat will be like, based either on stereotypes or their past experience with cats, and assume that all cats will match up with that image...but not every cat will.
I've typed enough for one night...time to hit the hay, I think. Night night for now...until tomorrow!
C xoxo
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