Des histoires...

… à dormir debout !

First Mama Cat was eaten by our neighbours the Police. Then, the exact same day (suspiciously) a large sofa was dropped on her orphaned kittens. Three sprang out of the way, but two screeched heartbreakingly and looked like they were maimed for life. Thankfully, just as I tearfully told the guards they would have to put them out of their misery, they hobbled away and have since made a full recovery. Then we went on Christmas holiday leaving piles of cat food and strict instructions to care for the kittens, but when we returned we found them looking mangy and unwell, tufts of fur missing, and one of them in particular had strange black marks all over him. When I asked what had happened, I was told that the kittens had fallen in break fluid. Break fluid?!?

Now what you need to know is that at that point the only vehicle that had been inside the compound for the last four weeks was my own. The day before going on holiday, I received a panicked phone-call from my landlady informing me that some road workers had suddenly and without warning decided to dig a massive hole right in front of our gate. At that point I was sitting in the world’s most tedious meeting, shifting painfully in my seat because of that damned abscess, sweating from the fever caused by the infection, and slowly turning an ugly shade of green. The prospect of rushing home to argue interminably in the hope of rescuing my car was simply too much to bear, so I figured it could just stay there until we returned from leave. You see the workers promised that the hole would be filled within the week, and sheer fatigue made me choose to believe them. Unsurprisingly, on return from Malawi three weeks later, we found the hole exactly where we left it, and to make a long story short, my car remained marooned in there for six weeks.

So back to the kittens, you can see why the notion that they had fallen in break fluid when the only car in the vicinity was my own was rather preposterous. Still, our housekeeper stuck to her guns through threats and cajoling, and at least the kittens were still alive, so I decided not to pursue the issue any further. Since then their health has been steadily improving, and they have become entirely tame and accustomed to humans. So now I am busy scouting for potential adopters before the well-fed kittens become too big and appetising and irresistible for our uncouth neighbours. Not to mention before they reach puberty and start having kittens of their own – this being the fourth litter in less than 12 months!