Warning: for those of you who don’t like cats, don’t read any further. We’re sure that we’ll post other things that will interest you in the weeks to come. I (Sarah) have been a cat lover since childhood. After arriving in Guinea four years ago, I had the pleasure to discover that one of my colleagues was as dotty as me about cats and I quickly inherited Ash (who we had to put down after giving birth to her first litter) and her sister Rowan (below), a maladroit, extraordinarily timid kitty-cat of seven months who quickly adapted to Eric’s permanent presence in 2009.
We’ve forgotten how many litters Rowan’s had but she’s given birth to all at home apart from the last two (probably over 20 kittens). She was born in the car maintenance workshop on the mission compound and this shelter has become her favourite place to hang out, peaceful during the evenings and weekends – but also being a place to give birth and stay hidden. She gave birth to what we originally thought were three kittens in May and had moved and hidden them in several locations around the car workshop so by the time we got our hands on them, they were already wild. Trapping them has been a slow process! We usually used Mama and food as bait and then if they were extraordinarily hungry and couldn’t wait for Mama to bring the food to them, they came to eat alongside her and – wham – a perfect opportunity to grab them by the scruff of the neck. After locking Miss Tabby in the bathroom whilst deciding whom we could give her to, my neighbour Agnes mentioned that our pastor’s wife was looking for one. Miss Tabby was swiftly dispatched an hour later.
Toulouse (above, in our sink) was caught a few days later and we gave her to Mariam, our house help. She was petrified but calmed down after a day. Was hard to let her go! People here are usually on the lookout for kittens to help them kill the mice entering their homes and eating their stash of rice, usually stored above the ceiling.
Next came the last two...hang on, you thought I’d written that Rowan had given birth to three??? To my surprise, I discovered that in fact there was another lurking in the workshop. However, Rowan helped us out in catching them. By this time, she had lost so much weight running to our house looking for her food and running back to the workshop to give it to her babies (even when we’d left other fish for them) she was tired of this process. The clever cat decided it was time they came home to us! She convinced them, although with rather a lot of hesitation from their side, to make it all the way to our front door. Tuesday night, ‘little Tremmy’ (named after my sister’s cat that’s also jet black) showed willing and...one down, one to go. A gentle soul, he adapted to our presence and touch very quickly. Mariam’s neighbour Elisabeth got the cutie.
Now we come to Miss Horror, the last one to make it into our household. Wednesday night, Rowan tried the convincing act again with her, but instead of simply following her mother into the house, Rowan was forced to feed her right in front of the front door to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. I in the meantime, snuck into the kitchen to get some dried fish to put in front of the door. Rowan squeezed her way past the mosquito net door, leaving a little crack for Horror to follow her. Wasn’t too easy, but she took the bait. After taking a little bit from the fish, Rowan padded past Eric and I who were seated like statues on the sofa and into the kitchen. Horror started off but then sensed something wasn’t quite right. She looked at each of us, dead in the eyes, we moved a little to make her a little bit more comfortable. She started backing towards the door, turned, ran towards the mosquito net door and...bang! She bounced right off it, couldn’t find the exit! I leaped up ran to the door and shut it tight before yelling a triumphant “YES!” Mission accomplished! Rowan ran back into the lounge, panicking for her enfant. After spending a noisy long weekend with Horror trying to escape every hour, we gave her to my friend Susanne, who left with her on a motorbike. Readjusting to life without kittens has been a little bit difficult for Rowan who was still crying for her baby and taking fish to Horror’s hangouts. Happily for her, she has gained weight and is getting a lot of affection from us again.
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