With Beauty behaving so respectably and taking her duties as a new Mother so seriously, I forgot how close to being a child still she is... until this morning.
When I took the Cats their Christmas gifts, I knew that the kittens were too young really to play with most of them and that their major interest would remain the little doll's tree. What I failed to anticipate was Beauty's extraordinary response to one of the stuffed mice.
The large and quite long fur mouse has been a favourite with every Cat I have had. Beauty and Ashleigh inherited one of Lionheart's old mice but I gave them a new one for Christmas.
Beauty went for it instantly and removed it from its packaging unaided, then proceeded to transform from devoted Mother to insane feral Cat. I never saw her behave in such a fashion previously. She certainly never exhibits any possessive behaviour with respect to real food, but when Ashleigh came closer to the mouse to investigate it, she actually HISSED at him! She then took the mouse in her mouth and ran off with it, growling like a lioness holding her prey. It was bizarre and rather entertaining, although I wasn't certain if it would lead to even more violent behaviour.
She forgot she was a Mother. Although her kittens began to cry for her, somehow instinctively aware that her attentions were elsewhere, she ignored them completely in favour of keeping the long fur mouse to herself. I finally put my hand in the jaws of the lion as it were to remove the toy, not knowing if she would hiss at me or even bite me. Oddly enough, although her teeth were clenched round it firmly, I was able to wrestle it free from her and she did not respond with any hostility.
The Kittens, meanwhile, actually did become interested in their first little ball. Born on 2 December, they are still almost newborns and yet they have become real Kittens, grooming themselves, tussling with their siblings, responding verbally to their mother's cries and responding to me as well a little. It is very exciting.
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