My New Pets

How ironic – a cat decided to have kittens in my backyard!!! Maybe God decided I need some replacements since my kittens from last year were killed by a wild cat.
I guess it’s because my house wasn’t lived in for so long and the back door was broken, so the cat thought it was safe. However the back door is unlocked now and even though she hated me cleaning out the yard, and hisses at me every time I walk outside, the cat and her brood have decided to stay.
She is very ugly and the kittens aren’t inspiring much passion in me, but I do find it nice to walk outside everyday and see how much they have grown. When she leaves them I play with them a little bit (then wash my hands thoroughly), so I don’t end up with feral kittens in my backyard. Although the cat is not tame, apart from hissing at me, she lets me get pretty close (the kittens, bless them, hiss too and they haven’t even opened their eyes). I have taken up a policy of co-habitation and nothing more. I have started leaving a bowl of water out (because I sometimes put bleach outside and don’t want the cat to drink it), but that’s it for the care they are getting from me. The reason for this is that in the past a woman who lived in my compound adopted a cat, kept it inside and fed it. When she left it didn’t really get cared for (it makes sense in Africa they are struggling to feed themselves so they don’t have pets), so it got really scruffy, started to attack the people in the compound, and eventually got attacked by other cats and died over a long period of time. This cat is doing pretty well on its own, so I am leaving well enough alone.
By the way – looking at the top of my cash power box – it looks like I will have more pets soon. (Cash power is a system in Gambia where you pay for a set amount of power and that gets allocated to your box. When you use it up, the power runs out and you have to buy some more. Absolutely brilliant! I am so much more careful with power because I can see how much each of my appliances uses.)