A tail of two cats?!

Sorry, it's a really pathetic title, I know.  But the most exciting thing around this compound these days are the cats.  Ever since I moved here, there's been a drama involving cats.  Of course, you've heard enough about my own Zane, but the poor little guy has been traumatized a little lately by the other cats who are invading his space!

Zane has always been a bit of whimp - I think it has something to do with the fact that his, um, well, manhood, was forcibly removed as a kitten.  So even though he's bigger (read: better fed!) than most of the wild cats on the compound, he had never been one to win any of the little scraps that he's found himself in over the past few years.  And he spent his kitten-hood getting chased up trees by our neighbour's house cat who was also just a big ol' Tomcat.  It's most embarrassing, though, that he's scared to death of kittens and baby hedgehogs!

Anyway, when we all returned to Jb from Nairobi, there was a sweet little kitty living on our front step.  This little kitty has obviously been a house cat and has been well loved by someone, because she's really affectionate and just desperately wants to come into the house.  She just loves people and is always following us around the compound.  When she came to us, she had a really infected eye - it was so swollen up that she couldn't even open it!  So she was dubbed "Winka".   And the name, along with the cat, has stuck.

We've been putting some antibiotic cream on her eye, and she is no longer winking, but actually has an open eye.  And she's voraciously hungry all the time!  So we can't help but feed her.  So she stays.  She really is a lovely kitten and so affectionate - you can actually pick her up and she purrs and snuggles.  Unlike Mr. Zane.

But Zane is terrified of the little creature.  Since she's camped out on our doorstep, Zane has a hard time getting in and out of the house.  And to top it all off, our neighbours have two adolescent cats (males, who still have their, um, manhood) who are just now being let outside to wander and play. 

So if Zane wants to go anywhere or come back home from anywhere, he has to run this gauntlet of teenage boy cats with raging hormones running hither and yon and a sweet little girl cat camped out on the doorstep!

It really is a difficult life for a cat.  Today he didn't even come home for breakfast or lunch, and just before dinner, I found him perched up on top of the tukel - about as high off the ground as a cat can get in these parts!  I sure hope he gets over his phobia of kittens soon, because I'm starting to think these other cats are here to stay!