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My MALE cat has adopted kittens?! o-O
12 years ago
Its so strange! And yet so endearing. Skittles, my sweet and precious cat who I love like my own son, is acting like such a father to four kittens.
As some of you know, a neighborhood female named Twilight had kittens awhile back. When they were first born skittles seemed interested, but didn't do much. He would, however, stay around like he was on guard duty. He was protective, let Twilight on his territory, and seemed oddly...concerned. I had never heard of a male taking care of another cat's kittens.
They cannot possibly be Skittles kittens, he was fixed, although he is an outside cat. At least we were TOLD he was fixed since we got him from a shelter.
As the kittens got older and big enough, the mother has started hissing, driving them away and letting them know its time to move on. So they moved into our yard. But now...Skittles is still protecting them. o-o To the point of chasing the MOTHER off so that the kittens can come out! She keeps hissing and batting at them, but he's always jumping in and ushering her away. He is a biiiig cat. A mini panther me and my mom like to call him.
At first I thought he was just tolerating them, but I sat outside with Loki (one of the six kittens that were born, two were adopted, four are left. Loki is the most affectionate and bold of them all, the others are still somewhat feral.) and loved on him for a bit when Skittles decided he wanted to lay off to the side with us. Next thing I know Loki is inching close and closer, and suddenly lays really close to skittles.
Now skittles doesn't normally tolerate other outside cats. He will tolerate our two indoor cats and not raise a paw, he will walk away from a fight, but outside he wants to be left alone. Outside is HIS world and kingdom. But little Loki just loves his company and loves to stay near him. Even Bowtie, one of the other kittens with a prominent white-mark on his chest, came forward to be near Skittles. The other two...are far too shy and skittish.
Anyway, as they got closer Loki made it clear he wanted to play. Skittles actually responded in turn, playful banter, ears flicked forward, bouncing around. It was adorable. I had never seen him play before. He has tried to get our house-cat girls to play, but they just hiss and spit and run off.
Skittles seems to have found and adopted a family and taken these kittens under his wing. When he's done eating he lets them eat. He is most tolerant of Loki, however, who is...surprisingly a male. The way skittles plays with them, lets them lay near and around him, and chases off the mother when she tries to chase THEM off....I've never seen or heard about anything like this from a MALE cat.
All the cats are fixed now, including Mama, so no worries there. Still, this just makes me love Skittles even more. He's got such an affectionate and soft heart. The way he cares for these growing young-uns is adorable. =u= <333
I love my cat so much, but gosh this behavior baffles me! All the cats I have seen chase off potential 'rivals' for food, or want nothing to do with young ones. They all try to establish territory. Once in awhile I do see groups of stray cats caring for each other. I find everything happening in my yard positively fascinating. o3o
I hope this might have brought a little bit of a smile to your day. ;3 <3
As some of you know, a neighborhood female named Twilight had kittens awhile back. When they were first born skittles seemed interested, but didn't do much. He would, however, stay around like he was on guard duty. He was protective, let Twilight on his territory, and seemed oddly...concerned. I had never heard of a male taking care of another cat's kittens.
They cannot possibly be Skittles kittens, he was fixed, although he is an outside cat. At least we were TOLD he was fixed since we got him from a shelter.
As the kittens got older and big enough, the mother has started hissing, driving them away and letting them know its time to move on. So they moved into our yard. But now...Skittles is still protecting them. o-o To the point of chasing the MOTHER off so that the kittens can come out! She keeps hissing and batting at them, but he's always jumping in and ushering her away. He is a biiiig cat. A mini panther me and my mom like to call him.
At first I thought he was just tolerating them, but I sat outside with Loki (one of the six kittens that were born, two were adopted, four are left. Loki is the most affectionate and bold of them all, the others are still somewhat feral.) and loved on him for a bit when Skittles decided he wanted to lay off to the side with us. Next thing I know Loki is inching close and closer, and suddenly lays really close to skittles.
Now skittles doesn't normally tolerate other outside cats. He will tolerate our two indoor cats and not raise a paw, he will walk away from a fight, but outside he wants to be left alone. Outside is HIS world and kingdom. But little Loki just loves his company and loves to stay near him. Even Bowtie, one of the other kittens with a prominent white-mark on his chest, came forward to be near Skittles. The other two...are far too shy and skittish.
Anyway, as they got closer Loki made it clear he wanted to play. Skittles actually responded in turn, playful banter, ears flicked forward, bouncing around. It was adorable. I had never seen him play before. He has tried to get our house-cat girls to play, but they just hiss and spit and run off.
Skittles seems to have found and adopted a family and taken these kittens under his wing. When he's done eating he lets them eat. He is most tolerant of Loki, however, who is...surprisingly a male. The way skittles plays with them, lets them lay near and around him, and chases off the mother when she tries to chase THEM off....I've never seen or heard about anything like this from a MALE cat.
All the cats are fixed now, including Mama, so no worries there. Still, this just makes me love Skittles even more. He's got such an affectionate and soft heart. The way he cares for these growing young-uns is adorable. =u= <333
I love my cat so much, but gosh this behavior baffles me! All the cats I have seen chase off potential 'rivals' for food, or want nothing to do with young ones. They all try to establish territory. Once in awhile I do see groups of stray cats caring for each other. I find everything happening in my yard positively fascinating. o3o
I hope this might have brought a little bit of a smile to your day. ;3 <3
Inside the house, there was a puppy. Turns out the dog next door had puppies, and their kid didn't like that one and put it outside the house ¬.¬ the parents (luckily) scolded her 'bout it when we found out XD...
It's the first time for me I heard a male cat "adopted" some other cat's kittens, and it's really sweet ^^
You must be proud of your little boy
He makes his mum proud as can be <3
In all seriousness, that's very sweet to hear, especially from a male cat. Usually I see males being extremely territorial to other cats, especially other males. I did notice similar behavior in one of our stray males( we call him Tux). He and two others (before we managed to catch and fix them) were courting with a female that kept wandering around our backyard. She's given birth to kittens who I think are 2-3 months of age now. I've only spotted one but I've heard the other two are roaming about. I did manage to spot Tux playing with one of his kittens. The kitten would travel with the mom and Tux would travel with them, as if to accompany them to the feeding center and allow them to eat first. Usually Tux is a gluten and he's chased and fought with the other stray cats ( Excluding Milo/Duckie, we're looking after 5 other stray cats. I've claimed Milo as mine lol. Before I took Milo in, Tux and him were semi-rivals) for food. Makes me wonder if he understands they are his.
But wow yeah, Skittles being most tolerant with Loki? That's extra awesome. Curious if Skittles is fairly confident in his 'alpha cat' status that he's established himself as the caretaker. I swear cats are aliens man, we will never understand them lol.
and pictures, pleeeeease! <3
That is just amazing!
My mothers former female cat Cloey(yep they spelled it like that) for about 5 years was unsociable and skittish and just as she was turning 5 got used to the idea of going outside, and even still never left the yard and wouldn't be out long. But somehow one day on her way back inside one day, she seemed to have an odd shadow... a little black kitten! And she took care of it like it was her own. And this cat wouldn't have anything to do with my mothers male cat or my female cat living at the house at the time either. So peculiar when these things happen.
And one way to know if hes been neutered is to (ew i know) see if his pee smells really really whiffy!
My youngest who still to be fixed has very strong smelling pee! So did my other cats before getting fixed! But there will be pom poms left, just no prize inside if you get what i mean! -i imagine the vet pops them out trying to score through a basketball hoop or something!