Tiny's mum gave birth to a litter of 4 kittens about a week already. And she is such a devoted mama cat. This time round, all 4 are male kittens and she is making sure they all survive.

The last time she gave birth to 3 kittens, only Tiny survived. And to think that Tiny was the least that she cared about then. One of the kitten died of suffocation - mama wanted to keep them warm so she had cuddled them close to her body. The next day, one of Tiny's siblings stopped breathing - mama cat had accidently slept on it the whole night. Tiny's other sibling died from undernourishment.

With only Tiny to look after then, mama cat made sure she wasn't out of sight. And we helped in any way we can, including building a shelter for them to sleep in right outside the kitchen door. On cold and rainy nights, we moved the basket of mama cat and Tiny, then an odd looking scrawny fur ball, to outside the front door where it was warmer.

I had not wanted to start the habit of keeping them indoors - they were after all still 'strays'. And I'd like to keep to the relationship we have with them now. In the day time, we feed them. Sometimes we allow them in to play around, But night time, its strictly outdoors.

The cats that seemed to favour our house and taken to us, and vise versa, somehow know not to soil the house inside and outside. If there are droppings found on the front lawn, that would most probably be the work of other strays or cats owned by others in the neighbourhood or some of the 'tame' cats' "friends"...