Sunday, March 11, 2012

Starlight

Starlight was at the park yesterday. 

That's Starlight on the right, Cindy Lou Who, on the left

We never know when she is going to show up, and she never comes for more than 5 days straight.  I used to see her up by the apartments when I walked our dog Muji:

Muji, our chow chow

This was back before we started feeding cats there.  In fact, it was because of her kittens we started a feeding station there just about 3 months ago. 

The seaside apartments are used mostly by folk up in Nicosia as a weekend and summer home, and are, like the park, usually empty in the off season.  So we have had it made this past winter.  But that's all changing as the early birds are beginning to trickle in for the weekend.  The apartments consist of 3 not very pretty 4-story buildings , but we operate behind only one of them, the one with the least people.

Starlight's baby, Mustafa, behind the apartments.  We haven't seen Lionel, his dusty orange brother, for 2 weeks

It's definitely a risky feeding station to operate because we are basically trespassing when we go.  So we go last thing at night before we go to bed, at the same time we do the maisonettes around the corner.  Some other cats we have seen behind the apartments: Moonpie, Sonar, Zsa Zsa, Braveheart, Sonata, Gunther, and Mustafa's brother, Lionel, who has gone missing.


Shy Braveheart hangs solo at the apartments

We don't have a lot of pictures from there, because it is not exactly wise to be flashing away in the dark when we are trying to be, ahem, unobtrusive.

But back to Starlight, she lets us pet her, but the other cats at the park treat her as a bit of an outsider.

Starlight likes to be stroked and to bury her head in you

She has not been spayed yet.  Every time she has made herself a regular, she has been either pregnant or nursing, so we have not been able to take her in.

She is hands down the most protective mother I have ever encountered.  She knows no fear when it comes to defending her nest.  I have seen her charge a human being, and I have seen her charge a 50 lb. dog.  I have seen her cause someone walking on the sidewalk to walk in the street just to get around her when they came too close to her kittens.  I have seen her menacingly follow them down the street until they were far enough away from her kittens that she decided they were no longer a threat.  That someone was me!  And the 50 lb. dog was Muji!

Don't let her sweet disposition and cute face fool you, she's tough stuff

Sigh, she is pregnant now, and as soon as she has weaned her next litter, we are bound and determined to take her in for spaying, even if we have to do some serious trespassing, because I suspect she is now the group's #1 baby factory and she is a little too good at this mothering thing.  She has large litters of kittens as well who mostly survive the young months.

Starlight loves affection and eats like a horse.  If a home is found for her, or you would like to adopt her, she will make a devoted and grateful companion.

Starlight eats horse sized portions

Here is a drawing I did of her earlier this year:

Starlight

It's always good to see her.  She's a sweet, tough little cookie.  A survivor.  But no matter how tough they are, I always pray for them that God will watch over them, and that they will one day be able to live in safety with love, in their own version of paradise.

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