nature (detail)

look at these! they suddenly moved here with their mother and took over the front porch (the kittens. not the chairs). in the morning i watch them from my kitchen window curled up together, still sleeping, on one of the pillow seats. so sweet. they won't let me get close, which is fine, they can have the chairs. i'm a bit worried to make the mother anxious about human stalkers, so i keep the kids away from them too. last time a wild cat had kittens out there she ended up eating two out of three. no kidding. gruesome story, but apparently not unusual in a cat's world: i googled it after i had seen it (yes, i saw it!). i was afraid i had a crazy cat on the lose in my garden and next thing you know, it would try and eat one of the kids. my kids, that is.
story is, a sick or week kitten attracts predators and wastes its mother's milk. and if it's anyway going to die it would be a waste if the mother doesn't use the extra food providing for her other kittens. nature shows no mercy, eh?

i'm sorry if i now left you with terrible images going through your head, but i wanted to share the fact that when i look at these two sweethearts, i can't help but fear for their future. and i make sure to leave food out for their mother. wouldn't want her to go hungry. she is, by the way, a furious thing. she's fighting off the neighbor's huge male cat when he gets too close to her or her kittens. seems nature doesn't have any fear either.