After the fog had cleared in the late morning, we had a mild day with glorious sunshine and there is still lots of bright foliage left on the trees. As the weather was so fine, I decided to visit the kats today. On Saturday during my last visit, it was rather nasty and cold outside.
The kats spend a lot of time under the heatlamps, but they are outdoors most of the time. They will only move indoors about an hour before sunset to spend some time under the heatlamps.
But they sleep outside in their burrow, I watched them retreat for the night when the sun was almost down.
There seem to be some hot issues between Flat-Ears and Jolly Roger, though. Jolly Roger chased him out of the inside enclosure, even though Flat-Ears was sitting there all by himself. Jolly Roger also asserted dominace by lunging at him and chasing him off for no evident reason.
We`ve had this behaviour a couple of times before and sometimes it`s really Flat-Ear`s fault, as he sometime simply does not know how to "behave" towards his superior.
Some years ago we watched Flat-Ears being chased and mobbed by everyone, including Orlok, who would normally defend him against Jolly Roger. But not this time.
After some time we found out, what the problem was, though. As Flat-Ears is not allowed to mate with Möfzi, he tried his luck with poor Stubby Tail, who is also a male.
At that time Möfzi must have been in oestrus, so Jolly Roger might have been confused "What, another girl...? And this lout is stealing her away..."
He would try mating with Möfzi - who turned him down, by simply sitting it out - but then the activities behind his back would distract him and he would lunge at Flat-Ears.
I am not sure what caused the dominance assertion today, either Möfzi is in oestrus, or Flat-Ears is trying his luck with Stubby Tail again, or it`s just a matter of principle. Who knows.
Back to Sayuri and the other two pups! It will not take very long until they will have outgrown Swingkat. Snoutie (Rüsselchen) is already almost as tall as him, but he was always the biggest of the three pups.
When I arrived some moron had obviously thrown in a whole piece of some salty pastry ("Laugenstange" in German, it`s quite yummy, but not for kats!) and Sayuri was first in carrying the largest piece - which was about half the size of her body - around and defending it furiously.
The was a wild chase with everybody trying to get their share, except for Stubby Tail who spent the time on the big lookout hill doing sentry duty.
The problem with this kind of pastries is that they tend to stick in the kat`s mouths and they often have a hard time, getting those pieces unstuck. They sometime sneeze and nearly vomit (and sometimes they really vomit, too!).
Hard bread is not that problematic, as they simply chew and bite of small pieces. But this stuff is rather soft and they tend to rip out large chunks.
Poor Swingkat also had a large share and had a hard time getting the stuff unstuck.
I really hate those people!! I mean there are HUGE SIGNS printed on orange paper asking people NOT to feed the kats.
Why don`t they go and feed the ducks, for god`s sake!!
Apart from this, the pups have already learned to beg for treats from visitors and this kind of stuff is certainly no good food for them! I am afraid that they might already have tried ice-cream and other junk thrown in by irresponsible visitors.
As many of the kats have dental problems, I am afraid that the pups will already grow up with bad teeth and some of the adults will also encounter massive problems in the next years.
So this is the downside of such an open animal park, where you can come an go as you like.
But anyway everybody looked healthy and happy enough today. The treatment for Stubby Tail`s and Flat-Ear`s sinus problems seems to help, the bumps on their noses are nearly gone. It also looks, as if they had been opened and cleaned.
Möfzi is very very round at the moment, I am not so sure, if she is just getting fat, or she might be pregnant again. Wait and see!
So here come some pictures I took this afternoon, they are not too good, as I am no expert with this high-tech camera-thingy, but I managed to get a very cute shot of Sayuri with black make-up. She had been digging inside a root stub from a discarded potted plant and the black earth got stuck in in her face.
The video of Möfzi was taken some weeks ago.
Left: Sayuri with new make-up and right Snoutie (Rüsselchen) relaxing under the heat lamps
Swingkat under the heat lamp. On the right picture he is still trying to get rid of the pastry stuck in his mouth.
Inside under the heat lamp with uncles Stubby Tail (back) and Orlok (front), the pups are Sayuri and Snoutie
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