A young 4 month old little grey tabby girl ventured into my garden, meowing softly and limping last week. I gave her some kitten kibbles and boiled chicken which she gobbled up as if hadn't eaten in months. She climbed up a platform surrounded by plants as you can see in the pictures below where my cats often basked and have their siestas in the daytime. My cats didn't bother or hiss at her, and considerately gave up the place to her. I also put a small two feet long clay pipe on the platform with a piece of cardboard and cloth inside for her to crawl into and hide for privacy to recover + her own bowl of clean bowl of water next to it.

While lying and recuperating in the long clay pipe, a stray male cat sneaked into the garden and attacked her. He had actually sought her out to attack her (so what we see in Discovery about males seeking out and killing the cubs of other males is very TRUE, as he quietly sneaked upstairs again the next day and attacked her again, but luckily she had been placed in and further protected by a small cage! ). Luckily I was nearby, and I drove the bully away - he must have made a fast mental calculation to compare his size with mine and decided that it was not worth the challenge !!

Seeing that she was too tiny (size is a big factor in defense) and not safe even in the garden, I took her upstairs and confined her in an upstairs back balcony in my laundry area.

Every time I held her and touched her rear, she gave out a small cry. Two days later, pus oozed out of an area near her tail and only then did I realize that the little girl had actually been bitten during the brief confrontation a few days earlier with the stray male cat in the garden and a big painful abscess had formed.

I immediately took her to the nearest vet to clean the wound and she was put on a course of antibiotics. She has since recovered and is as playful, active and inquisitive as any adorable normal healthy kitten her age.

This long story is just one example of the perils that the otherwise wonderful outdoor life poses for any kitten or cat, and mind you, this being only a CONTROLLED outdoor environment, meaning - this is my garden, cleaned and cleared of toxic materials and guarded by me as the gurkha, but still this happens. So what more in an area which has not got tukang kebun to keep out poisonous stuff, no lifeguards around, no godfathers to keep the mafias out, etc, etc.

Yes, cats love the outdoors, God made the outdoors for them. However, humans have messed out the great outdoors so much and has refused to take accountability and responsibility for their actions, so the rules have definitely changed from what God originally intended things to be. And as such, the important and often critical decisions we make (however good the intentions) for our beloved pets' well-being need to be different. And we need the self discipline and courage to do so .... (especially the spaying/neutering part)
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