Bianca & Mohrle

Once upon a time … 

When we settled in Sylvianderland end of August 2012 there were some wild cats coming into our garden looking for our kitchen waste under the trees. Among them two cats were our main visitors, a white female and a black male. According to their look I called them Bianca (italian for white) and Mohrle (german for a black cat). They fell in love and were seen together all the time … 

When we came back in June after 3 months having been in Germany, Bianca had born kittens. Unfortunately dogs had found out her hiding place, then they stole and ate them – the screams of the kittens were too painful. 
After that misery Bianca spent her sad days mourning in our garden. Whenever I was passing I talked to her consolingly. How sad she was … 

And another sad truth we faced: Mohrle had disappeared – since today. Alexander assumed, he might have become a victim of that secret custom over here: some youngsters are keen to eat black male cats! Whatever they hope to get from that. 

Some time later Bianca was pregnant again and started searching for a safe place for giving birth. Often she was walking through our Sylviander House, and we understanding why let her do so. 

Then in the morning of October 23 in 2013 we saw she had born 3 kittens – 2 boys and 1 girl – during the night in a big paper box, left from our shifting under my stitching table. 

Whenever I had a look into the box I called »Meeyoo! Meeyoo!« for making them to understand that it‘s me and there is no reason to be afraid. 

During daytime it was easy for Bianca to get into the house through the kitchen window, but in the nights, when we close all doors and windows downstairs, she had to take a big effort to get inside for feeding her babies. Totally surprised I watched her, how she climbed the coconut tree beside my writing room, then jumped on the tiles roof of the first floor, walked on it over the top to the other side, jumped down to the verandah in the first floor and then went down to my stitching room in the ground floor. I have not known cats are able to climb a coconut tree around 7 meter high. 

After 10 days she decided to shift her kittens upstairs into Alexanders studio, where he was working on paintings with pastel colors – naturally the fine powder spreads all over the floor. That time mainly he used blue colors which then also ‘painted‘ the kittens belly, when they started running around, playing between all the canvas roles and wooden frames … 

Several times a day she came to feed her kittens, cleaned them, slept beside them … When she left, she easily jumped down from the verandah in the first floor, after she sat for a while near the balustrade carefully checking the surroundings below to avoid that any male cat could see her.   

It was amazing to observe, how different these 3 kittens were in their look and behavior. The girl cat was the smallest, but curious and brave, the white boy was the biggest, curious too enjoying a lot when I pet him, the red boy was really a cute one, but anxious and always clinging at his mother, hiding or escaping, but being the most ambitious fighter for the best place drinking from mother‘s dugs.  

What a joy to watch them, what a fun for them playing, fighting, running, hiding, chasing each other and discovering their small world of an artist‘s studio until they dared to manage the step of the old door to our room exploring the new space … 

Every morning when I entered the studio Bianca asked for milk, which I brought to her then. And soon the girl cat only 3 weeks old started sharing with her, while the two boy cats were not interested at all. 

Since Bianca was a wild cat supposedly having had bad experiences with humans, she didn't allow me to touch her, even she was trustful in me. Such anxious behavior was quite unfamiliar to me as I grew up with a cat. But she gave me permission to sit next to her taking her kittens to hug and cuddle them. 

When they were 5 weeks old, a male cat had found out Biancas secret place and strolled over the upstairs verandah in search for them to kill and eat. Since we had to keep a window open for Bianca, this male cat also could come in, while she is out looking for food. So she decided to bring her kittens to another secret place. 

When we arrived at home with our friend Meena, who liked to have two of them, the white boy and the spotted girl, the white boy was missing. 

Because he was brought by his mother to the neighbor‘s garden already, where we spotted him and then tried to catch him without any success, our friend had to leave without him taking only the girl cat, which she called Leila. Fate had other plans for him, but both would meet again one day … 

That day the red boy Kika-Meeyoo only was left – it was him we would have liked to keep with us. But next morning he wasn't there anymore, mother Bianca had taken him in the night while we were sleeping. 
For him too fate had other plans … 
We were sad having lost all kittens in just one day, not knowing yet which plans fate had for us …