We have kittens...

Again...

We have kittens in our yard or in our house or both almost every Spring and Fall.  And we were aware that some of the outside ferals must be nursing kittens, but as of this week, we hadn't seen any. Then... DH was weed-wacking on the side of the house Sunday when out popped a very scared little black kitten. DH immediately picked him up and brought him inside. My first thought was, "oh no..." then, "he's so-oo cute".  As I settled him in, DH went out and checked the area he was in and pretty soon came in with another.  Then I thought, "oh...oh".  This is how we got the 6 cats we have now.  We had always kept the number at 3... then a feral had 5 kittens in our yard (our 3 black and whites are part of that original 5). But there were no more (at least so far).

They are both black, one medium hair, one long hair... about 5 weeks old and fairly chubby.  So their mama was taking good care of them. Actually it is a bit sad as she is still out there looking for them and crying.  We were tempted to put them back but decided they would have a much better chance in life getting adopted into a good home then living outside with the other ferals. But mama is sad... and it hurts. We actually brought them out in a crate today and put them where she could find them and she layed down by the crate with them... even sniffing their little paws as they pushed them through the bars. DH says that it's too hard on her to do this, but I thought she needed to know that they were alright and that they just didn't disappear.

Oh... and this is an update from yesterday evening.  We now see 2 more black kittens in the front yard by the bay window and as of about 7pm last night, we see 3 more little black and white kittens frolicking on the windowsill in the den!! It's like, "OMG, is it 'coming out' day! They all look to be about 6-8 weeks old... a little older than the ones we took inside and moving a lot faster.

I will try to get some pictures, but we may not be able to catch these.

Bootsie has a baby...

Bootsie and Baby Bootsie

Guess what?  Bootsie has a baby!  She's such a small cat that we didn't even know she was pregnant. And Bootsie's baby is an identical copy of herself.  In case you aren't up to snuff on all our outside (feral and semi-feral) cats, Bootsie is a very small (maybe 6 or 7 lb) intact female that lives in (and out) of our backyard.  She is only about a year and a half old and has had 3 pregnancies. I've been able to adopt out all of her kittens when I've found them.  This pregnancy and kitten she kept a well hid secret.  If we could catch her, she would be spayed, but so far... no luck.  However, it is very unusual for a cat to have only one kitten, so we are keeping our eyes open for more surprises to come.

This little fella on the top was one of Bootsie's litter from last Spring. And the ones on the far right are more of hers.  We bring them in when they are 3 - 4 weeks old, get them friendly and fat, vaccinate them, and take them to the Adoption Center. They are adopted pretty quickly.

The possum and the kitten...

"Hey, don't sneak up on me!"





This morning our little young possum came by for breakfast.  One of the half-grown kittens came by and sniffed him.  This shot was taken after the possum hissed at him... basically telling him to 'shove off!'   Then he resumed eating. 

Some people think possums are ugly.  I tend to think that they are rather cute.  Ours are especially handsome (as are the raccoons) as they are fed well and have thick shiny coats.  And the wildlife all seem to get along fairly well.  They give each other a wide berth at times... laying together at other times.  Occasionally there will be a hissing fight, but that's about it. 

Mama and baby coon

Baby coon up close

Favorite cat pics...

Tux watching a Garfield movie

I know I've shown this picture before, but its one of my favorites.  My cats do watch TV.  I'm sure yours do also.  They will watch whatever we're watching, but do have preferences.  If there's something with a bird flitting around or a ball flying around the screen, they will get interactive.  Otherwise, they simply sit and watch... occasionally falling asleep.  Can't blame them... with all the reruns and long commercials (sometimes there must be 5 or 6 before the show starts again). I tend to fall asleep a lot during commercials these days.  And this is an old picture... back before our big screen TV.

Whenever I don't have anything interesting to write about, I fall back on my cat pictures. Here's a few of my favorites.



Ghost and Julie playing on the kitchen floor

Of course this was when Ghost was a kitten.  Now she is 5... and huge.  But Julie and her are still buds. When we first brought Ghost "inside", we knew something was wrong.  She was about 4-5 weeks old and very slow to respond... didn't act like she was aware of things around her. When we took her to the Vet to be checked out, he said that she had some major genetic kidney problems... and doubted that she would live to be a year.

He put her on Rx KD and told us to make sure that she always had free access to water or she would die. She does drink an enormous amount of water and does have occasional flare-ups where we have to rush her to the Vets (and they always seem to think that she won't make it... but she does!)  So, she is a fighter.  Here is a more recent picture:

Ghost playing with her mouse



Coons and cats and kittens, oh my...




Mama raccoon and her babies eating on our back porch

  We have 2 mama raccoons that bring their babies up to eat several times a day. One has 5 babies, one has 2.  The cats that hang out in our yard co-habitate well with the coons.  They give each other a wide berth most of the time. The babies (raccoons and kittens alike) are curious and occasionally try to get close. The mamas run them off. But they never fight... or at least I've never seen them fight.

I was reading another site this morning and they were talking about the "life of cats" with the "life of Reilly" inference.  Truly, cats do seem to have the good life... at least the ones with homes do.  We cater to their every whim, feed, play, and entertain them.  They nap, eat, nap, play, nap, and nap.  Seems like a pretty good set-up.  My 6 are all different ages from 6 to 19 at the moment. And their personalities are all different.  Tux, who is a huge black and white male, brother to Jack who was pictured as Captain Jack on post entitled Cat Tales, is what we call a wus cat.  He is needy and wants loving all the time. If I don't sit down to read or rest by 2 pm, Tux will start following me around caterwauling.  It's his time.. or so he thinks. When I do sit down and he plops into my lap, if I have the audacity to start reading a book, he immediately reaches up and pulls it down... then pats my face (as if to say, "look at ME).  He is a mess.  But he's our mess.




Tux on left, Jack on right



Now the homeless cats that choose our yard as their sanctuary get pretty good treatment also. We feed twice a day (dry and wet) as well as lay out treats, toys, and fresh water.  In the summer they have the patio fan to lie under and in the winter we put out hay and heat lamps for their comfort.  They have a wood fenced yard to protect them from dogs and coyotes and can come and go as they please. We follow the catch and release program and if we can catch them, we vaccinate, spay or neuter, and release. Kittens get picked up at about 2-3 weeks, taken in and bottle-fed, played with to ensure friendliness, and then taken to cat adoption room at our local no-kill shelter (and are usually adopted out within the week). 

However, we don't always catch the mamas and thus, we do have repeat litters, but we try.  We have 2 young mamas in our yard now.  We took Bootsie's babies when they were about  3 weeks.  They have already been adopted out. But we haven't caught Bootsie yet. The other little mama moved her babies not long after we found her hiding place and before we could get the kittens.  Now they are in the yard and adorable, but much too fast to catch.





Cat tales...



Captain Jack

 Realized when I was reading some cat blogs yesterday that when people have several blogs and one wasn't updated in a while, I tended to skip it.  Thought that I should learn something from that and try to update my blogs on at least a weekly basis in order to not discourage readers. I do tend to update one, but not all.  Lately I've been working on my retirement site, "Older, but better...?".

This post is basically going to be about Jack, our 8 year old black and white DSH. His full name is "Jumpin' Jack Lickady Spit" and yes, there is a story behind that.  Since we tend to be the neighborhood feral cat sanctuary, strays tend to use our backyard as their own private cat park.  Some come, eat, and leave; others come, eat, and give birth... staying to raise their offspring...  or in some cases such as this one, leaving their offspring on our back porch and taking off for parts unknown.

Jack and his 4 brothers and sisters were abandoned at about 2-3 weeks of age.  At the time, we had 3 inside cats.  We took the 5 kittens in with the intention of bottle-feeding them until they were old enough and friendly enough to find homes.  Well... my daughter took one, my son took 2... and we kept the remaining 3.  Jack was a little 'jumper'... didn't walk anywhere... but kind of leapt like a bunny.  We added the 'lickady spit' later when it became obvious that when Jack was content (such as lying on your lap or chest) he drooled.  Messy, but sweet.



5 abandoned kittens a few weeks after we found them
From the left: Monkey Mouse, Jack, Cocoa, and Tux with Jasmine (the grey tabby in the font)