Outside... and inside critters

outside feral cat and coon

tapped on window to get his attention

one of theoutside feral kittens

and then there's Ghost...

Ghost watching me read in bed at night

Some nights DH goes to bed at 10 pm and I stay up to watch the 10 o'clock news. Rose and Ghost are usually in bed by this time. Rose will settle in, but Ghost will wait up for me. She knows I read for a while and likes to share in that activity (?). 

Julie... the counter cat

Julie on counter

Julie is our *counter cat*.  As hard as we've tried to keep her off... she persists. If you spray her with water, she will leave (for the moment), if you manually take her down, she will jump right back, and if you lock her in another room, the minute she gets out she runs back to the counter. We've given up. I keep the counters covered with kitchen towels or small quilts. And of course I wipe it down with lysol continuously and use those plastic chopping boards whenever we put food up there.

The other cats are not so inclined. One prefers his own cat basket (Tux) or my lap. One prefers DH's chair (Ghost), one prefers the sofa(Molly), and one prefers our bed (Rose). Of course if there is a *sunspot* somewhere in one of the windows, they will all vie for that.  And in winter, they all go for the rug in front of the Aga.

I haven't posted on this site in a while.... mainly I post on "Older, but better...?" and recently I started a new blog called, "My Mulberry days...". But since cats, coffee, and chocolate are still my main vices, I thought I should update this site occasionally.

beautiful black ferals... and spoiled inside fur-babies

one of our handsome black feral cats in basket on back porch

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, but with all this cold weather here in Texas I decided that this picture of one of our ferals with his winter coat was appropriate.  Isn't he a handsome fella?

Cardinal in our birdfeeder outside window in snow

And I posted this picture on my other site (Older, but better...?), but if you missed it, here it is again. This cardinal and his mate visit this feeder often. 

As for my inside lazy spoiled fur-babies, here's a picture of them and how they spend their days in the winter.

Have a good week and try to stay warm!

a long overdue update...

Shiney's kittens June 2014

It's a shame that I don't blog here about the critters more often.  Seems like I've gotten so used to posting everything on my "Older but Better" site, that I've come to neglect the others. Well, there are more pictures of kittens on that site, so if you'd like to see them, just click over.

When I originally switched from writing on my website to blogging, I planned to separate things a bit better. "Older but Better" was going to contain writings more directly connected to retirement... in general and specifically. "Cats, Coffee, and Chocolate" would contain writings about our cats and other outside critters, as well as my two vices, coffee and dark chocolate. And then "Simple Things" would just be favorite photos that I wanted to share. 

But I guess life doesn't like being divided up into neat cubicles.  It all runs together and this is seems to be what has happened here. Well, it can't be helped. But I will update you a bit on these kittens. The mama took them off for a jaunt today.  They have spent most of the day playing underneath DH's truck that is parked in the driveway (behind a closed gate). We don't use the truck a lot... only when both of us have commitments at the same time (which doesn't happen too often). Actually the truck has been gone for most of the last 6 months.  One or the other of our sons had borrowed it when their own cars were giving them trouble. It only came home to roast last week. 

OK, that's my contribution to this blog for today. I've got a Chicken Broccoli quiche in the oven that's about ready to come out. So I'll bid you folks good day!

Ghost video... and Jack's tale

It's been a while since I've posted here.  I've taken to posting even cat related info on my other blog, "Older... but better".  But I thought I'd just update this site today with a video of Ghost.

I started this a few days ago, but didn't get back to it for many reasons. We were out of town for a few days and there's always so much 'catch up' when home again.  But the biggest reason is that Jack hasn't been doing too well.  Those of you who have followed my blog, know that he was diagnosed with some form of Feline Leukemia when he was 4.  He was one of 5 siblings that we took in when their feral mama basically dropped them off in our back yard at 3 weeks old.  This is how our previously 3 cat house-hold made the giant jump in numbers.

Our grand daughter (who was 3 at the time) took Coco home and our oldest son took 2 females.  We kept Jack and Tux.  As the years passed, one of the little females (Julie) came back to us when son remarried and she didn't get along with new wife's dogs. Anyway, when Jack was diagnosed, we had them all tested. All were negative, but Jack. Since we've never let any of them go outside and had had them all tested before bringing them in as kittens, we were mystified.  The only answer seems to be that he inherited it from his feral mama and it didn't show up until he was 4. Over the years, he has had episodes where his blood count would drop dramatically and  he would turn yellow. The Vet would put him on fluids and Preds, and he always rallied.  There have been several times that they mentioned putting him down... but we never seriously considered it since his eyes were bright, his coat shiny, and his appetite good.... and except for these infrequent episodes, he did fine. It was not time.

Jack is 10 now.  Yesterday he was having a lot of trouble walking.  He has had a wonky walk for a few months, has lost weight, and seems to remain yellow these days.  We didn't take him in earlier because there really isn't much they can do and we didn't want to have to consider putting him down again. But this week when he was having real difficulty walking, we were afraid that he was suffering.  We don't want him to suffer... especially because we are selfish and want to keep him with us. So we took him in.

Basically they didn't tell us anything we didn't know, but did help us to try something that may make him more comfortable.  He is in liver failure. And the Preds have probably caused the loss of muscle tone in his hind legs  - but that was the price paid to keep him going these last six years. They doubted the Preds were doing much more at this point and perhaps by cutting him back some, it might stop further loss.  They asked if we'd talked about putting him down and we told them that we have, but we weren't sure if it was time yet. The Vet said that if we weren't sure, then it wasn't time.  But we have to address the possibility that the inevitable is nearing.

Jack

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.

cats and boxes...

Tux (left) and Jack (right) sharing new box

When the postman makes a delivery to our house, the cats are waiting anxiously... for the box. They definitely believe that each delivery is a gift for them. This last box contained our k-cups for our Keurig coffee maker. They totally ignore the contents and can't wait for us to empty it and deliver to them their new cardboard abode.  It seems that the first one in has *dibs*... but Jack is always willing to share.  At the moment, they now have 4 boxes in various areas around the house. People who don't have cats probably wouldn't understand, but those who do... do.

Molly

Molly is 19 years old.  She spends a lot of time sleeping on the sofa or in her bed these days.  But she still eats well, uses her litter box fastidiously, and gets around pretty well. She lost her buddy, 19 year old Thibbadeaux , not that long ago. She and Thibs came to us as kittens at about the same time. Thibs came to us from our oldest son's cat's litter (who gave birth under the upstairs desk in our house) and Molly was found outside an apartment building by our youngest son (and promptly dumped at mom and dad's house when we weren't home).  And you wonder why we have 6 cats? 

Be that as it may, the two of them were fast buddies and have lived their whole lives together.  Molly has put up with all the other cats and kittens that have come into the house over the years... sometimes grudgingly, but never mean. She does hiss at the outside cats and raccoons when they gather by the back door - as if to say, "there's no room in here! Go away!" But all in all, she's been a good loving cat.  I expect we'll have her around for a few more years unless something unforseen happens.  I believe I read somewhere that 19 is equivalent to about 93.

From left: Ghost, Jack, Rose, Julie, and Tux

Julie drinking from faucet in bar

Ghost cuddling with toy bird

Jack and Tux sacked out by fireplace