I Fear the Word is Getting Out

You know, it is bad enough when the human neighbors figure out that they can probably hand me the stray cat they find, and get me to take care of it.  But it is starting to look like the cat neighbors are starting to figure that out, too.

Sunday morning I was out refilling the supplies for the outside kitties, and I started hearing a kittie crying.  After I called out a few times, a little kitten came crawling out of one of the shelters I keep in the area, still crying for all he(?) was worth.  I looked around and couldn't see any momma cat, or even any more kittens.  He wouldn't let me catch him, so I finally left him go, rather than chase him totally out of his territory.  I left the back door open a crack, and figured he would come inside or not.

He came inside about half an hour later, and eventually found the food and water.  He set to like he hadn't seen food in a while, then hid himself away for a nap.

By Monday, he was starting to figure I wasn't going to eat him, and that cuddling with me might not be all that bad a thing after all.  Now, he is starting to turn into a lap cat, although he still hasn't been confident enough to take a nap in my lap.

I'm going to have to check around, and see if I've stolen someone's new kitten, or if he really is a feral kittie.

The current crew is not at all sure they approve, although reactions are mostly limited to grrrrrrsss and an occasional head thwopp.

Anne Bonney on the left

PS: Another, older kittie came by a couple times late Sunday and early Monday.   I've seen this cat around a few times, but she will not let me get close to her.  This kittie looks a little like the new kitten, and was crying and looking around Sunday evening when she first showed up, so that might well have been the momma cat.

I thought about showing the kitten to this cat, to see what happened.  But the kitten had hid himself away somewhere, so I just let things go as they were.  If that was the momma cat, I hope someday to be able to tell her that her kitten is safe and warm, and doing fine. 

Dig out the jackets

How about this weather forecast?

http://classic.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=52625

The kitties and I will both mostly stay inside the next day or two, looks like.

Enough Said

http://www.gocomics.com/closetohome/2013/09/13 

Kitten update

Updating the kitten status.  I didn't realize it I left things hanging so long.

After the first three disappeared, I started taking the last two into the house in the evening whether Calleigh was around or not.  She was a decent mother kittie, but obviously had trouble defending against whatever grabbed those kittens.

For about a week, that went fine.  Then one day I was a little late collecting the kittens.  It was about dusk when I went down to the utility room.  The black & white kitten was already in there playing.  When I went out the back door, the orange kitten was lying dead a few feet from the back door.  Something had grabbed him around the chest/throat, and scraped most of the hair off of his chest, probably when he tried to fight free.  Still have no idea what it was doing this.

At that point, I grabbed that last kitten, and relocated him to the spare bedroom.  He's still there, though he seems to be wanting outside just a little bit recently.  Calleigh will come into the house and spent the night with him most evenings.  Once everyone is a bit bigger and stronger, I'll think about letting little Squeek outside again.

So something got four of Calleigh's five kittens.

Sorry to have to bring such bad news, but I thought you would want to know.

It looks like something grabbed the missing kittens

It looks like something has grabbed those three missing kittens.  I haven't seen any sign of them for several days now.  Maybe worse, some of the older stray/ferals that had been coming by to eat haven't shown up in a while.  There is a vacant lot and a patch of woods across the street.  Those woods are mostly surrounded by fields and pastures, so who knows what could be running around over there.

About all I can do is keep the last two kittens inside at night, and try to ensure the older kitties have a safe place to hide if they need to.

On the good side, Calleigh is getting more comfortable being around me while she's inside.  With luck, I'll get to pick her up and take her to the vet sometime soon.  The remaining two kittens are getting around better, and are eating solid food, although they still hit the milk bar when it's open.

Starting to worry a little

Just a quick note. The little kittens had been running around, climbing up the stairs and eating great. 

But for the last day or so, I've only seen two of them -- the orange boy(?) and one of the black and white ones.  Not sure if the others are hiding somewhere, or something has happened to them.

There has been a family of raccoons running around the last few days, eating the cat food and bird food.  The kittens were running around with the raccoon babies, and everyone was pretty much ignoring everyone while I was watching.  Not sure if they would attack kittens or not.

Momma Calleigh doesn't seem upset, but she is a new mother (less than a year old) so I'm not sure how she would react if something went wrong.

Calleigh, the Calico mom

Do you remember Little Momma?  After she and the kittens Bobby & Little Dots parted way, she disappeared for a while.  Then Little Momma reappeared with another group of kittens.

Those kittens grew up over the winter, so we never got much chance to socialize them.  Momma had five kittens, and three of them are still hanging around pretty regular.  But there was only one of them that we could touch or cuddle with.

Yep, he's sitting on the Ham-Mick

We're calling him Horatio.  It is about fifty-fifty whether we decide to keep him, or find him a different, furrever home.  It depends mostly on whether we can or not.  More on him in another post.

On to what most of you are really interested in:

KITTENS!!

Little Momma seems to mostly have boy kittens for some reason.  The litter from last Fall had only one girl kitten.  Calleigh (she was a calico) would let us get close to her, but never, quite touch her.  But she kept sneaking into the utility room.  Eventually, we found out why.

She had sneaked in there to have her kittens, way in the back where no one could get to her.

Best guess is they are about 4-6 weeks old, maybe a bit older.  They are just starting to run around and climb up and down steps.  The one at the bottom of this photo is the kitten asleep on my arm in yesterdays photo.



A shot of the proud mom.  I tried to get her to look at the camera, but she seems to be a bit shy.

One last photo, all five of the kittens, on one of their first excursions outside.

More info in a day or two.

 

Details to follow

Yes, another kitten.

But this one still has his(?) mother with him.

Easy Sunday

Starring Billie White Shoes, hanging out in the cat tree.

Billy hangs out in the tree like this quite a bit.  I would think it would give him a sore neck, but it doesn't seem to bother him any.

And yes,he was sound asleep in those first two photos.

 WELL?  You woke me.  Now what?

Yeowwwww, banana

I was seeing a lot of dirt, or grass, or something showing up in the house, especially on one chair when there usually was a kittie asleep.  Finally I figured out what was going on.

Someone in the Clowder figured out that if you chew hard enough, right on the end of the banana, you can chew open the end and start playing directly with the catnip.

They still have another banana, plus a cigar and a rainbow, so they are not deprived, bit I suspect I'm going to have to start planning to order a few more shortly, especially if word gets out.

How well do things like silvervine (and there are a couple others) work?  Anyone with experience know?  A couple of the current crew are kind of lukewarm about catnip, and I thought about trying something else if I can find anything that look promising.

Little Momma's kittens

Hi.  Didn't mean to take as long as I did to follow up with Little Momma and her kittens.  Sometimes life just kind of gets in the way of itself.

Little Momma had two kittens, an orange boy I started calling B.O.B (Big Orange Boy, Bobby for short), and a spotted brown tabby who wound up with the name Little Dots, mostly because I couldn't come up with anything else I liked.

They were about the same size/age as Billy White Shoes, and it took them all about ten minutes to decide playing together was FUN.  Every morning, when I would put out fresh water and food, the two kittens would be hanging out by the back door: "Can Billy come out and play?"  They would spend the day running around, playing together until evening, when Billy would come back inside for the night.  The other two would start toward the door, but wouldn't come inside.  Bobby would let me touch him, a little, but Little Dots never would let me get close.

Eventually, Little Momma decided they were old enough to be on their own, so she started chasing them away.  They stayed in the yard, hanging out with Billy, and eventually Bobby decided to 'sneak' (he thought) into the house.  I didn't eat him, so Little Dots moved into the house, too, though she never was a comfortable inside as Bobby.

Little Dots would never spend more than a day or two in the house, before wanting back outside.  It got to the point where Dots would come in at night, spend the night cuddling with me, and want back outside in the morning.  The  she'd disappear for a couple days.  One time, she just never came back.  I suspect she had someone else caring for her, since she was never that hungry when she did come back.  I hope she just moved in with them, someplace where she could be the only kittie.

Bobby is still here, and is still playing with Billy White Shoes and Grace O'Malley when the mood strikes him.

Early photos of Bobby, when he was first moving into the house.

Some of the few photos of Little Dots I have.

For Mothers Day -- the Little Momma

Last summer I kept the back door open a crack so my kitties could get in whenever they wanted.  That, coupled with the food and water I kept out, started attracting other critters.

One of them was a tabby girl I started calling Little Momma, mostly because she had two kittens with her, and wasn't a whole lot bigger than the kittens she was raising.  Little Momma wouldn't let me get close to her, or her kittens.  But she wasn't bashful about using the supplies I set out for the crew.

The Little Momma, finishing someone's breakfast

in the kitchen.

Little Momma taught her kittens to use the Clowder's litter boxes and eat their food.  But the Clowder finally got their revenge, sort of.  Little Momma's kittens started playing with Grace O'Malley and Billy White Shoes, and eventually both of them moved inside.

One of the first photos of Little Momma's boy kitten.

He's staying under the far side of the car, just in case.

 

 

And a totally gratuitous video of Billy White Shoes as a little kitten.  I thought I had lost it, but I found it the other day.  Enjoy.

Watch Billy's ears.

They don't show up as well as I'd hoped, but they do wiggle.

May the Fourth Be With You

Stolen from Star Wars Cats.

(If I ever find who did it, I'll add a credit)

Jedi Kittens Strike Back

or watch at http://youtu.be/4Z3r9X8OahA

For more cats and Star Wars, check out http://www.buzzfeed.com/modcatlove/cats-and-star-wars-2n09, or try your favorite search engine.

And May The Fourth Be With You.

Kitties checking out the Ham-Mick

So far, Billy White Shoes and Grace O'Malley are the only ones using the ham-mick, mostly because between the two of them, no one else has gotten a chance so far.

Anne Bonny found the box before I even got around to opening it.

She decided this was kind of nice, anyway.

Grace O'Malley got first crack at the Ham-Mick itself.

Billy White Shoes, checking out the Ham-Mick.

Billy & Gracie negotiating over who gets to use it next.

...and, the winner.

Outside of a few hours when everyone decided they HAD to go outside, no matter how cold and rainy it is, the Ham-Mick has been in pretty much continuous use.

Thanks, 40Paws, you have another satisfied customer.

 

Happy Burrrthday, Marg

A somewhat belated Happy Burrrrthday to Marg.  We all hope she had a great day.

UPDATE:   Feel free to leave your own wishes at Margs Animals.  (We knew we we were forgetting something.)

The traditional 'last gasp' of winter is upon us

Grace O'Malley checking things out outside.

If you look close, I think there is a robin flying /landing in that bush.

Weather Underground says we have a Winter Weather Advisory in effect until 7 PM CDT this evening.
 
yuck!!

PS: In somewhat related news, a prosecutor in Ohio has indicted Punxsutawney Phil for fraud, and is seeking the death penalty.

Billy White Shoe's Gotcha Day

Today is Billy White Shoes's Gotcha Day, which means he is just a few days past one year old.  Billy has had an eventful first year, even without his start as a bottle baby.

Remember this?

Billy, sleeping in his cage at home, after the surgery on his leg.

 

Billy today, serene on the top of the cat tree.

But through it all, no-longer-little Billy White Shoes is still running full tilt through life.  (although I still flinch whenever he jumps off of the top of the cat tree)

 Still one of my favorite photos of Billy.  He's about a month old here.

V*T Visit

Both kitties managed to survive the V*T trip OK.

Billy White Shoes didn't struggle very much going into the carrier, but spent the trips to and from the V*T meoowwing his head off.  Dr. Van De Berg was the first V*T who saw Billy with his broken leg, and the Doc was quite pleased to see how Billy was doing.  He thought Billy's bald spot was just Billy over-grooming out of boredom while in his cage, but he did give Billy an anti-allergy shot.

Grace O'Malley was quiet on the car ride, but it was a battle getting her into the carrier at all.  (Actually, that isn't quite true.  It was easy to get her into the carrier, but a struggle to get the door closed before she turned around and ran back OUT of the carrier.)  Gracie was running a bit of a fever, and seemed to have some infection around her backside.  Dr Van De Berg expressed her anal glands, and gave her an antibiotic shot.

They both got vaccinations, and deworming.

So, two of the crew are fine for the year.  (pending)  With luck, next month, I can get a couple more of the Clowder in for their yearly checkups.

No photos, sorry.  Forgot to grab the camera before I left.

Don't warn them

Hi.  Don't warn them, but Grace O'Malley and Billy White Shoes are going to the V*T Monday afternoon.  They both have bare spots on their skin, and the spots don't seem to be healing.  On the other hand, they aren't expanding, either.  So I might be getting upset over nothing.

But I decided I needed someone to take a little more professional look at things, to find out if we have a problem or not.

I am beginning to think I should have named Billy White Shoes something more along the lines of 'Homer Simpson' or something.  Little Billy seems to spending his life careening from one problem to the next.

Billy White Shoes is out of his cage

Hi, everyone and everykittie.  We didn't realize that it was more than a month since we posted anything.

Billy White Shoes went to the V*T yesterday, some because it was about to the time we were supposed to schedule a visit, and some because I was starting to get tired of spending half an hour every evening trying to catch Billy to put him back into his cage.

Dr. Van Zee checked Billy out a little, and decided Billy was healing fine, and I could just let him run around loose with the rest of the crew.

So, Billy White Shoes is now out of his cage, although I intend to keep an eye on him for a while yet.  I've got a lot of money invested in Billy's leg -- I want to protect the investment. :-)

A big thank you to Dr. Merlin Van Zee and the staff at the Summer Street Animal Clinic for their care and skill.