Monthly Archives: June 2017

Our Unpredictable Ferals

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After my last post about the feral cat and kittens that have been coming to our house, I didn’t see them for about a week. I kept food out for them and some days it would be gone when I checked on it and some days it would still be there. We were never sure if the cats were eating it or some other animal was coming around until Wednesday evening when the mother cat and her two Siamese looking kittens showed up.

I wasn’t expecting them to be there when I walked outside to do laundry. I was surprised to see two kittens take off in opposite directions. One hid under my car and the other crawled under the home behind us and one over. That made me wonder if they were living there.

The mother stayed close and hissed and growled at me. Actually, it wasn’t really a growl. It was more of a low pitch sound that I sometimes hear from our cats when a strange cat comes around.

I decided to skip laundry for a while and went back inside. Soon, one kitten was back and I took these pictures through the window screen.

stray kitten

stray cat
I then put a small can of wet food on a plate and brought it outside. The kitten ran away but the mom let me stay out there and take pictures while she ate. She does not seem afraid of me which makes me think she is not feral like her kittens. Even so, she is not overly friendly either.

stray cat

stray cat

I wanted her kittens to come back so I went in the house and waited. Sure enough, one of the kittens showed up.

stray cat and kitten

I took this video which is a bit long but at 4:16 it skips ahead to a new can of food and a kitten eating it. I am unsure if it is the same kitten or if the timider of the two came back for a meal. Perhaps your eyes are better than mine. Also, my wife thinks the kitten’s belly shows signs that he or she has worms. I don’t know. Also, at 2:53, Frankie scares the kitten away by pulling himself up to the open window.

I called the TNVR place on Thursday morning but I am still waiting to hear back from them. In the meantime, I have not seen the cats since Wednesday and I have only seen the food in the bowl get eaten twice since then, including some time last night. Maybe they are being fed somewhere else or maybe some days they feast on rabbit, which is plentiful around here.

Photo Friday: The China Syndicate

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Our china cabinet started out as Chris’s domain. He was the only one able and willing to leap to the top from the sofa. Since he has gained weight, he no longer jumps up there. Puck has taken over as chief overseer of the china cabinet.

Puck can’t jump up there without help. He waits for me to walk by and gives me “the look” and a whisper of a meow and I know exactly what he wants. I lean over and he jumps on my shoulders and I walk over to the cabinet where he jumps up.

Frankie is the only cat that can get on top of the cabinet without help. Sometimes he gets up there but mostly he doesn’t care about it too much.

Floki is like Puck and he uses me to get up there. I try to avoid letting him up on the cabinet when Puck is there because I know Puck is up there for peace. Usually, though, Puck being up there gets Floki interested in being up there.

The other day Frankie was riding my shoulders and decided to get off on the China cabinet. Puck saw him and then he wanted to get up there. That got Floki interested and I figured, why not? I helped Floki up and everyone seemed to get along.

cats on cabinet

I think they were having a meeting, possibly planning to oust Chris as the alpha. I don’t know where Chris was, probably napping somewhere. Whatever plan they came up with didn’t work. Chris is still the boss.

Pull ‘n Play Cat Toy

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Our cats loved this toy, especially Chris, until I put healthy treats in it.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

Two weeks ago we bought two cat toys from Friskies called Pull ‘n Play. The toy is like a Weeble. which they call Wobbert. It is weighted on the bottom and it wobbles. It is shaped like an animal but I’m not sure what it is supposed to be, perhaps a bear. The head twists off so you can put treats inside. It comes with a bag of Friskies Party Mix and it also has a string-like treat that you thread through the ears. There is a small hole at the bottom so treats will fall out when it wobbles just right.

When we introduced it to our cats, Chris dominated the toy. As expected, he was the first, and still only, cat to figure out how the toy works. I recorded the first few minutes of them playing with it but later, after the camera was put away, I…

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Our Cat Has an Eating Disorder

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For many years now, we have had a tradition of turning skinny cats into fat cats. Case in point:

Frankie, on the other hand, has stayed skinny.

cat Frankie

I’m sure this is because he scarfs up his expensive, canned food and home-made raw, organic chicken cat food, and then pukes it out. I feel bad for him when he does that but, I’m ashamed to say, I feel bad for my wallet too.

I think I would feel worse for Frankie if I thought there was something physically wrong with him but he seems pretty healthy otherwise. If he was human, I would think he has bulimia, but what he probably has is something called Eatwaytoofast Disorder.

I don’t know if there is a cure. Anyone else have experience with this?

 

Fifth Blogiversary

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Today marks five years since I started writing this blog. Time sure does fly when you are having fun. When I started I read that most blogs don’t last a year so I guess I am doing good.

When I look back, some things amaze me, like the fact that I wrote 693 blog posts. I know some of you are far ahead of me but for me, that’s an accomplishment.

I also have over 1700 pictures in my media library. Virtually all of them have been posted on this blog. You can almost say this is a photo blog with some words in it.

My most viewed post ever is “Are Ginger Cats Friendlier,” which doesn’t definitively answer the question but does show how many people are asking it. I will have to do me research on the subject.

My personal favorite post, it think, is “The Great Escape.”  It was one of my first posts and it really showed a bit of Chris’s personality during those early days.

My favorite picture is a tough choice.

Maybe it’s Tigger washing young Chris.

ginger cats, Chris and Tigger

Maybe it’s Daredevil Chris

Bad Cat Chris on railing

Maybe it’s Chris sleeping on Tigger.

Maybe it’s baby Chris.

Maybe it’s not Chris at all, Maybe it’s Frankie . . .

Our cat Frankie under the dressor

. . . or Floki . . .


. . .  or Puck.

Do you have a favorite?

What I really enjoy about blogging is the wonderful people that I have met, or at least virtually met. There are over 10,000 comments on my blog and then there are everybody else’s blogs too. It’s hard not to feel like I am surrounded by friends. Hopefully, before another five years passes, I will be able to meet some of you in person.

Until that time, Happy Blogging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Friday: Puck’s Profile

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Puck is a handsome cat but he is also difficult to photograph. As a result, he is a bit unrepresented on my Photo Friday posts. When I do manage to capture a good image of him, I feel like sharing.

black cat profile

On another note, the stray and her kittens that I wrote about in my last two posts may, or may not, be gone. I saw them last Sunday evening but since then the food I left out went uneaten until I noticed the bowl was empty yesterday morning, just when I was about to give up. I put more food in the bowl that morning and when I returned from work, the bowl was half eaten. Who, or what, ate it I don’t know.

My wife finally got a call from Meow Now who said they don’t catch kittens before the are old enough to be fixed, about eight weeks or so, because they are a TNVR organization and have no place to hold them. Rose said they were about three to five weeks. I think they might be older but I have little experience with young kittens Can someone help give me a better estimate. Please look at the picture on this blog post and tell me what you think.