The weather has cooled significantly here and once again our clan feels an irresistible pull toward a far away bed. Okay, maybe not so far away.
Photo Friday: The Gathering
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Author Archives: Charles Huss
The Kitten Whisperer
Here is a nice story from a couple of years ago for Throwback Thursday.
We went to my sister-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving this year. Felice works at a vet and has taken in several “unadoptable” cats with her husband, Jeff. She has also become an expert at bringing newborn kittens back from the brink of death. Felice saved one of our cats, Puck (see here), as well as Miss Luis (see here). Her ability to be such a great surrogate mother to so many tiny kittens makes me think of her as “The Kitten Whisperer.”
While she was raising Miss Luis, she was given two more little kittens to bottle feed (see here) and recently she was asked to help two more kittens. Here are some pictures and a video of the newest kittens, which, I believe, are about five weeks old. Enjoy.
A look Back at 2017
2017 is gone but not forgotten. Many are happy to see it go but we have some good memories.
Floki was with us for six months in January and felt right at home getting on top of our china cabinet.
In February Frankie showed everyone his Houdini trick on escaping a cat harness.
Puck was at the vet in March. I think this is when he started peeing outside the box, which he is still doing.
In April we had someone marking their territory on our cars.
In May we had a visit from a tabby mother and her two Siamese kittens.
They were still around in June.
Also in June, Puck was back at the vet.
In July we got our Jackson Galaxy bed that Chris and Floki love . . .
and a water fountain that nobody used.
We got Kitty-Kick-Stix in August.
September we evacuated for Hurricane Irma . . . twice.
We got new furniture in October that Puck peed on before we could use it.
In November we visited Aunt Felice’s cats (and Aunt Felice).
December we got another piece of furniture that Frankie scratched and Puck pooped on.
It also got cold in December and everyone decided to conserve body heat.
Some states for 2017 include:
Most viewed post – Are Ginger Cats Friendlier
This post was from 2013 and is still popular with 2907 views last year.
Views in order of country of origin:
United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Austrailia, Switzerland, India and The Philippines round off the top eight.
Most views in one day: 731
My wife is irritated that I am not helping to prepare for New Year’s Eve so I will end here and wish everyone a very happy 2018.
Happy New Year 2018
Everyone here is resting up for the big New’s Years bash at our house which will consist of two humans and four cats, possibly three since Frankie wants to expend all his energy before the party.
We want to wish all our readers a very happy New Year and a prosperous 2018.
Photo Friday: Napping Grounds
Now that the cold weather is over, our boys are back to napping in their usual places. They tend to nap by the windows during the day like Floki and Chris are doing here.
Maybe Some Cats Shouldn’t be “Rescued”
Here is a post from a couple of years ago about our “wild” cat Frankie. He hasn’t changed much since then but I know he is happy that he has a home.
If you have ever looked for a cat to adopt on Petfinder or the website of your local shelter, you may have noticed that a fair amount of them have been ear-tipped. If you don’t know what that is, when a stray or feral cat is captured and fixed, the vet will remove the tip of one ear or put a notch in one ear to show that the cat has already been fixed.
Ear “tipping” or “notching” is usually done for the Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) programs but sometimes a well-meaning person will trap a cat that is friendly to humans and not release it but put it up for adoption. I believe that is what happened to Frankie, although we know nothing about his history. We do know he has a notch in his ear indicating he was probably captured as a feral, perhaps at a young age.
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Merry Christmas
Bad Cat Chris and family want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, we still hope you have a great day.
Photo Friday: Getting Ready for a Long Winter’s Nap
I hesitated to post another picture of our four cats on the bed together for the second week in a row but I couldn’t leave a cute photo like this locked away on my computer. It seems our bed is a feline gathering place when the temperature gets cold.
It has warmed since I took this photo and everyone is back to separate napping spots, except Chris who likes to nap on top of someone.
Goodbye My Ferals
This is the last of my Ferals at Work stories for Throwback Thursday. I hope the little guys are doing okay.
I am starting a new job on Tuesday so Friday was the last time I will see my feral cats at work. The week and a half after I gave my notice I saw very little of them. Sometimes I would put food out at 8 a.m. and it would still be there at noon. Other times it would be gone but I couldn’t be sure the birds weren’t eating it. I was actually glad about that because it meant that the cats didn’t need me and I could stop worrying about not being there for them.
Then the shy one showed up on Tuesday morning.
I was off on Wednesday and the gold and white cat was there Thursday morning, waiting in the parking lot for me.
On my last day both the gold and white cat and the grey and white were there waiting.
I feel bad about…
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First Impressions of Honest Kitchen Prowl Cat Food
Last week I needed to buy more canned cat food because I was completely out, but I also needed to buy human food and the two stores were miles apart. My first stop was Sprouts Farmer’s Market. If you are unfamiliar with them, they are similar to Whole Foods. While there I looked in their pet food section and saw they had Honest Kitchen Prowl Cat Food on sale for $20.
Prowl is a dehydrated food with relatively healthy ingredients. The box says it makes six pounds of food after hydration. I did the math and decided that six pounds for $20 was better than 8.25 pounds for $40, which is what a case of Earthborn Holistic Chicken Catcciaori cost at my local store (although I just noticed it is less money on Amazon). It also saved me from driving across town to get it.
My biggest concern, besides whether they would like it, is how much patience they would have waiting for me to prepare it. The answer is not much. I followed the directions and mixed one cup of food with one cup of water, which I thought was good for four cats. I waited what I thought was three minutes, although time seems to pass more slowly when hungry cats are waiting. I expected the soupy mixture to thicken up to a more solid consistency but it didn’t. It remained an awful looking soup. I added more of the Prowl and then more again until it looked like it was supposed to.
The cats were not impressed. Frankie ate some but everyone else just waited for the real food.
I tried to show them that it was good by letting them lick it off my finger. My hope was that they would then see that it was good and start eating from their bowls but that didn’t work.
I ended up buying their canned food and mixing the Prowl with it. I start with a heaping tablespoon and then add a small amount of water and mix it. I don’t wait the full three minutes because I have hungry felines to deal with so I open a can of food and add that to the mixture. I stir it all together and divide it onto four plates. I don’t have a picture of that but I can tell you they love it that way. I suppose it is a texture thing for them.
Once the Prowl is gone I will probably go back to making homemade raw cat food and mix that with their canned food like had done before I ran out of everything.
