the cats are out!

Usually this would be a problem, that cry would mean come help corral cats! (see the Fela up a tree post.) These days though I’ve given up. My son started letting them ‘do their own thing’ while I was out of town. No complaints from me. The cats are happy and stay in the yard. I am working on a total solution – cat pen/garage set up – so they can be out and we do not have to worry about them.

Meanwhile Fela enjoys the grass and hopes a bird will come close.
LBK, the rotten baby, even goes out to roll on the pavement and get all nice and dirty.

Amazingly even Angel, the rescue from the city park nearby, is overcoming her fears to venture outside on the rare occasion. She runs back inside fast though if anyone goes out to take a picture of her! No evidence no evidence! I can hear her cry.. I’m an inside cat only now! (yeah right)

I really advise not letting your cats run free. There are too many dangers outdoors for them, and I’ve lost enough to know better. With luck the handyman will get the cats fixed up with a safe alternative soon.

The Carnival of Cats!

The blog carnival of cats is listed in the sidebar. If you like cats, check it out!
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deleted widget but google it if you run across this post and are interested. it's out there, hosted on a different blog each week. or check out http://blogcarnival.com to see all the carnivals.

End of March

March comes to an end.. goes out like a lamb they say? Maybe as there are a few more days. Yesterday it rained and even hailed a tiny bit. Otherwise the days here in West Texas (yes, I finally got home mid-March) are beautiful. Temps in the mid-70's most of the time so we have neither heat nor air on, rather doors and windows open. Cats and the dog come and go as they please to their delight.

I have been busy since coming home with the Christian Women's Job Corps and a few other things. Helping them out a little bit and working on a web site for them with the (major) aid of my son John.

Su is happy I am here and ready to play! Or go for long walks down by the river.

There goes Fela!!

Good grief. I opened the cat pen door and Fela zoomed out. Straight to the tree. John, having just been taking photos of a certain spider, was ready with his camera. From where he stood however, this was all he could see. So he took like fifteen shots of Fela butt. Silly boy.

Meanwhile, I am up under the tree (I know spidee territory, which is probably why John was NOT under the tree) and I called him, so he got This shot. Happy Fela on the end of the dead limb. This is about as high as she can go as the tree is somewhat truncated. She knows if she tries for another limb it will put her within reaching distance. So she looks and thinks... for quite a while. Then the temptation is too much. She makes a dash for it!

Grabbing one leg, I started pulling. Fela resisted mightily. What she was saying while this was going on is absolutely unprintable. If you did not know better you'd have thought I just grabbed a wild cat not a spoiled housepet. Wait a minute, maybe spoiled housepet does fit. After all, she was sure she should have what she wanted and was madly cussing me out for not letting her dash up the next tree branch.

I win. More of Fela comes out of the tree. I slowly pulled her so she went over my shoulder. Fela hung over my shoulder limply, resigned to her fate. Back inside we went with the "I wanna be free!" cat.

(meanwhile, the car door was standing wide open, amazing no one 'freed' the goodies inside!)
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the Fela Baby.. giving me That Look.

Eat your greens!

Every time I make a salad, here comes Beeky. It won't do for me to give her a piece of lettuce. Oh no. She must help herself to the piece of her choosing, off my plate. A few nibbles and she's done, I can have the rest. At least she's neat, doesn't nose around in the whole thing trying to choose, she's fast to pick one piece at the edge and sticks with that. Some folks at those food bars in eating establishments could take a few cues from her!

Thinking

Is this a good thing? Or do the claws need to come out?

Take this!

No fear! Says Fela Kitty. Shoot me? Just watch these teeth!

Fela's Poinsettia

Fela loved this poinsettia for the whole 12 hours it was here. She'd stick her nose into the middle of the plant and inhale deeply. Then drool. I'd have expected her to chew on it, but nope!

Fritti's gone

It was tough but yesterday Fritti Cat was put to sleep. He could not get well from what should have been a simple upper respiratory ailment. The FIV was showing its ugly head and since there is no good end to this, we decided to say goodbye now.

See ya at the bridge Fritti baby!

Cats and elbees

or litterboxes (LB you see).. so many of them with so many cats! Litter gets pulled out onto the floor, as every cat owner knows. The boxes built into a cabinet have long appealed to me but getting someone to make one seems to be beyond my ability. Then recently I saw a cat box at the store that looked interesting but the price tag! It was right at 32 dollars. The design appeared easy enough to copy. I picked up an 18 gal storage container and some outdoor carpeting. Cut a hole in the top and glued on the carpet (to help catch litter). Voila! A new box! Large and deep, the cats took right to it. While there is some litter on the floor still, it is a tiny amount indeed. This is so successful and economical that I'm changing over all the boxes to this design. Here is Fela (the tabby stray who was unnamed yet in her last photo) checking out the new box.

Yep, another one

This one actually was picked up before Fritti.. and still does not have a name! Neither is she spayed yet, or tested, or...
well anyway, she's not ready to be adopted out. We are enjoying her antics. Some oaf dumped her on a country
highway miles from anywhere. If I had not been out geocaching... (which come to think of it is what I was doing when I found Fritti.)

There's been a few others but we placed those so fast they won't get their pictures in the blog.

Fritti, the newest rescue. The name comes from Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams.
Fritti was the thinnest cat I have ever picked up. For the first two weeks he was just thrilled to be in the outdoor cat cage. Food! Shelter! Food! Safety! Food!

Fritti has been neutered and has his shots now. We hope to find him a forever home soon.

Cactus patch cat family

Mom and kittens in the boy's bathroom. She looks up at me with such intensity.. keeps doing this from the time I found them in the cactus. As if she's trying to memorize me. Like she can't believe it, oh please please help me.. or wondering if this is real. Poor cat. A trusting pet and so desperate. She is very thin.

Not a great shot but we were focused on rescue, not picture taking.. you can see the family diving right in. Getting these into the carrier is not going to be a problem.

I took Misty for a walk to the river. Having my camera along and seeing some cactus blossoms I decided to attempt a picture (they were partway down a slope to the river). All of a sudden small animals came out of the cactus! For one second I was startled as there can be any sort of wildlife there but it probably did not take a heartbeat for me to identify these small animals. Four kittens. Then came the mom! All crying for food, obviously dumped off pets. I ran (Okay, I walked fast) with Misty to get food and a carrier then returned by car.

Lucky Cat, chillin' - this cat was a throwaway, thrown on the highway that is and landed on his chin. It required two surgeries to fix him up. So all these hundreds of dollars later, if he wants the sink, he's got it.