A Few Wonderful Updates for National Feral Cat Day 2012

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October 16 is National Feral Cat Day...what better occasion on which to post a few pieces of wonderful news here?

First, I'll get right to the most super-excellent news of all: Bella's kittens have been ADOPTED! Not only that, but they were adopted together! Aki, their new human, sent me a lovely email a few weeks back inquiring about them. She had obviously read the kittens' bios, which I took to be a very good sign, as I only wanted the kittens being adopted by someone who had an interest in them as individuals. Needless to say, I sent a response, a few more messages were exchanged, and by that evening we'd set up a meeting for the following day at Matt's parents' house.

I had no idea what to expect, as this was the first time I'd ever been so directly involved in an "adoption interview" of any kind, but I could not have been happier with how things went. Aki and her grown-up son came over and spent about an hour getting acquainted with the kittens while discussing cat-matters with me and Matt and his parents. She explained that she had lost her two senior cats over the past few years and had just recently gotten to where she was ready to re-establish a feline presence in the home. She had no other animals, no small children, plenty of space, and generally just seemed to have everything nicely lined up to accommodate taking on a pair of kittens. Things were looking very promising!

Moreover, in watching her and her son interact with the little cats it became quickly evident that there was a tremendous amount of respect there...both for cats in general and these two in particular. E.g., I had been a bit concerned that potential adopters would be charmed by Bruce's gregarious, easygoing nature but would find Ella's independent-mindedness difficult to understand or deal with.

(Ella is not feral, mind you -- the siblings basically had identical early socialization experiences and lived indoors together starting at two days old -- but from the start Ella was less inclined to cuddle at random and more inclined to insist on her own way when it came to pretty much everything.

This is, of course, a perfectly normal feline personality variant, and it's the sort of thing that (in my experience) does not in any way preclude such a kitten growing up into an incredibly affectionate (but still strong-willed) adult cat. My ex-feral girl Coraline is very, very much like this and I wouldn't trade her for anything. But still...I was pleasantly surprised when Aki and son both in so many words commented (regarding Ella): "well, she's a CAT!" Because she is. And they understood as well that it would be a wonderful thing for the siblings to grow up together.By the end of that first meeting everyone present was in agreement that there was no need to look any further: Bella's kittens had found their humans.)

[OH, and it probably bears mention at this point that the siblings' first vet trip yielded the news that rather than brother and sister..."Bruce" and Ella are in fact sister and sister.

"Bruce" has been re-named Blue (which makes sense, given it sounds enough like Bruce such that she likely still recognizes it), and while I told Aki she was of course welcome to choose whatever names seemed best, it looks as if Ella will remain Ella. Which also makes sense, and which I still keep finding myself mentally appending "Enchanted" to...this is one kitten who definitely has a mind of her own, after all.]

Anyway, to make a long story slightly less long...logistics were discussed, important matters like spay/neuter were worked out, and the kittens went home with their new humans within short order. Aki has been sending me pictures (like the one below) and updates, and as they actually live fairly close by, I've even been to visit them once.

As for how they're doing, overall, all signs point to "great"! Blue took the move totally in stride and settled in almost immediately. Ella, meanwhile, being more of the "look before leaping" persuasion (versus her sister's "jump in headfirst!" approach to life) spent a few days peering out suspiciously from underneath a towel shelf and only really playing/eating when the humans were asleep. Aki was a bit concerned by the contrast between Ella's and Blue's reactions to moving, so she and I exchanged some emails brainstorming ideas on how to help Ella feel more comfortable and confident. Then, when I visited I demonstrated some of Ella's favorite types of interactive play (many of which involved vigorous feather-catching, like this...

...and like this!)

She apparently stayed out of hiding the rest of the day after I left, and when I did see her, she definitely seemed to be right on the edge of "I am SUSPICIOUS of this situation!" and "oh hey this is super fun and awesome here!" Anyhow, though, whether due to these efforts or the simple passage of time, Ella seems to be getting bolder by the day, and we are all sure she'll do fine.

Now, on to the next bit of news. It seemed very quiet in Matt's parents' house right when Ella and Blue went home with their new humans...but that lasted all of about a day, as the following week entailed 2 nights of trapping. In the end we successfully managed to get 3 more colony cats spayed/neutered, hooray!

Two of them were "teenage" kittens just about large enough to be fixed (meaning they were fairly naive and easy to trap), but one of them was this enormous beautiful grey tabby tom who looked a fair bit like Ella about the eyes. All three trap-ees had uncomplicated surgeries and bounced back quickly after returning home to the colony grounds. The little black boy kitten we had neutered on Tuesday morning even managed to re-trap himself on Wednesday night (which was hilarious in that he seemed totally unfazed by this -- he didn't fight to get out, he just sat there and calmly finished all the tuna I'd baited the trap with!).

We've still got a few "stragglers" out there in need of TNR-ing, and I'm guessing it's going to be tricky to get them (as they're mainly the older, much warier colony members) but as with many things, persistence is key. Matt's dad already has the next round of appointments set up at the Humane Society in November...here's hoping we manage to make use of all of them.

...and after all that, I am not sure how to gracefully conclude this post, other than to encourage any readers who haven't already to visit the link above to Alley Cat Allies' page describing National Feral Cat Day. Thanks for reading! Mew!

Brief update and kitten status!

Gah, I was posting more for a while there but these past few weeks have been ridiculously busy. That said, Bella's kittens are seven weeks old as of today! They are doing wonderfully, and Bella has an appointment to be spayed next week.

...but technical details aside, no post about kittens is complete without pictures! Observe below:

Above, the siblings snuggle-wrestling on a round cardboard scratcher toy thing. This here is a huge part of why I really REALLY hope someone can adopt them both together.

Here they are in play mode. Ella is checking out a feather, while Bruce is trying to climb me (these are very bold kitties!).

Bruce is a big fan of all things food-related. Here he is trying a bit of raw beef.

...and here is Bella (mom-cat!) watching the feather toy. She's a very energetic jumper but was taking a rest here to just watch. She's getting more comfortable having humans in the room with her but is still untouchable. Which is fine...I don't want strange humans petting me, either! I am just glad she's not panicking at this point from being cooped up. OH and see her ears? She has some *really* neat wild-looking ear markings. They almost resemble ocelli.

...and finally, at least for this picture set, here is tiny Ella sneaking around near the door. (The brown fuzzy thing next to her is a stuffed toy, not another cat!). 

Bella's kittens at 3 weeks: open eyes and exploration!

Bella's kittens were three weeks old this past Saturday!

Their eyes are open now, and they're getting very curious about their surroundings. When I visited this past weekend, they got to explore the bathroom a bit:

They seem to want to be together all the time, even when exploring. They stuck close together as they wobble-walked across the vinyl tile. We're really hoping to find a forever-home with someone who can adopt them as a pair. 

They're getting a lot more wiggly and active, but they're still babies and thus they get tired pretty quickly. Here above they are after a vigorous round of nursing (Bella was off taking a break when I snapped this picture -- I don't blame her!).

Above, Matt's mom (that's her hand) is holding the larger, darker grey kitten, as she was checking for sticky eyes. Both babies are breathing just fine and not sneezing or anything, thank goodness -- just a bit of the crusty-eyes thing, which has been getting steadily better since their eyes opened up.

...and here we have the other/smaller kitten, who seems to be following in Cora's pawprints as far as a sense of adventure goes. The kittens were moved to a much larger, nicer crate shortly after this photo was taken -- one with openings that should be narrow enough to avoid anyone's head fitting through. This actually scared the crap out of me when it was happening...I was worried she was going to get stuck, or worse, injure her neck somehow. Thankfully she was fine but still.

...and finally, one picture showing 2/3 of the family. The larger kitten is barely visible nursing at left. You can see one grey paw but not much more than that. Bella, meanwhile, is sniffing at some treats I put in for her, and the smaller kitten is looking at the whole affair with considerable interest (ears forward and everything!).

Oh and while of course whoever adopts them may well re-name them, we're sort of tentatively trying out the names Ella (for the probable-girl kitten) and Bruce (for the probable-boy). I think it's good to be able to refer to kittens to something other than their fur color and/or size. Matt's niece actually suggested Ella because it rhymes with Bella. Personally I think that could get confusing, but at the same time...it does seem to fit! And it reminds me of Ella Enchanted, which would work with this kitten's personality. As for Bruce, I have no clue where Matt got that one but, again, it weirdly fits.

Bella and kittens, day 5

Picture post! Took these earlier this evening. Bella was looking at me in a very stabby fashion when I first walked into Matt's parents' guest bathroom. The lighting in this one makes it look like she is about to interrogate me or something.

Also, if you look closely in the lower left, there is KITTEN BUTTHOLE. I think that one might be a boy but it's too soon to tell for sure.

Bella relaxed a lot once she realized I was not going to touch her babies (or her). We're trying not to handle them at all at least until their eyes are open anyway so as not to stress anyone out. She looks SO exhausted, though, and she isn't even remotely interested in leaving the bathroom, probably because the babies are sucking her dry! 

Matt's mom says she is eating all her food and drinking all her water at night, though, and it is beginning to show in how fast the babies are growing. I was shocked to see how much bigger they were after only a few days. They're more like the size of fat hamsters now (rather than mice) and they have excellent little kitten potbellies. So while they're not "out of the woods" yet they are definitely looking stronger. Their eyes aren't even open yet but they are nonetheless crawling all over the crate and all over their mom!

Bella and her kittens: good news and bad...

I'll get the bad news over with first: Matt's mom called today with the very sad news that two of Bella's kittens have died. Which is horrible but not entirely unexpected. I was astounded that she managed to even fit four babies inside her to begin with, and while of course hoping they would all live once they were born, I was not optimistic that they would all make it past the critical 2-week period. I never really know what to say about this sort of thing other than reporting the facts and acknowledging how sad those facts are, but believe me, despite their short lives I will not ever forget those tiny cats. I am glad they at least got to smell the dirt and the leaves under the blackberry bramble and to know the warmth of nestling with their siblings.

Okay before I start crying my eyes out here...I'll get to the good news. Which is that Matt's mom has managed to coax Bella into the house! She is there in the same fostering crate that Jack used when he was a baby -- with her two remaining offspring. Who by all accounts are doing well and "nursing constantly". I will get to go see them tomorrow evening and provided nothing changes between now and then, there will hopefully be more pictures of adorableness to behold. I am really, really rooting for this little family, and quite relieved that despite RRRRRR-ing at all approaching humans, Bella is reportedly eating a lot and starting to relax. We will let her nurse the babies and otherwise care for them without being bothered for at least a few weeks, and then bring her in for spaying. Then will come the task of finding adoptive homes for the babies -- the person who originally expressed interest has backed out, but I am determined that we will find the right person or people to take on these little ones.

Brief Bella Update: Four kittens! FOUR!

Seriously, I have no clue how she fit them all inside her, but there were definitely four of them mewing under the blackberry bushes today when I went to check. Observe:

It's still going to be precarious for a while yet (at least 2 weeks) given how tiny these larval-stage kitties are and how small their mom is but I am more optimistic now than I was last night. At the very least, Bella has definitely cleaned off the babies quite nicely (in the picture you can see how soft and fluffy their fur is), and they don't seem to have crusty eyes or anything. And they (and Mom) are eating a ton, so that's promising too.

We could have easily picked the kittens up today and brought them into the house (with the idea being that Bella would follow and live mostly indoors until the family could be taken in for spay/neuter). But between me and Matt and his mom the consensus was unanimous that we should probably leave well enough alone for now. Bella is relatively bold for a feral cat but she is still far from being socialized to humans and we would not want to breach the trust she seems to be gaining in us. And as long as she is taking care of her babies it is best that she be able to do so with minimal stress and I think she'd have a pink fit if any primates touched her offspring at this point.

Kittenbirth!

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So, Matt and I were on the way to find lunch and run some typical Saturday errands earlier today when his mom called, asking if we could possibly stop by and help her and Matt's dad troubleshoot a leaky washing machine. Thus, once we'd eaten we headed over to the parental homestead, and as luck would have it, we arrived pretty much just in time to see Bella show up at the feeding station. Unfortunately I didn't have my good camera with me -- just the one in my cell phone -- so the small picture below is the only one I was able to get of her:

When I took the photo I didn't know that the kittens were THAT close to emerging, but it was clear that something was going on. Despite the fact that she was still engaging in normal cattish activities like eating and playing, Bella was definitely walking with a bit of a "waddling" gait, and her back end was covered in a clear, slick substance that I soon realized must be amniotic fluid (meaning her water had broken). She wandered around the patio for about half an hour, then proceeded to make a beeline for a cardboard box Matt's mom had placed some old cushions and bathroom rugs in near the back of the house. And for a while she just sat in the box, breathing heavily and slow-blinking her eyes.

Meanwhile, something very interesting was going on with the other cats in the vicinity. There were maybe 4 or 5 of them, and before going to lie down in her box, Bella actually went over and approached each of them in turn, gave them a very intense look, waited for them to respond, and then walked away. Most of her feline cohorts simply gave her a brief sniff, blink, or nod, the one exception being Toby (the resident Queen Bee Boss Cat of the yard), who hissed and then trotted off looking annoyed.

I really wish I'd been able to film these interactions because I'd never seen anything quite like them before. Again, I can't even begin to offer an exact cat-to-English translation, but it was clear that something was being communicated. And then once Bella had taken her place in the box, I saw no less than three other female cats (who were all spayed, mind you) arrange themselves in a semicircle around her at a distance of maybe 10-15 feet from where she lay. As for me, I sat on a bench on the patio. I would have gone into the house but Bella didn't seem bothered by my presence -- in fact, she seemed to prefer it when I was there. At one point I did briefly get up to use the house bathroom, only to be informed by Matt's mom that when I'd entered the house, Bella had sat up, looked in my direction, and meowed!

But anyway...I'll get to the actual kitten-birthing I saw. It was simultaneously more awkward-looking and less gross than I'd expected it would be. Bella didn't explode with fluids or poop everywhere when the kitten started emerging, which was kind of a relief (I've read WAY too many horrifying birth stories apparently). What she did do, though, once the head began poking out was get up out of the box and walk over to the little rug under the food bowl. I think at that point she needed to stand up and move around more than the box allowed so that gravity could assist the kitten in popping out. And pop out the kitten did! Seriously, it was like Bella just did this one massive forward-sideways PUSH thing once she was standing up and suddenly there was a whole kitten AND a placenta dangling from her nethers.

At that point Bella seemed to sort of "shift into high gear". She was a little freaked out by what had just happened, and (this is the part I would describe as "awkward") spent about 20 seconds running in place in a tight circle with the kitten hanging down doing head-spins on the concrete (all the while going EEE! EEEEEE!). Needless to say, I got a bit worried at this point and hoped Bella wasn't too wigged out to cut the umbilical cord. But thankfully she figured it out and within another few seconds had the kitten in her mouth by the scruff. Which she then proceeded to carry off to the bushes. I had been hoping she'd go back to the box to have the rest, but my guess is at that point her instinct to seek deeper cover kicked in.

...so, to make a long story slightly shorter, as of right now I don't know whether she is even finished birthing yet. I will have to check with Matt's mom. Right now, though, I am just glad that Bella seemed to be getting through the process without complications despite her small size. Ideally Matt's mom will be able to coax her into the house where she will be welcome to nest in the bathroom for as long as she likes -- this will help immensely with both keeping Bella safe until she is strong enough to be spayed and with making sure the kittens can start acclimating to humans as soon as possible. As much as I know a feral cat can have a plenty worthwhile life without much, if any, human contact, being able to adopt out kittens is a very important part of good colony management as it helps maintain a stable-to-decreasing population (which means better living conditions for all the cats concerned). And in this case Matt even has a co-worker who may be able to adopt one of the kittens, provided they survive (which is still touch-and-go and will be until it's established that they're all actually born, and alive, and nursing, etc.). I'm planning on trying to make a case for her adopting two!

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When kittens have kittens

Feline reproduction evolved in harsh desert environments where, despite being predators themselves, small cats tended to become the prey of larger animals. Being able to produce many offspring starting at a very young parental age was necessary in order for the survival of the species. Needless to say, the modern human-populated environs many cats today call home are a far cry from those their ancestors lived in. Which is one reason there are so many feral cats.

So, as I've written before, in the absence of any evidence that cats are banding together to start their own family-planning clinics. it falls to us -- the humans who share communities with them -- to help them out in this department. Mind you, I wish there was some way to do it that did not involve surgery, but the way things are now, the consequences for cats of not being spayed or neutered are frankly tragic. I won't go into any graphic descriptions here, as I'm sure most readers already know what I am talking about, but suffice to say that I would be totally fine with calling a moratorium on "breeding" cats until all the existing  ones get homes.

But I digress. The title of this post refers to a situation that I've seen happen -- or almost happen -- more than once in the local colony. Right now there's a beautiful, TINY tabby cat named Bella (Matt named her, and no, he was not making a 'Twilight' reference!) who currently looks like she's managed to swallow a whole cantaloupe. Unfortunately I have no pictures of her yet but I will try and get one. According to Matt's mom, Bella has been hanging around the house a lot lately (very common when female cats are 'nesting' -- even feral ones will tend to become much braver around humans if they see putting up with us as a sensible tradeoff for the safety of their babies).

I don't know how old she is, but probably under a year -- I'd guess seven months or thereabouts.  She's one of the little females that managed to evade the last round of trapping, and who then seemed to disappear for a while, only to show up quite thoroughly gravid. Still, her overall body size (aside from her belly) looks like that of about a typical four month old kitten, probably because this is not even her first litter. She's had at least one prior to this, though Matt's mom found the resultant kittens after they were born and they appeared to have either been stillborn or just too small to have managed to live a day.

But in any event, while I know some cats are just genetically small, I suspect that Bella's size is largely due to growth attenuation caused by early pregnancy and consequent nutrient deprivation. I have no idea if this impending batch of kittens will be born viable but either way, I plan on making sure it is her last litter...that way she might at least get to finish growing up herself. All I can think of when I see her is how there but for the grace of chance goes Cora -- who herself first went into heat at a mere 4 months of age!

Coraline, Calendar Cat!

A while back, on a whim, I submitted the photo below (which I've posted on this blog previously, but am re-posting for easy reference) of Coraline climbing the orange tree in my yard to Alley Cat Allies in response to a call for pictures for their 2013 calendar.

I didn't expect anything to come of it, but lo and behold, I got an email last week indicating my picture had been accepted. So now, presuming the designers can fit the photo to their layout (there was a disclaimer in the note I received) Cora gets to be a calendar cat.

Of course this isn't some kind of earth-shaking event, but Alley Cat Allies is definitely doing good work (advocating for TNR and encouraging/educating people to take responsibility for the cats in their community) and I am delighted to be able to contribute something that they can use in their literature and publications. I suspect Cora would approve as well, given she herself started out as a feral kitten and if not for the material on ACA's website I might not have had the confidence to actually try my hand at Trap-Neuter-Adopt (for Cora and her brothers) or Trap-Neuter-Return (which many of their colony cousins have since benefitted from).

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A Chance For Jack

We (meaning me, my partner Matt, and his parents) have had something of a fumbling start getting the local feral cat colony into a "managed" state, but things are getting better. Sometimes I look out into the feeding area and see no less than eight or so cats -- all sleek, clear-eyed, glossy-coated, and ear-tipped (indicating their TNRed status).

We've still got a ways to go, however, and I know of at least three unspayed females -- all of whom had litters in April or May of this year. I've thus far seen two solid grey babies, three black ones, and two tiny tabbies. There may have been more but either they didn't survive or are still being hidden by their mothers. It is also hard to tell which kittens belong to which mama -- this is common in feral colonies, though, as female cats (especially sisters or mother-daughter groups) will trade babysitting duties.

Unfortunately, despite the cooperative mothering that can occur in groups of outdoor cats, sometimes kittens still get abandoned. We suspect that to be the case with the kitten below:



This little guy's name is Jack, and in this photo (taken this past weekend) he is resting on the sofa with Matt's mom. We think he's maybe 8 - 10 weeks old, but he could be older -- he is very underweight. When I held him it felt like his backbone was about to poke through his skin.

Matt's mom (with help from 10-year-old niece Julie) managed to catch him pretty easily in the back yard without even employing a trap; this is not a good sign, as a feral kitten that can't move fast enough to run away generally isn't a very healthy kitten. We'd been seeing him around for a while but he never seemed to be "with" the other kittens -- rather, he sort of hung around on the periphery, and has always (since we started noticing him) been much smaller than the rest.

Of course Jack will be taken in for neutering eventually, but right now the priority is getting him well. One reason for his alarming skinniness became apparent to me when I happened to peek under his tail: Jack's got tapeworms. Big time. Or rather, he had tapeworms -- hopefully the medication has worked by now. Various worms are capable of infecting cats, and roundworms are more common than tapeworms, but tapeworms have a pretty distinctive, um, style, and thanks to Shadow's tapeworm adventure when he was five months old I got a very effective lesson in recognizing them.

Cats get tapeworms either from fleas (which are a necessary element of the worm's life cycle) or infected rodents. I am fairly certain Shadow got his from a flea, but whatever the vector, I am quite vigilant these days about not letting anyone's monthly topical parasite treatment lapse. I learned the hard way that just because a cat stays indoors all or most of the time doesn't mean they can't get cooties. Fleas can hitch-hike in on your clothes, for instance, especially if you spend any amount of time around groups of cats, and given my feral-colony dealings I try to be mindful of this.

But back to tapeworms. The first sign of Shadow's wormage was the little pile of what I initially believed to be sesame seeds in between my sofa cushions. Which was odd to begin with, considering I couldn't recall having eaten anything with sesame seeds on it at any point in the preceding months. Later that day my uneasy feeling was validated when I noticed that Shadow had a number of what looked like grains of rice stuck to the fur under his tail.

I fleetingly hoped that he'd just, you know, sat in a bowl of rice or something -- but then I saw that the "rice" was moving.

Ew.

Thankfully, two doses of praziquantel took care of the beasties that had set up shop in my (then) little black cat. Everyone else got dosed too, of course, just to be on the safe side, and the only side effect I observed was (in Cora's case) "excessive salivation", which resolved on its own within a few minutes.

Praziquantel is available under several brand names but the stuff I got was simply labeled "tape worm tabs". I've seen it at pet stores but it's generally ridiculously expensive there; I ended up buying it online and only spent a quarter of what I would have locally.

You can't just use regular wormer (e.g., the piperazine stuff easily found in grocery stores) because that will usually only get rid of roundworms. Tapeworms are essentially like those monsters in video games that can regenerate themselves indefinitely until you get to the source, and the praziquantel does something chemically to permit the head to be digested and passed uneventfully out of the body.

In any event, the point of all this is that if you live or work with cats, I highly recommend having tapeworm meds in your stock of Kitty First Aid supplies. Because I had two whole bottles left over from Shadow's wormisode, Jack was able to get treated without delay. Yay! Now hopefully he will start gaining some weight. He's still got a stuffy nose (hence the slightly open mouth in the photo above) and might need a vet trip for some antibiotics, but he is definitely looking more alert these days.

I will be sure to get another picture when I next visit, and of course if anyone local reading this blog has been looking for a kitten, please feel free to inquire! One area I would like to improve upon in terms of colony management is that of removing adoptable kittens and finding them permanent homes. Outdoor, unsocialized cats can of course lead perfectly happy lives (so long as they've got ample access to food, shelter, etc.) but it really makes it MUCH easier to care for those that cannot be adopted when colony populations are kept on the small side.

Newbies

It was weird...for a while after we (meaning me, Matt, and his parents) got three pairs of cats Trap-Neuter-Returned, it seemed like every cat we saw was already eartipped (meaning they were someone who'd already had their trip to the clinic). Thus, we've been holding off making appointments pending the stragglers coming out of wherever they've been hiding.

That said, it looks like we're going to be starting up the trapping again real soon. There are at least three unspayed females still at large, and from what I can tell, two of them recently had litters. Current calculations estimate a minimum of seven new kittens in the neighborhood.

Here is one of the newbies I managed to catch on camera the other day:



This little guy/girl (haven't been able to get close enough to determine which yet) is one of a litter of four. Two solid grey, two brown and black tabbies.

Here is a closeup of Grey Kitten #1 munching on a quail leg. No, s/he didn't catch the quail -- I very boringly got it at the supermarket. (Getting feral kittens to the point where they will even come near enough to the traps to venture inside can be a task in itself, so I figured I'd bring them a bit of quail as a friendship offering. They were, needless to say, enthused.)



The next picture actually has three cats in it, though the one in back (Grey Kitten #2) is sort of hard to see. Grey Kitten #1 is still munching away at the quail leg in the foreground, while adolescent kittygirl Dominique watches with great interest (she already finished her quail leg, and was probably wondering if the little guys were going to drop any leftovers!).



...and finally we have some actual clear pictures of Radar, who is my current number-one suspected baby-daddy to the little grey newbies (the resemblance is quite apparent).

Genealogically speaking, Radar is the son of Coal, elder brother of Cora, Brodie, and Shadow, and littermate of Suzie. Unfortunately we've not yet managed to catch him for neutering, and he's managed to become one of the current reigning toms. Whilst quite dashing and popular with the ladies, Radar is generally too shy around humans to even come out during daylight hours. I'm guessing the only reason he was out and about when this picture was taken was because, with kittens recently weaned, one or more of the local momcats has come back into heat. :/



Above, Radar is mildly startled to find a camera pointed at him. I thought he would run away, but he didn't this time.



...but as this last picture shows, he probably didn't run because, well, Buddy (another local boycat) had been dragging around a catnip-filled sock. From the looks of it, Radar found some residue from this on the concrete, because he spent several minutes rolling around and drooling and looking altogether, well, catnipped. (Which has me wondering if maybe putting catnip in/near the TNR traps might increase our catch rate! Anyone know whether this has been tried?)

Tall Cat Is Tall

As I mentioned in my last post relating my joy at finding a cheap, suitably sized litter box, Brodie and Shadow are growing up to be pretty big guys. Sometimes it even seems like they might still be growing! Which is cool, of course. I've never understood people who get all disappointed when kittens grow up. Tiny babycats are certainly totally darling, but big strapping grownup cats have their own particular brand of awesomeness, and my guys have more awesomeness than you could shake a stick at.

Observe below, as Shadow awesomely tries to get a head start on his dinner:





It's hard to convey a sense of scale unless photos are taken with the cat standing next to something of known and/or obvious proportions. The above photos do a pretty decent job of illustrating Shadow's impressive tallitude, though: note that the kitchen island Shadow's got his paws on here is 36" (about one meter) high. Meaning Shadow is that tall standing up (as in, measured from top of head to bottom of back feet). Clearly I'd better be careful what I leave near the edge of the counters!

TNR Report #3: Herding Cats, For Real! Also, Mr. Mom.

Whew, what a week! Short version: two more cats have been TNRed at the time of this writing, which means six cats total from the colony have been spayed or neutered since the beginning of last week.

Not bad, and definitely a good start, but I was really hoping for eight (especially given we had eight appointments reserved). The Humane Society folks assured me that this sort of thing happens all the time, as you can't really guarantee you will actually get the number of cats you've made appointments for, but still. Color me annoyed.

Monday night's session went well: we managed to catch Dominique's shy sister Michelle (who is all black with a little white "locket" on her chest):


(Michelle watching me and the camera from a table)

...and a little marble tabby girl we haven't named yet who may well be one of Mimi's siblings judging from her size. So that was good.


(Tiny tabby girl with the high beams on -- this is actually the clearest picture I've got of her thus far)

Wednesday night's session, on the other hand, was...chaotic, to say the least. Matt and I stuck it out monitoring and attending to traps well into the late eve‌ning, but ultimately had to admit defeat (our own kitties were home waiting for their dinner, after all!). Matt's parents said they would monitor the traps for a while after we went home and I am sure they did, but I haven't heard from them yet today and I'm not optimistic that anyone actually ended up being trapped.

See, things started out promising. I began by cleaning the traps and setting up all four of them (three regular-sized and one kitten-sized) out in the general area frequented by the cats. At that point it was still light out, and as they'd not been fed yet, kitties were starting to mill around the patio area anticipating their dinner.

Then, just as I started getting ready to actually bait the traps, Toby (former rescue kitten, now the resident Territorial Boss Lady) decided for whatever reason to go around and spritz her signature scent on said traps.


(Toby disapproves of this ridiculousness!)

And when her (feral) younger brother Gryff got wind of his sister's aromatic graffiti, of course he had to go and overmark it with his own eau-de-pheromone.

Anyhow, since Toby's determination to mark the equipment wasn't evident on trapping days prior, my guess is that this time I didn't clean the smells of the other cats (not to mention the "clinic smell" which can be a major feline anxiety trigger) off the traps well enough. Needless to say, lesson learned! Prior to the next session I will most assuredly make sure the traps are liberally sprayed with enzymatic cleaner and thoroughly wiped down and air-dried.

[The newer enzyme sprays ("Nature's Miracle", "Anti Icky Poo", and similar) are really good at destroying the proteins or whatever the stuff in cat urine is that flashes up a giant SPRAY HERE! sign once applied to an object, but you really have to give them time to work, and last night I didn't get a chance to do that in any more than a cursory manner. ]

I may also try to corral Toby in the house or garage next time, seeing as even when she wasn't spraying she seemed determined to meddle in every way possible with what I was doing (she ended up IN a trap at one point when her curiosity got the better of her). She is very much like Nikki in that once she sets her mind on something there's just no arguing with her.

Mind you, of course I don't think ill of Toby for her actions. From a feline standpoint she was acting in accordance with perfectly sensible Cat Logic, and in general she's this awesome sweet bossy ladycat that I am always happy to visit with. She just needs to stay the heck away from my traps on TNR days!

So...I repeat, what a week! I am not sure when the next trapping night will be. It has to be relatively soon if we want to really stabilize the colony population, but given the mess that was last night I am proposing waiting a week or two before trying again. Between Toby's meddling, the neighbor's loud motorcycle (which arrived next door at the worst possible moment, when the ferals were just starting to emerge from the shadows), and assorted other Elements of Certain Chaos I wouldn't be surprised if the shyer cats we really need to start targeting will take a few days to re-establish their routine. And the routine (especially as it pertains to feeding) is really important for successful TNR.

All that said, one thing I am happy with that we managed yesterday was getting Blue into the house.


(Blue on the patio, looking apprehensive)

Blue has been fighting an upper respiratory infection for a while now, and while it seemed much better on Clinic Day, it looked much worse yesterday evening.

Like worse with eyes practically crusted shut, nose completely sealed off by matted dried mucus and hair, and breathing through the mouth due to nasal blockage. Matt's mom, awesome lady that she is, said she'd take Blue to the vet if she could get the obviously under-the-weather kitty inside, and this didn't end up being very difficult at all.

So anyway. Blue went to the vet. The diagnosis of "respiratory infection" was no surprise at all -- but we were all REALLY surprised to learn that "she" was really a "he"! You'd think the Humane Society would have mentioned that little detail, as I presume they neutered (as opposed to spayed) him last week, but still. Wow. Clearly, Blue isn't actually Dominique and Michelle's mother after all, despite the fact that he was sure as heck acting like Mom to them.

And as for how the other boy cats were treating him -- I'd thought they were doing the chase-and-grab thing as part of whatever passes for feline courtship, but now I'm guessing they were trying to fight him.

Anyhow, I really do wish sometimes that I could learn the stories of all these cats that show up. Who knows what kind of environment Blue and Dominique and Michelle came out of, and who knows if (or how) they are even actually related?

Blue is definitely a Siamese mix of some sort (he's got snowshoe points), but he could still be the girls' littermate or older brother. Litters of random-bred kittens can easily be comprised of both "pointed" and non-pointed cats, and as I've noted before, littermates can even all have different fathers due to the manner in which feline reproduction works. And Blue isn't that much bigger than the girls.

Or -- and at this point I'm considering this the likelier case -- Blue could just be an unrelated boy cat who for whatever reason "adopted" the girls he showed up with. Despite his being a relatively little guy, something about him just feels older. I'd picked up on that somewhat even when I thought he was the girls' mom, but still hadn't figured on her (his) being more than a year or two old.

Now, though, I wonder about that estimate. True he's sick right now so that might be adding a layer of confounding weariness to his bearing, but still, at this point I wouldn't be shocked to find out he was seven years of age or even older. And if he's younger than that, ye gads, I don't even want to imagine what he's likely been through.

That aside, it's not unheard of for male cats to occasionally choose the nursemaid role, though I guess it's sort of unusual for an un-neutered male to do this.

Either way, he's been a great nanny/protector to Dominique and Michelle and while again there's no way to objectively confirm this, I get the sense that all three of them had it pretty rough wherever they were before this past December. I have definitely seen cats band together in times of great stress and it really looks like that's what happened with this little family.

TNR Report #2: Dominique and Mimi

Thanks to everyone who offered well-wishing for Wednesday's trapping session...it ended up going just as smoothly as the first session, even though it started raining just as I was getting ready to set the traps. Woot!

Getting the first kitty this time felt kind of like cheating because it was Dominique (who decided a while back of her own accord to start hanging around with the local primates and even occasionally gracing us with purrs and head-butts). I think she picked up on the fact that something was going on, though, because usually she runs right up to me when she sees me and this time she sort of hung back and eyed me warily.

Still, she walked right into the trap as I sat next to it, just like her mom, Blue, had on Monday. Of course I don't know this for sure, not being privy to her (or any cat's) innermost mental processes, but it looked to me like she KNEW she'd get stuck if she walked into the trap but ultimately decided the sardines were worth it!

(Whole Foods, while colloquially called "Whole Paycheck" in these parts for reasons obvious to any non-millionaire who visits the store, actually carries a surprisingly inexpensive line of canned cat foods. The "Sardines in Jelly" variety is probably going to be my go-to trapping bait of choice from now on, because ye gads, the kitties go utterly batty for it. After trapping I put the rest of the can out on a paper plate for the other colony cats to finish off and I swear it was like sharks at a feeding frenzy!)

Kitty #2 (who has since been named Mimi) was by necessity trapped in the more traditional "bait trap, set trap, walk away, and watch from a distance" manner. She (and we only found out she was a "she" when we brought her to the clinic) was a very shy but thoroughly scrappy little girl kitten. She's solid black and a bit smaller than Dominique -- probably three or four months old. I'd been seeing her occasionally for about a month, and always alone, which is pretty weird. Usually feral kittens initially show up with their mothers to eat, but I have no idea who Mimi's mom is, or if she has any siblings. She looks very healthy and not emaciated or anything so it's doubtful she was orphaned; more likely she's just got a very wary and secretive mom, and possibly littermates even more shy than she is. But in any case, she doesn't need to worry about becoming a "teenage mother" now.

Anyway, both Mimi and Dominique came through their spay surgeries just fine, and have now rejoined their companions and family outside. Stay tuned for further updates of next week's sessions -- we're repeating the same routine next week -- and (hopefully) pictures!

Happy Birthday to the Formerly Feral Trio!

Well technically we do not know the EXACT date on which they were born, but going by the vet's estimate of their age on their first visit last year, I determined that August 15 was close enough to serve as the "official" date. So I just wanted to post here in celebration of Coraline, Brodie, and Shadow reaching one year old!

Here are some photos from their first year:

Tiny Coraline and Brodie, during their first week post-adoption. They were still completely feral at this point (not to mention covered with fleas and infested with coccidia parasite). Both weighed just about 2 pounds.




Tiny Shadow during his first week here. He was trapped 3 weeks after his siblings, when they were all around 10 weeks old. I had been all prepared for a VERY wild kitten that would take ages to get used to (some) humans, if he ever did, but Shadow ended up surprising everyone by settling down and deciding I was okay (and Matt wasn't bad either) within a mater of days!




Tiny Shadow climbing the scratching post (a home-made one that was eventually incorporated into the Kitchen Cat Platform Thing). Nowadays the post isn't much of a "climb" for him, seeing as he is now taller than it when he stands up on his hind legs!




Tiny Coraline playing in my shoes!




Tiny Brodie sneaking across the bed (the kittens were JUST beginning to settle down...at that point they would sleep and play on the bed when there were no humans about, but they would dive under the bed whenever I or Matt walked into the room).




Tiny Brodie having just woken up from a nap (Cora can be seen partially in the background, still resting her eyes). I think they were maybe 12 weeks old here. In order to get these pictures I had to move veeeerrrry sloooooowly so the kittens did not get startled. (In general that is a polite thing to do around cats in general when the cats don't know you well, not just feral cats. Also it is important not to stare directly into their eyes because many cats find that threatening.)




The trio napping on my bed, at around 4 months old. (Cora had just been spayed -- that little outfit she is wearing was actually a sock modified with holes, so that she would have something protecting her incision.):




The trio playing in sunbeams on the bed, at around 5 months old:



The trio in the kitchen, dazzled by sunbeams again:



Cora in the sunbeams:




As they grow from kittenhood into catolescence, you can fully expect young kitties to start taking over the sofa, but it will be so adorable you won't care. (Nikki stays at a safe distance on the arm of the couch):




Honestly, could YOU move these guys?!:



Takeovers of beds also increase in magnitude and intensity as the youngsters near 6-8 months of age:



...and by the time they're a year old, you may expect to find folding the laundry simply isn't what it used to be!

Cora and Brodie, Then and Now

This picture was taken only a few days after Cora and Brodie first came home with me (they were just about 7-8 weeks old):



...and this one was taken recently (they're about 10 months old here):



It is amazing how much they've grown and changed AND how much they've essentially stayed the same in some respects. They are still utterly devoted to each other, at any rate (Brodie and Shadow are best friends as well -- Brodie is like the "glue" of the sibling trio).

(Oh and if it is not apparent, in both pictures Cora is on the left and Brodie is on the right. They also started off roughly the same size -- about 2 pounds when they moved in -- but now Brodie is nearly twice Cora's weight and quite a bit longer/taller than she is.)

On Indoor-Outdoor Agnosticism

At this point in my life I would consider myself "agnostic" (or rather, firmly in the "it depends" camp) as far as the question of whether cats "should" go outdoors at all or be kept strictly indoors. But this has not always been the case.

Cat researcher Sarah Hartwell's take on "The Indoor Outdoor Debate" was quite an eye-opener for me. In particular, I found the following very surprising:

In Britain an estimated 88%-92% of cats have access to outdoors. The percentage of indoor-only cats corresponds to the percentage of pedigree cats in the pet population. Some are restricted to securely fenced gardens or are supervised by the owner, but most have free access to the outside world, often via their own cat flap. Cat shelters quiz owners about their lifestyle and many require that the cat has access to a garden. Shelters do not, however, refuse to home cats as indoor-only pets if this is right for the individual cat concerned and for the owner. In America the situation is almost the reverse of that in Britain with most shelters refusing to home cats unless the cat is to be kept strictly indoors (except for specialist rescues dealing with feral cats; these seek locations where the risks are acceptable for the non-tame cats concerned).

Apparently, until very recently, I've been looking at the question of in-versus-out for cats from a very, well, American frame of mind. My default perspective for years has been that "ideally" cats ought to be kept indoors, with exceptions being made only for feral cats, working cats (e.g., barn or factory mousers), or cats whose humans come from generations prior to my own when letting felines roam was just "the thing to do" (and who haven't caught up with the times, so to speak). And in keeping with this perspective, before I adopted my current pride of four, I assumed they would all be indoor-only.

My reasoning was mostly based on safety, as articles here, here, and here indicate many of the deadly dangers to outdoor cats, all of which are preventable if cats are kept indoors.*

However, recently I have reconsidered my position, and currently don't see the question of "should cats go outdoors or not?" as even really being one that makes sense outside the context of each individual feline's situation.

Of course there are some cats that should live solely indoors due to (for instance) health issues, e.g., those who are FIV-positive, or who belong to breeds whose physical characteristics render them vulnerable to the elements (e.g., hairless Sphynx cats being at risk of severe sunburn), or who have not yet been spayed or neutered.

And of course there are situations where it is simply physically infeasible or egregiously dangerous to let cats outdoors, such as when one lives at the top of a high-rise apartment complex, or at the edge of coyote-infested woods.**

In my (and the resident felines') case, neither of the above situations applies to us. All four cats here are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, FIV and FeLV negative, treated monthly with topical flea-preventative medication, and fully clawed (I am firmly against declawing cats, by the way, regardless of whether they're going to go outdoors or not). We live in a fairly average (for the area) suburban house, on a not-too-busy street (where perhaps one or two automobiles per hour go by throughout most of the day).

Given these factors, my present take on the situation is that yes, dangers exist outdoors that the cats would not be exposed to indoors -- but there are no "absolutes" that I can see demanding that I either keep them in all the time or let them out as a matter of obligation.

In other words, I do not believe that either keeping cats indoors or letting them outside is categorically "irresponsible" or "cruel". Rather, I think one really must take care to consider the particular cats, the particular environment, and so on, when determining what "access privileges" the resident kitties will have in a given home situation.

So, all that said, currently only one of my cats (Nikki) has any sort of unsupervised access to the outdoors.

Nikki's Compromise

If you will recall, I adopted Nikki from my parents in January 2010, when they moved out of state. And I might be a bit sketchy on the details, but as far as I know, my parents had kept Nikki indoors until she was about five years old. At some point they harness-trained her (which she took to very well), and after that she was outdoors some of the time.

Then, a dog joined their household for the first time, and it turned out that Nikki was, shall we say, not a dog person. An Epic Battle for Territory ensued (of the sort involving such lovely phenomena as middening), and Nikki ended up becoming a nearly full-time outdoor cat for about a year (prior to moving in with me, Matt, and the Formerly Feral Trio).

In any case, I kept Nikki indoors full-time for the first month or so of her being here, then started her out on leashed (and fully supervised) walks around the yard. She settled in very well (certainly better than one might have expected, given a highly territorial eight-year-old Siamese!). We had no "marking incidents" whatsoever; apparently Nikki prefers dealing with three rowdy kittens to one rowdy Dachshund, and I am sure having multiple litter boxes (an absolute essential in a multi-cat household) helped in this regard.

However, Nikki very clearly knew that the outdoors was there, and she told me repeatedly, and in no uncertain terms (lots of yowling at scratching at the door) that she wanted to be there. I also just generally get the distinct sense from her that she cannot abide being patronized (neither can I!), and when she was asking emphatically to go out she seemed to be saying something like "Come ON now! I'm an ADULT!" Which she is. And I am doing my best to respect her as an adult (and no, this is not "anthropomorphism" -- anyone who has spent any time around adult cats vs. kittens will likely see differences in "bearing" if they bother paying attention. Grownup cats know they're grownups, and they expect you to acknowledge this.).

So, after about another month, I let her out off the leash. She did not run away. She did not bolt into the street. What she did was almost immediately jump into my arms (out on the back patio) and purr.

"You're welcome,", I said. And I knew I'd made the right decision, or at least the right decision by Nikki.

Ever since then, she's had the liberty to come in and out as she pleases -- so long as (a) at least one human is home to act in the capacity of doorperson, and (b) it isn't dark outside.

Mostly she stays in her own back yard, with occasional forays into the next door neighbor's yard (on one side -- the people on the other side have a large dog, meaning Nikki is well inclined to steer clear!). She crossed the street a few times when she first started going out, but seems to have stopped doing that lately, following a series of negotiations with Allie (whose humans live directly across from us), another highly territorial ladycat.


"You stay on your side, and I'll stay on my side!"

And when I've been out with Nikki, I've noticed her general reaction to cars in motion is to move away from them, which indicates her overall sense of danger to be a fair sight better than my own (unlike her, I've actually been hit by a car!).

Hence, I am not exceedingly worried about Nikki going out these days, and she seems to be much happier with the situation now that she has garden access. Overall she probably spends maybe two or three hours outside a day, sometimes more on weekends (she likes to watch me and Matt do yard-work!), and less when it's raining or otherwise nasty out. It's a situation that largely works well for everyone here, human and feline alike.

Leash Training The Younglings

As for the youngster-kitties, so far only Coraline (surprise!) has shown any real interest in going outside. Brodie and Shadow will not even try to leave the house if the door is wide open right in front of them (though I don't push my luck in that regard, as I am sure if something startled them they might run in the direction of an open door).

Cora, on the other hand, has been very very interested in the door (and what lies beyond) for several months now. A while back (and I've alluded briefly to this before) I made what turned out to be a fiasco of an attempt at taking her out without first letting her get accustomed to the feel of the harness and leash -- essentially she got frightened and tried to bolt and squirm out of the harness, and I only barely got her back inside before she could accomplish this.

So I waited a few weeks for the shock of that experience (probably more to me than to her!) to dissipate, and then started her off wearing the harness in the house for a few minutes, then up to an hour (or thereabouts) daily. At first she did what I call the "weasel walk" (a low-to-the-ground crouch) and seemed a bit on the twitchy side, but within about a week she was running around, climbing the shelves, and scrapping with her brothers just as usual with the harness on.

At that point -- when I could see she wasn't scared or bothered by the feeling of the harness, and could move about confidently with it on -- I tried taking her outdoors again, and things went much better! The first time, she just sat on the mat outside the back sliding door for a few minutes, then turned around and indicated she wanted to go back inside, so of course I opened the door and let her in. Since then, she's gone on leashed jaunts all around the back yard, part of the front yard, and down the sidewalk a bit.

And she has really seemed to enjoy it -- seriously, she is generally (what looks to me like) a happy, active, confident cat, but outside it's like everything gets amplified several notches. I really have to get a video of this soon -- she does this ultra-confident little tail-swagger when she's outside walking around, and just gets this alert, almost cocky look on her face. And she sniffs at everything, watches everything, listens to everything, in this way that is just so...obviously, immersively feline. It is such a delight to see, and hence our recent walks have been tremendously fun for both Cora and me. She very clearly knows the difference between "inside" and "outside" and I am glad that she is taking so well to the harness, etc.

Eventually I do plan to try and get the boys used to the harness (and walking on the leash outside) as well, even though right now they seem to actively prefer the indoors.

Shadow has already worn the harness (indoors, of course) a few times and he definitely had a "WTF" reaction to it at first, but is getting better each time. He is very playful (meaning, if you wave a toy around he will come running from anywhere in the house to pounce on it) so I've been putting the harness on him and then getting out the interactive toys he likes, so he will be more inclined to move about and in doing so discover that while the harness might feel weird, it doesn't actually impede his movement.

Brodie, on the other hand, has yet to undergo any real harness-acclimation. This is mostly because, while he's very lovey (to the point of lying on his back on my lap whilst purring and drooling like a leaky faucet), he isn't so much for being approached. He has to be the one to approach you (or rather, me). Which is utterly and perfectly fine, and I am glad he has the self-respect to know his own mind in that regard. But it definitely makes it difficult to, you know, catch him and stick a harness on him. Maybe if I get the harness in advance, sit down, and then wait for him to come sit on me, I can get it onto him to start the acclimation. I shall have to brain-storm on that, though.

Revising My Reasoning

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and it has occurred to me that even if I vowed to keep all the younger cats inside, the chance always remains that they could get out. And if that happens, I figure it's better for them to be familiar with their immediate outdoor surroundings, and with the feel and look of the world-outside-the-house in general, than have it come at them as this big, terrifying mass of information overload. That way they are more liable to, say, wait patiently by the door or even try to get back in the door than bolt off in fright and disappear into the bushes (or worse, run into the street in a moment of panic).

And...while, again, I do NOT think it is "cruel" to keep a cat indoors for his/her entire life if the circumstances demand it (there are ways to create highly enriching, fun-for-cats indoor environments, after all, and there are some cats for whom the outdoors would simply be a terrible idea, i.e., those with compromised immune systems), I like the idea of being able to (while looking out for their safety) show my kitties that there's more to the world than the inside of one house.

That way, if (Bast forbid) we ever had to evacuate during some sort of natural disaster, etc., the cats would not be quite so panicked at the prospect of leaving the house, and would take the likely ensuing chaos in better stride.

So...it feels sort of weird to say this, but in some ways I now feel that providing some outdoor access to the felines-in-residence here is actually better for them, safety-wise, than keeping them inside all the time. Which I know deviates somewhat from the American Conventional Wisdom of Keep All Cats Indoors All The Time For Their Own Good, but makes sense to me given what I've learned recently, and what I've observed about my particular cats.

Moreover, at some point I would really like to modify the back yard fence (which is a full-surround wooden affair, between 5 and 8 feet high, depending on the side you're looking at) with cat fence material. That way the cats could go out, have the additional territory (and sights, sounds, and smells) of the back yard to enjoy, but would not be able to access the street. Really I think that would be the best of all possible situations, but it will need to wait until I do some more planning and determine things like material cost and design, etc., customized to suit our yard.

I don't know yet if I will end up giving any of the younger cats off-leash or unsupervised garden access (like Nikki has). With Nikki at least I had the knowledge of her prior history as a mainly-outdoor cat, as well as her lack of a tendency to play in traffic -- with the younger cats, I simply have no idea what they'd do given access to a street, and I really don't fancy finding out via "trial and error". I suspect that they would most likely be fine, given the relative cat-friendliness of the neighborhood, but I can't say the same for my nerves! So for the time being, I am likely to stick to supervised outings for the younglings. And with any luck someday I will manage to configure a safer garden area for them to go out and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine in.

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* It is worth noting that of course there are dangers indoors as well! Curious kittens may chew electrical cords, ingest string or other foreign objects, etc. Cleaning fluids and such must be carefully stowed away. When I first adopted the younger cats you can believe I had to do a lot of kitten-proofing in the house!

** Though in either of those cases, it may still be possible to take a cat outdoors, on a leash or in a "sightseeing" carrier such as a Pet Pocket.

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Caturday Again!

Some of this week's highlights from the wonderful felines:


Sister kittens (Rosie's babies at almost 4 weeks!) snuggling in their nest box.

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Boy-baby kitten (no they don't have names yet, waiting to see what their personalities are like) exploring!

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Cora (l) and Nikki (r) in the back yard. Nikki is none too pleased about this new development (Cora going out on leash-walks). I can't say I really blame her, though, as up until now the yard has been the one place she's been able to get away from those rowdy young up-start roommates of hers. :P

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Shadow deep in comfortable napping-land on the window seat. When I moved into this house there were two things I knew for sure: this house needs cats, and it needs a window seat for the cats to sit on. And now both of those things have been realized! :D (Humans can sit on the window seat too, of course, but I am sure it will get more feline use overall!)

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Double-decker makeshift cat "bunk beds" in the living room: Nikki is napping on a fuzzy "cat mattress" I made, and Brodie is below the end table in a little round bed my parents got for the kitties last Xmas.

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