Long time no blog

Girl Kitty!

I just added it up, it has been about 8 months since my last post. I hope everyone is doing OK. As most of you are aware I had some difficulties and had to cut back on things, internet included. I just wanted you to know that we are doing all right now, I managed to get caught up with everything. I even got the internet back as you can see.

My favorite pic of her, the turkey pose.

I got back on line about a month ago. I wanted to get caught up with my emails, news, etc. I have tried to catch up with the blogs I am following, but it has been hit and miss. I did notice that some are not posting as often as they did, I also noticed the absence of one or two others. Makes me wonder if anything bad happened or if just due to life changes, loss of interest, and so on.

What am I suppose to do with this?

Which brings me to the subject of this post. A lot has happened while I was offline, yet not much has changed (or is that the other way around). I am not sure where I want to go with this blog, or what to do with it. I still want to brag about my kitties. My hart is not in it like it use to be. I have spent the last couple of weeks thinking I should start this up again, but could not think of much to say on a daily, or weekly basis. It does not seem like much happens each day. I go to work come home feed the cats and that is about it.

Such a sad look. Nov 2011

I don't know if maybe it is a bit of depression lingering. Seems like a lot of priorities have changed. A lot of other things just seem meaning less. It could also be that one of the main reasons I started this was to brag on one cat in particular. One who seemed that she had been through a lot, yet she still opened up and let me love her. She had changed, grown so much that I was very proud of her. I wanted to let people know that with a little time, effort and love how wonderful these magnificent creatures can be. Not to give up or pass them by because they may be old, scared, timid, or even aggressive. With a little care and love they can blossom to be a wonderful caring friend with much love to give.

Blackie

This is going to be the first, last, only time I will mention this, as I do not think about it doing my best to put it out of my mind. There is a lot of anger, hurt, frustration involved with this, the full details of which I will leave out, I just can't get into it. On Nov 14, 2011 just before midnight Girl took her trip over the bridge. I personally helped her cross over, here in her home where she felt safe and loved. God this is still hard to write. She was and will always be my baby girl, my sweetie pie being so quite and gentle. I will always miss her. She is the reason I have so many cats. She is the one that started it all. I suppose for her I will keep this blog going.

Thor (MIA)

Like I said a lot has happened, but not much has changed. About 6 or 7 weeks ago Thor disappeared. Sometimes he would not come around for a few days, but after not even seeing him in the back yard for a week I knew he was gone. I fear that the coyotes got him. I live in the middle of town, and yes I have seen them in the street out front. He was one of the five that “belong” to my neighbor. Being such I did not try very hard to make him an indoor kitty, having to let him wonder around so they can see him. They are the ones that put food out but will have little to no interaction with their cats. Three of their other cats (Pretty, Ugly, TJ) spend most of their time in my house I make no apologies. Only TJ bugs me to get out at night the other 2 are usually in bed with me.

Tom

That brings the count down to 10 my 5 and the neighbors 4 plus Tom (who is totally independent). None of my cats get to go out ever the neighbors 3 I keep in at night and usually most of the day. I have started to work on getting Blackie and Tom to want to stay around more. Tom may never become an indoor cat, unlike Thor who stayed near by, he wonders the whole neighborhood (too independent). Disappearing for a week at a time. I have seen him several blocks away, I do not know if he has a regular home or not. That leaves Blackie as my best bet to corral into being a house cat. Everyone is still on a mostly dry food diet. I give both Tom and Blackie canned food as a bribe to come around more often, the rest get left overs. At least for the time beaning.

Rare pic. Tom making himself at home. 

Well that kinda brings everyone up to date on whats happened over the past several months. Sorry it got a little depressing. I am still not sure how often I will update will have to wait and see.  

Sleepy Sunday

Once again everyone is enjoying a day of rest.

                               Lil' Bit woke up as I took the picture.

                             Finally she was able to completely relax.

                                          Blackie came in for the day.

                                        Pretty in her favorite spot.

                                  Squirrel sleeps with one eye open.

                                        Mittens is totally relaxed.

                            TJ and Pretty are not sure what to make of Mittens.

Hope you all had a nice peaceful weekend.

      

More updates: Cat # 5

Momma and her kittens.

A few more updates on the cats. As I mentioned just before letting this blog go on hiatus, I had a litter of kittens show up. (Their pic with momma cat is today’s pic) One of the cats that rarely came around showed up with 3 kittens. They looked to be a couple of months old, already weened. I would see them in my back yard eating regularly along with their momma. That was around Oct '09, they were starting to go feral. I sat next to them to feed them, until I got close enough to grab them and put them inside. That was a bit wild 7 cats in the house full time, with these 3 not letting me get to near. I wanted to socialize them so when I took them in to the Humane Society they would not get put down as UN-adoptable.


After about three months, they were still a little wild, but I needed to get them out of the house. So I took them in, the Humane Society took them in as they could handle them getting them out of the carrier. I never did see a pic of the kittens on their website under the list of adoptable cats. Not sure what happened to them, it can take a month or so to get posted and hopefully they were adopted out before their pics were posted.

Momma cat disappeared after I took them in, only saw her once every two or three weeks. Then about March she started hanging around more. I thought she looked pregnant again, belly getting big , nipples visible, etc. So I scraped up the money to take her in, they said she did not have a litter. I was hoping that she did not just have one, because it had been a few days, they would not have survived. I grabbed her on a Saturday when she showed up and kept her inside so she would not disappear before I could get her spayed. It was Monday morning before I could set up an appointment to get her in, they took her the next day. That’s three days right there she was away if she had any.

In my bathrooms I have these little windows about five an a half feet off of the ground in the shower. Momma cat had been jumping up there wanting out. She would race from one window to the next, she did this while waiting to get spayed. Brought her home Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon she started up again, racing from window to window for about 15 min rest for a little while then do it again. She did not seem to be sore at all letting me touch her scar with no issues. On Thursday I finally let her out, before she could hurt herself. She showed back up on Saturday wanting in, I never say no to the cats. Let her in and fed her, letting her out shortly after. As far as I could tell for the next 5 days she never left my backyard. Every time I went out she was there, sleeping under the tree or under the lockers. I told her if she wanted to be my kitty she would not be able to go out again. She did not go crazy again, this time she would go to the door wanting out, not fussing much when I would not let her. I did let her out a couple of days later and a few other times. All she did was to hide under the lockers.

Now I am up to 5 indoor cats. I am willing to adopt her out if I can find a home for her, I have been trying. Just to many cats available in town right now, the Humane Society always has over 100 on their site (today 141) and a lot more on Craigslist. (Anyone in the Tucson area that wants a sweet cat that loves attention let me know.) Now to figure out a name other than just calling her Momma Kitty. Every time I go to pet one of the other four cats she will come up and try to get between us wanting attention. I go to play with another cat and she is there, if I talk to one she is there. It is like she is jealous of them. That is a name that suits her, but I did not want to call her Jealous all the time. I tried to find a name with that meaning, all I could find was one I could not pronounce, some ancient goddess or Morgan, King Arthur’s sister. Still it is a good name for her, Jealous.

The other thing about her is if you pick her up she purrs, scold her she purrs, etc. Knowing some male cats are called Sir Purrs-a-lot, I decided to name her “Mizz Purrzzzy” (pronounced pur-z, any one have a better spelling let me know) So that is the tail of how Mizz Purrzzzy became cat # 5.

Introduction Pt 3

Sometime during the previous events the place had been sold and the new owner decided (after having a couple of the units stay vacant for several months) to allow pets. I no longer have to worry about getting caught with Girl. Also during this time I still had cats come and go with several regulars. When I would hear one eating I would check and see who it was and then make them “pay the toll”. They would have to let me pet them before leaving. Occasionally I would hear someone eating and when I would go to look nothing, just a bushy tail going out the door. My first thought was gray squirrel as that was what the tail reminded me of. I finally caught a quick glimpse of the cat. A few weeks later, after not coming around for several days, she did not run but stayed to eat (probably starved). I had this skinny scrawny kitty (with great big feet) sitting there eating. If I tried to pet her she would back away a couple of feet then back to the food.
I was able to run my finger back of her head near her ears, a couple of times of this she would start to grow and move. She would rotate around the food never stop eating just grow and move, around and around. Then she started to stay in sleeping on the floor or where ever. Spending more and more time in the house. This was Squirrel, I started naming cats again.
After she decided to stick around she started attacking Girl. I constantly had to separate them. They got in to a big scrape, I did not realize how bad it was at first. A few days after I noticed Girl had hurt her self on her tail near her rear. As it was not healing and she would not leave it alone I took her in to the vet. The vet shaved her tail gave her some ointment and some antibiotics for any infections, and told me it looked like a puncture wound. Squirrel had bitten Girl hard. She has healed up and Squirrel has calmed down but Girl still is untrusting of her. Squirrel would spend most of her time inside letting me get close to her but still not pet her.
After a couple of months of this my brother and his wife stopped by to visit, Squirrel did not run outside or go hide like the others did. She came out to see what was going on, but not getting too close to them. It was on this day that she let me approach her and pet her for the first time. There after she enjoyed it, rubbing up against me looking for attention. When I would sit on the floor at the coffee table, writing etc she would climb into my lap lay there. She even started sleeping in bed with me, much to Girl's dislike. Much improvement but still have problems there with those two.
Squirrel likes her toys, I have one that is tear drop shaped with feathers that she really loved. She would toss it 5 feet in the air and jump up 3-4 feet and catch it. She really enjoyed playing with it, until Mittens came along. Things were going good for a while, Girl would even appear in the room with Squirrel in it. SK (Squirrel Kitty) started to fill out no longer the scrawny little thing. She actually started getting fat, then I realized that she was pregnant. I found out cats usually drop within a couple months. I made an appointment at the Humane Society to get her spayed, they were a lot cheaper than what my vet would have charged (close to $500 vs. $70). While I was at it I decided to have Twinkie neutered, as I had come to think of him as being my cat(it being over a year with him living here). Twinkie had shown up with some tar or something on his tail and it was still there so I also had them remove it. They shaved most of his tail, and after 2 years it was gone. The appointment for SK was on a Saturday, of course a couple of days before they found a hoarder in town, over 450 dogs. The Humane Society called to reschedule this happened 3 or 4 times, by now SK was getting close, to dropping.
I barely managed to not wind up a grandpa. I had to keep Twinkie in for a week to heal and her for at least 2. I wound up locking him in the spare bathroom at night so he would not attack Girl, and I could get some sleep. Finally I could start letting him out again. I was starting to think about making them all indoor kitties, better for them, but he would not adjust. It was at this time that Mittens showed up. Came in one day to eat and stuck around most of the day every day. Then Twinkie disappeared about 2 months after getting fixed.