I have been steadfastedly turning down kittens for the last three weeks. A new email from a lady in Salem held a sense of urgency that the other requests for assistance did not. Most of the other people contacting me would say they wanted to “get rid” of their kittens or their cats. This lady, Nancy found two kittens stuck in a storm drain after out big storm the other night. She took the time to rescue them, brought them home and called every agency and rescue facility she could find. She suffers from asthma and she cannot keep the the kittens.

I called her and asked her to bring them here. They will arrive tonight. No idea how old they are. They are on solid foods though. Both of them gray, one sounds like a mackeral tabby, the other sounds a lot like my Squirrel.

She cried when I told her I would take them. Said she was so relieved, that her asthma was so bad she had to go to the doctors in the middle of the day to get treated.

I hate this, I truly do. All people have to do is be responsible cat caretakers and spay and neuter. It’s so simple and yet so many don’t do this, so kitties get dumped, abandoned, tossed into creeks or over cliffs or dropped into dumpsters.

I will have to put these newcomers in with Guinnevere. I doubt she will be pleased, but I have no other options for them at this time. I can’t put them int he Introduction Cage because it is so hot outside, that isn’t fair to them. If I put them upstairs, Twirl will have a fit. So it is either the computer room, or the bedroom, and I will try the bedroom first because it is much cooler.

I caught Twirl in the sunshine this morning inside the enclosure. Sadly, I believe the best place for her from here on in is upstairs, closed off from the sun. It’s such a shame, because I understand her need to be in the sun. I wish I could explain that the sun is now her enemy, but I can’t. She has all she needs upstairs, there is no sun- we put some tinting on the computer window so if she does get sun it will just be indirectly. I just can’t put her into the position where she has to undergo yet another surgery on her ears or worse.
I do feel like her jailer, but she has the two rooms upstairs she can prowl through, not to mention all the cubbyholes as you go upstairs.

Twirl has decided she is alpha upstairs. Anyone who challenges her on the second level is quickly chased downstairs and out of the house. However, although she does vocally challenge the alphas on the lower level, that is as far as she takes it. Matuse, Oliver, Everest and Prowler are the clear alphas on the first floor. In the enclosure, Dash is the one that everyone acknowledges rules the roost, along with McKinley. Guinevere rules the bedroom- that cats definitely know their place.

They also know I am not feeling well these days. Every time I go to settle down in my chair, I have at least 3 cats on me in a matter of minutes. I have to take them off my lap, can’t take their weight on my chest and belly. I don’t know what bug is chasing me lately but I can’t seem to shake it.

One of my friends Natalie called me the other day. She was so upset. Nat has had a bit of a hard life. She had finally found her soul mate about ten years back. They married and had children and she was doing so well. Then Craig was killed (he was mugged) in Riverside, and her world shattered.

Nat managed to regroup after awhile. She stayed with her great job, continued to be both parents to her two kids and kept it together. She finally got to the point where the lonely nights were to much for her. Knowing that Mike and I met through a personal ad umpty-dozen years ago, she called me for some advice.

Mike and I met before PC invaded the home. We wrote letters for four years, passed cassette tapes back and forth- you know, the time of the dinosaurs? I suggested to Nat that she turn to the Internet. I gave her several websites to look at, some were for people with pets- as Nat loves dogs, cats and horses, I told her about eHarmony, chemistry.com and a few others I had only heard about.

I did caution her about being careful about sharing to much information with online people and to meet in a neutral place with a crowd for protection. I also told her get a pay-as-you-go cell phone and give that number out to anyone she might be interested in. Just to be careful because you never know!

Ok, so Nat went to eHarmony. She told me the questionaire that they asked her to fill in took her almost an hour to complete! When she hit submit, she was told that she wasn’t suitable for a match! What the heck?

She was so angry she was spitting nails. After we talked a bit, she calmed down and I decided to do some research for her. I went to Google and typed in rejected from eHarmony……..

Oh my word! There is a legion of people out there who this website has denied happiness. Not to mention, some other things going on that don’t look really good. But, I found this blog and I have to link my readers to it. The woman is hysterically funny on this subject (as well as other subjects). It is well worth the read for sure:

http://susanisaacs.blogspot.com/2006/03/rejected-by-eharmony_14.html

But to eHarmony’s defense, I do know of several couples who met on there, and they are still together and happy. After researching some of the reasons why eHarmony rejects you- I believe Nat’s honesty got in her way. She was married three times. It is unfortunate that they don’t allow you a box to explain you were a widow twice, or maybe death is just an unforgiveable sin there?

I sent Nat the links to the websites I found where people are speaking out about being rejected. But this one, was just so clear and humorous, I had to share-

The wild one is still around and I have taken to feeding her on the top of the well house. There, she is protected from the elements by our century old pine, and she isn’t encroaching on Cleo’s, Tipster’s or Squirrel’s already established territory. She jumps on the traps, over the traps, tips them over, tries to paw the food out between the bars, but so far, she won’t venture inside. At night I hear her and Tip squaring off under the house, but so far it is all vocal, and no wounds or injuries are showing up.

It’s getting interesting in the house now. Twirl has finally figured out that if she can’t get with the program an stop being so aggressive, she goes into exile upstairs. It only took a few times, and now she seems content to just lie on the couch or on the floor in front of the bedroom, rather than wage war with Matuse, Oliver or Everest.

McKinley has grown into a drop dead gorgeous cat. No matter how often I trim his claws, he seems to have a knack of getting them back quickly, just as sharp and long as they were before. I think scampering up the trees inside the enclosure has a lot to do with that. But, man is he a beauty. His fur is as soft as an angora sweater and he has now decided that laps are an okay place to be.

We built a new tower out in the enclosure recently, and he loves to climb to the top, and as I got in and out of the door, he reaches down and gently swats my head.

I have heard from the recent adoptive parents and both Morgan and Buzzby are doing well. Rachel refers to Buzzby as Bizzy Bee and says his favorite trick is to try and upset the dry food container and pry the lid off. He was doing this here as well, and so I told her my trick of putting a small bag of unopened cat litter in the bottom of the container before pouring the dry kibble inside.

Morgan has been adopted by a loving family and I am promised updates and photos in the future. So that makes me happy.

My manuscript is coming along- but man am I disorganized- I have 58 different files I need to organize and see what information goes into the manuscript. I am going to have to print out all the articles, journal entries etc and then color code them for the different chapters and go from there. My friend Dusty Rainbolt told me the other day on the phone that she is proud of me for writing this. But I really haven’t a clue what I am doing, or if I am doing it right. All I can hope, is the final result will be a winner and that it will help the average person be able to take that stray cat out of the bushes and into the home and over time socialize the cat to accept indoor living.

If you happen to be reading this and you own a cat-related blog, keep an eye on a website I am currently involved in www.felinexpress.com We will be starting a contest in the next week for bloggers, as well as website owners. I am pretty excited about it.

Ok, well it will be dark soon. I have horses to feed, cats to tend to, litterpans to scoop and a kitchen to clean up. I am moving pretty slow these days thanks to a ruptured achilles heel. They want to do surgery on it, but in the same breath they tell me that the surgery is usually only 20% effective! I don’t like those odds.

Watched a great DVD today- Breach. I did find it ironic that the biggest spy in United States history responsible for multiple deaths of agents, hid behind the sanctity of the catholic church. He may have attended mass daily, but how in the world did he sleep with all the harm he did to so many?

This morning as I was giving Wild One her next dose of medicated food, she leaped over my head, cleared the door and took off for the woods. 🙁 At least she was able to get several days of doctored food to stop the infection. I am sad, because yesterday she allowed me to touch her back just briefly. I was trying to force contact because she is in need of a vet visit. I have set out the traps again, but doubt she will make that mistake again. Chances are, I will never see her again. Cats don’t remember the good things we do, but they never forget the bad, and for her, captivity was the worst.

She is now laying in the left-hand corner of the top of the cage, where I piled straw last night. I was able to change out her litter pans, give her fresh food and install a pet fountain for her without her taking any sort of retaliation against me. I used my handee arm to move things around, but she just lay there, her eyes looking bleak.

I feel so bad for her, but I know she is safe and won’t be able to wage war against the barn cats. I still feel that she is sick, I put some GSE in her water. There is no way I am going to attempt to give her an antibiotic for quite awhile. We are in a watch and wait mode.

The newcomer went into the cage at midnight last night. She has shredded several gloves (artificial arms) throughout the day. She has not eaten a thing yet. I went to KFC and bought some greasy chicken, but no go, she won’t eat. I checked on her three times today, leaving her covered the rest of the day so she could decompress. I found her either up in the rafters of the cage or hiding in the litter pan.

Tonight, I took out the cat condo that was inside replacing it with a small cardboard box on the top level. My hope is she will eventually retreat inside and feel safe within the confines of the box. She is a pretty girl, but her eyes, don’t look right. I will continue to work with her over time and hopefully be able to handle her enough to get her to the vet. At least she stopped trembling.

Hi God, it’s me, Mary Anne. It has been a long time since I have daily turned to you in prayer. I wonder when it all changed? When I became so busy, or the noise of the world drowned out the small voice within me nudging me to talk to you on a daily basis. We used to enjoy an ongoing interaction, You and I. I shared with you valuable thoughts, confided in You my deepest fears and celebrated Your presence in my life daily. But somehow, I stopped talking to you, and even more important, I forgot to listen to you. Life overwhelmed me and I allowed it to carry me off.

I am back with a special, albeit selfish request of you Lord. Could you please stop sending me cats in need of my help? Yes, you granted me a gift to understand these poor creatures. But the Inn is full Lord, the Ark is Sinking, there is no more room here for those the world has forgotten.

Ironically, I have been helping someone with their book lately. There is a chapter included about Crazy Cat Lady and a quiz. I found myself taking the quiz, then sighing with relief that I didn’t pass it- but I came close.

This newest arrival Lord, the one I trapped last night- is Very Feral, emphasis on VERY. No hand has ever touched it in kindness (three shredded gloves lay testament to that). The way it thrashed around in the trap for so long that I finally had to put it into one of the outside cages, made me sad. I don’t even know what sex it is, but I suspect by looking at the face, that it is a girl.

I suspect she is ill. I think the only recourse I will have is to call the vet to do a farm call and tranqualize this poor girl before she can be helped, or put out of her misery. I will continue to work with her Lord, as much as I can. But in the meantime, could you please stop sending them here?

Today, Twirl came downstairs for a few hours to mingle with the group. She is still a bit irritated so I am going to order Star of Bethelem for her to mellow her out a bit. Here she is, minus her diseased ears