Yesterday, I received an email from a gal in my area looking for a kitten for her elderly mom. We talked for quite awhile and I convinced her that a kitten for an elderly woman isn’t really the best idea and it would be better to have an older cat. So tomorrow night, I will take Mercedes over to meet the mom and see how it goes.

Mercedes is my true pariah kitty- a pariah kitty is in the cat world, like a shy geeky kid on the playground is to bullies. Regardless of the cat, Mercedes has been bullied since day one. She slinks into each room carefully, looking for cover. She has done this since a kitten and at first, I had no clue why. But as I watched her dart from cover to cover until she could reach my side and do this repeatedly- I decided to investigate her behavior. I found in my research that she is a pariah kitty.

Pariah kitties are rare, but they do exist. I am unsure if it is a scent or a behavior that they give off that triggers the others to attack them- but something about how they move, or look triggers the attack. I have been looking for quite some time for a catless home to put her into. She is such a sweet tuxedo kitty who loves to be petted and hugged but it is dangerous to have her on your lap because she is subject to attack at any time. I still bear the scars of our “petting times.” And those scars aren’t from her being viscious, but from her trying to escape a sneak attack. And it is a sneak attack, I didn’t even see it coming when it hit her.

The weather is once again quite cold and the kitties are responding to the weather by acting crazy. They played all night keeping me awake until 4:00 a.m. The older kitties got me up at 6:00 a.m. so I am pretty sleepy right now.

It’s 29 degrees, and it rained last night so the roads are slick. I am out of dry food so I am grateful for the food donation because this means I don’t need to slide to the store and back to get kitty food! God sure knows what He is doing in my life.

This morning, when I got up to feed, I found to my surprise a large donation of canned food sitting on my porch. I feed mostly dry as canned is expensive and doesn’t last that long with this group. So these cases were a delight.

I opened up the cans in the kitchen and the kitty stampede started. As I was sprinkling the food with L-Lysine, several kitties couldn’t wait and jumped on the counter to “help me out.” I removed my helpers quickly and continued spooning out the early morning grub.

As I sat the multiple trays on the ground, I looked down and saw wall to wall cats eating. You couldn’t even see the floor there were so many cats. I thought to myself “What was I thinking taking on such a large number of cats?” Truly the numbers are overwhelming and I just felt for a moment defeated that I have been unable to place them in a better home. I have a feeling they are all here for life and it just reinforced my feelings that stepping out of rescue this year is what is meant to be. At least, the group has acheived balance- though Hurricane Charlie is still my sprayer when he wants to assert his alpha state. Life here can be a bit interesting at times.

Well it is Sunday and I have to go to work in a few minutes. This is my ten hour shift day so I won’t get home till late. I hope Mike will remember to feed the cats tonight and step out of the way of the masses instead of stepping on a tail!

God Bless whoever it was who left that donation at my gate. The kitties got an early Christmas gift today!

That I was in New York meeting some old friends and making new ones? I guess it was last weekend. The Cat Writers’ Convention was amazing. So many good seminars to attend, I just wish they hadn’t scheduled the seminars together- I missed some good ones.

My interviews went pretty well. I was asked if I would consider doing a For Dummies book, but honestly, I don’t know if that was a serious request or not. It’s so hard to tell, because the professionals are out of their comfort zone, mixing with people and sleeping in late, doing the social game and well, we will just see.

My proposal was taken by several people- but again- it is just one step of several.

I am thrilled that my website was honored for the fifth year in a row. That makes me happy. But now, it is home again and back to reality.

I came home to a sick husband and most of my cats were outside! Yikes! I searched all over trying to locate how they were getting out, and the minute I put them back in the house, they were right back outside again! Finally, with the help of Baker- I watched him to see how he was getting out. I discovered on the back porch, under pop’s workbench that some animal (probably a nutria) had chewed a hole in the floor and left an escape hatch I didn’t see it because we had a bunch of tools and buckets of pipe etc stacked in that corner. I have now plugged the hole and there are no escapes. Everyone is in except for Baker who just doesn’t want to come in the house anymore.

Wouldn’t you know it, the worst storm of the year starts tonight! Oh well, if the Good Lord is willing and the creek don’t rise, th is time tomorrow, I will be halfway across the US headed for the Cat Writers’ Convention in New York.

I have to leave for work soon, but I am praying the rest of my day goes smoother than this morning did. We had quite a windstorm last night and sometime in the night, the wind blew the screen door open and eight cats made their escape! I have gotten back all of them but three; MK, Gideon and McKinley are still loose. I have the trap set but I won’t be here to monitor it. I don’t know if Mike can or not.

Then I go into the bedroom and there is blood all over the floor. Major blood. I scooped up Squirrel and checked her, she was fine, so I checked Mike. He has scraped the top half of his little toe off. The Diabetes has caused his toes to start curling down and when he walks he scrapes his toes on the ground. He can’t feel it, so he doesn’t know it is happening. I told him he needed to go to the hospital- but he won’t go (of course!)

Well the bloodwork is back and although a bit abnormal- nothing jumps out to indicate why she looks so bad. They want to run films on her, but i have declined. I am just going to let her live in the bedroom and watch her closely. Just the vet visit threw her off. She isn’t eating as much as I would like her to and she had a litter pan miss last night. I put in a larger container for her, so now she has four boxes to choose from. She didn’t eat much, I need to go to the store and get her some more canned food. When I sat on the bed, she came over to see me and I brushed her gently. She trilled the entire time. Poor kitty- I hate it when they grow old. They never live as long as we want (or need) them to.

This morning, Ms. Phoebe went to a new home. As I told her new caregiver, the recent addition to our home Gideon- the black cat left on our porch was ready to full-on attack poor Phoebe whenever she came out of the bedroom. After all she has been through in her short life, she deserves to live in a home where she isn’t terrified.

I called Lila tonight and Phoebe is still separated from Lila’s cats but so far all is fine. They have met through the screen several times and no outright hostility from either camp. I am hopeful that this will work out. I love Phoebe and she is a very loving kitty to us, but it was easier to find her a home then it was to place Gideon.

I just received a large package of goodies from Sticky Paws, as Fe-Lines Inc., celebrates 15 years of online business.

Lots of good stuff here all geared to stop cats from ending up in shelters or dumped outside because they are peeing in what we consider inappropriate places (though they think the places are just fine) I will be testing out these fine products and writing them up on my review section of my website felinexpress. There are products to keep cats off counters, out of houseplants, scratching pads and ramps and a new electric pet massager- though I think the dog might like that more than the cats!

Squirrel came home last night. She has been an outside kitty since being born in our barn. We call her Squirrel because her favorite trick when she was a kitten was to run up the walnut tree, tap a walnut with her claws and when it dropped to the ground, she will race down the tree and play for hours. She has been missing a very long time, and when she came in last night, I knew we were in trouble. She is pencil thin- but the good news is she is eating and drinking. She is not very user friendly, so she in the bedroom. I am the only one who can really work with her. I suspect she has worms, but ran her to the vet for bloodwork as she is an older kitty. She is 13 years old. So after her bath, I gathered her in my lap and told her I loved her but her free-roaming days are now over. She looks bad even after the bath, oily coat, smelly- vet agrees with my first suspicion- cancer. She is lying on the bed right now and not having problems with Phoebe who is also a bedroom kitty. I hope for good results to come back on the bloodwork- but honestly, I have been down this path many times and I suspect she isn’t long for this world. 🙁

Jeri called me last night. She and I have been buds since the first day we met back in 1980. I had just been hired as Shipping Supervisor for Millett Sights and she was QC Manager on the factory floor. A single mom raising a daughter against all the odds we became instant friends and have kept in touch all these years.

My bud is dying due to her long-term addiction to smoking. I remember so many times pleading with her to quit, but she said smoking made her feel better. Now, she says she wished she had listened. What she has is inoperable,and terminal. They did one surgery on her and she died on the table, they brought her back and now she has to live with oxygen 24-7 because her lungs are shot.

We talked a long time, we cried some but the damage has been done. I asked her what could I do and she replied, “do what you have been doing all these years. Be my friend and don’t bring this discussion up again among us because I don’t like talking about it.”

So I promised her I would honor her wishes, then went in and had a good cry. She was there when I divorced my first husband and she organized my “Thank God You Are Divorced” Party. Yes, boys and girls, my first husband was THAT bad! She was also the one who prodded me at that party (after my fifth marguerita) to answer an ad from a singles newspaper she had so carefully wrapped up my gift in. That ad, led to a four-year writing relationship long-distance and the ultimate marriage of Mike and I. I owe this woman a lot and I promised not to ditch her in her time of need. I have seen it among Mike’s “friends.” The gradual pulling away because long-term sickness makes many uncomfortable, and when Mike couldn’t supply his friends with what they were taking from him- mostly knives and other items he built- they just left. Didn’t talk about it, just left him confused and dazed and saying to me “What happened to Jack? Arty? Bill and Larry?”

When I am in New York, I am going to see if I can find something special for my friend who is struggling to survive. They have given her a three month window and time is running out.

Although some may not find this amusing, I still have to giggle at our Hurricane Charlie. I think in his past life, this orange hurricane was a gold prospector.

My wedding ring has been missing for a few days. I remember taking it off before I got in the shower and then forgot to put it back on afterward. It was custom-made by Mike especially for me and it has gold nuggets a diamond and an emerald in it. The engagement portion had the emerald which is my birthstone. The wedding band that was fused to the engagement ring (like a piece of the puzzle had a diamond (representing God) and an amethyst (Mike’s birthstone) The meaning behind the fusion of the two is we come together in God. It is a very special ring.

Ok, so it goes missing and I look everywhere. I can’t find it. I am bummed, but I know it will turn-up somewhere.

It did, tonight in the litter scoop when I was cleaning out the litter pans! I also found a spare key to the truck, a ring top off a pop can and a metal shower curtain. Charlie likes to take metal objects and hide his treasure. Thankfully, except for the shower ring- everything else escaped being “wasted” if you get my drift. 🙂

Silly Kitty! Maybe next time I empty the cat litter, I better make a quick pass with our White’s Metal Detector first! LOL