Came home from town and pulled in to park. I noticed a black kitty on the garage floor running around, and I thought “Scrud..Mike must have let it out when he let the dog out.” I get out of the car carefully and it darts under the truck. So I snap my fingers and give my kitty call praying it will respond (because sometimes they don’t) and he darts out. I scruff him, because I don’t want to get scratched and the black kitties don’t come outside.

I carry him to the back of the house and deposit him on the back porch. He immediately launches himself on poor Brook who has come to say hello to me. He is growling and jumping at her, and I am thinking “What in the world?” All my cats love this dog. Then the other cats come running and this sets the cat off even further!

I grab a towel off the washer and drop it over the kitty. I lift it up and look it over to see if it got hurt or injured. That’s when I notice, this is a TOM! I don’t have black kitties that are?Toms. Also his fur is all wrong. Of the black plague I have left- I have two long-haired kitties and 2 short haired kitties. This guy’s hair is medium with a curl in it.

Dang it! He’s not even mine! He is the same size as the van kitties, looks to be the same age. I grab a carrier and plop him in.

He is now inside the Intro Cage in the enclosure and he devoured a whole can of canned food and attacked a big bowl of dry. I tried to get the bowl away from him because I know he is going to be sick later, but he growled at me.

He is owned by someone, or he was because he is perfectly fine with me as long as I am not messing with his food bowl. When I shared this with Mike he laughed and said- “At least it’s not a pregnant female!”

Apparently, WP has a new upgraded version I need to use in order to blog. But, my blog is quite lengthy so in order to upgrade, I either have to shell out some monies to my host server for more data space- or slim down my blog. My monies are committed to my kitties so sometime in the next few days or weeks, I will be deleting portions of this blog.

It’s been a bit frustrating for myself and my new webmaster to figure out why this upgrade isn’t as easy as the instructions say it is- but finally figured it out and so posts (and comments) will be disappearing soon.

I still won’t be putting ads on here. The purpose of this blog is to help other cat lovers, not to scatter ads all over the pages to distract the surfers who stop by.

So if there is any part of this blog that you find really useful- you might just want to copy and paste it for your own personal use because it might not be here in a week’s time.

For now, I have Mamasan upstairs ready to blow any day- the two kittens Puzzle and Riddle going in for a neuter and hubby entering the hospital soon for some procedures-so the deletions will be slow going.

Just when I thought it was safe to go shopping (for pet food) I find out the opposite is true.

Yesterday, while I was in Albany at Target, I came out of the store and was loading bags of food into my trunk. As I was getting into my car, I heard this really loud meow. Startled, the first thing I did was check my car to see if any of the barn cats had hopped in going for a joy ride. Nope- just Brook in the back seat drooling away.

Once more, I heard this meow and it was close. The parking lot was full of cars and I looked around to see if someone had locked a kitty in a car and it was in distress. Nope??I listened really hard and did my kitty call and underneath my car now, I heard it again, more persistent- MEOW!!!

Kneeling down, I see this beautiful calico girl huddling underneath my car. I should have turned my cat magnet off before I left the house. I bribed her out with food, and she was starving (and pregnant) of course! Sigh??.. I got her into one of my cat carriers and ran her over to my vet whose clinic is nearby. He informs me she is ready to pop any day- GREAT!

So she is upstairs hissing her fool head off at me right now, but she will allow me to touch her. I know she is just protecting herself and her soon-to-be kittens. And I just adopted out 7 cats to various homes too!

Mike just laughed when I got home with the cat. I just hope she throws kittens of color as they are so much easier to place in homes. With my luck though, she will probably produce pure black kittens! LOL

I am calling her Mamasan. In certain ways she reminds me of a childhood cat we called Princess.

If someone had told me months ago that I would let some of my core kitties go to other homes, I might have slapped them. But with the departure of Riley, Hurricane Charlie and Everest, my strongest Alphas, the house is now settling down and the cats are figuring out who is in control. So far, two have stepped up to the plate; Tandem and Bayer both black cats. Bayer is a year old and Tandem is around the same. One male, one female. My money is on Tandem, she seems to have the stronger presence right now and seeks out the highest spots in the house. She ousted Fiona the other day. Fiona growing tired of all the meds I pushed down her throat and her recent vet visit had retired to the top of the world’s tallest cat condo on our patio (16 feet tall) She was up there in the crows nest sleeping when Tandem ran up the poles and whapped her on the nose. (I was nearby sorting laundry) Fiona growled, but Tandem stood her ground and soon Fiona made her way to a lower perch. I swear Tandem winked at me. That has been her favorite sleeping spot since.

I talked to the gentleman who took my core kitties and he couldn’t be more pleased with them. He is moving them out of the one building and putting them in his garage (heated) that is right under his home! He has a beautiful estate, he is far from the rush of traffic and his nearest neighbor is five miles away. His home is surrounded by forest and I know these cats are very happy in their new home even if I still cry about their departure. But the bottom line is if the cats go outside here, they are in danger of being hit by a car. Ever since the county came in and took a big chunk of our property to widen the road- the road has claimed a lot of kitties. Loving them, rescuing them and worrying about them doesn’t mean they need to stay here. I want them here, but a larger part of me wants them safe and loved. Here, I cannot guarantee they will be safe should they get outside.

So the house settles with two fighting to be in ultimate control although these skirmishes quiet whenever Baker makes his appearance. Baker is semi-feral and when he decides to come in the house (he has lived with us now for ten years) you can tell that He is the Alpha. That’s when the real fights break out and I have to step in and say “Hey Guys, remember me? I’m the one in control!”

When you are behind on a payment, they never let you forget it. The phone just keeps ringing. Sometimes, there is just dead air, or perhaps a person trying hard to speak English but failing miserably. You can talk till you are blue in the face but unless you can come up with the required payment, they keep hounding you.

This morning at 4:00 a.m. they called me! I could have exploded in anger, after-all they woke me up. They wouldn’t listen to what I was saying so finally in desperation this is what I said to this persistent bill collector:

“You know, I really want to thank you for calling me today. Your job must really be difficult at times. If you would like, I would be happy to pray with you right now so that God gives your the strength to handle such a challenging job!”

…….”Click!”

Perhaps it was poor judgement on my part to forgo making a car payment and pay instead for Fiona’s ear surgery. But it is over and done with and hopefully after today’s experience, so are the annoying phone calls!

By all intents and purposes, Axle appears to be just fine. The FS believes he either had just been really bruised or I cracked one of his ribs. He is playing with the other cats, eating on his own, drinking water. The only behavior I haven’t observed is the litterbox. I haven’t been home to monitor him and I don’t have an empty room or a place to put him that would show me he is using the pan.

I will talk to the vet tomorrow and see what she advises me to do. Hopefully, this was all just a bad scare and he is back to his fiesty normal self.

i am just plain wore out. everything just hit me all at once; Fiona’s surgery and questionable future, letting go of 4 of my core kitties, the accident with Axle. A few minutes ago when i trudged upstairs to be sure Fiona was still wearing her Trimline collar and give her another round of meds, i found my legs refused to move one more step and i sat on the top stairs and the tears i have been holding back came flooding out.

All this worry, over Mike, the cats, my dad, my job has just done me in. I need a vacation- as if I could ever take more than a couple days away from all my responsibilities.
I am not feeling sorry for myself, I move past crisis, grief, sadness, whatever by writing. After Jeremy died, I found comfort at putting pen to paper and writing my son letters every year about what I believe we might have shared together had not God called for him much sooner than I planned. It is in writing out my thoughts, charting my days that I can move through the chaos that sometimes clouds my head. I still have all my journals of my life- I started journaling when I was eight years old. Mike used to laugh when he saw the boxes in the attic taped up tightly and labeled with the years of my life. He said I should write a book one day it would be a best seller- that may be true- but the book will be about my life’s work with these cats and nothing else.

Right now, I am starting to feel better. It just somehow works to push past the garbage and bring words to light about what ails me.

And now, i need to go because Mike needs his shot. His fingers don’t work much anymore and he can’t give his insulin shot to himself. Here is to tomorrow with Promise and Axle having a few cracked ribs or something that won’t claim his life- Tomorrow there is always promise in Tomorrows.

I just got back from the vet, they suspect he has a Traumatic Diaphragmatic Hernia. There is no coming back from this injury folks. The surgery is expensive, it is arduous, the recovery rate is months and “usually” a kitten doesn’t make it off the table. My “accident” has caused his bowel to be pushed into his chest- or so they suspect. They suspect this type of injury based on his inappetence and fever (104). He wouldn’t eat anything they offered him. He has been given pain meds, and a shot and he is on 48 hour watch. I need him to eat, to drink and for his fever to go down. Any of these signs would cancel out what they now suspect might be wrong with him.

Please pray for Axle- he really needs candles going and prayers flying- This is the kitty abandoned with his sister in a van for five days no food and no water. Pray that he doesn’t have this horrible injury. I will know by Monday. If he doesn’t improve-I am sad to report he’ll have a date to keep with an angel.

A few days ago, I accidentally stepped on Axle’s belly. He was asleep under my hassock and it was dark. My blanket was draped over the hassock and I stepped into the blanket and then I heard him moan and felt the squish under my foot. I screamed and backed up quickly,scooped him up and he seemed okay, just a bit miffed.

I have been watching him and today I saw signs that something is indeed wrong. He moaned when he jumped off the bottom of the cat condo and when I walked toward him he hissed. 🙁 He growled but I caught him up anyway and carried him into the bedroom and put him in the large cage. he will go to the vet in the morning. he doesn’t seem to feel like eating on his own though he licked babyfood off my fingers- he has food, water and litter pan in his cage, but all he is doing is laying in one spot.

I am so sad- I didn’t mean to hurt him. This has been such a sad day for me with the new homes for the kitties and now this.

This morning, I will say goodbye to four cats who I have had (or so it seems) forever. Hurricane Charlie, Everest, Cole and Riley are all traveling to a new home in South Salem.

The new place is being overrun by mice and the owner is fit to be tied. He wants cats who are good hunters but he also wants socialized cats that won’t run from being petted. Therefore, it fell on my group to fill the requirement.

I shall miss each one of these cats- especially my TerrorHist Hurricane Charlie. Yes, he has been a problem child from the very beginning, but he has small kitty syndrome and he stays tough so no one takes advantage of him. One plus with this new home (besides the heated garage where the cats will live) is that it is far far away from roads. Charlie is afraid of roads and cars and I know he will be terrified traveling.

I am trying to keep the tears at bay as I gather carriers and stuff them with blankets and toys. But these cats are going to a far better place and it is time to say goodbye. They are my best mousers and I know they will love the hunt once they adjust to not having me around in their life.