Yesterday, I learned a cat I dropped off at a new home in Feb and who had gone missing not soon after (long story) had been spotted. It took some detective work on my part but I finally found a section of homes where a cat matching his description has been showing up and feeding. One kindly woman in particular is also a cat lover and she drove me around to all her neighbors asking who had seen him. Some neighbors recognized the description. He is very descriptive he is part Main Coone and a beautiful boy. So now, they are hopefully on the lookout for him and will call me should he show up.

Betty’s home where he feeds most often sits right at the edge of the forest but the other places range from across the road to up on a high hill. Betty, bless her heart kept apologizing to me about not being able to find him because she thought he was a stray someone dumped on her property (which happens quite often). I sat there last night with her through feeding time to watch the cats who come to feed, but he didn’t show up. I walked the edges of the forest calling for him- spoke to several folks about him, they all had seen him recently- but he never showed.

It breaks my heart to think about him wandering this area but I am grateful there are kind folks who have been feeding him. How he survived this winter is amazing, it was brutal but apparently his Main Coone traits are holding strong (they are originally forest cats) and he has perservered.

When I did my kitty call last night at the edge of that forest, I had a lot of different cats responding even a deer poked her head out as if to say to me; “what are you nuts?” One cat, a queen with her kitten approached me. I was praying on my knees near the forest and I looked up to see this gold and white beauty carrying a brilliant orange baby near me. I sat and watched her as she circled me growling, her kitten tucked securely in her mouth- although he was probably 4 months old and not liking the trip. I guess she thought I was there to take her one remaining baby from her and soon they turned and vanished into the forest.

I am so sorry McKinley. I hope you show up and I can finally bring you home and keep you safe. This morning, I can barely speak as I spent the better part of two hours yesterday calling for him. At least, he is still alive and I will return to Betty’s home time and time again to see if I can find him and bring him home.

I saw so many cats last night out in the fields, in the forest and just hanging about the homes. These kind people are feeding them but none really have a home. When I was watching the golden mom and her kitten, I wondered what happened to the rest of her litter? It is not common for a queen to only give birth to one kitten, if that queen is outside and roaming. Gold kittens, siamese mixes, black cats, tuxedos all of them just surviving because most were just dumped in this remote area. Betty kept saying “My dear, I am sorry, I thought he was a stray.” But with all the dumped kitties in her vicinity, how could she have known otherwise? I just hope I can make it right and bring this boy home.

Here he is on the left when he and his littermates arrived here. He is about 7 years old now. I still have his two sisters living here- the others were adopted out and doing quite well. I named them all after mountains- because as kittens they had been abandoned and I wanted to give them strong names.

Marion, just for you – the other tortie went home with her owner- but here is Rumbles

the feed store still has its required number of fish, rabbits, rats, mice, rabbits and crickets after Bentley spent his first anxious night there.

I just returned from checking on him and they had him tucked away in the manager’s office because he was understandably a bit overwhelmed by his new surroundings. I went in and called him and he came right to me. I was gratified to see that he had used the litter pan, and he was eating and drinking so (knock on wood) hopefully, this will work out.

It’s strange not to be working. The feed store brought back from the pet expo these wonderful new pet carriers with two doors! I was drooling over them truly- but I held back and bought cat food instead. I need to talk to my cats though and find out why they still insist on waking me at 4:00 a.m. I am not their preymate. But again this morning- Ms. Fiona jumps in my face mewing that the water fountain had run dry and she needs a drink. It’s not like she is in the middle of the Sahara and there is no other water source around. Plenty of bowls of water are all over this house- but no- she has to drink from the Drinkwell! Silly kitty.

The bottle babies are back with their owner and the other kittens are now fully integrated into the house. Most of the screen doors have now been removed (except for upstairs) I can’t remember the last time where the bedroom door wasn’t screened off. It’s kind of nice to just be able to walk in and out of the rooms now without having to open and close screen doors.

I just received a really nice email from the director of the Humane Society in New York. She’s thanking me for my website kitten-rescue.com and letting me know that she will be passing on this website to the future fosters. She teaches bottle baby classes.

Speaking of bottle babies, here is the lastest little boy. He is a torbie (mackeral tabby/ tortie) and yes, it is a male which is pretty unusual. Torbies generally are female.

I have to say, I will be glad to hand these babies back over to their owner tomorrow night! LOL Those tiny claws are sharp. It’s been awhile since I have been on the receiving end of those claws and teeth.

These babies are quite young but they were so hungry when they got here they were chewing off the nipple on the bottles. So, I have switched them over to canned and pureed kitten food with some extra goodies included so they can grow up big and strong. There is a torbie boy and a mackeral tabby girl. They were part of a barn litter but mom abandoned them, so now my friend Haley is raising them. I am just kitty sitting.

I’ve started working on my manuscript again and learning the hard way that computers can crash and all your work can vanish in a second, I am first writing by hand- yes, printing using a pencil (remember those?) to redo the manuscript so if it does implode- I will have the work still intact.

Hmm- I wonder- how many pencils, I am using a Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencil is it going to take to finish this manuscript (14 chapters) LOL Maybe I will run a contest and the winner gets a lovely prize who comes close to guessing. There are 12 pencils to each box. *G*

I heard of a really sad situation where a woman was going to be evicted due to unsanitary conditions and to many cats. I went to the apartment and knocked on the door and banged on the window, but she wouldn’t answer. She was inside in the hallway. I peeked in the window and my heart broke. There were already four kittens crowding the window (about three months old if I had to guess) But when I looked inside- you couldn’t even see the carpet for the trash and junk. There were swarms of flies, overflowing litter pans and cats everywhere. None looked feral or even semi-feral, but most looked ill and all looked thin. I could see the fleas on the kittens by the window because of hairloss and thinness. Torties, torbies, orange kitties all trapped in hell. Ulcerated eyes, goopy faces- man I just wanted to break the windows and steal those babies.

But I knew, I am not set up to take the sick ones, nor do I need any more added to my current vet bill. So instead, I prayed all the way home, did about 20 minutes of research found 16 different organizations, groups, shelters etc and started calling.

Fifth call- Paydirt! Even though they aren’t in our area, they will be out next week to take the cats and kittens get them vetted, help the woman clean up her home and instruct her in how to responsibly take care of cats. I am so relieved and even though one person (who was beyond rude) told me NO ONE would help me this time of year- I am glad I listened to my heart and kept on with my mission. Now, how can I get that gorgeous tortie I saw? LOL

I truly dread this time of year. My phone rings all the time, my email bin fills up and so many people need help with stray kittens. This morning, I received an email about a woman in trouble in a nearby town. She only has two cats but they are not spayed or neutered and apparently the apartment isn’t fit to live in. She will be evicted by Monday if they don’t get rehome the cats and clean-up the living space. the email was sent to me by a caseworker.

I always try to answer every phone call, every inquiry no matter what so I am praying how to proceed here. I know full well how disheartening it can be to contact a rescue group or individual and be completely ignored or get rudeness back when all you need is some help.

God will guide me, this is my prayer-

Delilah, bless her heart loves these new kittens. She grooms them, scolds them and plays with them gently- allows them to steal her food. She is so even-tempered it is amazing.

Because of her previous injuries, she can’t quite make it in the litter pan all of the time. I have eight litter pans stacked so close to each other that Mike calls it the path of waste! But it doesn’t matter, she will step into a box, firmly plant her front feet in the center of the box and poop on the floor.

Well, because she is surrogate mom- the kittens are now following her example. I woke up this morning to various small piles of cat poop all over the floor or the outside of the pans and I know they are watching carefully their “teacher.” I don’t want to split them up, so I will just deal with the waste and go on. I think it’s funny though and quite sweet how they try to be just like their “mom.”

Delilah’s mom skills will be put to the test tomorrow when two barn bottle babies arrive. I am only kitty sitting until Saturday- the wee ones need to be fed every two hours around the clock and their real mom has abandoned them. If I could strap on a milk bar to Delilah’s belly- that would be great, but I know she will love these babies as if they were her own.

Well, last night was interesting with the cats all in various stages of fleeing in panic everytime a new boom was heard. The kittens ended up all huddling inside one of the many carriers in the bedroom, and this morning, Sinclair has diarrhea which I hope is just from stress and not anything else. It got so loud at one point, our roof shook! I have no idea what that boom was about. About 11:00 p.m. I noticed these beautiful blue and red colors flashing on our living room drapes. I thought to myself- what a lovely bunch of fireworks that would be to see…I opened up the front door to find a sheriff’s car lights flashing in our driveway giving a drunk test to a driver.

This morning, I went to feed everyone and in our back yard about midway between the shop and the house, I stopped cold. There a large ring of white fur mixed with grass. What struck me odd was this circle was large not small, perfectly circular. There were no other signs of battle, no blood no injured kitty- nothing to alarm me other than this crop circle of white fur.

I remembered last night right after it got dark and the booms started, seeing this white figure streaking low to the ground headed from out of the pasture towards the house. As all our cats were indoors, I figured this one to be the tom I have been trying to trap. I was glad to see he felt it safe enough to hide at our home versus darting out in traffic. The fur on the ground resembled his fur. I suspect he tangled with another stressed tomcat- my guess would be the shorthair mackeral tabby- and because he is younger and has more hair- he lost some of it during the battle. The circle is indicative of how toms fight- because they start in a wide circle waiting for one of the them to look away or tire so they can pounce. But again no blood- so hopefully both the cats made it out alive.

I know where mine are, all in the house and all in various stages of hiding, huddling, fleeing for their lives. There has been a loud party back behind us some time at around 2:00 a.m. someone must have hit on a brilliant idea to wake the neighbors (or the drunks at the party) and shoot off fireworks. It woke me from a sound sleep- that and the act of three cats running over the top of me as they fled for their lives. Running and scared means claws out and I was sleeping above the covers (silly me) now my chest is throbbing from the puncture marks!

I got up and opened several cans of cat food to try and quiet the bunch, but they weren’t having any of it. By the time I figured I should just get dressed and start my day earlier then ever, I heard the sirens as the police responded to the partiers.

At least all the cats are inside and safe. I just feel sorry for the ones who aren’t being kept inside as the sky exploded around them.

He comes out into the center of the room now and rolls over exposing his lovely white belly. he loves those belly rubs and will flip over and over afterward when I stop.

He is so beautiful but still unwilling to accept any cat in his vicinity. He charges the wire door of the room when the kittens come by to say hello reaching for them with his clawless paws. I suspect if he had his claws, he would be less confrontational on that front.

He has even succeeded in driving ShyAnne from her bed in the room across from him and now she is splayed out on the bed next to delilah- a huge suprise, because my nickname for this lovely dilute calico is “grumpy growly.” Maybe she has met her match with Bentley.

I put him on Petfinders last night- I am hoping someone steps forward and wants to adopt him and that they have no other animals in the house. Time will tell-

Mike is calling the house the Kitty Maze right at the moment as everyone is still inside the house to stay safe from the craziness of fireworks in a few days. This morning I went across the road to try and reason with the man who has been shooting them off early- but you can’t argue with a man who is guzzling Budweiser and holding a pit bull by a chain to keep it from attacking you. Love this red-neck town! LOL

I always find it puzzling that there is a county-wide burn ban this time of year, but fireworks are permitted. That just never makes sense to me. Last night with the skyrockets went off- my cats just erupted in terror. I have put extra hidey holes out in the enclosure to help them find safe spots, but I will be so thankful when all this nonsense is over. Heck, there aren’t many folk who even know what the 4th of July is really all about. They just see it as another excuse to drink beer, act crazy and blow things up.