Smuggle is such a funny boy. Every time I go to pet him, I can tell he enjoys it. He rolls over on his back, puts his paws straight in the air and begs for more. But he also swats because human touch is so alien to him. After our morning ritual of petting him and Secret, I will be walking out of the room when BAM out from under the bed, comes two mackeral tabby paws and they nail my ankles! This is a new behavior for him and I see his head poking out from under the bed looking quite pleased with himself.

I now have to give a wide berth around the edge of the bed (makes it exciting to make the bed in the morning) or he nails me. His body language shows me he isn’t angry- this is just a one-up-manship on his part. You dare to touch me- you pay woman! LOL

I just finished a book due to be released in October on National Feral Cat Day. It is called taming me- memoirs of a clever island cat by Cathy Unruh. I cannot recommend it highly enough- it is told through the eyes of kitten on the island and there is a cat hater, cat rescuers, cat saviors all rolled into the pages. It is compelling, sad, funny and highly rewarding to read. I will be putting a full book review on www.felinexpress.com in a few days. I just hope anyone reading this post will take the time to read this book.It gives you a realistic view of what outside kitties left alone and abandoned have to deal with.

So I blinked again and in disbelief read the ad on CL again; Female spayed German Shepherd free to a good home!” I clicked on the photo, yep that is a German Shepherd (so many people pass off mixed breeds as shepherds. I called the woman who laughed and said “I only put the ad up five minutes ago!”

I told her about my husband and his limitations and what I was looking for. The woman very quietly said; “Hon, this dog is service dog, a medic alert dog and she just needs to go to a new home as I am in training with another dog.”

We packed up the truck in 20 minutes and headed for Portland where the dog was located. It was love at first sight. Lyra is a dream- she can pull wheelchairs, open doors, if someone is going to faint, she will alert by pressing against their legs and moving them over to a bed or a chair!

She has been here not even 24 hours gets along famously with Dexter. She is a big girl for a female 144 pounds and she is curious about the cats but not aggressive. They have high-tailed it off to the cat enclosure except for two brave ones.

Lyra is an answered prayer and Mike loves her as do I. She slept with me last night on the bed, and when she as to go potty she jumps up and licks me in the face- LOL

Now speaking of prayers, I am getting ina few minutes a just days old kitten whose littermates have all died. The woman who has him was screaming and crying and ranting and she said she just didn’t think she could handle another death- so she is bringing him over. I will do all in my power to help save this little boy but with all the littermates dead- it doesn’t look good. BUT prayers work wonders so please start them flying!

Theyare settling down abit

These little ones came yesterday and two of them are always open-mouth panting. It is not that warm here. Nor do they have the high activity level of kittens their own age so I am worried. I need to get them to the vet to be checked out but as usual money is lacking for the necessary tests.

In the meantime, they are inside the new enclousure in the house. They are eating and drinking and using the litter pan. I have de-flead and de-wormed them but as you can tell by the photos, their tongues like to hang out of their mouth more than they should. They are nine weeks old and cute as bugs in a rug.

The other brother seems to have the same problem, the girl seems fine.

Martha Stewart just blogged that she bought two Persian kittens from a prominent breeder. She goes on to say that in order to “show” them she is “Mom” she bites their heads….hmmm I have never heard of that approach before. Mom’s duties usually include biting and eating other things produced from her kittens.

It saddens me that she would overlook the multitude of kittens and cats sitting unwanted in cages in shelters and at rescues and go for a “designer” kitten- but then again- it is Martha Stewart.

On a plus note, the following photo shows the acceptance of Vaughn and Sylvester into the clowder- I have opened up the indoor enclosure door and there have been no territorial squabbles as the kitties share space.

Shown in the photo: Vaughn, Sylvester and Reese- Tover is inside the cage on the other side of the enclosure.

I was tired when I wrote on the blog yesterday and need to clarify. I don’t give away my kittens and never have. But there is deep paranoia now with the users of CL and when I had a few ads running, I was getting some weird phone calls. I don’t want my cats or kittens abused or mistreated or killed so I simply won’t advertise on there right now. I hope that makes sense.

I just finished feeding all the outside cats and the pretty siamese looking girl with a collar came up to me and rubbed me. I was able to look at her collar and tag and her name is Melissa and there was a phone number. I have her in the bedroom and will call the number as soon as it gets to be a decent hour. Hopefully, the owners will come and claim her- Thank God for fresh yellowfin tuna- the best kitty lure I know! She loves the stuff and as she was eating, I was able to scruff her and get her into the house. One down and five more to go-

I just pulled up a ton of blackberry bushes. My arms look like I have suffered a feral cat attack! I remember a few years ago helping out at my friend’s greenhouse and answering the phones for people placing orders. People were ordering this berry bushes- heck, come to my house and dig up some for free is what I wanted to say. They were taking over the back pasture and were near the creek. It was nice and shady thankfully because it is in the 90’s at the moment- although a few days ago we had high winds and icy conditions! I just roll my eyes toward heaven anymore when the weather switches and say “OK God, really?” They were predicting 70 mph winds and hail the size of golf balls- that storm thankfully blew right by us!

We live at the base of the Cascades and the mountains will make their own weather. We can be sunny in the front yard, yet in the backyard it can be raining or even hailing. But I love the storms and just pray our 200 year old trees hold on tight in heavy winds.

As I pulled the blackberry bushes near the cat enclosures, the kitties thought this was a great game! They would hold on to the stem I was tugging on so I had to fight not only the hold the blackberry had on the ground, but also the hold the cats had on the stem. Great entertainment.

All the new cats: Secret, Smugggle, Vaughn and Sylvester are now fully integrated into the group. I need to get my facebook page for CATS Inc., started and get these beautiful cats new homes. I am reluctant to post on CL for several reasons- the main one being that it was announced on the news last night that people were getting kittens and cats off CL taking them to Scott Mountain and using them for target practice! Don’t even get me started about what I wish to do to this group of individuals! But there always seems to be yet one more litter box to scoop or clean, one more bowl of food to give out- and the day just flies by.

Yesterday, Mike had his first outing without his wheelchair! We went to a local business and he used his walker and walked into the business on his own power! I am so proud of him. Of course, he got so full of himself that he decided to when we got home to “walk” out to the shop. I followed him with the wheelchair in case he fell or had to sit down, but he made it all the way to the shop! I helped him clean up and discovered to my dismay that someone has been in the shop and helped themselves to the last custom knives he built. He had ten total, and they are all gone- the basket they were in was upended on the floor and the knives; bowies, skinners and hunters are nowhere in sight. I have to think that the recent vandals must have also gone out to the shop saw the knives and took off with them. He was really bummed but said he will make more soon.

He was so tired from the activity that I ended up towing him back to the house in his wheelchair- I roped his chair to the tractor and chugged slowly to the house watching him all the way- he seemed to enjoy the ride.

Vaughn and Sylvester are beginning to show signs of acceptance of the other cats. Both cats seem to be starved for love and it is hard to pry myself away from petting them and attend to business.

I got a call this morning about another litter of orphaned kittens- 8 total- the woman is supposed to bring them by later tonight but she sounded drunk and I hope she stays home. I suggested coming to pick them up- but she said no-

Thanks to the nonsense that happens around this area on the Fourth of July- there are now six new cats outside eating at the feeders. One is wearing a collar and my hope is I can make friends with her quick enough and see who she belongs to and return her as I don’t recognize her. There is a bengal mix, a siamese, two mackeral tabbies and a black boy a gold and white tomcat and a tuxedo kitty. They are all spooked to the max and who can blame them? We had M-80’s going off on the 4th and afterward. I fail to understand why there is a burn ban statewide till September, but fireworks are okay?

At any rate, my plan is to trap or make friends with these newcomers, and take them in to scan for a chip to see if I can reunite them with their owner- in the meantime, there are just more furballs outside to worry about and feed.

And of course since it is Kitten Season we have………

Today, I finally was able to free myself up enough to go into the enclosure and assess all the damage done. WalMart was having a sale on kiddy pools so we have all new litter pans. I carried out broken pieces of cat condos and cat carriers and wished bad things on the people who caused this. I finished ripping off all the wire on the intro cage and swept up all the debris.

Made some rough calculations and it will be just under $200.00 to replace what was ruined. It will have to wait though- I have two kittens in need of neuters and others who need to be seen by the vet. I am grateful that they didn’t have a pair of wire cutters or they might have made a escape hole for the cats to get out of- but all cats are now home and accounted for so thank you God! The other stuff is material and can be replaced another time. It just looks so sparse in there right now a pox on those who did this!