Strays out to play

I came home at 9:40pm last night and while I was fumbling with my keys near the door, I saw a gray fuzzy out of the corner of my left eye. No more than 5 feet away was One Eyed Tom, staring at the Danish modern couch on the porch. My hubby noticed that I was home and opened the door, I was frantically gesturing to him not to make any sound when one, two, three, four, FIVE cats came streaking out from under this couch and under hubby's truck, where the singing began. One Eyed Tom sauntered after them.

Less than an hour later the singing came from the lower part of the back yard, where I've taken the pictures. I went outside and saw a fluffy pale tom guarding the place I thing the queen was hiding and singing to her suitors.

I'm guessing there are going to be kittens in the not too distant future.

Anya and I being silly

Last night I was home alone so I watched silly TV and played with makeup. And Anya joined me.

It is what you think it is...

That would be a chinchilla penis.

Limping Luna

Luna limped into the livingroom holding up her left front paw. She is definately going into work today to see her doctor. She might need xrays. I'm really hoping she didn't break something.


Updated 2/23/2008 5:33PM: Luna is fine. She sprained her wrist. Some pain meds, lots of snuggles and rest worked wonders and she was thumping her housemates this morning. :)

Almost

That same tom cat was at the pond again this morning, but he ran away before I could get any better sunny pictures. Early morning and late afternoon are the best time to get outside photographs, there is good contrast and better colours when the sun is out at those times.

Anya slept the entire night with me. She is so cute.

Poor hubby slept in the guest room (snoring issues) and apparently one of the kitties peed on his sweatpants and he put them on this morning. It is funny when it doesn't happen to me. Yes, it has happened to me. We have seven very strange cats.

Getting Ready

On March 2nd the hubby and I have to bring the seven cats to my hospital for our annual shot clinic. I will be making cupcakes for all the volunteers. Maybe I can get the darling hubby to make cookies. Then we have to wrangle 7 unwilling felines into carriers and bring them to the hospital. Yay!!!

One Eyed Tom

Bold as can be, this stray tom cat sauntered into the yard to drink from our fish pond. Will has seen him do this before but it was the first time I got to witness it. Which of course means I had to grab my camera and record the event. This cat is HUGE! I call him "one eyed Tom" because his right eye is blued over from some previous infection and may not have any good vision left.


This is a very undignified look at him when he had finished drinking. :) He had just finished licking his lips when I got this fairly squinchy faced shot.


And there's the proof that he's a tom cat. The goolies, fuzzy pom-poms, cajones, I could go on, but you get the idea. ;)

So Many Updates

Not only did I open the Stray Cats section of Luna Crafts, I also added dark shirts and completely revamped the Luna Crafts Design blog. Enjoy!

Stray Section Active

I have opened the stray cats section of Luna Crafts. Items are being added and tweaked right now. Enjoy. :)

Random Cute Pictures

I had some fun with the camera the other night and snapped some cute pictures of some of the cats.

This is Stella sleeping on a pile of her daddy's clothes on a chair in the office. She can curl up so tight it's adorable.


Here is Calliope on a kitchen chair after dinner. She is pretending I'm not there. It is very hard for some reason to get good pictures of Calliope.


Penelope on a dining room chair. I love this cat. I love all my cats, but Penelope is one of my favorites.


Vincent sniffing the flowers hubby got me for Valentine's Day. The next morning those flowers were all over the house, the vase was on it's side and the table was soaked. The joy of living with cats.

Paw prints in the snow

We had a really spectacular snowfall on Tuesday night and I was really hoping to get pictures of the strays in the snow. Alas it was not to be, but I did get these really nifty shots of their paw prints in the snow remains on Thursday.

Vincent in the snow

Vincent is made for snow, being a maine coon cat, he loves it. So after a long day at work, full of death, I rushed home as fast as I safely could in the snow, strapped on his harness and headed outside. He meowed and sniffed and traipsed all over the yard while I got show in my nurse shoes and froze my fingers to the bone. But this picture made it all worth it.

As an interesting aside, Vincent was a stray in our backyard when we bought this house. It took me a year to notice that he was pretty much always around and getting thinner every day. When I finally grabbed him I discovered that he was castrated and declawed and obviously neglected. He had fleas and ticks and weighed a very thin 10lbs. He's now fluffy, a slightly portly 13.4lbs, flea and tick free and the king of his own harem. Even if he is castrated he doesn't let that stop him. ;)

New Project

Because I obviously have too much time on my hands with a full time job, 12 animal companions, clicker training, a husband, and few blogs, an online store and a makeup obsession, I've decided to add to my online store Luna Crafts, with a purpose. I'm going to make at least a calendar, probably more items than that, with images of the strays in my backyard. All profits from the sale of those products will go to the trap, neuter, release efforts the hubby and I will be starting come spring. Steel City strays will get at least a little help when they wander into my yard.

And yes, I'm home sick again today. I did manage to make it into work for three hours before I was convinced I was going to vomit on the next stinky dog I had to hold.

Crazy Changing Weather

Look at the pictures in the "Stray Insanity" post below, they were taken earlier this afternoon. Now look at these pictures. The weather went from bright and sunny and about 50 degrees, to snowing sideways and so cold I couldn't feel my fingers after taking a handfull of pictures outside. Unreal.

Forgotten Felines (and Fidos)

Well it appears I have found the answer to our stray issue. Forgotten Felines & Fidos is a no-kill shelter in Germansville PA that offers a low cost spay-neuter program. If we trap the kitties they will neuter the males for $40.00 and spay the females for $50.00 ($55.00 if pregnant) and give rabies and distemper vaccines free of charge. This is very fair and something that we can definately handle come the warmer months. I've printed out their information for future use and will be getting a Havahart trap eventually. We will definately only be trapping, neutering and releasing. These will not be "our" cats.

Stray Insanity

Due to my husband's landscaping business, and hording habit, we have a large amount of stuff in our backyard that makes a pretty perfect environment for animals to hide in, hunt in, and basically be quite happy inhabiting. In this case "animals" primarily means stray cats, and their prey.

For the last few days, hubby has been telling me that there is a group of cats hanging around the house, even on the front porch, which is keeping some of our inside cats, freaked out. Today he got me up out of my sick bed to see the SIX cats in the side garden. Well turns out, it was more than likely five toms and one poor terrified queen in the middle. I didn't get pictures of the huddle in the side garden. But once she streaked off to the lower part of the backyard, I got pictures of some of the toms stalking her. She is completely hidden under the tarp in old carpet batting (will be used under pond liner, everything has a purpose). Some of the toms were under the canoe. All of the toms are bigger than my cats. Vincent still hasn't left the office window where he can keep an eye on the backyard.
Here are the biggest tuxedo and the "snowshoe something mix" that have been the most visible of the stalking toms. The white and brown blob has blue eyes and a somewhat smushed face.



And here we add the large gray mackeral tabby to the bunch. He is one of the few truly handsome toms, and he is HUGE!





Here is another one of the big boys coming out from under one of the canoes. I missed the second emergence of another tuxedo cat.





And if you can make it out, here is that tabby with white trying to follow the queen under the shed when she made a break for it.

I'm curious to know what has happened to our groundhog that lives under the shed or if the queen runs in there when she knows it is out and about or just sleeping. I believe groundhogs hybernate so she should be safe right now.

The biggest question is, where will she have the kittens, and how do I stop this cycle? Hubby and I are looking into low cost neuter programs for the boys. I don't want to take these cats in, but I don't want them fighting and mating and causing problems either. We do not feed them. They have water available from our fishpond, and shelter from our stuff, other than that I have taken no care of them. I don't really want to be responsible for them. I have my own tribe that needs me. But I don't want them getting sick or hurt or overpopulated. So I'm in a quandry as my hubby would put it.

Lots to consider and think about.

Thank Goodness for Cats

I'm sick. Coughing, sneezing, itchy ears and throat, fever, sick. I am supposed to work today but I'm too flat out to go in. I'm just waiting for there to be someone there to tell.

In the mean time my cats are gathering around me on the bed. Like little nurses they are here to make sure I'm okay and to purr and keep me warm. Even Calliope, one of the fraidy cats is here. But that's probably more about her passionate love of Vincent than anything to do with me.

More Progress Every Day

I am lounging on my overstuffed loveseat and on the back cushion, next to my head, is a slumbering Persephone. I pet her earlier tonight. Some day I might even cuddle this fraidy cat.

Paws Up

Vincent is the shining star of our clicker training class. He has created his own trick where he sits up on his rump and puts his paws up to the target. Then he holds the pose while I give his treat directly into his mouth. What a talented boy.

Anya is getting better with the target training and almost always goes for the tip of the target instead of bumping my hand or arm.

I am having a great time with this clicker training stuff. It really is improving my relationship with the cats.

Luna still doesn't care.

Critter Room Cleaning

Once again it was time for a big clean of the critter room. Today I decided it was time to move the ferret cage and clean the walls and floor behind and under it. Yay. Cleaning the cage always means letting the ferrets run about and play with Anya while I work. Which really means Rosie is going to chew on my shoes the entire time. She actually managed to steal a jibbit from my crocs. Luckily Anya couldn't resist playing with it so I found my purple flower.

Here is the critter room and our cage layout. The colour is the original colour that was there when we bought this house. Ugly. But it cleans easily. And no, there is no trim around the closet. I put up blue tape to keep dust down. I have four of the eight litter boxes in the critter room closet. Along with our plastic bags for cleaning litter boxes and other supplies. The big cage to the right is the ferret cage, you can see Anya in her box on the bottom shelf. On the dresser is Seymour's cage and random supplies. To the left of the dresser is Selma and Lily's cage. Hanging on the dresser is a canvas bag full of newspaper for lining the ferret cage. Very exciting stuff isn't it? I have to keep this room clean or else the whole house suffers.

Now Penelope is asking for me to play fetch. So I must oblige.