Good morning from The Owl House

photo by Valarie Kranz

And happy National Feral Cat Day. In honor of this special day, launched in 2001 by Alley Cat Allies, I am saying goodbye to Wildrun, and hello to The Owl House.

Wildrun was a wildlife control and cat chasing venture started by a 28 year-old young woman with a truck, a boyfriend, a catchpole, who got a real sense of joy being out in the small wild lands that edged our suburban world. I caught things. Woodchucks, raccoons, skunks, now and then a beaver and...cats. My life was running around, catching things.

The Owl House is a house on a quiet road in something close to the middle of nowhere, surrounded by older neighbors of German and Finnish origin, and younger neighbors who just wanted to walk out their door and see the sky, hear the creeks, and appreciate other folks who loved such things. And instead of me having to go get the cats, the cats more often come to me.

Right now, as I type, one young black cat is curled up on my left. Another is on my lap, keeping my hands warm as I work. Their tux brother is having a wash on the carpet. Yesterday, Mariah and Smidge (pictured) went to their new homes.

Here we are.

At one time I had a grand plan. It was called The American Cat Project, and you can still find it living on the web, full of broken links and old information. You'll see it slowly get cleaned up over the next few months. It will become smaller, tighter, and will address issues. It will no longer be a grand plan, but it says something most sites don't say. Sometimes things live, and sometimes things die. Life is not black and white.

I also have a new home page for The Owl House at at OwlHouseCats.com It's very small now, because last year I got the basic plan to see how I liked the system. This year I will expand to unlimited pages, and I plan to provide information on how local people can handle their own cat issues when we cannot help.

I have some long range plans, but until the economy shakes itself out, I'll just keep those on pen and paper rather than the internet.

I hope the point of the change will become clearer over the next few months, for the major launch in January of 2012.

I know some of you are somewhat attached to Wildrun, having been on board for years and years. I have to say, I'm having a hard time giving it up. Sometimes things have to pass on for other things to live.

Have a wonderful, glorious fall day, on this National Feral Cat Day!