Buster-the-feral comes inside for National Cat Day

Note: I'm not sure why this posted twice! Must be the blog-powers felt Buster needed more exposure!

Look who decided that National Cat Day was a great day to come inside?

He has come inside the door and has poked around a bit before, but he has never really relaxed. This was the first time he cuddled up to sleep. After three hours he asked to go back outside again, where his heated house keeps him cozy. I've also found him back down in the basement when the wind is high. I guess I won't be fixing that cellar window for awhile yet.

I'd shut him in and just make him deal with behind an indoor cat, except I currently have kittens in the woodstove room, which means my pet cats have only the kitchen, dining area, and the great room to hang out in. Adding another cat to that mix would probably result in spats and spraying, and I can't risk that.

Soon the kittens will be gone to new homes, and he can spend more time indoors. I'm hoping that once the snow flies, he'll be contents to spend most of his time in here.

New Torti kitten

About a month ago, the couple who watches over The Owl House while I travel lost their cat. They were traveling after their wedding, and little Prune, a torti, slipped out the window of their parent's house where she was staying.

Since then we've been on the lookout for found torti cats, and a little torti showed up on Facebook, found in Lockwood. The young woman who found her had called the shelter, but they couldn't take her, so after trying to find the owner on her own, she posted the kitten on Facebook to find her a new home. When I went to pick her up, she was too young to be Prune. But because she still needed help, she came on home with me.

The very next day a woman was visiting to see if she might be interested in Wildflower, and fell in love with this little girl who had been here less than a day. So "Fleury" as she was named by her pending guardian, is now in the house awaiting her spay.

While she's less than six months old (she still has her kitten canines, which normally fall out at 5.5 months) she had a bit a potbelly which made me wonder if she might be pregnant. Sure enough, she miscarried about five days ago. She seems to be fine--no fever, lots of activity, a great appetite, but I'll be glad when she gets to the veterinarian for her spay.

I'm sure she'll be glad to get into a home where she'll get all the cuddles she needs, and no chance of future kittens!

Lumber yard kittens grow up

These five little boys are all scheduled for neuter on November 8, election day. Then hopefully out the door they go to new homes!



After her spay and recovery, their mom was welcomed back by the home supply store and lumber yard that rescued this small family earlier this fall. She's currently in their office (with doors that open to the warehouse and outside) getting re-acquainted with her old digs.

They have grown so much since their arrival on August 31!

Bird's just gotta have fun!

Short and worth the watch!

I heard from the squirrel of judgement

I can't find a source for this. It was shared on Facebook via the Writing about Writing page (via Connie of Tails from the Foster Kittens) and when I tried to find it again on Facebook to see if I could track down who made it, a zillion election related posts had pushed it into the whirlpool of my timeline.

Yes, it has been 20 days since my last blog post. In that time a couple of other kittens have been spoken for, and the little kittens have grown up some more. The one little kitten who had been spoken for lost his potential home due to the usual: another more immediate kitten became available from somewhere else. But that's okay. He's still little, pudgy and cute. They are scheduled to be neutered in two weeks.




The new cat tree was offered to us by Tracy, who has fostered for us, for really cheap (just $30) because her cats wouldn't use it. Small kittens love things like this, whereas big cats find them too shaky or small to hang out on. So this tree will stay with this litter for them to destroy as the grow up.

Instead of scrolling mindlessly through Facebook for 20 minutes in the evening, I need to sit down and post on this blog for those people who aren't Facebook users but who give so much to help these cats!

Your afternoon Buster fix

Buster has become totally friendly to me, although he still won't come in the house of his own accord, after one or two explorations. We'll see if that changes when the temperature plummets.

Here he is trying to live up to the memory of Boris, the white Geneva Street/Albany Street feral patriarch who passed away two years ago.

I'm still not used to having an outdoor cat around. I saw a cat down the road this morning, and called to it. It looked at me, then leaped the ditch into the woods. I swore various four-letter words at people who dump cats, and planned to head down the road with food after finishing cleaning the cat facility. Shortly, Buster showed up.

Duh. It was my own cat.

Chipping away at adoptions...two steps forward, one step back

Timmick, Archer, Pitter, and Patter have been adopted.

And I just checked my mail. Valentina!!!!! Noah's adopter wants to try her out.

Of the five lumber yard kittens, the little peanut black kitten has been spoken for. Their mom tested negative for FeLV/FIV when she got spayed this past week. Whew.

They are outgrowing their cage. During the day they get to run around in my woodstove room but shortly they will have to move out to the cat facility. They've had their first vaccination but will need another before they go, as the cats out there had a non-serious upper respiratory sneeze that might be more serious in smaller kittens. I'll probably keep any kittens who are spoken for here in the house.

I've had two kittens "spoken for" and then became available for adoption again. Archer was going to go with Timmick, but their adopter decided to stick with one kitten--a wise move I think. Wildflower was supposed to go to a home in PA, but they decided that things were too hectic to add a cat at this time. Archer has now been spoken for by a second person, and another person is interested in Wildflower, so hopefully they still have home options.

There are still six young cats in the cat facility looking for homes, and four tiny kittens up-and-coming who are not spoken for. The adult cat picture is quite good: Pitter and Patter, and now Valentina are spoken for. Basil was adopted. This would leave....drumroll...only Heidi and Eve in the cat room!

Yet there is an emaciated stray tiger cat in Van Etten, and a declawed cat living in a shed in Owego who has been turned away by two SPCAs.

We are supposed to handle only feral cats and kittens. So far this summer only two family units fell into that category this year. All the rest were turned away by full shelters.

We are still a long way from that "pie-in-the-sky" of "no-kill." As long as shelters are saying "no" to declawed stray cats, no one can say we are there yet.

Sometimes odd things draw my attention

Like this. I've watched it three times.