We don't just shut down subways....

...we shut down expressways, too.

Happy Birthday to EVERYONE!

One of my veterinarians recently got an interactive client pet portal. One of the fun features is that it sends a birthday email to the customer when it is their pet's birthday.

I have taken a LOT of cats and kittens to that veterinarian over the decades. Some of them I took in over a decade ago. Needless to say I get a LOT of birthday notices.

Yesterday was Paddles' (now Gizmo) birthday. I forwarded her birthday notice off to Nancy, who adopted her 10 years ago. I'm going to try to get all my way-back adoptions on a spreadsheet so I can do some more of that.

Some of the notices are sad, because some of the cats have passed. It has, after all, been as much as 15 years for some of those records. But others make me laugh. I thought about stopping by to purge my files of adopted cats. Then I'll no longer receive these notices. But when Paddles' email came through today, I realized there was more gladness than sadness. I'll have to do it at some point. But not yet.

Hey YOU! Did you adopt an Owl House cat since late 2010?

If you have, a huge number of you haven't registered that wonderful microchip your cat has! If your cat gets lost, they'll call me, which is better than nothing, but far better that you get notified if your lost cat is found!

It's only $10.99 to register. It's a deal! What are you waiting for! When you register your chip, The Owl House/Wildrun gets credit for another one. You chip TWO cats for one small fee.

If your cat's name is on the list below, you DID register your chip. Thank you! If your cat is not on this list, please check his/her records to see if I chipped your cat. There will be a black bar code sticker with a number. It will be on the cat's medical record and also on the inside of the folder the records came in. You will need that when you call HomeAgain.

Call 1-866-802-5650 or go to http://homeagain.com/chipfurkeeps Don't go to the main HomeAgain page or you won't get your special Petfinder Chip FurKeeps adoption rate on $10.99. Be sure to give them my Shelter ID of NY538. I'm still under Wildrun with them. You only have to pay $10.99 to register the chip for life. They do offer additional services for an additional fee if you wish to sign up for them. But it's only one-time fee to get your info on that chip!

I just purchased a microchip scanner for $199 at their reduced summer rate, so in a few days I'll be able to scan lost pets for chip myself instead of hauling them to someone else. If you can't find your records, I can come by and scan your cat and give you the chip number. Click my profile link at the right to email me. Happy Days!

Catamazing toy

I picked up a toy that intrigued me while I was at a conference last spring for $14, and only just now put it together. It's called "Catamazing" from Catamazing.com I was skeptical that it would be heavy enough to stay put while the cats played with it, but it seems to be doing a good job!

I only had it on the floor for five minutes before Rose came over and without even a stare or a sniff, showed me that she was smarter than the average toy. I'll use this as my cat toy box and we'll see how long it lasts. She sure has been having a good time!



I hate that if I post one video it progresses to others on my channel. Does anyone know how to make that stop? I'm thinking of switching to Vimeo if I can't figure this out.

(I have not been asked to blog on this toy and I purchased it on my own initiative).

Subway service disrupted to rescue kittens

Not long ago, this never would have happened


Slowly, slowly, U.S. society in general is accepting that if it is in our power to save a life, we should do so, even if it's not a human life. That doesn't necessarily mean society gives a cat's life equal weight as a human life. It does mean, that a feline life may be worth more than getting people to work, or home, on time.

Not so long ago, no one ever would have suggested stopping subway service for a couple of street kittens.

Ivan has a new ailment

My veterinarian is hitting the books and checking with other veterinarians. She is leaning toward narcolepsy, except this only hits Ivan when he's already asleep. He doesn't have any episodes when he's walking around or just watching the world.

Please forgive me for yelling at him and shaking him so. I did it so the veterinarian could see what he does and does not respond to. Normally I just leave him be. Lately I've discovered a sharp whistle often wakes him up.



He went in for an exam yesterday and more blood tests. It was time for that to happen anyway. He has been shaking his ears and I wanted to have them checked. The vet says they are clean as a whistle, so something else is going on. Other than that, he's a content 16 year old cat. She says other than his oddities, he's in great shape. He's happy at home, has a good appetite, smacks the other cats when he's had enough of them, cuddles up with them when he wants to, and treats me like a goddess.

You don't need to watch the whole thing, but do advance it to the end, to watch him wake up and walk away like nothing happened.

Brain tumor? Who knows. As long as he's comfortable, I want him with me.

Almost had more kittens...

I got an email from a business in Ithaca. They had found three bottle babies. I couldn't tell if they were saying that the SPCA wouldn't take them, or if the SPCA would take them, but just couldn't pick them up. The response to the question came the next day, and by then one of their staff had already purchased KMR and was bottle feeding the babies, and they'd decided to hang onto them.

I had the "kitten crib" ready to go when they arrived, but when they didn't, Captain Tiny Cat decided to see if he fit back into the crib he once occupied as a bottle baby himself. He did!

Big apology to commenters

A bunch comments ended up in my moderation inbox. They have been published! Yikes, I've been away too long!

Mr. TinyCat

Formerly Squeak!

Bubbles has found her home, but Mr. TinyCat is still here. He really is a tiny cat, although certain he has plenty of kitten in him. If I did not have Ivan, I would keep him. He is playful but thoughtful, likes to sleep curled up against my chest (just like Ivan, which is why TinyCat must move on to a new home soon!) and is just loads of fun to have around.

Here's a video of him with the turbo toy.

A must-have t-shirt

You can get it here

Thanks for sharing, Lori!

On pet store "pity buys"

I've done it. Have you done it?

Here is a story (click here) on a pet store pity buy.

There is only one solution to the pity buy, and that's never to go into a pet store at all. I used to go in to "check them out" and "be educated."

About (good God) at least 20 years ago, I stopped into a pet store one morning in Cortland (since defunct, thank goodness). I happened to be driving through. I was primarily checking out fish--I was big into fish tanks then. In the back was an old wire dog crate with a very scrawny lonely black kitten. Well, he was supposed to be black, but he was so malnourished his fur was rusty brown. He was absolutely emaciated. He had grade-level dry cat food (not kitten chow) and newspaper to lay on, and he was reaching desperately out the bars toward me.

You guessed it. I bought him. Fifteen bucks. No shots. The owner proudly mentioned he had been wormed. I'm ashamed to say that at the time I was not brave enough, after I handed over my cash and the kitten was safely mine, to give him more than a glare. I took him straight to the veterinarian on the corner, certain he would be FeLV positive since he looked so ill. When they learned where I gotten the kitten (I was not a client) they fit me in immediately. He was negative--surprise! I then went to the Cortland County SPCA and sat in their parking lot until they opened. I knew there could be no charges--the kitten had food and water, and that's all the law required. The pet store guy could easily have said he "rescued" the kitten (however the kitten should have been made healthy before being put up for sale). But I wanted them to see the kitten first hand. They were very nice. They said they'd had a lot of complaints, but nothing that would enable them to charge the place. I let them know they had one more.

I named him Moghi (for Moghadishu, where people were starving--probably not my most politically correct naming), and he was the fastest kitten I'd ever adopted out. One my way home with the kitten on my shoulder, I cut through Ithaca College and passed a security officer, who stopped when I stuck my hand out. She had previously mentioned she wanted a black kitten. She petted the rail-thin kitten through the window and promised it was "a go." So Moghi had a new home once he was healthy.

He got horribly constipated the new few days. I was sure I'd lose him. It's possible that in another person's care--who didn't realize what the problem was and what to do--he might have died. But he made it, and Moghi got his forever home.

A lot of pet-store purchases are pity buys. No caring person can easily turn their back on a pet in need, and that's what you are going to find in a pet-selling pet store.

So there's only one option.

Don't go in.

Have you done a pity buy (or pity adoption?) when you didn't intend to?

I'm going bats

...somewhat literally.

Yesterday I started my morning clean-up in the cat facility. Gawaine and Arthur had had liberty the night before. They were flopped on the vinyl floor watching me. Corky, the teenager, begged for attention from the cat room pass-through window, so I let him out. He began following me around hoping for attention. As usual, I started in the main room and moved into the runs, putting the cats back as I went. When I got to Gawaine's run...

Damn it! There was a dead bat on the floor.

If you have a cat facility in a barn, bats are a fact of life. However I had spent quite a bit of time last summer caulking and covering cracks, and had hoped I had the bat thing licked. But bats can get through tiny cracks, and apparently this one had. It was not in condition to be tested, so that meant only one thing.

Off to the veterinarian for rabies boosters!

While I had not seen Corky anywhere near the bat, since he follows on my heels like a little shadow, I didn't dare risk it, so he came along. Both Arthur and Gawaine had been boosted within the last two years. Corky had just been vaccinated a little over a month ago, but only for the first time. When a cat could go into someone else's home, you don't try to stretch the law to save money and time, although it was a total pain to give up my holiday afternoon off to go to the vet.

Story of my life. Sigh.

Gawaine is a howler in the car. You would think he was dying. Arthur acted like it was all a walk in the park orchestrated just for him. Corky acted like a normal cat...a few meows, a little nervous, but otherwise OK. Joan from Cornerstone fit me in within two hours (!!!) despite it being the last four hours on the day before a holiday. The place was quiet chaos. Everyone was clearly extremely busy, yet no one appeared rattled. I wanted to lean against them hoping that skill would rub off on me. The three cats got their vaccinations one at a time, between periodic breaks in the busy-ness.

I forgot my cell phone, so I could not take a photo of the cutest dog in the world, whom I met on my way out. "Murphy" looked like a petite lab mix---maybe more like a flat-coated retriever with a buzz cut---but only knee high. I can't begin to describe how perfectly proportioned this delicate little dog is. Wait...she said she adopted him off Petfinder. Let me see if he's still online....

Here he is. His photos don't do him justice. I swear, had I seen this dog when he was available for adoption, he would have been mine. The veterinary staff agreed that he was the perfect example of the perfect mutt. He has the tiniest bit of blue merle in his coat as well, and had the sweetest disposition. Friendly, a bit shy, and not at all wiggly (at the vet's office, at least). As I sat there remarking on him, his guardian mentioned he was adopted. I asked where. She said he saw him on Petfinder. I said "Oh, that's great, I work for Petfinder!" (Working 10-12 hours a day becomes absolutely worth it every time someone tells me they adopted a pet by visiting Petfinder). She then said she adopted him from Every Dog's Dream, and as a further coincidence, I had not only seen their adoption center in the Johnson City PETCO store for the first time last week. I had also been emailing with them for work reasons just a few day's earlier. It was a bit funny to have contact with a rescue group an hour away that I had never heard of before, three times in a couple of weeks. But there you go. That's the rescue world.


Every visit to the vet with a cat I've had a long while is an adventure in that, while the veterinarian has computerized records that can find a cat in a second, my paper folder is two inches thick. It would be even thicker if we didn't periodically go through to pull out the adopted cats. Since they were so busy I flipped through and finally found Gawaine, who had last been in in 2011. Every page was a blast from the past, seeing the records of kittens and cats who were long gone to their new homes.

I was also able to see that my last bat adventure was two years ago, so I guess they aren't as big a problem as I recall.

At any rate, it will be time for a caulking and ceiling-painting party soon, to keep those bats at bay!

I need to put some home made Coyote Rollers on my catio

...halfway up, because fat cat Bear insists on climbing up there. This is the second time he has stranded himself, requiring me to haul out the big ladder to fetch him down. At least he's smart enough not to jump the 9 feet back to the ground.



(These are Coyote Rollers)

Commuting with cat food

Over the years, between trucks and cars, I've hauled a lot of cat food. I never really noticed how it smelled when I had my pickup, but I did notice when we sometimes stowed some in my then-husband's car because we were taking it for outings that particular day, and I needed to stop by to feed cats.

After a few hours of the sun beating down, even a rolled-closed bag of food, or food in a bin or bucket, could make the car smell like a mix of a granary and old bacon. God FORBID you have a empty or partial can of cat food back there. Whoa, what a stink.

I also used to store food on-site in garbage cans (often hanging), and it was easier to fill those from an open bag.

When my pick-up finally died, I couldn't afford another truck. Also, as the colonies I cared for grew smaller over time, I realized I was actually overfeeding my cats. I'd put out well over two quarts of food for something like five cats. I'm sure most of it was scarfed up by raccoons and squirrels. I began cutting back..and cutting back. By dark, there was always food left. My cats clearly weren't starving.

I began bagging up my dry food in "single-serve" ziplock bags and carrying as many full ziplocks as I could in one of those reuseable grocery bags. Feeding became much easier. When I am feeding cats, I just grab one bag, open the feeding station, dump the food in the bowl, bang the lid, call the cats, and go.

When I'm leaving food for others to feed the cats, I leave 5-7 ziplocks full of food, which makes life a lot easier on volunteer feeders, too. I just grab the grocery bag full of individual packets, trek out to the feeding area, where I have a hanging water cooler to store the bags of food in (pictures in a future post), fill that up with 5-7 packets, and my feeders are set for a week. They put the empty ziplocks back in the water cooler (which has a twist top and keeps water and raccoons out) and I fetch the bags when I refill the cooler next weekend.

I can usually get 4-8 uses out of each ziplock bag, so each one lasts one to two months.

The food is also easy to move (just grab the grocery bag handles and haul it out of the way) and it doesn't spill like those cat-food bags with the rolled or clipped top, or tip over, like the bins.

Best of all, my car doesn't smell like a granary any longer.

For wet food (which I use sparingly) I now carry those Meow Mix orange tubs with the peel-off top. Almost all of the food slides right out, unlike canned food where a considerable amount remains stuck to the can. I tuck the empty tub in an empty ziplock bag and yay! No stink.

If you are feeding a hundred cats a day, this method is probably more work than it's worth. But if you are feeding just a handful of cats at several sites, this works great and saves time.

Do you have any tips for hauling food that helps keep your car under control (keeping in mind once a tom cat pees on upholstery, there's no use even trying to keep things smelling nice any longer)?

Special events--Such a pain, but so much fun

Setting up a booth for a special event is no easy feat. It has gotten more streamlined over the years, but I still need to take a serious hard look at the stuff I haul to set up a booth, and come up with lighter-weight options that are all in one place.

It may not sound like me (or if you know me well enough, maybe it does)I had a yelling--literally yelling--fit, yesterday, trying to find things for my regular booth that should have been right at hand. Didn't I just have a booth where I brought Thomas earlier this spring? Where was my stuff? I still have not found my small handbag of halters and leashes and I spent a good half-hour opening and slamming drawers, trying to find a halter that would fit skinny little Corky. And then a leash. I have half a hundred leashes. Could I find a single one? No, they were all in the magic missing handbag!

I had even set up a great little folder with a check list of things to do for a public booth, along with ready-made signs. Could I find it? No! Because when it comes to personal projects, I'm fitting in an hour here and an hour there, and need about three solid days to get everything organized from end-to-end.

It's times like this, when I have the least possible immediate enthusiasm for doing something, that I really need to do that thing. A big part of me is saying "The heck with it! I could be having coffee on my porch now! I could be doing cat laundry! Why I am doing this? No one cares!" (my little girl temper tantrum--or maybe my crotchety old lady temper tantrum--let's not blame the kids!).

In fact, what I need is a good dose of humanity. It means I've been in the woods too long.

I am not a kid person, in that I never wanted to be a mother. I knew that A) I was too selfish to give up a lot of my independence and B) I'm super protective/paranoid and would have had to learn a lot about "letting go" to allow a kid grow up with a healthy sense of adventure. This doesn't mean I don't like kids. I do indeed.

Kids don't see that "she's not a mom-type" thing. They just see this lady who likes cats, and they swarm my booths to pet the kitty. And I must say, what I see in kids in the last five years has been AMAZING.

Most of my donations (in number, not in overall size of course) came from kids. A child of about 12 actually put a dollar in my donation box and declined to take any of the small giveaways I have available (beads, Alley Cat Allies "I Love Feral Cat" buttons, emergency dog leashes). A dollar is a lot for a kid to give. She wasn't the only one. Kids didn't just put a penny in to "make a donation and get a gift." They gave handfuls of coins.

They also were extra gentle when it came to handling Corky. There was only one little boy who poked him with the hard end of the feather toy instead of gently playing, and his dad didn't ignore him or yell at him, he just took the toy from his hand, turned it around and said "No that's not how you do it. Use the soft side and play with him." And the boy did.

Kids did not whine when I was giving him breaks and wouldn't take him out of the cage. They gently put their hands up against the cage and allowed him to come to them and rub against their fingers. Other than being squirmy when he was held (on halter and leash--I did finally find a halter that fit and a knotted older leash in a drawer) Corky was a perfect "Adopt A Cat" ambassador.

I don't do too many adoptions in Spencer itself. As a village, there are more than enough kittens to be had just by walking out your door or talking to your neighbor. This isn't people being irresponsible and "not adopting" -- these are good-hearted people adopting the poor cat they find outside their door. But everyone I spoke with was enthusiastic about my budding "let's do a volunteer-run cat enumeration and apply for spay/neuter grants because national groups want real numbers about cats and TNR" idea and a few gave me their contact information and said they'd be willing to help go door-to-door if the time came.

I saw some residents I knew, and met some new ones. I came home with $26 in donations, which is probably a record for a Spencer event. People around here just don't have dollars to give away without advanced thought (especially when they probably had come with just X number of dollars budgeted to spend at the Picnic on food and fun for their kids).

All in all, I came home a lot more relaxed than when I had left. It was good to talk with neighbors, and it's always fun to watch the kids.

And that's why I do public events. Not-so-much to get donations. Not-so-much to advertise my cats for adoption. But pretty much to stay sane.


Thank-you Nancy, for the loan of the pop-up tent, and to Valarie, for the help setting up and tearing down!

Baby food fixes EVERYTHING when you are a feral kitten

Thank-you post

A few people have sent the cats (and therefore me) some gifts to keep us all going. After Tulip found a home, her foster home (whose family originally rescued her) came over with a Walmart card (with a tulip on it!). Christy and Linda (adopter/fosterer and her sister) came for a visit and left a generous donation, and Janet, a blog reader, made me a bit weepy eyed one evening this week when I found a PayPal donation and got this message:

"Your blogs have given me invaluable information about feral cats...just paying you back!"

And of course the generous adopter of The Leewit and Jack faithfully sends a donation every quarter, which spays and neuters many of our cats each year through The Jack and Leewit Fund.

There are also those who continually step forward in all manner of interesting ways. Tomorrow we will be at the Party at the Pond in Spencer, and Nancy (adopter of Gizmo, and a fosterer for many groups including The Owl House) lent her pop-up awning, as mine bit the dust a few years ago.

Even just reading here makes a huge different. When you live out in the middle of nowhere, seeing those spikes in readership on the blog make it seem a little less quiet.

So enjoy your weekend, and thank you for all you do for animals, where ever you are, and whomever you are helping!

Finally a kitten photo

I have been remiss. Kittens, and no photos? Horrors!

Here are Bubbles and Squeak, kittens from the feral mom who gave birth to them in the trap at the spay/neuter clinic.

Thank you, work-partiers!

Six intrepid souls made it out with very short notice. Judy and Dave spent a number of hours bushwacking the Memory Garden and the trees hanging over it. Plants and memorials steadily emerged. They even managed to clear off to the sides where wildness was encroaching.

Local cat caretakers, if you don't have a place to lay a cat to rest, you are welcome to make a place for them here.





Nancy, with her dog Jack, took on the side of the barn, where the stain had worn off. It was too hot to work on the front where the sun was beating down.

When Gretchen arrived later in the afternoon, we shoveled four wheel barrow loads of mulch from my shrinking pile (I usually buy a truckload every couple of years) and mulched the garden.

It was too nice to work inside and paint the ceiling of the cat room, so I may have a weekend dinner to get that done sometime in July. It's the kind of task that would go fast with a few people, especially if I get the edges done before hand.

Then, just before Gretchen left, Tulip's new guardians arrived to fill out paperwork. There little daughter played with kittens, and then they headed off to Tulip's foster home to pick her up.

All in all a very good day! Thank you so much for coming out with only around 72-48 hours notice -- depending on whether you learned about it by Facebook or email.

Do you belt in your cat?

I was taking Tulip off to the veterinarian to get a microchip and I idly thought "I should belt her in," which I did. I even remembered to belt her in on the way home. For years I used to wrap the seat belt around the crate (as it if were a human) until one day I saw someone run the strap right through the crate handle. Well...duh! So much better.

And wouldn't you believe, a barn cat streaked in front of me on Halsey Valley Road on the way home. I hit the brakes, but not as hard as I could, because I didn't want to send Tulip flying, and I knew I was going to hit that cat. Then I realized "Hey, she's strapped in!" and I mashed the brake. Tulip, who has some padding on her, barely swayed, the crate stayed put, and the barn cat made it safely to the other side.

So if you don't strap in your kitty crates, please consider doing so.

And yes, yesterday Tulip went off to her new family!