ouchy tooth

It's that time of year again, when all the cats head next door to the vet for their annual inspection and vaccines. Willow, Nahum, Theo and Rose got to partake of the adventure. Managing four cats in the exam room is a bit of a challenge, but the bulk discount makes it worth it - they charge one multi-cat exam fee for as many cats as we show up with.

Everyone checked out ok, even Theo's thyroid blood levels were good. Only one issue was found, Willow has an ouchy tooth. She has a cavity that needs attention. How could this be?

I'm guessing it's because she's so sweet and everyone knows sugar causes cavities.

Poor Willow, soon she'll be missing a tooth. I inquired about getting her a crown or implant, but the vet didn't seem keen on that idea. I'm thinking my Willow will still be perfect, even with one less tooth.

She's scheduled to go in Monday morning for the extraction. 

Purrs for my sweet little precious girl.

love

The world needs more love

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Thank you everyone for your ideas and words of reassurance about the fence situation. I'll be talking with the new neighbors about Oliver and The Family at the next opportunity. Once everything is settled with the new fence, I'll see what I can do about making some sort of interesting bird sanctuary. It will be a challenge to get much to grow there as that strip of land between house and fence will get next to no sunlight. This will be my chance to be creative.

change is coming

The older I get the less I like change but this poses a challenge, since change is inevitable.

This week I learned that some change is coming. We've owned our home for almost nine years now.  Most of the houses around us are rentals, which makes for interesting neighbors. The house adjacent to ours to the south is a rental. I learned earlier this week that there are new people moving in next door and they have big plans.

I sort of know the couple moving in, as they were living a few blocks away and I would occasionally say hi when walking by. They have two indoor/outdoor cats, both are mostly friendly. Having two outdoor cats living next door is not going to go over well with Oliver or his family. They consider the neighbor's yard to be their's too. I foresee a lot of fighting in Oliver's future which is making me very stressed.

The other big change is that they are building a new fence. The old one is in pretty sad shape, so it does need replacing.

Believe it or not, I didn't add the cat hole, the board just happen

 to break at the perfect height for cats to walk through!

I learned that the new fence they are installing will go along the property line, which is significantly different than the current fence. The old fence is along the property line in the back of the house but due to the ground contour, it gradually moves up into their property. The new fence is going to be built along the property line for the full length of the lot.

Here is what the current fence looks like (the red house is mine):

And this is where the new fence will go:

Our house, which was built in the early 1900's, is only five feet from the property line. Which means soon we'll have a six foot fence five feet from the house which will block a significant portion of light into the house. This makes me very unhappy. The fence will also block a lot of the indoor cats' view.

Sanborn map from 1902, my house is the one in the middle.

One potential positive of the fence is that the people are considering installing some sort of barrier along the top of the fence to keep their cats in their yard. I'm imagining it might be something like what Kea has on her backyard fence.

Today the old fence was partly taken down, giving Oliver and his family lots of new things to check out.

Pierre

Oliver

Pierre

Pierre

I'm of the belief that good fences make good neighbors. I'm just bummed at the location of the new fence and how it will impact Oliver's territory.

around the cattery

A few scenes from around the hobby cattery this week...

Oliver going furless

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day a little late.

Supervised lunch

Ready to ride!

Have an wicked awesome weekend!!

Award and TNR adventures

Looky what we got? We got another award!!

The Sunshine Picnic Award!! 

With all the rain we've been having, sunshine is coveted! Thanks to sweet Katie Isabella for gifting us with this award (for the second time!) I'll offer the award to anyone who hasn't received it yet, please take and enjoy!

And speaking of sunshine, I had the opportunity to escape the rain yesterday by traveling to another part of the state to teach a TNR class. It was too much fun, I loved it! After the class we toured a TNR site that takes the cake for being the most challenging site of all time. It's crazy! 

I just wrote up the experience with lots of pictures on my backyardTNR.com blog, so if you want to check it out you had better pop over there and take a look. Feral cats rule!

Safe place

Safe and cozy, it's Rose's way!

Hope you stay safe and cozy today!

Don't let any grabby humans get too close.

Spring has sprung!

Lazy cat days of Spring!