soak it up

Enjoy every sun puddle

for the sun will not be around much longer

crazy cute!

Look what I got?!!

Six teeny tiny feral kittens! They were trapped by a colleague on Wednesday at a TNR site we are working on. She went to assess the site and found these six kittens shivering in a pile. 15 minutes later she had three in each trap!

We believe them to be 10 weeks old (dating from which teeth are in). We suspect they are undersized due to coccidia, a nasty intestinal parasite. Once that nasty bug is gone they should start growing like weeds!

The kittens are all staying in the feral cat holding pen I built as part of my TNR Operations Center in the garage. They LOVE the heating pad!

 

This little girl has goobers in her eyes, something we are treating as well.

There are four girls and two boys - three brown tabbies, one black and gray tabby, a solid black, and a black and white. Most of them are just over a pound and two are around 11 ounces. Tiny!

This is my first foray into kitten taming! They are darling cute! A few of them will hiss when I approach but none have tried to bite. Things will improve when they are more healthy (no diarrhea) and more consistently using the litter box. I've got a lot to learn about kittens, and I'm thankful to have TNR-friends who are eager to teach me.  Meanwhile, you'll find me hanging out in the garage...

A full weekend of cats

What a glorious weekend we had, filled with hundreds of cats and cat people! This weekend was TICA's Annual International Cat Show. I learned a lot about TICA at the show, they are the largest cat registry in the world. I was very impressed that they support spay and neuter by allowing altered pedigreed cats and altered household pets to compete in their shows. Each have their own category. They even were handing out a nice brochure promoting spay and neuter of cats.

I took a lot of pictures, but I didn't want to use the flash, so some are a little blurry. I tried to just pick out a few to share that would give you a glimpse into this awesome event. This was by far the largest cat show I've attended, with 12 rings and close to 500 cats. Judges were from all over the world and people came from great distances to enter their cats.

The venue was very comfortable and pleasant.

Lots of great vendors as always. 

I found a travel bag that fits Nahum, more on that in a later post!

This judge is starting with Bengal kittens first thing in the morning, which are 

very noisy and rambunctious! He noted he would have no trouble staying awake!

I love seeing the judges enjoy the cats!

One of the things I enjoy about going to these shows is 

getting to see so many different cat breeds.

There were quite a few Norwegian Forest Cats in attendance as well as Maine Coons. 

Even a bunch of Siberians too. A fluffy cat convention!

The judge from Argentina, enjoying a Maine Coon kitten

cages full of Nahum look-alikes

This judge was awesome, she really liked to get up close and personal with each cat.

She concluded her assessment with a kiss!

Oliver's stand-in

A large Maine Coon

With so many Maine Coons, Norwegian Forest Cats and Siberians in attendance, we were able to fine tune our best guess about Nahum's lineage. After looking at a lot of fluffy cats and talking with their owners, in the end, we think that Nahum most resembles the Siberian. The female Siberians even look a lot like Willow, Nahum's cute little sister.

A female Siberian, who looks like a fluffy version of Willow! 

This girl was for sale, and I sure wanted to take her home!

Fluffy Siberian

The Siberian has a fluffy coat like Nahum, a broad nose and large boned legs.

This was such a wonderful show. Well organized and the great venue made it super comfortable. It was fun to see so many spectators enjoying the cats. The cats seemed to be having a good time too.

TICA generously provided a huge exhibit space to the Community Cat Coalition, the TNR education group I work with. A team of volunteers worked the space and educated a lot of people about the importance of TNR. TICA even offered a discount on show admission if people brought cat food to donate to the CCC's "feral barrels", food that goes to feral colonies around the area. A lot of feral cats will be well fed thanks to TICA's generosity. 

Some TNR'ed rescue cats were available for adoption, many of which competed in the Household Pet category of the show! A sweet black and white, Ambrosia, was a show favorite, she took home quite a few ribbons! Several of these cats even found their new forever homes!

And if that wasn't enough cats and cat people for a day, we went home after the show and made the final preparations for the second annual Community Cat Coalition Labor Day Party, a social we host for the volunteers of the CCC.

Our yard (Oliver's yard) is not very big, but it's big enough for a party!

food!

When the volunteers who were working the cat show arrived with the rescue cats, 

everyone flocked around the table to see the prize winning cats!

Those who stayed later got a special treat. They got to see Pierre firsthand!

Pierre doesn't seem phased by the visitors in his yard, 

as he goes about exploring the new furnishings.

A wonderful cat-filled weekend!! We were all exhausted by the time it was over. Thankfully, it was a long weekend for us. Monday was spent chilling with just our sweet kitties.

kittens rescued from NYC subway!

It's so rare to read happy news these days, so when I read this story, I just had to share.

From CBS News: 2 kittens that stopped NYC subway service found

In this Aug. 29, 2013 photo provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, two kittens stand between the rails on subway tracks in the Brooklyn borough of New York. / AP PHOTO/METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHORITY

A woman somehow lost her kittens on the subway tracks, so the transit authority cut power to the tracks for more than an hour as they searched. Amazingly, seven hours later they were found and safely retrieved!

There are a lot of crazy, cruel people out there in the world, but this news story shows there are lots of good, kind people too, who are willing to do the right thing even when it inconveniences a lot of people.

head bonks

I look forward to feeding the outside cats every morning. I'm not usually a morning person, but these days, I don't want to miss an opportunity to visit with Oliver and his precious family. This weekend I was in for a treat. On Friday morning when I went out to serve the boys breakfast, Pierre came up to me when I was dishing out the wet food and head bonked my hand! I couldn't believe it!

Pierre loves to head bonk Oliver and this time he did it to me!

Sunday Breakfast

On Saturday, he did it again and then proceeded to start eating out the bowl of wet food, like Oliver does, before I was was done dishing out all the food. I decided to take advantage of the moment and reached out and gave him some pets. I was in heaven!! After about four pets he moved away. Progress!

Meanwhile, construction continues on Oliver's new palace. Sunday night was the first night it was made available for the cats. I put Oliver up to it so he could explore, which he promptly did. Creating the palace was part of a bigger house project. Most of the kitty portion of the project is complete, but there are a few things yet to do for the entire project to be done. Hopefully, just another day or two of work and it will be done. I'll share some pictures once the project is completely done.

frames

We recently got a second car that Laura mostly uses for commuting and I've been thinking about surprising her with some cat-themed license plate frames. With so many options, I'm having a hard time choosing. Here are a few I'm considering, tell me what you think, or let me know if you have any better ideas.

This one is handmade of wood - Custom Black Silhouette CAT License Plate Frame Cover Cats:

Here's a basic metal one from ebay:

MEOW is a wonderful local cat rescue, they offer this frame as a fundraising item:

These all seem, how shall I say it... tame. So, after letting my creativity flow a little, I came up with this idea:

So please share any great ideas you have. 

mornings with the ferals

I'm not usually a morning person, so when the alarm goes off a little before 6am, I begrudgingly turn it off - I don't want to get out of the warm, cozy flannel sheets - until I remember that I get to feed Oliver and his family! Feeding them every morning is the highlight of my morning.

Every night I fear something will happen to one of them overnight and I may never see them again. So, seeing them all safe and sound in the morning is such a delight!

All three cats are usually bedded down, each on their own heating pad on the back porch, waiting for breakfast to arrive. When they hear me in the mudroom, they begin to stir and stretch. Oliver waits right by the mudroom door on the sisal mat that he loves. Pierre is a short distance off and MK waits by the back porch door just incase he needs to bolt.

Even before I'm done scooping the wet food out of the can, Oliver starts in. He always starts eating first, he needs to get some because when Pierre and MK come over he lets them have the remainder. He's a very generous cat. Sometimes while Oliver is eating and I'm still filling the bowl, Pierre comes over to me and eats some too, being very much at ease with being just inches away from me. 

I share with you back in June that when I held out a finger to Pierre he would raise his paw and touch my finger. Now, Pierre has started to initiate contact! While I'm filling the bowl, he comes right up to me and reaches his paw out to touch my hand!! He's done this several times now and it melts my heart each time. He's even started sniffing my fingers. Earning their trust fills my heart with joy.

MK in these pictures cracks me up. He always does this when I try to get pictures of them all. He's the one on the back who's looking every direction except at the camera! Silly ferals!