Winter has arrived.

Winter has arrived and it's been freezing out. In the teens, and all the garden is gone, except the broccoli and cabbage and winter grasses. Our trees who were not through turning, are frozen now.

The sick one I call Big Foot, out side is getting very week and today I could not find him. He had snuck in the house and hid somewhere, when it was the coldest, but I couldn't leave the cat door open because of the cold Easternly winds, and he went out yesterday and sat in the sun, but did not come back in, that I know of. It froze last night, and is almost that cold now. I should not wait any longer to put him out of his misery, but I couldn't find him. He is buddies with the long-haired Andy, who likes it outside, and he would keep him warm, but Andy and Casper are sleeping in a box with a blanket in it, and no big foot. Poor boy!

One of the black sisters [Dorthy-Dot for short, and Doris, after my mothers twin aunts], the one [Doris] who I though had disappeared, has two little black babies, big enough to come out to eat. Only I've only seen one last two days. I hope it is okay, just wild and shy like mom.

Coaly and Bitsy are doing okay, and until today Vivy the little white one was too. but she's not playing like she should and doesn't want to eat much. Coaly is still on antibiotics so I'll start her on them too. Several of the older ones are sneezing and it's going through them, too.

I'll try to get some pictures up of them.

Fall and all!

Well with a freeze last week, two in fact, all my summer garden is frozen except what I covered with blankets. LOL Trying to hang on to the peppers and tomatoes to see if any will mature. I almost didn't get home soon enough to get them covered, as it was 32* by the time I got home from work, but the blankets have worked so far.
The cats don't help much at night putting them out but the like to attack them in the morning when I pull them off. LOL
Typical of this area, it may be a while before we get more freezes, so it's worth a chance to try to save them. The Broccoli and cabbage is loving it tho. My house plant go in and out too. That is a game fore the cats, too, running in and out the door while is propped open! They're goofy!

The little tri colored one of Buttons did not make it. The Lord saw fit to take her quickly so she didn't suffer, later in the day. It is a real downer to lose them, but the others are all doing well.
I sat a litter box down and they all started using it on their own. They are eating , and crawling over the barrier I put up to keep me from stepping on them. Bathing them, putting down a new sleeping towel every day and keeping DE on them is helping keep the fleas off, too. Thank goodness!
I'm still having a hard time getting them off of Ricky, but I haven't tried to bath him yet. If he'd let me I could get them off and then we could keep him dusted. Right now he licks him self so much he stays wet and the DE sin't working like it should. I may have to get some thing from the vet to kill them off and hope it gives him some relief.

The little kitten I gave away is doing well, and them love him. They call him Squirrel. I'll try to get some picture of the little ones soon.

More latter. Need to get my sketches scanned, too.

Picturesof cats/current

Here are a few pictures. Abandoned kitten following me.
Rascal, kitten, C J, Willy.
Next Kitten with Dusty, Willy, C J, Andy in the background.
Next is Jewel and Skittles.
Next is Rascal and Skittles
Skittles has disappeared, Jewel is here.

Some good news, some bad!

Well the little one has found a home and is doing well. He continued to do good and one of the guys at work took him home to his wife. They love him. Yay! I'm so thankful!

On a sad note, I can't find Skittles, and my beautiful little bobtail, Jewel was gone Tuesday night.
Still not here Wed AM. I did me some praying about why did my faves disappear and could I please have Jewel back, and said thank you. And I don't know how He did it, but Jewel came crying to me on the front porch when I got in from work late after having to stay late with a colic Sx. Still no Skittles, tho. I won't question it, I just thank the good Lord that he brought her back.

The little tri-colored baby of Buttons' is not doing very well and she continues to lose ground. I just bathed her, and put here on a warmed pack after getting all the fleas off of her. I can't put her back in with the bigger ones, because she's getting to weak. She had refused to eat early this AM, but after her bath, which seemed to exhaust her, she did eat some, slowly. I hope I can pull her through. She is another one who will be a beauty.

As you can tell I love the three colored girls. I've had some beauties. Jewel is also bob-tailed, which are also my faves! Her yellow brother, is a love too. I call him Rascal, after one I used to have at the track, who would ride around on my shoulders and never scratch. This one does the same thing.

Timmy and Skippy and Willy and Dusty are snotty nosed and I'm going to start them on Biomox, and I think C J is getting it too. C J is named for my bobbie, Calamity Jane, her great, great grandma, who she looks a lot like. C J has gray tabby spots and Calamity had black spots.

I hope the babies don't get it, as they are almost jumping out of their box and I'll need to start feeding them dry food this week end. and that means a litterbox and here we go again! Eeeek! The two boys of Buttons' are getting big and the other two girls are okay, too.

One new little one shows up alone!

Well all of Buttons are okay, now, and Bitsy [Skeezic's abandoned one] is doing well with Buttons for a Mom. Her little three colored baby is small and was not thriving, and I've been giving her antibiotics, and she seems to be beginning to do better. I got some KMR and have been offering the kittens some. Buttons was getting sick and was not milking well for about a week and after antibiotics for her she is now doing well too. I'm giving her the KMR that the kittens don't drink, twice a day and she is improving and being a good mom. Her two boys are getting big. The yellow one is probably going to be long haired, too.

Three days ago, late at night, when I got home from work, a single little grey kitten was crying just outside of my shed and where it was at, was near a big fire ant mound, so I brought it in and looked at it and its eyes were all infected, so I cleaned him up and offered it some kmr and it seemed to be full so I put it back out in my shed in hopes the mother, who I presumed was Sheba, would find it and hide it again. Next AM, it was cold and stuck in some wire, no mom, so here I go again, brought it in and warmed it up and tried to feed it and cleaned it up, and put it back in the shed in the hay, where the Mom, would hopefully take it back. It still seemed to have been nursing, because it wasn't starving, but didn't really want to eat, or poop, and cried a lot. Long story short, I put it back out last night, and it was almost dead this AM. It was so cold because it had finally peed and gotten itself wet just under the edge of the tarp and was so cold that it could not even cry. I thought he was a goner, but I guess he has nine lives, because I finally got him thawed out by bathing him in warm water, and then blow dried him and tried to feed him, but he was not trying to eat, and I was afraid I would get milk in his lungs. I heated a cold pack in the microwave, and put him in a box with a towel over him in the window in the sun. He is now eating and did poop and this morning I started him on antibiotic, and I hope it works. Like I need another cat! I think I'm missing one of my black sisters outside, and that maybe why this kitten was starving and abandoned. I know Sheba is still here, but I think she would have taken this kitten if it was hers. I didn't know that one of them had had one, tho.
I'll have to take him with me to church, because I'll have to be there all day, and maybe I can give him away. He is going to be long haired, like Andy. A brown Tabby with a beautiful face.
I don't want to be another ones Mama!!!!!
I'm still battling fleas and I hope I can get them whipped. It's tough! Grrrr.

New ones.

Well all the young ones have been on antibiotics for the past week and seem to be improving.
Little Rhett has disappeared. He was wanting to stay on the porch on the chair, and I presume that the cayotes got him. Poor baby was not very healthy, and had almost become a pest, but was so sweet and cute. It's always the cute ones that disappear. Grrrr.
Button had her babies yesterday. Four of them! She wanted to have them between the pillows on my bed, but I made her a box, but when I started the sweeper she must have baled, cause when I checked she'd left and went back to the old box she'd had her first ones in. One 3 colored, one yellow, one Black tux, one white spotted. A rainbow herd for sure. LOL
Then this AM, I wake to a kitten crying, and it is in my chair and it's not one of Buttons. Skeezix had had it and just left it. It is Very small and was cold, so I gave it to her and she just ignored it. Grrr. It's been only 49* all day, with a North wind, very chilly!
She's been getting thin and her backbone is showing. She would not stay in the box with it and it was so cold I just took it and put it in with Button. Skeezic has no milk, so I think it was early. She's black with some white underneath. We'll see what happens! Both moma's are eating so soon and that's a good sign. I'm not sure that Button can raise them all, by herself. We'll see I guess. I'm putting Skeezix on antibiotics, to see if she'll come around. I doubt her milk will come down.

Nothing much new!

All is about the same here. The kittens are getting big and the weather has been chilly till this week.
I'm battling fleas and snotty noses and sneezing. To humid for the DE to be working like it usually does. Grr.
The only kitten of Sheba's [out side] that was left, has disappeared, and I know the Cayotes are lurking again, with a bright moon out. Her daughters little one comes in the house and hides, and eats with all the others, the same age. My big guys are staying close, too!
My bobbies are okay, but are getting the cold too. I had hoped they wouldn't. I've got to check on them now and try to get them all in the house before I can go to bed. got to get some pictures up soon too. Have done a few sketches of them, too.
Button and Skeezics are both pregnant again. I never saw them in heat, so it had to have been while I was gone, so don't know for sure when they are due. If I caught that i could have had them spayed right away, but here we go again. It's depressing. I hate sick babies.
More latter.

Another one gone! Buffy 2001-2009

My old cat Buffy is not coming when I call. This is the second morning and she must have tried to fight off the cayotes for her kittens. Last night I locked them all in. She was on the porch Sat. night at 3AM, so between then and daylight she was gone. I feel so guilty, for not forcing them inside and closing the cat door. My air conditioner is so loud that I never heard a ruckus at all. She would not leave these kittens voluntarily as she was still nursing them. I hate that she ended this way, although she has never been happy without kittens around her. My plans were to get her spayed this fall. She was my oldest and wisest cat, having lived most of her life outside, until this past year when the cayotes had gotten the other inside females who would fight with her, so every year she would have her kittens across the street in the buildings of the tank business, and when they would get old enough to follow her, she'd bring them to the house to learn to eat. The only trouble was they were so wild you couldn't catch or pet them and of course many didn't make it. Sheba and one alley cat colored male, are 3 years old and wild, and Ember is two, and Casper and Ashley are one, then her babies that lived this year are Willy and Rhett and Dusty and Wanita.
Buffy had Lots of skin problems and I think I was just getting a handle on what was causing them, as she was getting better and was not scratching as bad, after using Ivemec on her.
She was so smart, that when I told her last year, that if she wants her babies to make it she was going to have to bring them sooner so we could keep them from being so wild. That very afternoon while I was at work she carried four large kittens and one little runt over and brought them in the house. The little runt was Betty Boop.
More latter! So long my sweet old girl!

Found the little Gray baby dead right here by the step on the back porch. I guess it was not mint for me to have a solid steel grey kitty. The old Gray Tom got sick and died, but blue is still around.

A time of peace?

Well so far no more missing members of the cat families. I hope that will keep them out of town.
Had to put the little wild black one of Sheba's, down. It's eye was so infected, and it was dying and finally so bad it couldn't even hiss at me, I knew it was a goner and couldn't save it, only end it's suffering. Even when you know it's the right thing to do, it ain't easy! The little solid steel gray one is not doing to well right now either, so I hope she can recopperate, without meds, as she's still staying just out of reach. I hope she's okay, because she's beautiful or will be.
Several of the inside herd have sniffles going on, and are on amoxil, but it has not helped them much. Probably viral and the anibiotic only helps with the some side affects.

Revenge is sad

I did get one of the #%&*$! cayotes. I hate to have to do it, but I see no other way to protect my own. And before long these little ones will try to go out and I know they will be vulnerable with no mama in particular to watch over them and protect them. Two have already learned to jump out. I wish I had a screened in porch. My neighbor who fed for me while I was gone, said she had a dead cayote in her pasture. So I did hit it solid. For Annie and Sugar and Dee Dee and Jack and all the others.
Beautiful Snip, Andy's buddy is gone and one of the little gray tabbies that was sickly is missing and Opie is not here anywhere, so that is three more missing.
More sleepless nights.
I'll try to get pictures up of these little ones playing. they rip and tear around and it is hard to catch them.
The good Lord protected them all and even watered my garden while I was gone. Now I've got to mow. It'll soon be a jungle out there, where it was nothing but burnt dry grass. My trees really needed this rain, tho. A good big thunderstorm this PM. We might have gotten an inch.

Another loss!

The sorry*$#%# cayotes got my Sugar. The sweet little white cat that was the mother of Dee Dee and this year Jack and Jill. She was not liking all the other kittens in side and sat on the chair on the porch, or layed under my bookshelf near the front door. Big old empty spot now. She was the litter-mate to Annie and Roger, but had a tail. She got named Sugar, because she decided she wanted to be in the house with me, even tho she was raised out side and was just such a very sweet cat. She is the one who birthed little crippled Angel and took such good and complete care of her. Good bye sweetness. I'll miss your sweet little face.

Jilly is still okay, and is getting very sweet, herself, but as much as she goes out to play with the bigger wild kittens outside, when I'm not home, I hope she stays cautious. I did get a shot on one the next night and hit it solid, but didn't drop it! Grrrrr! That was for Sugar and DD and Jack and Annie! I"ll continue to set up when I hear the neighbor dogs [who usually never bark], letting me know they're lurking around.

All the kittens are okay and growing and playing after it kools down a little. It's been over a 100 for 12 days in a row, I think. Maybe a break tonight.
Will try to get pictures up soon.

I do have a drawing of Sugar somewhere.

More losses!

Well unless I can kill them all [cayotes], I guess I'll keep losing cats. My Annie is gone and the little friendly grey baby that belonged to the young black mama. Why my Annie, with four kittens was out side, I don't know. I was gone for three nights, and I came in and fed during the day, when my friend came into town, and they had to have snuck around then. I know when I get home from work at ten, now, I rarely see any of my cats out in the yard anymore. The ones left are getting wiser, I hope. My old cat and her daughter Ashly who lost her babies, are mothering the whole herd of babies, even Skeezix's and Button's babies. Skeez is dryed up I think. Without them demanding to eat, she's quit nursing them. The little one of Buttons' who was hurt didn't make it. We ex-rayed her and could not find anything broken, and the vet said we'll re-exray her in a week, but she must have been ill before, because she quit eating and died. So the sisters only have three between them, and are very confused because their babies go to the old cat to nurse.

They are all eating and useing the litter box, Thank goodness!

The little bobies are always the cutest and without their mom, they get even more dependent on me.

I'll try to get some pictures, soon.

It has been cooler here for about a week, but we're back to 100's again today.

The heat is on!

Heat is only bearable if you don't have to do anything like my cats! 100 plus days and I've finally had to turn on the air. I dread the bills. I'm trying to keep my flowerbeds damp so they have a cool spot to lay, outside.
The cats got it easy tho, they just lay around till after dark till it cools down some before they do anything much!
One of Button's little ones jumped off the couch and is hurt in one front leg. She isn't eating or nursing so I got her some water with an eye dropper and she really lapped it up. I think that she's got to be dehidrated in this heat. I was afraid she was sick, but her eyes are clear. She is crying, but it was from pain in her shoulder, leg or foot. There's no swelling so can't tell yet. If it's not one thing it's another. Stay in and stay cool!

Now getting a little rest.

Well I did shoot one of the cayotes, and a coon, so it is a little more quiet here now. I regret I didn't kill them both, as I hate to wound any animal, but maybe they get the word out "No more free meals".
The kitten I stepped on didn't make it. I hope to not ever do that again, poor baby. I'll have so many under foot soon, It maybe impossible!
The wild mama returned with her babies, too. I don't see them all at one time, so I presume they are all there.

The little ones are beginning to play with each other, moms, everything. They're only a month old but all are doing good. I'm putting a small dish of water down now as it is so hot every evening in here. The temps are at 100+.

They'll soon be eating and that means pooping, and the whole litter box training thing, too.

Back to losses!

Well I'm back from trip and cats who are still here are fine, but several have disappeared and it is cayotes. I've lost of course the favorite gentle ones who never leave the yard. Dee Dee is gone. Jenifer, too. Fang and little Betty Boop and Dee Dee's little brother and at least two 0r three outside cats.
It has been easy pickins for them with no fence to keep them out and no dog to bark at them.
One wild mama[Sheba] is gone, but she could have moved all her five kittens for safety. Her one daughter with the two little ones is still here and okay, but the one cayote was after them last night.

They are keeping me awake looking for them with the shot gun. I'm getting grumpier by the day!
They'll be no warning shots.

On an even sadder note, I stepped on one of Skeez babies and even tho he's still alive it's just barely. If he makes it to morning, I'll take him to work with me and let the inturn look at him and if he can recover, decide on what to do. He's of course the cutest and black and was curled up on the corner of a dark rug and I was carrying a heavy laundry basket and didn't see him. They now have them under my computer desk and they toddle out now. Silly young mamas. I should have been more careful, tho. I'm just sick about hurting him.

Two sisters!

My two sisters, Buttons and Skeezix are fighting over where all the kittens should be. Buttons keep stealing Skeez's kittens and Skeez steals them back and puts them all in her box. They are just a few days apart in age, so if both will feed all five, they will make it good.

I hope they get it settled before I head out on the float trip! Krazy Kats!

Bout time!

Well it's about time I returned to this. The losses in my cat population kept me from wanting to write about it. When I lost my fave, beautiful little Bobbie, I was heart broken. Time has healed and a whole new herd has just arrived, this past week. Late for normal cat breeding in this area.

None of Annies second litter last fall, survived, but she now has had four big healthy babies and three are bobtailed, actually tailless, one 3 colored, one yellow, one white with gray spots, and a mostly black with a tail. I don't know how I got three bobs, as I don't know of any bob toms anywhere in my neighborhood.

My old cat, Buffy had 8 in my kitchen in the corner of my cupboard, and now she's moved them to behind the washer. One was very weak, and I can't find it, now. She again has one little runt that is tiny and I would try to feed it if I could get to it. Poor Buffy had mastitis with her first litter and can't feed them all at once which leaves the least ones even weaker.

Sugar bred in Jan. and her two are doing well at nine weeks and are ready to give away. They are both black tux marked, a boy and a girl named Jack and Jill. and they are regularly tormented by big sister Dee Dee.
Annie's daughter, Jennifer lost hers, early, but Skeezix had three[blk,blk tux, wt/dark spots] and Buttons had two tiny ones [blk w/tux]. Both are good mamas.

Of Betty Boop, Ashly, Ember, one black one outside, and little Dee Dee, I hope are barren!

Of the outside wild ones, Sheba has five little dark wild babies, and one of her daughters has two.

I don't know if I'm blessed or cursed. The deal with the vet interns didn't happen before they were bred, so I'm stuck again with all these babies. I know realisticlly they won't all make it tho.
I've got to get them all spayed! If I was independitly wealth they would be!

Got head to work, so I can support them!