Imagine my surprise this morning while dishing out food in the deck enclosure that houses the two neglected black cats. I don’t want to call these cats feral although Stryker comes awful close to the term. LOL But I would call them neglected with little social contact.

At any rate, Malcolm comes through the small hole from the catio and leaps on the feeding platform! I dropped my hand, fingers loose on the table in front of him (praying all the time please don’t bite me) he nudged my hand and then licked it! I was able to pet him and really “see” him for the first time. He is bigger than our Axle kitty and he has a larger spot of white on his chest. He “allowed” me to pet him for a few minutes and then he pawed at the can as if to say; “Hurry up Human, I am hungry.” I scooped out the rest of the food and left him eating. He didn’t bolt when I returned a few minutes later to clean litterpans and give fresh water.

He’s a beautiful boy to be sure. Stryker is still striking out at hands, food bowls whatever gets close. In time, perhaps that will change. Rain is in the forecast. I am hoping the leak in the catio is now a thing of the past. We had to raise the roof slightly because rain was coming in at a pretty rapid rate.

The three kittens left on my porch are now on their way to another rescue on the coast. A friend of mine happened to be down the mountain (because of the fire) and when I called her to see if she had room for the kittens, she was in town. She came by late last night to take these babies to her shelter in Aurora.

Not a good time for me right now, lost my Dad one year ago and the days are hard to get through. But life goes on, I know that we will see each other once again and he will be able to walk and talk and be out of pain. I just hope it gets easier as the time goes on.

Catching up: the Persian kitten is now almost full-time spending in our yard. Unable to get close to him because the other cats (once they see me drop down to the ground and crab crawl to make contact) just think this is a wonderful game to play with me. Have you ever tried to crab-crawl across grass with two kittens on your back? I am not that talented.

I have yet another new stray in the yard. For a minute, I thought it was Pretty Girl as they look remarkably similar, but Pretty Girl (who is now called Dyna) is living the life with Naomi and her family. This one looks a bit younger and not quite as matted as Pretty Girl.

Someone left a box with three kittens on the porch the other day. They are at least weaned from mom, their eyes are open and they are cuties. I am taking them to the vet on Friday along with Mason who also has an appointment. mason is holding his own. He still has issues with pooping, he will go, but he screams bloody murder beforehand. I am thinking about putting him on a raw meat diet for a bit to see if it might be easier on him to pass his food along.

Kojak has left us. He is living in Washington with a nice family and 2 acres to roam on. I will miss the little scamp as he was one of my favorites. But now he has a chance for a normal life. The gal has adopted from me before and she wants her last kitten to have company. I couldn’t be more thrilled.

I had a bad computer issue and had to start over from scratch. I lost so much information because of it. Really taught me a lesson about what to keep on the computer only (in regards to CATS Inc.,) and what to keep on hard copy. NOW I will keep everything on hard copy as well. We are still working out the issues so I might be absent a bit in the next few days. I don’t understand why what happened did and I don’t want to go into detail about it. I just hope it is all behind me now.

7:07 p.m. Just heard from Kojo’s new family. They are all thrilled with him and already smitten by this boy! The report is he is so friendly and loving. Not eating yet (expected) hiding under the bed (again normal) but comes out when called and allows the family to love on him before going back under the bed to his secure place.

Courtesy of George, Mason now has a lightweight, fully portable sun porch! Today he enjoyed safely his first encounter with the sunlight outdoors. Kojo was determined to figure out what was inside of this cage! LOL Then when the wind picked up, I moved him indoors where he would play to his heart’s content without Gus interfering.

Mason had a lovely time stalking a lady bug that got caught underneath the cage when I put it on the ground. It ended up finally flying away through the wires with no harm coming to it.

The woman, Karen who recently surrendered some of her cats to us, is being re-evicted from her new place. She wants me to take her three remaining cats plus a new mom she “found” with seven kittens. I have no room, no available funds and although I feel sorry for her cats- I can’t help her out this time. I can’t save them all. I also got a call from a gentleman being evicted. He has four cats all mackeral tabbies, all over 12 years old and all declawed. I turned him down as well based on the declaws. I can’t put cats with no claws in with cats with claws- that results in a lot of biting and fighting going on.

It has been decided that Mason won’t be stimulated any longer to use the bathroom. At his age, he should be peeing and pooping all over his box. But he doesn’t. Instead, he starts screaming (as if he’s in pain) until I pick him up and carry him to the bathroom and get him going.

So now, I am not to do this for two days to see if he will go. If he doesn’t go for two days, then I do the manual stimulation. Again wait for two days, if he doesn’t go, it will be back to the vet where they will pull out his anus a bit find the eversion, stitch around the area and close him for two days putting medicines on his owie. I am praying he will poop and pee soon.

He is back home, playing with his catnip mouse but his tail is lashing out furiously. I think he is hissed off at all that is going on with him!

Yesterday, at dusk during feeding time, I stopped short in the yard. There lying under the apple tree was Merlin and the orange persian kitten. To see the two of them together astonished me. Merlin has gained the reputation of a tough ol tom and he fights any cat he encounters…or so I thought.

I popped open a can of food and dropped slowly to the ground. Keeping low, I managed to get about a foot from the kitten. He was watching me the whole way, but made no attempt to flee.

But for KoJo and Baker, the drama of mamma hugging the ground was to much for them to ignore. They came leaping out of the grasses to see what type of game I was playing. I didn’t know they were behind me, I could hear something coming but I was fully concentrated on this orange Persian. That is until KoJo jumped on my back, peered over my shoulder and looked at me as if to say “Whatcha doin Mom?” When I looked up, both the Persian and Merlin were gone deep into the underbrush.

I wondered if they were hanging together, but this morning, I only saw Merlin as he jumped on Stalker to show who really runs the show around here. I shouted, clapped my hands and ran them off their lock of each other. To Merlin’s retreating back, I vowed “I will get you captured and neutered!” The Persian was no where to be seen.

This morning, Mason gets to go yet again to the vet. He has determined that since pooping hurts so incredibly bad, he will give it up. He is swelling like a poison toad and not even a small mineral oil enema convinced him to get things going again.

I can imagine how much it hurts, and at his age, he should be pooping on his own by now. He doesn’t even pee on his own yet. So far, the daily change of bedding isn’t necessary. Something is wrong for this kitten and I hope we can figure it out.

He lurks in the shrubs at midnight feedings. I pour out dry food and scoop wet into the waiting bowls. Kitties run in from all directions to feed. Not him, he waits.
Nearby the feeding station is a plastic trash can. Opened cans of food are placed inside until morning when I can come out and blast them with water and peel off the labels and put them in the recycling bin. I close up the container knowing he is nearby.

The other cats are feeding, there is thankfully plenty of donated food to go around. Bowls full, stay silent, no cat is around to eat out of these bowls, and still he waits.

We recently installed motion detector lights after the fox visit near the feeders. As I reach the back door, I turn and look back at the station. Tom is no longer in the bushes, he is climbing up the trash can sides, clawing at the lid. It pops open. He vanishes inside and soon reappears with an opened can in his mouth. Then he takes it at a run under my neighbor’s utility trailer next door. His actions remind me of a cat stalking a mouse. He holds his head high and races for cover. I have seen the empty cans of food under joel’s trailer but assumed it was raccoons at fault. I never suspected another cat.

Returning to the barn, I snapped open another can of food and grabbed a bowl. I placed the full bowl on the fence line and turned to go in the house. I hope he will return in the night to eat his fill and not be reduced to the meager remains often left in the cat food cans. He is black, he is old and therefore not easy to trace in the darkness. The other cats are still at the feeding station so he isn’t being threatened by someone wanting his share. I’ll have to go over later and clean up under my neighbor’s trailer. I don’t need any more reasons why he will protest to me how he hates cats.

He has been putting up such a fight during potty time. Last night, I noticed with alarm his rectum looked like a lit cigerette glowing in the dark. The entire rectum is ringed in blood, but there is no blood in his stool and no loose blood anywhere else. Turns out, he has a rectal eversion which if not corrected will lead to a rectal prolapse and surgery. Poor kitty- he can’t seem to catch a break!

I ran a fecal over to the vet for testing but he suspects it is the food- so we switched over to ProPlan Kitten fish flavor and a dry kitten food NOT dusted with milk- which turns out also to be a Purina Product called SmartBlend for Kittens. I am increasing his fluid intake and using vaseline to coat his bum. It only shows when he is pooping and is why he screams so terribly.

The vet is supposed to call later with the results of the fecal. It would be nice, if I didn’t have to have my vet on speed dial! LOL

Sweet Kitty who if you told me when she first arrived here, she would one day not only be my number one lap cat but would eventually be adopted. I would have sat you down and put both my hands on your shoulders and told you that you are nuts! But, I just dropped her off in what I hope will be her forever home!

She has a whole family to adore her (once she decides to come out of hiding). Her room belongs to the 7 year old girl who reminds me strongly of myself at her age. She can’t wait to spend the night with Pretty Girl and my hope is that this transition will not overwhelm Pretty Girl and she will crawl up and lay on Tori’s chest tonight and find her peace.

The kids are young, but mom has good command of them and they listen to her and are obedient. So I hope they don’t all run into the room looking for the “new kitty” and scare her to death in the process. Time will tell-

She found a hiding place straightaway in a room where there were NO hiding places (that I could see) She smushed herself between the mattress of the bunk bed and the wall.

I am praying this will work- but Pretty Girl had a lot of demons. I hope I was able to put all of them to rest.

I just called to check on her and she has already been on the husband’s lap, let the family pet her and Tori has sung her a song and announced to the Mom that “Pretty Girl really likes me!” YAY! Her demons ARE now behind her~

Mason is growing fast and eating as if there is a hole in his stomach! LOL I am having to take him off the FF Kitten due to a medical issue and put him on Purina Kitten ProPlan fish. I just added this to my wish list on Amazon. If anyone can help “MR. Freeway Kitty FEED ME NOW!” I would be grateful. All funds currently are committed to our vet to cover recent vet procedures.

Here is a link, along with my heartfelt thanks-

Wish List