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Street Prophets Coffee Hour: Kitten update---Update Again! [1]

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Date: 2025-01-04

Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour, where politics meets up with religion, art, science, nature, and life. Come in, have a cuppa and a cookie (or three!) and join us.

Oh, the long saga of settling into my new home. For many years my daughter said I have a sign on my front gate that only animals could see: “Welcome home!” My vet said there were flashing arrows on my road pointing to my house. I, personally, felt that there was a satellite that covered a five county area, with a laser beam aimed at my back door.

Well, whichever it is, or all together, it’s moved to Texas with me. Except for the front gate, but maybe that’s now the back gate, going to the alley, because that’s where the cats have been coming in.

If you followed my previous diaries, you’ll see the various cats that have found me. I didn’t set out to attract cats. I wanted birds at my feeders. But the birdbaths with fountains attracted a scrawny kitten to what might have been the only readily available water in the area. And that kitten brought a friend. And then. . .

And you know that one of the cats (probably the mother of the original kitten) brought a litter of 3 week old kittens. Oh, dear! I asked everywhere. No one, not even the vet, knew of a clinic for feral cats like the one I used in Kansas.

The mom cat moved the kittens clear away on the night of December 26. Rats! By this time they were 6 weeks old.

And then she moved them back four days later! Yea!! Still no idea what to do, and she looked like she might be ready to drop another litter any minute. I was getting desperate.

Look pregnant to you?

But they only stayed for 2 days, and she was carrying them away again. Rats! Well, actually, she was leading them as best she could, one at a time, but a couple were hard for her to move. She tried carrying them, but they were getting too heavy for her, so it was a combination of carry-drop-kitten rushing back-carry again. Eventually they were all gone again.

Finally, I remembered my daughter pointing out a low-cost vaccination and spay/neuter clinic as we were thrifting one day. I figured they might know, if anyone did, of a connection. So I looked up their website.

Damn! Right there on the left side, “Feral Cat Program”. Only the problem was that I couldn’t trap the mother with kittens out of reach. And they wouldn’t be able to spay her anyway, because of the milk getting ready for the next litter.

Mom cat was still coming to eat several times a day, so I continued putting out food. Thursday, as I was out filling bowls, I heard a thunk in the cat shelter. Sure enough, one of the babies had found its way back on its own.

Well, of course I picked it up! It hisses and spits and growls but doesn’t bite. I’m hoping more end up here, too, to be tamed.

And late Thursday I caught the original grey and white kitten, now a handsome youthful kitty. Remember I was sure it was a girl?

One visit to the feral clinic for neuter, shots, ear tip, testing—nope. It’s a boy, a copy of the big tom that’s probably the father of all this lot.

Ear tip is on his left side, very subtle and mostly hidden by the wires.

The vortex is due to hit us tomorrow, and I need to keep him warm after anesthesia, so I decided to let him ride out the storm in a cat condo. If he shows signs of settling in, daughter would like to have him as companion for her cat. If not, he can go back out to his regular haunts after the dangerous weather has passed.

And baby kitty? (I’m not going to make the mistake of guessing boy/girl this time.) Still hisses and growls but I picked it up and held it for a while this morning, humming. That usually works because it’s similar to purring. Kitty still gave some low growls—until it went to sleep in my hands.

I have at least two people wanting a kitten, and so far just this one, so finding a home should be doable. I’d like to have the adoptions done through a rescue group, particularly because they may have a screening process that I’m not set up to enforce. And free money for them, since I’ve been handling all expenses.

I drew the line last night, though. It was a dog, a beagle mix wearing a grey sweater and a red tu-tu. Someone must have let it into my yard because it couldn’t find a way out. I opened one of the gates, and she (figured it was a ‘she’ in a tu-tu with sparkles) flew out, as if she had a mission to get home.

Definitely “she”. You can see the tu-tu and the grey sweater but her face is down in the mulch. No idea what she’s looking for, other than an exit, but she was pretty frantic and rushing all around the yard. Sorry, but this was the only picture I could get that was in focus.

So Big Tom was here when I was able to get a picture. Love the hood. Don’t love all the spraying. But all the cats, including this guy, seem very good tempered. Getting him neutered will be a prize!

So how are your holidays going?

This is an open thread. All topics are welcome.

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