Tuxedo, Leopard, and possible kittens!

 Hi, it's Tux again!  You know, when we ferals talked with you last weekend, we weren't quite honest.  You see, I forgot to mention that Leopard (pictured below) was a girl instead of a boy.  The man and lady didn't know for sure, and she was too scared for them to get close enough to tell.  I also didn't mention that she's my girlfriend, and we're expecting kittens very soon!

Leopard here.  Yep, I'm about to pop with probably my first litter of babies!  Tux is guarding me while I eat from the back porch, so that no one sneaks up to hurt either me or my babies.

Here's a pretty dark picture of the two of us together tonight.  I'm looking at the lady with the flashy box, but Tux is eating, so I took my cue from him.  He was mostly concerned with possible danger from the yard instead of the flashy box or those other cats inside.  I was a bit scared to be this close to the house for this long, especially with that flashy box going off and the inside cats trying to investigate me, but Tux calmed me down by posturing and letting me know he didn't think we were in any danger from any of them.  I ate my fill while he stood guard about a foot away, then the lady put more food out and we both came back and ate together.  I'm standing up in this picture, and my boyfriend is lying down eating.  If you enlarge the picture, you might be able to see how my stomach is hanging down, a good indication that I'm almost due!

After we ate, since it's raining here, we both disappeared into Tux's hidey-hole under the left side of the deck.  He's got a hollowed-out spot under there that some of us cats (and sometimes other animals) like to use for naps.

Hoppy Easter!

Hoppy Easter from Peter Cottontail down the road!

He lives about three blocks from us, near Mommy's bus stop, so she sees him sometimes.

Tux says:

Hi!  Happy Easter to all our friends!  It's a rainy Easter morning here, but yesterday was beautiful:  70-degree weather, sunshining, everything a feral guy needs.  Yesterday, the man and lady were out in my yard, clearing away brush and trimming rosebushes.  They called it "Spring Cleaning"!  There were also kids next door having a birthday party, so I hid and watched everyone.  Then, all of a sudden, this big machine came into my yard.  I've seen them in other yards and in the field, but never in this yard before.  I tucked myself under the shrubbery some more, glad that there was a fence separating me from that monster!

It screeched and ate the grass, chewed it up, spit it into a bag, and rolled on to repeat the process.  The fat field mice scurried out of its way, and I pounced on a couple that ran toward me.  *licks lips*  After the machine was gone, the grass was only as high as my paws instead of over my head!  I walked out into the middle of it, rolled a few times, then walked back to my watching spot.  Later on, I came and ate my dinner on the porch.

As you may be able to tell from this picture, even though it was taken on a telephoto setting, I am almost not afraid of the lady anymore!  My eyes don't have that haunted, scared look when I see her, although I still run or at least am wary.  If she comes toward the door, I leave, but if she stays a reasonable distance away then I know I'm safe on the porch.  Same if it's the man instead of the lady.  I watch, careful that they're keeping their distance, but I trust that they will stay inside if they see me out there.

Catster's changed hands!

Catster.com and Dogster.com have changed ownership!  They have been acquired by an advertising company:  Say:Media.  According to Say:Media's own website, under their "About" section, "advertising is content".

Now, we have no problem with advertising being the focus if you're trying to promote your own brand on a site.  It is also acceptable if you are writing a review and advertising the product that you're reviewing.  But does Say:Media do this?  No, it doesn't.  It sells banner ads and other ad placements to a variety of companies.

According to the Catster/Dogster TOS, at least at this date, they were supposed to inform the community of a potential acquisition or merger beforehand, not write a blog about it after it happened.  If you have set Catster's community page as your launch page, you wouldn't even see the blog telling you about the change unless you scroll all the way down to the very last entry on the right column!  Being sneaky about such an important decision so soon after the other uproar is NOT a smart business plan.

Any pictures, video, etc., that members upload to Catster and Dogster are (and has been, for as long as it's been around) licensed without fee to Catster/Dogster.  This means that Catster/Dogster can use your pictures/video/etc. for any purpose, except to sell them.  They can (and have, with a lot of pictures) use them in slideshows promoting Catster/Dogster; in advertising campaigns; and in additional sites owned by them, such as Snuzzy and Mrowr.  The acquisition means that now Say:Media can also do the same with your pictures.

Catster/Dogster has now changed to business principles that we do not condone, so our furmily will be leaving Catster/Dogster in a few weeks.  We will, of course, keep this blog up and running as usual.  In addition, we have created accounts on another cat community site, called Cathugger, that a fellow Catster has just started up.  We will be re-creating Chef Skylar's Open Restaurant on Cathugger, as well.

We hope that you will continue to drop by our blog here and visit us on Cathugger.  We love all our friends and don't want to lose track of anyone!  We'll continue to post everything here, and keep up diaries & photos.

Yad's loofl irpay ppah!

Tabby says:

Yad's loofl irpay ppah!  ;)  Do you think anyone will realize that I've painted myself??????  >^,.^<