Happy National Feral Cat Day!

Sherbet writes:

Happy National Feral Cat Day!  I'm proud to say that I'm an inside feral.  Last year around this time, Mommy and Daddy trapped me and got me fixed.  They were going to let me outside again, the "R" part of T-N-R (trap-neuter-return), but I had other ideas, MOL!  I didn't want to go back outside!  I bit Mommy's finger when she opened the trap, dashed out, and hopped onto the desk in the dining room!  Here is a picture of me in the trap and then one of me on the desk:

I watched everyone for about two hours, then climbed down and ran into another room.  I found a nice cave, which now I know was a bed, to hide under/in.  I spent a few months under there, and every so often one of the other cats would come say hi to me (usually Dare, Rori, or Tabby).

After Daddy took the bed out, cleaned the room, and gave me a nice box and open carrier to call my own, I became a much happier cat!  I learned where the other rooms were in the house, learned to tolerate the humans coming into my room (although I still hid in my new carrier/house), and even touched Mommy's fingers one day!

The next breakthrough came when Mommy was away, but Daddy told her about it and she saw where I was when she came back.  I found a shelf in Mommy's office room and that became my new home!  Rori is hanging out with me in the picture.  There's another shelf, too, and I'm currently hanging out in it!  The only really scary thing in here is the door to the room, because it swings when Mommy puts her backpack on the knob or takes the backpack off.  I'm always worried that the door's going to come get me, but it hasn't yet!

I love being able to walk out into the hallway, and even to the dining room to eat with the others if I want to!  I'm not afraid of the others or worried that the humans will chase or grab at me.  If the humans get too close, I still move to safety, but I have multiple safe spots and I walk to get there instead of scoot or run!  I'm very proud of myself for the accomplishments in the last year!

Now, I'll turn the stage over to our current outside feral boy.

Niss writes:

Um, hi?  Have any of you seen Auntie Tigress in the last few weeks?  She went away and I don't know where she went.  I still smell her around occasionally, but I haven't seen her for a while, and it bothers me.  I'm hanging out closer to the food because I don't want to lose my way or miss her when she comes back.

The humans still haven't put me in a box and taken me to have a surgery done, whatever those things are.  I hear them talking about it, but they say that I'm too skittish yet and the want me to know it's safe when I come back here from the surgery.  They say that after I get the surgery done, I will calm down a bit more and not be so worried about where girlcats are.  That would be just fine with me!  I'm now just over two years old.  Last year at this time, I didn't even know where this nice place was, and now it's my home!  I also didn't have a name last year, and now I do, and a great one at that, after a fellow blogging cat.  Everyone says I look like he did, and he was a feral boy, too.  Does that mean that he celebrated National Feral Cat Day every year, too?

We all hope you have good noms today, a safe place to hang out and nap, and humans who care for you!  If you know of anyone who could use some tips on feral (unsocialized) cats, Alley Cat Allies has some awesome resources!  If you see an eartipped cat, say hi to your neighborhood feral!

Looking for a way to introduce the idea of T-N-R to children?  Check out Mommy's book, Three Feral Kittens, on Amazon!

Happy National Feral Cat Day!!!

Yesterday, we posted about feral cats as part of our Be the Change for Animals post.  Then, we got the surprise of our lives!  Look who showed up, after being gone since mid-July!!!!!

Tigress came back!!!!!

We all crowded around the back door as soon as we heard her meowing!  Mommy let her in, and we spent about 15 minutes talking, sniffing, and bathing her.  She didn't mind us all crowding around, and was as glad to see all of us as we were to see her!  She wanted a lot of pets from Mommy, didn't mind being inside with the door closed, and made a beeline for the food plates and water bowl.  Boy, was she ever hungry!  Mommy refilled the plate twice, then picked her up by the armpits and "flew" her into the back bedroom with Starla.  Starla sniffed her all over while Tigress explored the room.  Tigress was absolutely scared of the ceiling fan, so that was turned off.  Mommy had to go to work, but left Tigress in the room with Starla while she was gone.

When Mommy and Daddy came back from work, they let Tigress and Starla out.  We all crowded around again, until Tigress made it clear that she wanted back outside.  Mommy and Daddy said no to that for tonight.  Maybe tomorrow, but we all want to make it clear to Tigress that we are still her family and she is safe with us.  Now that she's come back and is inside, we all want to keep her as safe as we can.

We all let her know about her sister's death, and our purrents talked to her about it.  She wonders why Miss Marble isn't in here, but at least now she knows what happened.  Mommy let her know about the book that she and her family are in, too!

We're hoping that she realizes she can be an inside kitty, a former feral, like our other former ferals.  Our current family has several former ferals:  Rori, Missy, foster Dare, foster kitten Panther, and former semi-feral Starla.  Over the years, we've cared for many ferals and semi-ferals.  Each is an individual who accepts our love to the extent he or she is comfortable with, and gives his or her love to us to a degree.

For more information on feral cats, see the link to Mommy's book page on our blog sidebar.  It includes many informational links and videos, as well as the link to the children's book that features Tigress and her birth family.

Happy National Feral Cat Day 2013!!!

You are invited to an online book launch party!

Please join us for an online book launch party!

Date:  October 12, 2013

Time:  12:00 pm to 2:00 pm Pacific Time

Place:  Mommy's business website

We will have links to information about feral cats,

videos, an author reading, a radio chat, and a regular chat.

We will also have a giveaway!

Missed the party?
The website's still available and has a lot of good links,
video, and even a free book poster!

Therapy Cat Tales from 9/18/2013

Tabby writes:

Arr, Mateys!  Ye be wonderin' what I have in store for you on this Meow Like a Pirate Day?  Ok, I'll drop the pirate accent and tell you!

Yesterday, Mommy took me visiting again.  She's also training Heimdall to be a therapy cat now, but he's only ridden the bus once so far.  I've ridden it tons of times!  Heimdall's not ready to go visiting to actual nursing homes yet, though.

I had a friend who wanted to come along once we left the house.  He met us at the bus stop and got on the bus with us, then hopped away.  Warning:  this may be scary for young kits!

Ready?

Yep, it was a grasshopper!  He flew onto my carrier bag and stayed there while we got on the bus, then hopped under a seat once my stroller was folded down.  I had fun watching him!  Do you see that he's smiling?

Mommy and I were both being silly in the morning, and the silliness continued for me once we got to H.  She had gotten some chai tea, but had finished it.  She was getting ready to throw the cup and sleeve in the trash when I decided I wanted the sleeve!

See?  I told you we were being silly!  I didn't wear my new fashion accessory for long, though, because it pushed the fur around my eyes back and felt funny.  It was fun to try on, anyway!

A few of our friends had passed away during the last month.  That's the downside to visiting where we do, and especially with only visiting once a month like we do now.  However, it also means that we get new friends to visit with, since the empty rooms fill up again.

One room had two people in it, a husband and wife, who had just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary!  Wow!  Mommy wished them happy anniversary, and I snuggled with both of them while the humans talked.  They wanted to know all about my training, how long I'd been working as a therapy cat, and "my numbers", as the husband put it.  He meant my age, weight, etc., but couldn't think of how to say all of that together.  We knew what he meant, though, and that was a perfect way to say it!

I got to see my three favorite friends:  A.M, F., and R.  A.M. knows just how to scritch my chin in the right place and always makes me so relaxed that I simply melt in her lap!  I always climb from my stroller into her lap, then snuggle in her arms while she pets me and scritches my chin, closing my eyes in happiness and purring loudly for her.  When I visit F., I always hop out of my stroller and walk into his room on my own, with Mommy follwing holding my leash.  I sometimes need reminding that he's in his recliner instead of in bed, though.  He has a recliner like Daddy does, so I snuggle on his lap like I do with Daddy.  F. always tells me I'm the most beautiful kitty in the world!  R. loves to tell us stories about her kitty, who ate food out of a spoon and tried to catch birds by climbing out on the limb the bird feeder was on, crashing everything to the ground and running away.  No matter how many times we hear the story, it's always funny!  She calls me the same name as her kitty, but that doesn't bother me a bit.  I know she means me.  I just look so much like her kitty that she forgets my name and substitutes his.

After visiting at H. for a while, we went over to our new visiting place, C.  We've been visiting there for three months now.  We only have one regular, but then we ride the elevator back down to check if there are any other people who want visitors.

At C., there is one man who sits in a big chair in the lobby and greets everyone going out or coming in.  He always likes seeing me.  When Mommy was signing us in, I asked to hop onto the check-in counter.  All of a sudden, the man behind the counter looked up, and I was staring down at him!  "Oh, SNAP!" he said, in a very startled voice!  He then petted me and laughed.

I wanted to walk up the stairs in the lobby, but Mommy reminded me that she couldn't carry the stroller up all those stairs.  I still wanted to do the stairs, because I absolutely love stairs, so she said I could go up to the first landing!  Yay!  I walked up to the first landing, then walked back down.

We went to see the lady we visit each time, but she didn't have very long to visit with us this time.  She had to get a few things organized for her daughter-in-law, who was coming to visit her.  That's fine.  We went back to the lobby, and they told us that possibly some people on two other floors would like to see us.  We went to one of those floors, but no one on that floor wanted a visit.  We tried the other floor, and found a lady who wanted a visitor.  She was feeling very lonely, so having us come brightened up her whole day.  That's why we do this!

On the bus on the way home, we sat in between people who wanted to talk.  There was a man who is a published young-adult fiction author (M.T. Dreams), a lady who feeds and T-N-R's feral cats, and a lady who is interested in buying Mommy's newest book (Three Feral Kittens, just now published and available from Amazon.com).  We will be having a book launch party for Three Feral Kittens on October 12th.  It will be online, but we haven't decided on a time yet.

When we got back home, Mommy checked her e-mail and got some more exciting news!  She is on the mailing list for the NW Pet and Companion Fair that takes place every April.  She had contacted them about doing a talk about my training for their stage shows, and they accepted!  We don't know what time slot we'll be put in, but it will be fun no matter what!

Book Reveal: Three Feral Kittens!

Rori writes:

As the Big Kitty of the House, I sometimes get to make Very Important Announcements.  I have one today!  The kitties of the PDX pride would like to introduce our new book, which will be available on Amazon.com the first week of October.  That's just in time for National Feral Cat Day on October 16th!

Here is our official press release:

Three Feral Kittens is a new children's nonfiction book for grades 2 through 4.  It tells the story of three kittens that were born in the woods bordering the author's backyard and grew up in her yard.  This book is illustrated with photographs, making it a unique journal and an excellent way for children to learn about feral cats.  It will be available from Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle formats on October 16, 2013.  A portion of the proceeds from this book will go to the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon to help provide spay, neuter, and vaccination services for feral cats as well as education services for feral cat caretakers.

We have a Facebook page set up for the book here, and will be having an online book launch party, time, date, and place to be determined and announced later.  The book launch party will be open to all, because it will be on a regular website.

If you are a regular reader of our blog, you can guess who the three kittens are!  The book, since it's written for children, stops when all three are still safe in their respective homes:  one inside with his new mommy, one inside-outside but safe, and one still feral.