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!!!

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.

Torbie Thursday: Miss Marble's Weather Report

Miss Marble writes:

This picture that Mommy took is what my world looked like the past three days!  It's now back to normal:  wet, cold, and windy.  This white stuff is called "snow", and it sticks to my fur!  It's very cold and wet, and turns to water when I lick it.  I can't walk anywhere when it snows, but I can pounce in it.  It's hard to catch mice in snow, I found out yesterday.  I pounced from the deck onto a mouse, but then it slipped from under my paws.  I'd bitten it, so it couldn't get far, but after I got it again I looked at my sister and at Mommy (who was watching from the door), asking for explanations on why my mouse almost got away!  My sister was as confused as I was, and Mommy was laughing!  My sister and I ignored Mommy and went under the deck to eat my mouse.

I've been coming inside more and more, now that it's been snowing.  There is a lot of new stuff inside!  There are things called toys!  I like rolling toys, I've discovered, because my auntie Freya keeps rolling them to me to play with after she demonstrates how they work.  I like a ball that used to flash, so the humans keep that by the door for me.  Auntie Freya gave me one of her special toys, which she calls a roller!  Actually gave me it!  It's the core of a roll of doggie poop bags, but she loves to play with the roller (the core), and now so do I!  Auntie Freya brought it out to show me, then pawed it around in the dining room so I could see how it works.  Then she pawed it to me!  I wasn't quite sure if it was ok for me to play with it, so I looked at her, then at the roller, then at Mommy.  Mommy hit the roller with her shoe, and then I batted it with my paw.  Fun!  I batted it even more, then picked it up in my mouth and carried it a little closer to the door.  I batted it some more, then picked it up in my mouth again, inching it even closer.  Mommy opened the door and I took my special toy out into my world!  My first favorite toy, besides natural things!  I've played with grasses, rope, and other outside things, but this is my special, inside toy that my auntie gave me!

There is something called a heat vent inside, just on the other side of the door, that keeps the house warm.  I like to stand by it and play with the blinds as they move in the wind.  Striped Girl and I have learned that the spot outside across the door from the vent is the warmest spot to stand, but now I know why!  I still get a bit nervous when the heat starts up, because it makes a whooshing noise, but then I like to play with the blinds as they move.

Daddy has been shutting the door when I come inside, to keep the warm air in.  Mommy has, too, but Daddy makes a game out of it.  I come inside, the door shuts, then I paw at it and wiggle.  The door opens and I bat at the track and at the door.  I go outside, come back in, and the game starts all over again!  I get so into the game that I sometimes forget that I'm not supposed to bite the humans.  They understand, though.  When that happens, they tell me it's time for me to be outside for a while to calm down.  I get to come inside again later, though!  I'm even beginning to purr out loud when I'm petted inside.

Miss Marble's Breakthrough!

Miss Marble writes:

I'm so cold out here, and I miss my mommy-cat.  Daddy-cat Tux and my sissy Striped Girl and I all huddle together in a kitty pile to be warm.  Hunting helps warm us up, too, but there's white, cold stuff on the grass that Daddy-cat calls frost.  He says it will get colder still before it warms up again.  Brrrrrrrr!

It's warm inside that house!  There is always heat radiating from the open door when the mommy leaves it open so I can play paws and touch noses with the inside kitties.  I like just sitting in front of the door even when it's not open, watching the inside kitties and being just a little warmer because of the heat from the glass-door.

Tonight, when the mommy came to feed me, I wanted to get a bath from Tabby.  I stuck my head and shoulders inside and purred very quietly while she groomed my head.  My front paws were inside!  I did it again with Freya, then touched noses with Rori, while the mommy watched.  Then, while Tabby reassured me with gentle headbutts, I walked inside all the way!  I greeted Tabby, Freya, and Rori, then explored the dining room a bit.  The mommy closed the door most of the way behind me, but I didn't know that.

The inside kitties were following me, sniffing me, and one of them was too close.  I think it was Little Bit, but I'm not sure about that.  All I knew was that I suddenly wanted back outside.  I flew toward the door, but I couldn't get through anymore.  I cried and jumped up the door, then ran down the hall as the mommy came toward me.  She opened the door a little more, so I could tell it was open if I came near it again.  Then, she went to see where I was.

I had run into the bathroom, because I remembered being in there when I was inside recovering from my spay a few months ago.  I was up on the window sill, but the window in there is permanently frosted over and wasn't open anyway.  The mommy talked gently and softly to me, asking if I would let her pick me up and take me to the open door.  I talked to her, still scared, but something in my eyes let her know it would be ok with me if she did that.  She petted me slowly and carefully, then gently picked me up and scruffed me.  She didn't hold me close, but held me securely enough so I didn't feel like escaping.  She carried me over to the door and set me down, still scruffed, then opened the door wide enough so I could get out.

I'm now sitting in the middle of the deck, collecting my thoughts about what just happened!  I'm not sure that it was bad, but I'm not sure that it was good, either.  The mommy and the inside kitties think that it's very brave and very good of me to come inside, and I think I'll decide that as well after I'm over the shock of everything!

Happy 6-month Birthday to Hemming, Miss Marble, and Striped Girl!!!!

Hemming writes:

Foster Mommy just told me it's my 6-month birthday today!  Wow, I'm a half-year old already?  Right after she told me that, I ran into the bathroom and pawed the treat drawer!  It's my birthday, so do I get treaties?  Foster Mommy said I do!

I got a special half-birthday gift a few days ago.  Someone named Kayla wants to adopt me!  She's going to move close to where I live, so she'll be here on the 28th.  After she's unpacked the major things, my foster parents and I will go meet her.  I hope she's nice and has good hiding spots for me in her house!  My foster parents made sure that she knows I will hide at first, and she said she's willing to take the time that I need to get used to her and come out of my shell.  In fact, she was looking for a cat who would need extra love and attention, so she sounds like she'll be a really good mommy for me!  I hope so!

Miss Marble writes:

I'm 6 months old?  Wow, that seems old!  I'm still a kitten, though, right?  I can still play and have fun?  My daddy, Tux, says I can.  He even still plays, and he's a lot older than me!  I sleep in the rose bushes under the humans' bedroom window now, with my sister Striped Girl, so I hear when the humans wake up and know that it's going to be food time soon.  Then, I go over to the window-door and wait on the deck.  I meow when I see them, talk to them to tell them that I'm ready for food, and then they come out to refill the water dish.  They go back inside and get the food, then put two scoops of food on the deck.  That's the cue for my sister to come running from the rose bushes for her breakfast.  Sometimes our daddy joins us, but sometimes he's off hunting or doing other important things.

In the evening, we wait until it's time for the human daddy to leave in the car.  Then we wait on the deck, patiently, until they see us.  I go right up to the glass and meow again, but this time the human mommy comes over to the glass and talks to me.  She puts her finger on the glass, and I put my paw on it.  Then, she gives us food and water.

Striped Girl writes:

Are we really 6 months old today?  Really?  I love being outside with my sister Miss Marble and my daddy Tux, but I miss my mommy Leopard and my other littermate.  My other littermate would be 6 months old today, too.  I wonder where they are, and if they're still alive.  It doesn't bother me much anymore, but it's in the back of my mind sometimes.

My life is pretty good right now, but the air is getting colder and it's getting more rainy.  I don't like being wet!  I hide under the deck in the big rainstorms, but most of the time I like being in the rose bushes.  I used to hang out in the backyard or behind the fence, but it's too muddy back there.  I sink down in the marshy grass!  As long as I have my sister and my daddy, plus food, water, and someplace dry, I'll be ok.

Happy National Feral Cat Day!

Miss Marble writes:

Happy our day!  I'm proud to be a fixed, eartipped feral girl!  When the lady opened the window today, I was right there waiting.  I curled my tail around my paws and sat pretty, a foot from her, just like my momcat Leopard used to, and waited for the lady to put food out for us.  I talked to her the whole time, telling her how happy I was, and she talked back to me.  Then, I called to my daddy Tux and my sister Striped Girl and they came to get food, too.  I could see my brother Hemming through the window, and he was eating from the inside plate with the inside kitties.  He and I talk and play through the window a lot, but we're both happy with our separate lives.  He says he may have another home soon.

Hemming writes:

Happy our day!  I'm proud to be a fixed, eartipped, former feral kitten!  I have a good life inside now, and hope to have a forever home soon.  I'm still up for adoption, and no one else has passed my foster parents' tests for forever homes, but I'm still hopeful.  Until then, I've got my foster family to play with, the humans to snuggle with, and my family to watch out the window.

Missy writes:

Happy our day!  I'm proud to be a former feral who chose to ask for help from humans.  I was out on the streets by myself in an industrial area, then all of a sudden I had foster parents and foster siblings!  I still bite occasionally, but I love snuggling and playing with everyone.

Rori writes:

Happy our day!  Yes, I was a feral kitten!  You wouldn't know it to look at me now, because I came inside at 4 weeks old and am fully socialized thanks to my family.  My mommy-auntie Lydia and my auntie Tabby took care of me and taught me, and my uncles Carbon and Skylar played with me and taught me.  Mommy, Mommy Erin, and Daddy helped me grow and become Lady of the House and Big Kitty of the House.  Feral kittens can make great inside kitties if you catch us when we're little enough to learn how to be inside kitties!

Happy National Feral Cat Day, everyone!

Good news from Hemming and Miss Marble!

Miss Marble writes:

Hi!  I'm much happier back outside with my sister and my daddy.  Yes, my sister!  The striped kitten is a girl.  The lady says that those trap things will be back out in a couple weeks to try to catch my sister and my daddy.  I'm going to tell them to stay away from them!  Well, maybe not, because I do feel better now, so maybe those traps were good things after all.  I am glad I'm back outside, even though I see my brother enjoying being inside.  I also am much more interested in those cats on the other side of the window, now that I've had a chance to watch them more closely.  I love my outside life too much to be inside, though.  I'm much more comfortable hunting and sleeping under the deck.  Thanks for letting me be part of the outside family, lady and man!

Hemming writes:

Hi!  I miss my sisters and my daddy.  I go up to the window and watch them, calling to them, when they come eat twice or three times each day.  They say hi to me, but we all understand that I'm an inside kitty now.  I don't even try to escape when the lady puts food out.  Freya and Heimdall play chase, ball, tails, and a lot of other games with me, so I love that!  My favorite games are crazy circle, throwing a ball around, and chase.  I've been out with everyone for two days now, since my tests came back negative.  No diseases, yay!

And the big news...I've got two people who want to adopt me!  We're going to visit one of the homes on Wednesday, and meet the family and the puppy who may be my sister.  Wow!  If all goes well, I'll stay there.  If not, then I will meet with the other person later.  I'm hoping that everything goes well with this first family.  I'm so excited to meet them!  I love meeting new people.  I love people, sitting on laps, and being petted.  I just am not used to being picked up high, so I squirm around and want down.  Once I'm on a lap, I curl up and purr, after giving kisses!

The release part of tnr, and the socialization part

The PDX pride Mommy here:

We sent Miss Marble on her way outside again. :'( I always choke up when we release a feral back into the wild. It's such a bittersweet moment! It's where she belongs, though. She just was freaking out too much inside. She bounded off like a rabbit, straight to a hiding place she and the rest of the family use, under the cedar tree (surrounded by rosebushes). Then, when she saw us wave at her and realized we could still see her, she bounded off to another favorite place, through the back fence into the wilderness of the wetland behind us.

Hemming did very well with his testing today!  We are sooo proud of him!  There were a lot of dogs waiting in line, and one other cat who looked like him, only female and a little older.  This was his first experience being around dogs, and he aced it.  He meowed the whole time we were waiting, while the dogs barked.  I really wish more dog owners would put their dogs through obedience courses, or at least train them properly.  Two barked and lunged at a lady wearing a straw hat, another dog kept nipping at its neighbor in line, and a lady made her dog walk right down the line to the end rather than walking around a different way to get to the end.  Maybe the owners need obedience training, too?

When we got checked in, and were in line again waiting for the vet, a big dog who was behind us in line came over to the carrier and sniffed Hemming through the bars.  Hemming sniffed him back, and put one of his paws up to the mesh door like he was asking the dog to play with him!

The vet and vet tech who did the blood draw couldn't barely believe that Hemming was born feral and that we'd only had him a short time.  They both said he looked and acted like a tame kitten, and were quite impressed with him!  He was so calm for his blood draw, even came out of the carrier nicely after the vet tech scruffed him.  He flinched and tried to look at his leg when they poked him, but he didn't mew in surprise!  Afterward, he walked right back into his carrier on his own, after the vet tech redirected him from wanting to jump down off the table.  We get his test results back on Tuesday, but are fairly certain that he doesn't have any bad diseases.

He's now in our office at home with the door closed, but free to roam in here.  He absolutely loves having a room of his own!  He walked around for a bit after I showed him his dishes and put him in the box to show him what that was, then I put him on my lap and petted him for a bit.  The first lap he's been on!  He wanted to climb, so he climbed up the door to the carrier, onto the top of it.  Then, after getting down from there, he climbed up the back of the computer desk onto the CPU tower and is very happy in his newfound nest.  Snuggly, purry, smiling, the picture of contentment!

Both kittens came through surgery fine

The PDX pride Mommy here:

Both kittens are recovering.  The marbled kitten turned out to be a little female, so her new name is Miss Marble.  She scratched, bit, and took off running through the house when I was transferring her to a carrier from the trap.  Not a good idea for her!  I'm alright, she's recovered from her scare, and she's in the carrier with food and water.  The polydactyl tabby/white kitten is a male, but had only one testicle.  They thought the other one might not have dropped yet, so they did an exploratory surgery, and it simply wasn't there!  His new name is Hemming.  He let me pet his paw pads, stretched his foot through the mesh on the trap, and put his head in my hand with his tongue sticking out, wiggling the tip of his tongue in nursing fashion as I was petting his nose!  He's taking a bit longer to wake up completely, and still hasn't woken up completely even though it's been about 6 hours.  I'm kind of worried about that, although he's looking at me when I talk to him.  He'll sit against the side of the carrier, then slowly start to tip over the other way, then correct himself.  He likes sitting better than lying down right now, for some reason.  Both kittens have eaten and had some water.

Tomorrow morning they go in to the mobile clinic at Petco for their FeLV/FIV testing.  They got their rabies shots today and first boosters.

At this point, we are pretty sure that Miss Marble is going back outside after the weekend's over, given her run around the house this afternoon.  Hemming seems like he wants human contact, so he's a good candidate for socialization, depending on how his personality is when he wakes up fully.

 Sleepy little boy Hemming in the carrier

Miss Marble says, "Leave me alone, woman with the flashy box!"

Two trapped!

The PDX pride's Mommy here:

Two of the kittens are trapped and inside!  We made the decision not to try for more, because we can pay for the neuter fees and then next week get these two tested for diseases.  If we trapped any more at this time, we wouldn't be able to get them tested, and we'd much rather know if they are clean before trying to socialize them.

At around 4 pm, the polydactyl tabby/white boy made his way into the trap after the canned food, got trapped, and started screaming his little head off.  He couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to go back out the way he came in.  He kept going to the door of the trap and batting at it, trying his best to make it open.  I brought him inside, where my husband and I gently talked to him and the inside cats all came to talk to him and investigate him.  Heimdall is turning out to be the best babysitter in the world, another reason why he reminds me so much of Skylar!  He lay down right next to the baby and started purring, which relaxed the baby considerably.

About an hour later, the marbled boy was trapped.  He made quite a ruckus in the trap, pulling the newspaper lining over his food, sticking his paws out the top, and turning around and around in the trap.  When I brought him inside and placed his trap alongside his brother's trap, they both calmed right down and started trying to play paws through the mesh with each other!  The inside cats went over to see the marbled boy, too, and were very interested in the rearranging he'd done with his trap paper.  He finally uncovered his food and ate, though it took him about two hours to do so because he was so stressed.

Little Bit cannot be around these new ones for a while, because she wanted to clean their behinds for them.  She was a mama cat, after all, with four boys of her own, so she knows how to treat young ones.  She just doesn't realize that you can't clean and groom someone through trap mesh.  Besides, a stranger cat trying to clean them was just scaring the little ones instead of helping.

They're sleeping now, curled up in their traps, with water bowls that they haven't touched yet.  We'll feed them some canned food in the morning, then take them to the feral cat clinic for their surgeries and eartipping.  We'll pick them up in the afternoon sometime and take them back home.  They will stay inside with us for the weekend to heal, and we will try to get them tested for diseases early next week.  They'll be inside until we figure out if they are disease-free, and then we will start to socialize them.  Once they are socialized, we will either make them our outside pets or adopt them out to a good home, depending on the level of socialization.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

 Heimdall and Tabby greet the poly tabby/white boy.

 Heimdall being a good babysitter and purring to calm the baby down.

 Mr. Talkative!

 Carbon's not afraid of kittens anymore!  Checking each other out.

 Two brothers in traps:  marbled kitten on the left and poly tabby/white kitten on the right.

Tabby greeting the marbled kitten.

Heimdall greeting the marbled kitten.

It's Trapping Day!

It's trapping day at the PDX pride!  Mama Leopard's disappeared, along with the normal-toed tabby/white kitten.  We hadn't seen the striped kitten for a few days, either, but he came back last night!  The polydactyl tabby/white and the marbled kittens have been eating out of the open traps, as has "Daddy" Tuxie, so we're confident that we can trap at least the three little boys and maybe Tuxie as well.  We'll bring them in tonight and take them to the clinic for fixing/eartipping tomorrow.  Here's some pictures from the past couple days, where everyone was learning how to eat out of the traps.

 Tux keeping watch as the striped kitten eats in the left trap and the other two eat together in the right trap.

 Wait!  How come brother is eating in the box and I can't figure out how to get inside?

 Is this how we're supposed to do this?

 Freya:  Yep, I see them both eating in the same trap!

Hi!  Do you have any more of that yummy canned food?

Wordy Wednesday: Catching up on the news, pt. 2

Mama Leopard writes:

My boys and I have been hanging out at the house for the past week, right up close most of the time.  When we need shelter, we've been hiding in the roses around the cedar tree, just off to the right of the picture above.  It makes a great hideout, and we're camouflaged from the raccoons (even though they haven't done anything bad to us).  The lady and man say that next week there will be wire boxes over our food.  I'm not sure about that, but as long as we can still get to the food I don't have a problem with it.  At least, not until I see the boxes.

The lady (and sometimes the man) comes out at about 9 pm to put water in the bowl and put food out for us.  We show up, and if the humans are running late my kittens tap on the glass while I wait expectantly about a foot from the window.  When the humans come out, I back up but am still pretty close.  I'm learning to trust them, so I let them be within 3 feet of me now!  My babies run, but pop right back up and investigate.  My striped boy was mewing to the man, and the man meowed back to him!  My little one didn't know the humans could speak our language, so he looked from the man to me, and back again to him, then mewed again and got an answer again!

Mrs. Raccoon writes:

I had three kits around the time that Mama Leopard had her kits.  Now that they are old enough to travel well and eat regular food, I have shown them where the cat food is.  Since my kits are so young, I usually accompany them.  The picture above shows me in the middle and two of my kits.  However, two nights ago I let them go on their own to the food place.  I should have known better!  They are too young to handle the ones on the other side of the window!  The one on the other side of the window who looks like us, Little Bit, likes to jump at me when I eat.  Since I wasn't there, she jumped at my kits, and they jumped back, thinking she was going to come out and play with them!  They don't know what cats are, and thought she was another baby raccoon.  All three jumped at her at the same time, hitting the window with a bang.  That scared Little Bit, and she meowed at them.  They got confused, stood up, and put their front paws on the window, looking in at her.  She jumped again and they jumped again.  The human came and removed Little Bit.  Then the human came back to the window, knelt down, and looked my three babies straight in the eyes.  In a commanding voice, she told them that they could not jump at the window like that, Little Bit was not going to come out to play, and they had better be nice.  They looked at her, got down on all fours again, and backed up.  Still looking over their shoulders, they ran back to where I was and told me all about it!

Wordless Wednesday: Mama Leopard, "Daddy" Tuxie, and baby kittens

Digital scrapbooking design personalized with Smilebox

Mama Leopard & kittens update

Mama Leopard writes:

Yesterday was a busy day for my kittens, Tuxie, and myself.  We spent nearly all of it lounging on the deck or in the freshly-mown and mulched grass in the yard.  I really like this yard.  It supplies many needed things for raising my kittens properly:  food, water, hunting training ground, shelter!  Tux likes it here, too, and that's a plus.  We all slept under the deck or on the deck.

Yesterday afternoon, Tuxie and I took the babies into the grass to teach them how to camouflage themselves.  My little ones were more interested in playing and roughhousing than the lesson, but they did well with reminders to stay down and watch for movement.  The humans didn't even see us until one of my babies popped its head up to look at the house, and then they saw us!

Last night, I was very brave and let the human lady look at my babies from just the other side of the window-door.  She was on one side, touching the glass, and my striped baby was eating on the other side.  I watched, stared at her long enough so that she knew she wasn't supposed to come out of that door, and then proceeded to take a bath!  Tux felt comfortable enough to turn his back on her with the baby there, too!

This morning, we stayed on the deck while she reached out her hand to put food on the deck for us.  She says that's an improvement, and we think so, too.  I was snuggled on the deck with two of my babies, and I got up but didn't disappear underneath.

I am polydactyl, and one of my tabby kids is, too.  I now have shown the lady that I have another kitten!  Previously, she knew about (and filmed) two tabbies and a white & tabby.  The white & tabby that she filmed is a little boy.  Well, when I was sleeping on the deck, I was snuggled with TWO white & tabby kittens!  So, I have four kittens total!

Mama Leopard's kitten presentation day!

Mama Leopard writes:

I'd been considering bringing my kittens to the food place for a few days, but there was a loud machine in their yard.  The machine cut the grass and stirred up the mice, so yesterday (when it was all quiet) I decided to bring my kittens.  I looked around to make sure it was safe, then hopped up on the deck.  My kittens followed, then scurried around on the new surface, testing it out and smelling all the smells.  As I went over to eat from the food pile the lady and man leave for us, my kittens saw the inside cats for the first time.  Were they ever surprised, on both sides of the funny window-door!

I saw one of the inside cats run off, then come back with the human lady.  She was very happy to see my little family and told me what a good mama I am!  Then she got a funny-looking thing and set it up on the floor where the inside kitties have their food bowls.  I knew she wouldn't come outside without letting me know first, so I kept eating and one of my little ones joined me, discovering what kibble was for the first time.  The lady put something on the food container inside, then lay down on the floor!  She said she was going to take a video of us.




Later on last night, Tuxie and I came back with my kittens.  Tuxie's a good dad to my kittens, washing them and playing with them a bit, even though he looks at them like they just landed out of the blue sometimes.

My kittens are now about 8 1/2 weeks old.  I have one who looks like me, one with a classic marbled tabby pattern, and one who is white with tabby patches and reminds me of the inside kitty named Starla.  The little ones are very interested in the inside kitties, and go up to the window-door to look in and play by tapping their little paws on the glass.  Heimdall plays back, and tries to bat at their little tails as they run past the window!

Feral Friday: Update on Leopard

Leopard:

I came by this morning and surprised the lady!  Well, she surprised me, too!  I was pawing at the food place, trying to get some food out of the space in-between the boards where it had fallen, and looked up and there was the lady.  She put more food out, but I decided to come back for it later.  I had my kittens, but I'm not telling where my nest is.  I may bring them by when they're old enough to come to the food place.