Four down, one to go!

Jam and Reeses, glad to be free!

We said good-bye to Jam and Reeses today at the kids' request. I'm very proud of them! They had really gotten attached to Jam and Reeses, but recognized that they were not happy being confined. Their surgeries were three days ago (I think -- too many cats to keep track of!) so they should be fine. We initially thought that it would be good to find homes for them, but the adults have been on their own too long, and we just don't have time to spend finding homes for so many cats. The bulletin board at our vet's office is already full of brochures giving away cats and kittens -- we don't need to add to it. The most important thing is that the ones around our house won't be multiplying anymore.

Out of the five adults we've trapped, we're down to just having one still captive, Smokey. Her surgery was two days ago, so we will hang on to her one more day and let her go tomorrow. Oh my, is she grumpy! If you get near her crate, she hisses and growls. She's even been nasty to her kittens! The three of them are in a very large dog kennel with plenty of space, and she's fine as long as they don't come near her. If they do, she hisses and takes a swipe at them with her paw. Bad momma. The kittens are all very content in their crates, so we are going to hang on to them for a few weeks until they get a little older and can be spayed and neutered. The little orange kitten continues to be a monster, so we have given it the official name of Fireball.


No kitties were caught last night. We didn't set the trap because of the possibility of rain. Depending on the weather predictions for the night, we may set the trap before we go to bed. I hope Reeses and Jam are smart enough not to fall for the trick twice! We saw another adult cat that we have not seen in months, Midnight. He (maybe a she) was exploring the cat house out back, probably wondering where everybody has been. We are not hopeful that we will catch him as he is very elusive and we've never seen him come near our house.

Tom is on a four-day trip, and the kids and I have been home all day -- one of our favorite kinds of days. We unashamedly admit that we are all homebodies! We've been busy cleaning the house, making food for the next week, and cleaning vegetables to get them ready for canning on Monday. Faye didn't bring us anything but clouds and wind. :o( We so desperately need rain.

I'm off to clean green beans!

Number 8 and Counting . . . . .

We found this little one in the trap this morning. No name yet, and we don't know what gender, but it's a little fire ball and loves to hiss. The trap has been reset, and we hope to catch its two siblings over the weekend.

I think we will be saying good-bye to Smokey over the weekend. She is very grumpy and hissy, and I don't think there is hope of domesticating her -- at least not in the time frame that we have to give attention to the matter. We did what we set out to do, which was spay her. She's fattened up quite a bit since she's been coming to us to be fed, so she should do fine outside on her own. We'll continue to feed her if she wants to come back to us as her food source.

Jam has been hissing and growling today, so we don't know what that means -- perhaps that when she was so sweet and docile, she was heavily medicated?! The jury is still out on whether we'll turn her out or try to find a home for her. We'll give her through the weekend and see what happens.

Based on Reeses behavior, Tom thinks that we can turn him out because he'll stay around here and still claim us.

Cats are much so easier than dogs!

Catch of the Day

The sardines we sat out last night proved to be more than Smokey could resist! Tom and I found her in the trap when we got up this morning. She spent the day at the vet's office, came home minus a part, and is resting comfortably in a crate in our basement with her kittens.

We have now captured every cat that we have been seeing around our house. We know that Jam has 3 kittens, but have only seen them one time from a distance. They are at least 8 weeks old, so they are capable of surviving on their own, but we would still like to catch them. We set the trap across the street in the woods this evening, and hopefully, we'll catch one of them and not something unpleasant . . . . .

Smokey and Reeses' kittens are doing wonderful -- they are no longer frightened of us and we can hold them. Reeses and Jam have been domesticated before as they are very affectionate and let us pick them up. Tiger, however, is another story. The poor girl was in the same position this morning as she was when we went to bed last night. We were going to try and hold on to her for a few days until her incision healed, but the vet said to let her go if she didn't warm up to us or take food and water. We were going to try and transfer her to a crate, but couldn't get her to exit the carrier that we brought her home from the vet's office in. Tom even turned it on its end trying to dislodge her, but she dug her claws in and held on. Finally, Tom said that we needed to just let her go because of the stress being captive was causing her. He and Sarah took her out to the driveway and opened the carrier door. She didn't come out right away, but finally peeked her head around the corner, scowled at them, and darted off for the woods. I doubt that we see her again, but at least she can't add to the stray cat population around here.

We have decided not to release the other cats, but are going to find homes for them since they don't fear people and are affectionate. Anyone want a kitty?

Here a kitty, there a kitty, everywhere a kitty, kitty!!!

Our second day of trapping was extremely successful! When I spoke to the veterinary's office Tuesday morning, they told me to catch as many as I could, because they had a light surgery load this week and would be able to spay/neuter all of them right away. So we set out to catch as many as we could Tuesday night.

Around dusk, we set the trap out on the deck with a piece of Boar's Head smoked chicken breast, and within minutes Smokey showed up with her two kittens, Oreo and Cocoa. The meat was more than Oreo could resist, and he was quickly trapped.

We relocated Oreo to a crate and reset the trap. Another piece of meat proved to be irresistible to Cocoa, and we added her to the large crate that Oreo was in. We were hoping to catch Smokey, the momma, next, but she was very cautious around the trap. She would walk all around it, even going in halfway, and then she would back out. Pretty soon, she just laid down beside it.

As we watched from the family room windows, another cat appeared on the deck, Marmalade (who is a beautiful orange color). Marmalade quickly took the meat and was trapped. He was a live wire and went ballistic upon being caged in. We quickly relocated him to a crate (while he was hissing at us) and reset the trap, hoping again to catch Smokey.

Smokey was still on the deck, observing the trap but not going in, when Jam appeared (beautiful orange colorings like Marmalade). Jam fell for the bait, was trapped and relocated to our last available crate. Still no Smokey.

We decided to leave the trap set overnight in hopes of catching Smokey, and went to bed. At 6:15 a.m., I was awakened by the sound of a ruckus from the trap. I roused Tom and told him that we had caught Smokey, and we needed to get her out of the trap. We were very surprised to find that it was not Smokey that was in the trap, but a cat that we had not seen for a very long time, Tiger. We had her pegged as a female because of the way she and Reese's were always together last winter. We thought Marmalade was a live wire -- he was tame compared to Tiger! We left her in the trap as we didn't think it was safe to try and get her out.

Five cats. I called the vet as soon as they opened to make sure that they could still take that many cats, and they told us to bring them on in. After some thought, we decided not to take the kittens so that we could use them to lure Smokey if need be, so we went to the vet with Marmalade, Jam and Tiger (who was not happy, by the way).

We transported Jam successfully into the office, and went back out for Marmalade. We can't believe what happened next -- while we were en route, Marmalade had pushed the plastic tray on the bottom of the crate forward, which meant that when Tom went to pull the crate out of the back of the Excursion, Marmalade was able to slip through bottom of the crate, as the wires were spaced further apart there than on the rest of the crate. We watched helplessly as Marmalade raced across the parking lot, across the street and into the woods. Tiger was still in the trap, so we were able to get her in without any problem.

We needed the crate back so we could continue to try and trap Smokey, so the staff at the office took Tiger back to get her out of the trap. They came back out with wide eyes and said that Tiger is totally wild (which we already knew) and got loose on them. They managed to get Tiger under control, and had a much easier time with Jam. The plan was for them to keep both cats overnight. Right after we got home after dropping the cats off, the vet's office called and said we would have to pick Tiger up late this afternoon, because based on their experience with her so far, she was going to wake up one grumpy kitty. It seems that she escaped in the surgical room, and was very difficult to catch. She was finally subdued, but not before she tried to run through a glass door.

We brought Jam and Tiger back home this evening, and they are resting quietly in their crates. The trap has been reset for Smokey, this time with sardines in it. She came on the deck looking for her dinner, sniffed at the trap, very much enticed by the sardines, but then walked away from it when she realized that she was going to have to go in to get her food. We will leave the trap set overnight and see what happens!

Smokey, underneath the patio table, waiting for her dinner.

Jam, recuperating after surgery.

Reese's and Smokey's kittens - Oreo and Cocoa

A totally terrified Tiger, who has not moved from this position in several hours.

First Catch

****UPDATE****

Tom spoke with the vet's office this afternoon, and it seems that we have a very unique kitty! First, we're glad to report that his feline leukemia test was negative (a positive test would have meant -- well, let's just say it wouldn't have been good). Cats with the tortoiseshell markings like Reeses are female 99.9% of the time, and tortoiseshell males are sterile 99.9% of the time. Reeses is a tortoiseshell male who is a daddy! He's a one in a million kitty! We will be picking him up tomorrow morning, and hopefully be dropping off another cat -- we'll see what we catch tonight.


The trapping has begun . . . . .

We set the trap out on the deck last night, and as predicted, Reeses was our first catch. He was absolutely terrified once he realized that he couldn't escape -- it was heartbreaking! We transfered him to a larger crate for the night, and he settled down quickly.

Tom, Andrew and Sarah took him to our vet this morning, and his surgery is scheduled for sometime today. Once they got him into the office, they tried to tell Tom that because of the calico markings, Reeses is a female. We believe they will find out differently once they have him sedated.

I hope he forgives us for this . . . .

An Uneventful Posting

Our blog has been quiet these past few weeks due to mundane living. Mundane living is good! Living out of the ordinary too often can be draining!

Our favorite time of year is just weeks away, and with the fall season comes a return to the school books. Much of my time lately has been spent planning out the year and making sure we have everything we need. I'm as bad as the kids -- I'm already looking forward to our first break! Thanksgiving week seems so far away . . . .

Bands, choirs, and riding lessons began last Friday. Whew! Fridays are going to be our busiest day of the week! I think it will be easier to do all of our running in one day than to have it spread out over the week.

My little garden is still giving us veggies, but most of the plants have about had it with the summer heat. Tomorrow, I think I will have enough tomatoes to can some tomato juice, and we'll be having eggplant in some form for dinner. One of the moms at band last Friday sold me a bushel of okra from her garden for $10 -- so guess what I've been doing! My okra plants did really well, but I didn't plant nearly enough of them, so I'm thankful for her abundance.

My dining room has been taken over with school books! This is only part of the collection -- the rest of the books are spread out on a table in our music room. (Hmmmm . . . I wonder why the front door was open . . . .)

Our resident box turtle, Pistachio. The boys see him periodically in our landscape, but one morning this week, he greeted us at the front door steps.

Time to get busy with school work! The kids have too much time on their hands! Poor Baxter, dressed in a baby outfit that Sarah puts on her dolls!

This crazy cat is Reeses, named after the peanut butter cup because his fur looks like chocolate and peanut butter mixed together. We began seeing Reeses around our house last winter and started sitting food out for him. Every morning when I would open the kitchen blinds, he would be sitting on the deck, in front of the door, waiting for his breakfast. He showed up one morning in February as usual, we fed him his breakfast, and we didn't see him again. Tom and I suspected his demise. Imagine our total surprise when he showed up again this week, SIX MONTHS LATER! He is just as congenial as ever and acts as if he never went away in the first place. He is the only cat (there are 9) that we can touch. He is very affectionate -- especially with Sarah. He will follow her all around the yard.

Tom and Andrew went to Wayne and Judy's house this week and picked up their dog house (they no longer have a dog), and it has been turned into a cat house. Last year, it was pitiful to see the cats wet and shivering in below freezing temperatures, so we're going to try to help them out this year. But first, we're going to help them stop multiplying . . . . .