This morning, I was able to do a head count while feeding the outside cats.

Including this little Pointy Baby, who decided to climb up my back.

It’s a good thing my parka is so puffy, otherwise it would have been a very painful climb!

The first time I counted, I got 21, but when I counted again, I got 28!

Then I saw Sad Face skulking away in the distance.

I think I know why he’s skulking. He’s been a bad boy again.

I found a couple of spots like this one, filled with tufts of black fur and spots of blood. There were also blood trails up some of the paths, and more tufts of black fur.

Sad Face seems to be earning all those scars and scratches on his face – and it looks like he’s the winner of this battle!

I think the fur tufts are from The Distinguished Guest. I saw him briefly, yesterday. With the amount of fur and blood, I would not have been surprised to find a body somewhere. 😥

Thankfully, none of our own cats look at all injured. Sad Face seems to be leaving them alone. Including this handsome boy.

I forget what name the girls gave him, but he actually came over and allowed me to pet him! Of last summer’s long haired kittens, he has the most black, and he has no injuries at all.

I am not happy about this, but I am happy that Potato Beetle is inside. The visiting toms would always go after him, and he’s had more than a few injuries over his 4 years of life.

When we brought him in, he explored for a while, then disappeared. Yesterday evening, while I was walking back and forth in the hallway, working on something, I started tripping over a cat that decided it was a good time to start weaving around my feet. It turned out to be Potato Beetle! He was wanting attention, so my husband took him for a bit. Later on, he claimed one of my daughters and would not let her do anything but hold him and pet him! This morning, he was out and about while I got ready to head outside, and continued trying to kill me by weaving around my feet!

While some of the other cats have hissed at him, there have been no altercations. He’s completely accepting of all the other cats, and most of them are just curious about him.

Which really makes me wonder why they still won’t accept Butterscotch and Nosencrantz. They haven’t really been exposed to Marlee, who hisses at everyone, so there’s nothing to say there, yet. So bizarre!

While in isolation, Tissue would hiss at the other cats whenever she saw them. Sometimes, even Cheddar and Leyendecker, when they came in. If Nosencrantz – who seemed to actually want to make friends! – came closer, Tissue would start spitting, and even lash out.

Yesterday, we gave Tissue one last doze of pain medication, which she took so very well. Soon after, I let her out of isolation. Since she’s been out, there has been zero hissing or lashing out from her. She made her way upstairs and reclaimed her favourite place on my daughter’s bed!

My office/bedroom is much quieter now.😊

Tissue still has some recovering to do. Her tongue looks healed up, and she’s been eating dry kibble, so her jaw must be healing up well, too. She gets a bit snorky at times, and walks a bit oddly. I can’t blame her for that at all! She had some frost bite on her foot pads. As it heals, her pink foot pads have all gotten a very dark red in patches, and the dead skin is starting to slough off. I can’t tell if her feet actually hurt, or if the healing/sloughing is just really uncomfortable to walk on.

Now that Tissue is back, Marlee has joined us and Potato Beetle has been brought inside, we’re back up to 16 cats in the house.

*sigh*

Sixteen inside, at least 28 (not counting the visiting toms) outside, and I didn’t see Rosencrantz this morning. This is after we’ve adopted out a total of nine kittens from outside.

…

That’s just too many cats.

The Re-Farmer