This is what greeted me out the window, when I headed into the kitchen this morning.
The girls and I headed into town today, and as we came out to go to the van, we found Jim up there, watching. :-D
We had visitors this morning, too. The girls saw Dad Cat, a grey and white, at the food bowls. Out my office window, I spotted another, almost completely grey, adult cat running off. As we were leaving, we startled The Outsider – which is what the girls call the all grey ball of fluff kitten that has been coming around – away from the food.
While we were out, my husband opened up the sun room for the cats and later found this.
My husband has taken on the morning feeding of the outside cats, so I haven’t been getting photos of them coming out early in the day. The kittens are getting used to him, I’m told, and have started to come running when he fills their bowls.
Every now and then, though, the kittens come back, sneaking around us, to get to the food bowls.
Corvo is most amusing.
He now goes straight to laying half his body right in the bowl, and even rolls around in the kibble, pushing away any other kittens coming over.
Here we have Corvo, Rosencrantz (or Guildenstern), Jim, and Bob.
Bob is the teeny tabby. So named, because his body is so small compared to his head, he looks like a bobble head toy.
He is filling out, though, which is a relief.
Doom Guy and Guildenstern (or Rosencrantz) didn’t make a showing this time, but when I came out later, these four were still there.
Still completely ignoring the second food bowl. :-D
Spotted out the kitchen window, while making lunch.
I know we’re going to have to take this tree down, to protect the house, but when that does eventually happen, I’m going to miss watching the cats playing in it.
I try to do a walk around the yard every evening, while there’s still light enough to see, and just check on things. The inside cats tend to different windows as I do. The mama cat likes to sit in windows and meow at me, while DahBoy likes to sit quietly and just look at the other cats.
Last night, I got to see this. :-D
Doom Guy, checking out DahBoy. He hung out there and played at the bottom of the door for a while, but wouldn’t let me do much more than touch him, while I was sitting on the concrete and he went under my legs.
Tonight, I was away for much of the day, meeting with my older brother and his wife in the town where my mom is in the hospital, driving to the airport to see our relative off as he returns to Poland, then going to see my mom at the hospital. She was asleep, so we let her be. She is healing well and, if they can get home care worked out, we expect her to be going home on Monday.
So it was pretty late before I got home. After supper, I took a walk around the yard again. Butterscotch came out and started following me, trying to rub against my legs as I walked, so of course she got kicked in the head a couple of times. :-/
It looks like the kittens have been sheltering in where the old wood pile used to be, and where Butterscotch took her kittens for a while. As I came around the house, I could see some kittens by the old dog house there. Doom Guy, the tuxedo, was barely visible in the half light. Much to my delight, he came right up to me, and not only accepted pets, but seemed to want to be picked up. So I did, and he started to purr and enjoy being petted. He was even okay with me continuing to walk with him in my arms!
I was so thrilled!
Eventually, I let him down near the food bowls, then sat in the chair by the sun room. The other kittens had come out and were running around, climbing the arm rail by my mother’s white rose bush, and generally being very entertaining. I took lots of photos, but the light was just too low for any of them to turn out. I hoped some of the other cats would maybe come by, so I just stayed in the chair with my phone handy. Only the tuxedo would come up to me, but not for pets. He tried to climb up my leg a couple of times, and another, jumped up can clawed my butt through the back of the chair! I’m glad he’s more comfortable around me, but I didn’t expect it to be so painful! :-D
Then I heard a noise and looked over to see…
… that’s…
… not a cat.
Nope. It was a skunk, ambling towards me as if I wasn’t even there!
Doom Guy started hissing at it, and the skunk stopped and lifted its tail. There I sat, trying to take pictures (they didn’t really turn out), thinking, “I’m about to get sprayed…” over and over!
The skunk, of course, won the battle of wills, the kittens all ran off, and the skunk continued to amble over to the food bowls.
As soon as it started eating, it was a confirmation for me. Many a night, I’d hear a strange crunching sound outside my office window. It was not the same noise the cats make when they eat, but any time I looked, I could see nothing. I thought it might be a skunk, and now I know for sure.
It’s so cute!
Which means that those shallow holes I’m finding in the yard, that I thought might be a skunk digging for grubs, were probably made by this little guy.
I’ve read that skunks can be very friendly, make good pets, and are very cat like. We’re not about to make a pet out of this one, but I certainly don’t mind it being around.
As long as the cats don’t bother it and cause it to spray! :-D
One of the things we like to do is leave the inner doors open, so our cats can look outside. The outer door at the main entry has a window almost all the way to the bottom, at the perfect height for them to sit and look out. The step outside, however, is lower than the floor, so the cats outside have to make more effort to look in.
As I walked past this morning, I heard DahBoy making some noise at the door. He was batting at the bottom of the window, where I could just see the top of a head and front paws of another tuxedo, batting back! :-D
Seeing this, I decided to grab some cat treats and see if I could convince some kittens to come close.
With the rain we’ve had lately, my usual places to sit are on the damp side, so I opened up the sun room, leaving a trail of treats, to see if any would come in.
Of the kittens that did come out, all but one of them eventually came into the sun room!
Doom Guy, the tuxedo, was quick to go inside, though he was not willing to let me pet him today. While I saw the bigger orange tabby around, only the teeny tabby stuck around. Only one of the calico-tories showed up.
This is the closest Rosencrantz or Gildenstern has come near me in ages!
Corvo, the grey, came in, but was more about checking things out than having treats.
He was the only one to actually start climbing around, going up onto my dad’s chair. It’s a rocker, so I’m a bit surprised he’d go onto something that moves. He also started to push his way into the cube shelf, knocking out a spare insect zapping racket in the process, and scaring himself out of the room! :-D
Even the teeny tabby came in, but not much farther than the doorway.
I’ve left the outside doors to the sun room open for now. There were still treats on the floor, and I figure my not being there would let the shier kittens have more of a chance to get some.
The kittens have been tearing around all over the place!
Last night, I spent some time outside with them, tossing out cat treats in various directions. The tuxedo was once again the only kitten that would come near me, and even allowed me to pet him.
This afternoon, while heading out to go pick up some prescription refills, they heard as and all came out – even the ones that wouldn’t come near us. My husband has been putting food out for them in the mornings, but they didn’t all come out until later.
So of course, my daughter and I paused to say hello.
Beep Beep’s kittens now have names. Meet Doom Guy, the tuxedo.
Who loves my daughter’s new purse!
While we were out, we started to hear some plaintive meowing from… somewhere.
It turned out to be one of the inside cats, at the kitchen window.
Beep Beep’s tabby went to take a look. Meet Corvo (why yes, my daughters are gamers… why do you ask? LOL)
He had even stretched up, with his paws on the wall, trying to get closer to the window, but I wasn’t able to get a picture. Too cute!
Butterscotch, three of her babies, and Beep Beep, at the food bowls. The larger orange tabby made a showing, but I wasn’t able to get a picture of him.
Then, something amazing happened.
Doom Guy allowed my daughter to pick him up. He not only stayed (though he wasn’t quite sure how to handle being held) and let us pet him, but even started to purr!!
So awesome!
Just before we left, my daughter had to rescue her bag again. :-D
Well, okay. He’s not quite comfortable around us, yet. :-D
In other things; it had been my plan to work along the fence line today, but it was much chillier than I expected. So it was a morning to do some crochet. Later on, I’ll be making a big batch of chili in the crock pot, and setting some aside in jars for my mother, for when she comes home from the hospital. Between my siblings and I, she will hopefully not have to cook for quite some time, and can focus on recovery. Though there has been come discomfort for her, everything has been going very well with her. At the moment, she’s expected to come home on Saturday, and my older brother plans to stay with her for a few days, to help her out. We should know by then if she will need home care or not, too. I hope she does get it, just to make sure she doesn’t over do things too early. My family is notorious for ignoring pain or injury and pushing ourselves through it, even when we shouldn’t! :-D
We were out for much of the day, from a quick run to pick up prescription refills and tank up, to a trip to the city. When we got back, we found the yard full of furballs, all over the place.
Beep Beep was right over, demanding attention, and Butterscotch came by, too. Then the kittens came out! They were in the flowers by the inner yard fence, climbing trees by the smaller people gate, rolling in the dust, climbing the Chinese elm outside the kitchen window, and just plain running around.
Only one of the calicos showed up, though. I haven’t seen the other one for some time.
Teeny tabby is easily the most rambunctious, bouncy ones of the two litters!
I saw out with some cat treats for a while, and Beep Beep was right in there, crawling around under my legs as I sat on the steps, and diving for my fingers.
For the other cats, I ended up just throwing treats in their general directions.
Cat treats do not throw well.
The kittens had a blast, but the tuxedo was the only one that would come near me. The teeny tabby played with the end of a stick for a bit, but that’s as close as he would get. There rest wouldn’t come closer. Not even for the treats I left on the corner of a step.
Ah, well. Hopefully, they’ll warm up to us, eventually!
An early night tonight, and an early morning. We need to leave by 4:30am to drive our guest to the airport in time.
It might be easier to just stay up all night, to be honest! :-D
I hung out after putting kibble out for the outside cats, hoping to lure some kittens.
No such luck. Going past where I was sitting to get to the food bowls was the most two of them would allow. Beep Beep came over for pets, as usual, and her tuxedo came with her, though he wouldn’t let me touch him. The little bobble headed orange tabby came close enough to play with the end of a stick. No sight of the calicos at all.
That grey tabby is getting to be a really big tom! He’s definitely heftier than his mother (though that doesn’t take much, really), though still not fully grown.
I can’t get over the size difference between the teeny tabby and all the others. It’s quite noticeable when he’s with his brother. Hard to believe they’re from the same litter! It’s good to see that he’s very active and playful, and has a very hearty appetite. He just looks sickly and half starved. :-(
The Re-Farmer 