This morning, took me quite by surprise- when I walked into the cat enclosure to feed everybody, it was just before dawn. Ashley came to greet me! This is the first time in mini moons that she has approached me. I was petting her, I took a chance, and I picked her up! She laid in my arms and purred, and allowed me to pet her. It was extremely difficult to not start pulling out some of those mats that are just hanging on her. But I didn’t want to destroy this moment. She allowed this interaction for about 10 minutes before she started to struggle. So I instantly put her down. Surprisingly, she didn’t poop one time!

This for me was a big milestone for us. I am hoping it will continue, but I will not get my hopes up. You never know with these PTSD kitties how their moods are going to swing. But it was certainly a delightful start to the day. It was also confirmation that confining PITA to the Introduction cage was the right move.

This morning I took Aspen into the vet for infected anal glands. I paid the money for the appointment however that took me down to $8.94 in my cats account. I still need to buy cat litter at $20 a box. If someone could help me come up with $40 so I can get two boxes of litter, that should help me get through till next payday.

thank you in advance. Aspen is a little disgruntled, but she will be fine

I took this picture of Ashley this morning. She has been recently showing that she’s been under stress. She’s been pulling her hair out of her chest. You can see the missing hair underneath her head on her neck and chest. She is not pulling it out anywhere else. She really looks hammered.

I’m hoping the change I had to make recently will help her out. While I was cleaning out the enclosure getting it ready for Spring, I noticed several instances where PITA took it upon herself to attack Ashley and Pigeon. After witnessing two of these attacks, I ended up taking PITA out of the clowder. She is now in the Introduction Cage.

PITA Is showing high Alpha behavior. She is pursuing the cats actively. Once she catches them, she exhibits mounting behavior, by biting their neck fairly aggressively and holding them down. She has shown herself to be fairly relentless in this pursuit. My presence didn’t seem to have much effect on her.

In trying to figure out why this new aggression is occurring, I have to wonder how much her and Twist’s constant warring between the wire is playing into this. Twist seems to enjoy  taunting PITA. Twist will run around the outside of the wire, PITA will follow her. They were ram the wire while trying to get to each other. Twist will finally tire of the game and go off and join her brother for other adventures.

To hopefully solve the issue and restore peace back with the group. I have decided to confine PITA to the Introduction Cage for the duration, I am grateful that I took the time late last year to re-design the cage, making it quite a bit larger than before, adding other levels and several hidey holes. There is now room for at least five litter pans, plus I tore down one side that was a bit, can we say; fragrant with cat spray. I replaced the wood with tile that does not soak in the urine making a big difference overall. I was able to get the tiles for free from a home design company in another town. The tiles were broken and they were just going to throw them away.

Do I feel guilty about making this decision? Yes I do. She has lived with these cats for years. She will be 13 years old this year, I’m not sure if Twist is what has flipped the switch in her? But we really do need to have peace within the group. The balance has shifted.

I can tell by looking at Ashley’s eyes just how terrified she is. Because I’m not out there all the time with them, I can’t be sure exactly what’s going on but I am hoping that this will help.I took this picture through the kitchen window, I was not standing next to her and scaring her when I took this. She still hasn’t forgiven me for grooming her a few weeks ago. Despite all I did that day, getting rid of all the mats, she is completely matted once again. Most of it I believe is due to the stress.

Here is a photo of Ashley’s brother taken the same morning. The difference in their body language is pretty apparent.

Twist and Kota have been friends from the very first time they met. Twist is so feral that she will not let me touch her. No matter what I try. It’s funny to watch her trail Kota all over the back property. She actually follows him like a puppy.

Recently , I’ve noticed that she is stopping when he Is pooping. So now, when I go out in the mornings to clean up after him. There right next to his stool is hers.  It’s just so weird. But every time he stops and squats, she does the same thing and she leaves a small pile for mom to clean up. She doesn’t even bother to bury it.

I guess she can’t get much closer than that? ( I hope I didn’t offend anybody by the subject matter.)I just thought it was funny or maybe a bit strange that it happens now every time when I do Poop Patrol.

Addie & Aspen in a rare moment of harmony

This morning when I woke up, I realized that once again, I was running low on cat food. Thankfully a donation had recently arrived, so I went over to the store to buy what I could to keep the kitties going until payday.

There was an elderly gentleman by the cat food. he was picking up individual cans of cat food, examining them and putting them down while shaking his head. He looked so perplexed, I asked him if I could help him with anything?

Turns out he just had a stray show up and he wasn’t sure which food would work for this boy. I went over to where he was standing, picked up several different kinds of canned food. Told him that the best thing to do is to feed him a little bit at a time out of a can until the cat lets him know what kind he likes.

I explained to him that he would be wise to stay away from beef of any kind. Not feed consistently fish, but mix it up a bit with chicken and fish. He told me I sounded so knowledgeable and asked me why I knew so much? I told him what I do for a living and how many cats we had in the sanctuaries. I showed him some pictures of the rescues, then turned my attention turn back to trying to find a case of cat food that I could actually afford. The prices locally around here are totally out of control.

I was looking at the selections, the prices, and mumbling to myself. I picked up a case, but found I didn’t have quite enough to cover it so I put it back and started putting individual cans into the cart. He  questioned why if I had so many cats, why didn’t I buy the cases? I explained to him that since Covid hit donations have dwindled. Most of the cat food that I buy now comes out of my check.  I just have to be careful because at the end of the day there isn’t enough money to go around..

He gave me an encouraging smile. As he walked away passing my cart, his hand passed over my purse which was sitting on top of the cart. Then he just left.

Curious, I went over to and I looked inside the side pocket that was opened. There was $100 bill inside! I ran after him, (I confess I was crying). I asked him if I could give him a hug. I gave him a great big hug and I told him he has no idea what he just did for me and my cats. He just smiled, hugged me again. Then he just left.

Today is our wedding anniversary. Still not easy to get through some of these anniversaries. It was a somber morning for me when I woke up, until this guardian angel, this kindly old man, reached out and touched me deeply.

After lots of fits and starts, the cat enclosure was finally tarped over late yesterday. Just in time too- the weather we are having here right now is wild. What looks like sunlight coming in the back of the enclosure is actually the tarp. We attached the roofing tarp firmly to the sides of the roof. But on the back we also brought it down so we could attach it to the tarp that was already covering the backend. (That’s where all the wicked wind comes in).Now I will find out pretty quickly (especially after next week where it’s predicted we’re going to have a whole week of heavy rain) whether or not it’s going to stop the water from getting inside .

Last week when I returned from town after doing errands, I noticed that Aspen was acting a bit off. She was hunkered down by the heater. Her rear end was in the air, but her tail was tucked.  It was a posture I’ve never seen on her before. I watched her and Addie came in the room. For the first time since they’ve been together, Aspen actually attacked Addie full throttle. Hurrying to intervene, I picked up my jacket and set it over Aspen. I scooped her up in my arms,  she was growling at me . This was not like her at all. They must’ve tangled when I was away.

On that assumption, I put Addie in the cat room and gave both kitties timeout for a while, just to cool down. Addie seemed fine with the encounter, I could find no wounds or bites on her at all. Aspen had withdrawn. She was hiding and try as I might, I could not find her.

Chow time came and went, no Aspen. I did a search for her and found her hiding in the closet. She was in a laundry basket. When I approached her, she growled I ended up letting Addie out of the cat room and confining Aspen inside instead.

This was four days ago. Aspen was not eating, she was not pooping, she was peeing, so she was drinking. I was monitoring her food. She would eat maybe two pieces of kibble, and then go lay down. I examined her for bites, she had no fever. she just didn’t want to eat.

I figured out what happened after this morning. I moved a pile of boxes in the spare room, behind the boxes was a small pile of half-eaten rubber bands.  (The only place I keep rubber bands is in the spare room in the desk.)  She must have gotten up there at night and opened the drawer. Unlike her sister, who had a fascination with plastic, based on the pile, I found Aspen’s fascination is with rubber bands.

She is on the mend now. Thanks to a lot of mineral oil which I tried to carefully syringe in her mouth. She had a nice visit with the litter box with good results. Afterwards, she  went over to her food bowl for the first time on her own. She actually ate the food like she enjoyed it. She is hopefully on the mend. I will continue to give her small doses of mineral oil to see if more rubber will pass.

Right now, I am happy to report that she is nestled in my lap purring. She has fallen asleep. This is right after her, and Addie were racing up and down the stairs and down the hallways. I thank God, she was not blocked, or that a rubber band had somehow constricted around her tongue. Being able to put the pieces together and figure out a solution has stopped her from experiencing more  discomfort as well as a trip to the vet.

Here she is on my lap. Yes, I know her fur looks oily, that was my fault. Some of the mineral oil did not go into her mouth. Some of it actually went all over.

She passed her test with flying colors. She was found to be heavily infested with parasites. Those have been dealt with. In a few days she will be treated for her flea infestation. She is now safely inside with her new mom, and they couldn’t be more thrilled with each other! She was great on the ride to the vet not one peep out of her, but the minute she went through that front door at the clinic she just let loose. You would’ve thought she was being tortured the way she was crying. But there was a very nervous German Shepherd in the vicinity, and I think she was pulling from his negative energy. One more stray safely rescued and in a loving home. Good day for all.

This is my fire kitty Magoo. He was just groomed and unlike his sister he loves any type of comb or brush on him. Thankfully, even though he has long hair, he doesn’t matt very much. He was more nervous about the kitties scratching at the door of the bathroom. I tried to get a good shot of him, this is the best I could do. He is a beautiful flame-point I think back to how he was when he first arrived, he has come such a long way. We both have.

This year I find that we are $50 shy of reaching our nonprofit registration.  If anyone could reach out us send whatever they can, to help reach our goal we would greatly appreciate it. The money may dwindle from time-to-time, but our work continues, regardless.

Case in point- This is Little Mew- she has shown up recently. When she first arrived, which was about two weeks ago, she was bone skinny. Now she is putting on more weight than she should. I’m going to catch her tomorrow and take her in and get her tested. My fear is she has wet FIP. She is so sweet, she has a tattoo on her belly so she’s not pregnant. That weight gain so quickly has us very concerned. You can just see it in her eyes that she has “The Feel Bads.”