How beautiful!! My cats love their cat trees!
Cats .. all about only cats
- Thread starter Ekatarina
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Good luck. Been there, done that, got the scars. I recommend a leather apron also.
I love old cats. 
Yeah, I put kitty treats in her carrier every day during her morning nap. She looks there first thing and pulls the door open to get in. We're going to start taking her for rides in the truck and car. Her only ride was going to the vet when we thought she ate a rubber band, so she equates the truck with "scarry" strangers.
Oh gosh, coyote suprise tonight! We usually take a walk toward the end of twilight, I enjoy the mountains backlit by the last of the evening light. Thumper gets to go out to play for a few minutes before we leave. Well tonight we had the gate open to pick up some trash that blew in, and she was playing in front by the sidewalk. Then we all went back inside. She is such a good kitty, we just say "All kitties go inside," and she (usually) trots right in, because she gets a treat.
Anyway, Thumper had fun, came in no, problem. Mrs and I go back outside, maybe a minute later for our walk. We open the gate and I see a coyote about 25 feet away trotting down the street! It just glanced at me like, "Hooman you matter not," and sauntered along it's way like it was king of the hill.
We are always careful when Thumper is outside, there's also owls, hawks and snakes, but that timing was unusual. I'm wondering if the yote had been hiding, watching her in the dark even with us right there, or just coincidence as they do run through the neighborhood pretty often. We are right next to open desert and that's prime pet hunting time.
I need one of those new gazillion lumen, retnia burning, flashlights to light things up so I can see if any yotes are hiding in the shadows.
Anyway, Thumper had fun, came in no, problem. Mrs and I go back outside, maybe a minute later for our walk. We open the gate and I see a coyote about 25 feet away trotting down the street! It just glanced at me like, "Hooman you matter not," and sauntered along it's way like it was king of the hill.
We are always careful when Thumper is outside, there's also owls, hawks and snakes, but that timing was unusual. I'm wondering if the yote had been hiding, watching her in the dark even with us right there, or just coincidence as they do run through the neighborhood pretty often. We are right next to open desert and that's prime pet hunting time.
I need one of those new gazillion lumen, retnia burning, flashlights to light things up so I can see if any yotes are hiding in the shadows.
Playing with mommy. Thumper is so funny. I missed the shot but she had her paws wrapped around mommy's leg.
As the generations of cats around our barn have come and gone, it's been somewhat interesting. In the early days, they seemed to reproduce much more, kittens everywhere. But now, not so much. Also, there was a lot of turn-over. The kittens that would survive to be adolescent or more tended to wander off and disappear, very rarely hit on the road near home, but rarely found, either. They'd just be here one day and gone the next. Occasionally, one would seem ill and it was almost as though they came to say goodbye before they left never to return. Some have been very tame, almost like pets, others are very stand-off-ish but still come to the dish while I'm still there. (If they won't even come to the dish while I'm standing there, I tend to chase 'em off. I guess that's my mean streak.)
But of late, there have been no new batches of kittens. A few of the females seem to get wider and thinner but if they have had kittens, they've not brought them home, at least that we've seen. And interestingly, with all of the coyotes, hawks, owls, and other critters that wouldn't mind a cat dinner, our numbers have been very consistent for probably 3 or 4 months now, 15 and exactly 15, and we recognize every one of them. (They don't all have names but they're all familiar.) One of the 14 roams a very wide circle, saw her probably a half mile from home just yesterday. She seems to show up every few weeks, maybe hangs around for a few days, and then she's gone for a while, rinse, repeat. A few of them never go very far and I get a little irritated that some will just hang around and stare at the back door expecting to be fed, even though I just fed them.
Don't know if it's "survival of the fittest" in action or what. It does surprise me that more haven't disappeared. BTW, that oldest that roams so far that I mentioned, she was born on the front porch a little over 5 years ago. That's old for a barn cat.
When Hubby and I were young, we rented a place that came with a mamma cat! She would have kittens and would take them away! She would take them off into the woods and be gone a few days and come back alone!! The landlord finally trapped her and got her fixed!
I'm sure there's a like a "secret life of cats". I have sometimes wondered what would happen if I could put a collar on one or two of these barn cats that would record video, maybe GPS locations, just to see where they go and what they do. I'm sure we see very little of it.
I saw a PBS special about that years ago! It was amazing where one's darling little pets go!!
We inherited barn cats when we moved here. A few years ago we got serious about TNR. They got their shots when we got them fixed. All, but one is friendly. There's only the kitten who showed up a few months back that needs to be fixed, she's had her shots.
I got up at 5am this morning an began rounding up some things for BBQ tonight. I went out to the freezer in the garage to look around and when I came back in, I found that Mikie had already started cooking without me!
Looks like you're going to have a lot of help according to the second picture!!
