Looking Good!

It's Sweetnesday!

February, 2019, and somehow Sweetie allowed a few snaps that turned out wonderfully.

After this post is published, Sweetie and I venture to the veterinarian's office for her monthly Solensia shot.

Poor Sweetie seems to unusually uninterested in any flavor or brand of food that I put down for her.

Maybe her last pain-relieving shot wore off early, and being hurty has reduced her appetite.

Here's hoping she'll be gobbling up her chow later today.

🍤🐟🍗

UPDATE: Sweetie is eating, she's received her shot, and she didn't even yell at me too much.

😹

Visitor

Am NOT thankful, to have a new cat wandering the yard in the bitter cold.

We pulled The Cat Hotel out from storage in the garage...

...added heaps of fresh straw, and set it on bricks.

Cat tracks!

And a pic through the window of our visitor!

 Thankful that we have a comfortable shelter, straw, and water bucket; the remains of Sweetie and Celestial Paddy O'Malley's outside life.

Should this fine kitty choose to hang around, we will put out food.

And if said kitty becomes a regular at the food bowl, then our humane trap will reappear, for no cat wanders our yard without TNR some day.

Let's Hop!

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My Cat Smells Like...

An incomplete list:

...Coffee*

...Peanut Butter*

...Laundry soap

...Cardboard

...Straw

...Cat Litter

...Stuff that one finds IN the cat litter

...Cat

*these items are caused by The Hubby's hands

Chili Bruce, left, and Manny
hiding in the bathtub earlier this year

Do you know that I've guessed what The Hubby made for dinner, because I could smell it on a cat?  YES!  No wonder they bathe themselves like crazy after a human touches them!  Who'd want to smell like spaghetti, if you weren't eating any?!?

😹😸😹😸😹

Autumnal Clean Out

Mama's House, as I sweep it out

Snoopervisor, Patty O'Malley

Mama's House, filled with new straw

Old straw in The Cat Hotel, showing
'cat nests'

Kinda made a mess...

Everything cleaned up and ship shape again!

She ain't pretty, but I'm hoping
we've created a cat paradise!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  This is the time of year that we winterize the 'O' Cats's shelters.  I clean out the straw that was fresh in Spring, add a warming mat to the bottom level of The Cat Hotel, and make sure all seams are tight and weather-proof.  This year, I purchased a package of straw that came sealed in wrap, in the hopes that there would be no added critters, such as fleas.  This straw was chopped up, instead of long pieces.  I put in a TON of straw, just in case the chopped up stuff is somehow lacking in nesting power.  I worry every clean out time, feeling that I'm going to chase the cats away, but within a couple of hours I witnessed Sweetie going into The Cat Hotel, and that put paid to it! The Hubby also added a layer of hard styrofoam inside one of the new cardboard boxes, on the advice from his brother who said it reflects body warmth.  We'll see how the cats like that.

Of course, I will continue try enticing them both up the Stairway To Heaven and inside, but for now I know that they are as buttoned up for the cold as I can make them.  The warming pad will be plugged in once the overnight lows get below freezing, and it has a gentle warmth.

Happy Halloween!

Time To Change The Straw

While The Hubby was cutting up the fallen Maple branch in the backyard the weekend, I decided it was a great time to replace the straw in The Cat Hotel and Mama's Place.  I swept everything out, made repairs where needed, added the warming pad to the bottom floor of The Cat Hotel, and tidied everything up again.  I also sprinkle a small amount of diatomaceous earth in the corners, to eliminate any insects that want to set up house too.

I do this twice a year, spring and fall.  In past years, I've worried myself sick, thinking the 'O' Cats might run away or refuse to use the shelters because I've messed with them, but so far, they've come right back.  You see, when Mama's House was built in 2009, no cat used it for years!  It wasn't until I was volunteering at a TNR class, when it finally dawned on me that straw was the reason; The Hubby had talked me out of putting straw in!  That day, I filled Mama's House with straw, and BOOM...cats inside that night. That'll teach me...

Mama's House, with fresh straw.
Notice the insulation sandwiched on all four walls.

Originally built in 2009, Mama's House was designed from
Alley Cat Allies instructions.  

Last year, one corner of Mama's House roof was broken;
Looks like a feral cat ear tip!

The Cat Hotel, with the second floor pulled out.
We originally designed this for three friendly ferals, but after
Sammy's passing, we cut a piece of insulation board to cover the
extra second floor entrance and removed the divider.
Usually, Patty takes the second floor,
while Sweetie uses the first, which is where the warming pad is.

Warming pad, with protective leg-o-jeans covering.
Always remember to make sure it's working BEFORE
filling The Cat Hotel with straw...just sayin'

Straw=Love

Sweetie's got something in her fur!

Close-up

We first met Sweetie in the summer of 2009, when Hobo encouraged her to eat from his food bowl on our deck.  We quickly figured out she was expecting, and the hubby built a wooden cat shelter from a design found online; insulated and big enough for a whole family.  But Sweetie and her babies never used our shelter, even though I dragged it to different parts of the yard, thinking it was the location that they didn't like.  Over a year later, after taking a class in TNR and shelter building, I figured out the problem, and promptly stuffed that shelter full of straw.  Voila!  The cats began to sleep in the shelter!

Years have come and gone, and at first I would fret when I changed out the straw, thinking the ferals would run away!  They may have for a day or two, but they always came back.  Now, I'm adding to, or fluffing up the straw enough times a year that Patty and Sweetie sit on the deck and watch me, before heading back inside 'their' home.  Seeing a stick of straw in Sweetie's fur today made me realize just how much I love these kitties, and how pleased I am that they choose to live in the accommodations that we've made for them.  Yes, I am still fretting over this cold, cold Winter, and I dream of making them a home INSIDE somehow, but they are living here and I am grateful for that.