Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour, where politics meets up with religion, art, science, and life. Come in, have a cuppa and a cookie (or three!) and join us.
As I wrote a couple of months ago, it was with great sadness that I had to admit I could no longer safely live alone with no support group, especially isolated on a farm in rural Kansas. In September I moved to a Dallas suburb, four minutes from my daughter and her family. It’s much safer, and I have amazing help. It’s odd to realize that the back fence is right outside my back door, and not a quarter of a mile away. I haven’t lived this close to people in decades, so I have to remember that I need to close the blinds at night. (On the farm, I didn’t even have window coverings. There were only the neighbors’ cows and my woods outside.)
I don’t have the wildlife here, of course. Even birds are slow to find me. I put out several feeders and two fountain birdbaths, and I will, very occasionally, see blue jays there. I’d only been here a week or so when I saw a tuxedo cat trotting across the roof of the house behind me, and I saw, through the spaces in the fence, another cat walking down the alley behind my house, tail held high. Dogs, too, trot along the alley. Lots of roaming pets here. I let them be. It’s birds I’m trying to attract.
It’s like the one I left behind. That one was almost 20 years old and showing its age even though it still worked as a heated birdbath, so it was time to start over. I added a solar fountain, too. It’s on the deck only because there’s no railing to attach it to, but that turned out to be a good thing.
I was gifted a small pedestal birdbath as a housewarming gift. I tried a fountain in it, but it evaporated the water in an hour, so it’s just a regular birdbath now.
In the Texas heat (it’s a dry heat, they tell me; and yes, things are definitely dry even if it’s a humid day) I hoped that the fountains would attract birds, and then the birds would find my feeders, and then more birds. . . Well, you get the idea. It didn’t exactly work like that. I did get the jays, but only sometimes, and although I’m sure there are other birds around, I’m not seeing them. But it was still very hot in Texas, and very dry. There was no natural water around, so surely birds would flock (teehee) to my birdbaths.
But. . . Just a day or two after the first jays showed up, I saw a scrawny grey and white kitten drinking from the birdbath on the deck. Aww!!! As soon as she (I’m pretty sure it’s a “she”) scooted back under the fence, I took out a bowl of kibble and set it next to the birdbath. And within the hour she found it. My daughter said I should start thinking of a name because she’d be back.
Picture shot through the screened window. This was Day 1.
She’s been back every day since, often two or three times a day. I started moving the food bowl closer to the upper part of the deck, and closer to the house.
It wasn’t long before she brought a friend. At first she would sometimes come alone, sometimes with the tuxedo cat. Now they often show up together, usually three times a day.
Now the food bowl is very close to the house, on the covered part of the deck.
The two of them are very comfortable together, and very playful. They take turns. One will eat while the other climbs the wisteria. Then they chase around the yard, behind the storage shed, and under the workshop building. (Yea! I have outbuildings! Almost like a farm—sort of.)
She’s filling out. By this time, she’s been coming to eat for three weeks.
They seem at ease here.
Her turn at the food bowl.
Heading for the exit.
Eventually they leave, the same way they come and go every day—under the corner of the fence, but she’s always the last to go.
I’ve seen a third young cat, also thin. This one is always alone. It comes within minutes once I put food out in the mornings, then again alone early afternoon. This can’t be by accident, that this one never crosses paths with the other two.
I wonder if it’s a litter?
My daughter’s mother-in-law died in October and the extended family was here for two weeks. One of the brothers-in-law loves cats, and they have one at their home in Oregon. He said he knows that cats actually do show up unexpectedly because he sees it on TV, but it’s never happened to him and he’s sad. He wants to know why. My grandson tells him, and everyone else, that I can just attract animals. Obviously.
I bought a trap. You know, for TNR. Daughter tells me that I’m in the ‘burbs now and can’t just trap every cat that shows up. They may, and probably do, have homes, even if not very good homes. We’ll see. But a breeding colony is a tragic thing, and I’ll do what’s needed to prevent that nuisance.
On a rare rainy day, I put a box under the glass covered coffee table on the deck, and I put in a fleece blanket. One morning I was a bit late taking food out, and the two original cats were cuddled inside it. They were spooked when I came out the door and took off, but they came back later because food, of course. I haven’t seen them use the box and fleece since, and of course it won’t be enough for the winter.
I put a well-insulated shelter with a heat pad on the deck because we’re going to have some rainy days/nights, with lows in the mid 30s—and of course lower as winter comes on. So just in case they don’t have homes, or don’t make it home in bad weather, well—
I’m impressed with the structure of this shelter. My daughter and I put it together in minutes with a multitool. I wasn’t happy with the heated pad that came with it, though. It had controls, similar to a heating pad you might use. It had two problems: The controls were outside the shelter, so exposed to weather; and they had to be fidgeted with, with a time limit on the heat. Instead, I put in the kind I was used to on the farm, that plugs in but that stays cool until the cat lies on it, when it rapidly warms to the cat’s body temperature, and doesn’t need any other attention until the spring thaw. I’ll attach the vinyl flap over the door later, once the cats become accustomed to going in and out.
If all three cats are looking for shelter in the winter, I’ll possibly open a cat door into my workshop building, where I’ll put another heated pad and a small enclosure for them, so the one cat can be alone.
So what about names? I’m thinking Smudge for the grey one. Maybe Pilgrim for the tuxedo? Marble for the other one? Suggestions welcome. Even if I don’t claim them as mine, I still need a way to talk about them, right?
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Already updated!
So I was just minding my own business Wednesday evening, cooking dinner, talking to my daughter, and I looked out at the deck. It was just starting to get dark, and there was a fourth cat out there, a big grey and white tom, obviously fully mature and well over 2 years old, because he had a hood, and also because he stopped to spray the fence as he left. Too dark to get a picture but he’ll probably be back for the food.
Update X2!
And now it’s Thursday morning. I bring the food in overnight so I don’t attract rodents (varmints and vermin, as it were). I was a little late getting out this morning, but when I opened the back door to carry food out, I spooked that last thin black and white cat out of the shelter. I’m glad someone is using it, and I figured she’d be back eventually but I still felt bad. I put the food down and watched through the window. She came back and spent several minutes peeking over the edge of the deck before climbing back up. She didn’t eat, just sat in front of the shelter, looking in. And. . .
Darn! Two little kittens were looking back at her! She had moved kittens into the shelter overnight. They’re old enough to toddle but not steadily. Just what I needed, and cold, wet weather coming.
This heated pad covers half the floor of the shelter, so cats can move away from the heat if needed. Four black and white. One grey and white. I’m absolutely positive the older grey and white one is this mom’s kitten from a previous litter this year. Anyone in the Dallas area want a winter kitten?
So now what do I do about the other cats? Order another expensive shelter? How do I feed them all without scaring mom away? And yes, I did order a second shelter. And I’ve opened the door to the workshop building and put down fleece blankets. I’m hoping for the best.
This is an open thread. All topics are welcome. A little Glenfiddich would be welcome now, too.
