Frankenmel <frankenmel@aol.comdont> quoth:

Yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!

Priscilla

FurPaw <furpawnewsdog@comcast.net> quoth:

Nah, I've already got three indoor cats, and that's the limit for social
reasons. Sebbie (number 3) sometimes stretches the envelope of the social
structure as it is.

My mother claims that my stuff with the ferals is my way of having more
than three cats without having to bring them inside. She's right in some
respects, but I do think of them as independent operators, while I think
of my indoor cats as my furkids.

I will admit to dreams of someday being allowed to touch Queen Mab or
Andy. They're the boldest of the lot, and I'm trying to make progress by
staying out after I take the food out. They'll eat while I'm sitting on
the steps while the others won't come out of hiding (or at least partial
hiding) until I go in. Andy has been caught sitting on the patio
looking up at my bedroom window, waiting for me to appear in the morning
and say "Hi! I'll be right down!"

This morning, I looked out while putting on my socks and shoes, and saw
Spot and Birdie (mother and daughter, Queen Mab's sister and niece)
playing and stalking in the knotweed while the sun shone and reflected off
raindrops still on the vegetation after last night's downpour. What a
lovely sight!

Priscilla, ****er

Cheryl <jlh@nospampetitmorte.net> quoth:


I'm in Boston, Mass, and last winter it was brutal here. That's when I
got the heating pad, although last year I didn't get my act together other
than to put it in a succession of heavy cardboard boxes. The set-up this
year vastly exceeds last year's. Last winter the Black family spent their
indoor time inside the back wall of my neighbor's house, and I know they
want them out, so I'm hoping this splendid condo will suit everyone's
needs.

Priscilla

Cathy Friedmann <clfr@adelphia.net> quoth:

Heh! I have to shovel around the water dish (heated birdbath top I keep
full of fresh water on the patio) anyway, so it's not that much more. I
do think I'll get a second snow shovel this winter, though, if it's snowy,
so I can keep one in front and one in back.

I do like going out after a snowfall and checking out all the different
kinds of tracks going up to the "watering hole," as I call the water dish.
:-)

I'm just a country girl at heart, addicted to city life.

Priscilla

Cheryl <jlh@nospampetitmorte.net> quoth:


Years ago, when I lived on Beacon Hill, I adopted a cat who had been
living outdoors in the Beacon Hill back gardens. He didn't become indoor
-only until I moved out of my first-floor apartment.

I can remember after a big snow (this might even have been the blizzard of
'78), letting him out my bedroom window and watching him walk along the
top of the snow for quite a distance before he decided it was nicer inside
and came back in.

Priscilla

Same with us. We have FIVE indoor cats,but we think of Winky and BoBo as sorta
ours also. We've had them neutered and made sure they've had shots.

Sharon........."One of the blessings of old friends is that you can afford to
be stupid with
them." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Yep. Pretty positive Frank got her. The landlady has been doing a lot of
pulling vines/painting,etc,so the area around the house Frank lived in is more
visible. I think we would have seen her by now.

I miss her though. We've known her for years. She's very sweet. I hope she
adjusts to her new neighborhood. He acted as though if she didn't like the
neighborhood,he'd bring her back,knowing we'd look out for her.


Sharon........."One of the blessings of old friends is that you can afford to
be stupid with
them." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Many winter mornings I see rabbit tracks going smack up the center of my
driveway. (The rabbits here seem to have a sense of symmetry. ;-} )
Sometimes a next-door neighbor & I see the resident rabbit(s) in the summer,
in our backyards, in the evenings. One spring there was a bunny - *so*
tiny; he did well, & we watched him grow up to be a great big rabbit.

I changed the clothesline over to the birdfeeder (poles of each use the same
concrete-reinforced hole in the back lawn) a couple of weekends ago, to
catch the migrators while passing through, & to lure the winter stay-ers.
Have enjoyed seeing a male Downy Woodpecker who's been showing up at the
feeder quite a lot, & saw a female one day, too. :-)

Cathy

--
"Staccato signals of constant information..."
("The Boy in the Bubble") Paul Simon

I've often wondered how it would be to bring in a full-grown feral,as far as
the litter box goes. The ferals we've adopted as indoor cats were kittens when
we brought them in. Is clawing an issue?


Sharon........."One of the blessings of old friends is that you can afford to
be stupid with
them." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

I should think the litter-box thing would resolve itself just fine. As for
clawing, you'd have to have *good* scratching posts, not those too-short
crappy things the pet stores sell.

Chakolate

--

On sadness:
The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or to frowst with a book by the fire,
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And to dig till you gently perspire.
--Rudyard Kipling