The Prodigal Daughter

Doesn't it just figure?  Finally, something blog-worthy happens, and I've been too busy living it to write about it until now.  The miracle we hoped for has happened.  Mittens has come home!  We had been checking the PetHarbor.com found cat listings every day (a wonderful resource, by the way, whether you've lost a pet, found a pet, or want to adopt one, and severely underpublicized in my opinion), and in early June, we saw a picture of Mittens at the Prince Georges County Shelter.  PG County is in Maryland, on the other side of DC from us.  She was undernourished and pregnant, but when we went to look at her, everybody who saw her and the pictures we brought agreed it was the same cat.  As if that weren't proof enough, she came right to the door of the cage and started demanding to know where I'd been all this time in the creaky-door miaou that she uses when she's not happy.  When we opened the cage door, she came straight into my arms and settled in.  When I saw that her whiskers were ticked brown and white, I was absolutely certain.

We brought her home on Saturday and took her to the vet on Monday.  Other than being undernourished and pregnant, he gave her a clean bill of health, no FLV, no FIV, no parasites, nothing that we had feared might befall her on her own.

On Father's Day, June 18, she had her kittens.  There were six, but one of them died on the next day.  The other five are thriving, and their eyes are beginning to open.  There are two black kittens, two grey-and-white ones, and one dark grey tabby.  Mittens is a very good momcat  to them all.  She is starting to put on weight of her own now;  her ribs and spine don't stick out any more, and her shoulder blades and hip bones don't stick up as much as they did when we found her.

The other cats' reactions to the kittens are as varied as the cats themselves.  Freddie took a look at them, saw that none of them looked Siamese, and looked at me as if to say, "Someone gave her the wrong kittens!  They're not Siamese!"  He's such a snob.  He's starting to accept them, but he's still not quite sure what they're going to do.  Romana looked at them and seemed to accept them, but as she walked away, she gave a little hiss as if to say, "Mine were cuter!"  Romana had had a litter before we met her.  Finn keeps going up to the queening box and looking at them and then walking away with a slightly disappointed air as he realizes they're not big enough to play tag with yet.  Puff just keeps coming in and looking at them as if she's trying to figure out what they are.

We still don't know how she got to PG County.  Our best guess is that someone picked her up after she calmed down from her mad dash and took her home with them.  Then when she went into heat, either she slipped out to find someone who could do something about it and got lost again, or else whoever had her couldn't stand the noise of a Siamese in heat (anyone who has heard one will understand, those who haven't don't know how lucky they are) and turned her out.  Either way, we're glad she's home. 

The World's Worst Journal-Keeper

I think I must be the world's worst journal-keeper.  I write in this thing on average about once a month, even though things happen every day when you have cats.  The problem, of course, is that I'm too busy being in the moment to run off to the computer to write it down.  Recent developments include Finn getting the snip this week.  The vet said to keep him quiet the first night and that he would be normal by the next day.  In fact, he said that it was likely he'd still be woozy from the painkillers.  However, Finn woozy from anesthesia and painkillers doesn't seem that different from Finn wide awake.  Within a few minutes of getting him home, he had visited every food dish in the place and was playing Meezer Tag with Cocoa.

There's still no news of Mittens, although we are still putting food out for the strays and have seen a few of them in action.  However, we've also started getting raccoons at the feeding station.  We had an automatic feeder out there full of dry food, and they knocked the top half off and made off with the top half.  The next day, we put the remaining dry food out in a large plastic dish, and that night the raccoons made off with that!  We now have the dry food in a metal dish, and so far they have not been able to carry that one away.  If only we could be sure that Mittens is one of the strays we're feeding, though!

The cats are enjoying the Spring though.  We've started getting a wider variety of birds for them to watch.  The red-bellied woodpecker is back, and we've started seeing robins.  And today, I saw a tufted titmouse and a slate junco.  I haven't seen those two in over a year.

We've also started training Finn to leash and harness.  He still loves to run everywhere, which means I get plenty of exercise trying to keep up with him.  We tried putting a harness on Cocoa, but she went ballistic until we took it off her.  Romana takes well enough to the leash and harness, but she doesn't care much for being outside.  So for the moment, we are only taking the boys out.

However, as it's nearly feeding time, I suppose I should sign off for now.  Until next time (whenever that is)!

A Lazy Saturday Evening

Well, I'm just sitting on the couch while all the cats are napping.  Cocoa has just woken up next to me and is washing her face, Finn is asleep on the top level of the cat tree, and Freddie is asleep on the back of the Green Chair.  Romana is asleep probably on Auntie Di's bed, or in the closet.  The rain has turned to snow.  I hope the stray moggies will be OK.  I need to put some food out for them soon.

Finnie has been having some stomach issues and had to go to the vet today.  The vet gave him some new medicine and told me to take up his food for 12 hours (Finn's, not the vet's).  So far, he seems to be handling it OK.  He hasn't actually eaten since about 12:30 or 1:00, so we can probably put some food down for him before we go to bed (assuming Target doesn't close early).  The others will get a special treat; they'll get to eat their supper on the counter where Finn can't reach!

Yesterday, I went to Petco to get more dry food for both my indoor and outdoor cats; and while I was there, I talked to a lady from AdvoCats, who said she will help get a group together to do a trap-neuter-return operation here at Idylwood Village West.  I'm e-mailing her Monday (per her request) to find out what I need to do.  We'll probably have to get permission from the management, and I expect we'll trap a few cats who actually have homes, because several of the moggies I've seen at the feeding station look pretty well cared for.  So either they belong to someone who lets them run loose, or they have several benefactors!  So far, we have seen a couple of black-and-white cats, a tortie, a solid black with white paws, a solid grey, and a grey tabby, but no Siamese.  Mittens remains missing, and I hope she's all right.  I don't like the idea of her being out in the snow.  If she's been taken in somewhere, I wish we could find out who has her.  Of course, I'd then have to go and get her back, and that could lead to a fight.

Going Home

Well, tomorrow morning I go home.  I told Freddie this year I'd be home on his birthday!  I've been gone almost 10 days, and I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing all my little furry children.  If only Mittens would come home, too!  I am so tired right now that I can hardly type.  I'm trying my best not to come down out of Show mode until I get home, because I know that once I do, I'll crash completely.  Still, I have the whole next week to sleep, do laundry, and earn the cats' forgiveness.

It was a good show this year.  I didn't get to go out on the Show floor at all this year because Lisa was having balancing issues, which I usually ended up having to research as I ran her tapes because she didn't have power to run her calculator.  Next year, I'm going to suggest we pack along some batteries!  Still, Exhibitor Reg. ran as smoothly as I've ever seen it do, if not more so.  I kept looking up into the rafters for the other shoe.

Have Yourself a Meezer Little Christmas

Mittens is still missing.  Auntie Di says that we may have to wait for Spring when it's warm enough to sit out all night again to catch her.

In the course of looking for Mittens, we found two Meezer Mixes that needed homes and adopted them.  Cocoa is a seal-point daughter of a Meezer tom and a black, feral queen.  She doesn't like to be picked up or carried around, but she will come and sit by us on the couch and let us pet her.

Finn mac Cool is a seal-point with green eyes.  He has an upper respiratory infection for which he is on a new set of drugs and seems to be doing much better.  He's about 4 months old.  Once he started eating and perking up again, he has done wonders for the household.  Before he came, Cocoa spent most of her time in her room, and Fred was getting decidedly lazy except for wanting to go out.  Now they both play Meezer Tag with Finn, Fred doesn't fuss so much to be let out, and Cocoa has gotten more social.

We have two little Christmas trees in pots, one I bought at Target that doesn't have anything on it, and the other is a little decorated pine that my Mom sent me.  It has little red & white glass balls on it and little white flocked bears filled with styrofoam.  Within about 10 minutes of that little tree being brought into the house, Cocoa had one of the bears off and chewed its little head off!

Next year should be a better Christmas because I won't have Convention coming right on its heels.  Right now the trees are the closest we have to decorating the house because we've both been so busy.

One Still Missing and a New Kitten

Mittens is still missing after six weeks.  We've set out food and set up a little "kitty house" made of a microwave oven box taped shut with a door cut in the side, wrapped the whole thing in an old sleeping bag and lined it with "purr pads" and old towels.  I can't tell if anyone has used it, but the local strays are devouring the food.  Diane and I sat out in the car watching for several nights and saw about half-a-dozen different cats, but no Mittens.

Meanwhile, we have adopeted a 6-month-old Meezer mix from Four Paws.  I brought her home on Wednesday night, and she has spent most of the time hiding under the daybed except when Diane or I pull her out to try to socialize her.  Her mother is feral, and her father is a Siamese tom whose people don't keep him inside.  The people who fostered her called her Cocoa.  We were going to change the name, but then one of us started calling her Cocoa-Nut, and it seems to have stuck.  She's a beautiful kitty, but very shy, and Freddie and Romana both hissed at her, so when we're not actively with her, she lives in the middle room with the door closed.  The people at Four Paws said it might be a couple of weeks before she starts to hang out with us of her own accord.  I guess we'll just have to be patient with her, though it's not a strong suit for either of us.

I wish Mittens would come home.  There's a possibility someone has found her and decided to keep her.  If so, we'll have to track them down and take her back.

I WANT MY FRINKIN' MITTENS!!!!!!

Day 14

My Mittens is still missing.  We have posters up all over the area, two cat traps, we go out looking, but still no Mittens.  Yesterday, someone who saw me checking one of the traps said he had seen her nearby at 3:30 that morning.  I told him if he sees her again to call me, no matter what time it is.  Other people have seen her peeking into windows at a nearby complex we didn't think she could get to because there's a fence.

Last night, one of our traps caught a black-and-white tuxedo cat, and he wasn't half pissed!  He was using the most disgraceful language and shredding the newspapers I'd put on the bottom of the trap.  When I opened the trap, he was off like a shot!

I wish Mittens would come home.  I WANT MY FRINKIN' KITTEN BACK!