An Outdoor Excusion, In The Yard

A day or so ago I was out-of-doors with the cats; it was a balmy 77F, who could resist, I ask you!? Couped up all Winter with blowing snow, ice crystals and gale force winds; Ya, I love living on an island in the middle of the Atlantic with only a 9 mile slip of a bridge connecting us to the mainland of Canada!! 

I digress...  so, getting back to my 77F day with only a light warm breeze, I was happy enough to hang about the porch for awhile watching my cats and those of the neighbors, the cat colony cats. My cats have cat collar with bell so I hear them wherever they are, much to the shurgrin (if anyone knows how to spell this word, let me know) of the, shall we say, `quieter`cats. 


So here`s a pic of the colony cat area of where they hang out on a day like mentioned above:

All the long and relatively mild winter this is where they`ve been hold up. Though this particular day I could not find hide nor hair of even one, with the exception of the ones that always come round my place. 

Again, I digress... getting back to MY cats...

Winston was NOT keen on being outside, he`s quite convinced himself that the dogs are about and out to get him. In fact, they visit every two weeks or so but he remains convinced and is not at all keen to be out of doors.

He was barely outside two seconds... 

when I called him back! He`s looking a little distrustful of me now, but...

he came and went in through the porch door. 

Honesty!

Catspaw

Cat Collar With Bell Antics

Since I am planning to get some cat collars with bells for my cats this spring, if it ever comes, I have a few recent pics to share on their recent antics... 

What is it with cats and sunshine? Can you see all four of my cats?
Emerald is the one actually 'in' the sunshine on almost the only day that we had sun and blue sky. It was great, during these two days most of the snow melted and the promise of Spring was in the air. I live on an island in the Atlantic so I know better than to trust that!

Story Alert! - I had to kick Winston outside on our last day of decent spring weather...
He's checking for dogs.

A week ago a pair of dogs from up the road 'visited'. Winston didn't care to get further acquainted so he high-tailed it into the shed on the dairy and flatly refused to come out, even after the dogs left. That meant my hubby had to go looking for him and that's the only reason he came in. Since then, Winny hasn't wanted to venture outdoors. CATS!

I think Emerald is smiling here, but I can't be sure. She could just be miffed to wake from her nap to find a camera in her face!

Now this is Prime!!
This improvised cat tree has been here a month and its the first time Sassy has ventured onto it - it met with her approval.


The light behind her is the full moon.

Here you can appreciate the reason why, in medieval times, people believed that cats were reciprocals for devils. Check out Molly's eyes! If you were totally uneducated, lived in squaller and rampant poverty and were only able to hear God's word in Latin; how would you react if this suddenly jumped on your window sill?


Isn't education and science a wonderful thing!


Catspaw

Sailor and the Ruined Castle, Con't

For reasons Sailor didn't understand, he was reluctant to go any further. He didn't like that he heard no bird call and the fish, if there were any, were silent. Although he could detect no threat in the air the whole place made him feel uncomfortable. Finally after much deliberation he crept forward and hastily reached the other side. Sailor headed up the slope but lingered at the fence, sniffing it for any sign that another animal had past this way; nothing. It was as before, no living thing had left its scent and yet he perceived no danger, just stillness and solitude. Now the remnant of the once great tower and wall presented itself before him but he knew of another in and with the awareness that he was indeed alone here, Sailor no longer hesitated to move toward the castle.

The Mysterious Ruined Castle

Catspaw

A Cat's Prayer

I am very sensitive to animals and I never have really understood the reason until today. Everything the Lord made in creation reflects His honor but because we don't recognize God in our lives we don't see His hand in creation. When we dishonor animals and creation we dishonor, not only our Creator and Savior but ourselves. When we debase any part of the earth, we debase ourselves. However there are some pockets of God's creation, like animals because of their innocence, that remain untarnished by us and its these that some of us are sensitive to.

The growing mind, filled with the love of Jesus, searches creation for the message: God the Creator be praised!  Because of our spiritual and natural gifts each of us is able to see and hear them in particular areas more than in others. For me, its animals. And we are enabled to take this creation material and identify it, shape it, reconfigure it or in other ways use it so that God is further glorified. The carpenter works with wood; the physician listens to the body; the musician shapes sounds; the educator trains youth; the researcher analyzes, innovates and implements with the elements of the universe. We develop our minds for these tasks and rejoice as we do them for all that God is revealing to us out of His loving and forgiving heart.

What is your toughest decision today?  Pray over it and search God's word for advice. Its there for the accepting.

Catspaw

A Readers Narration

A visitor to my blog told me this story and I wanted to share it with you, verbatim:

Quote: “I don't really have much of a story, we had a white color mini poodle who died then we got three cats from the SPCA . :) We got a Maine-Coon that was about 10 years old, she seemed lonely. :)
So we got a Tux Boy that was only about 1 year old but he was too much energy for the Maine-Coon :)
And then we got a several month old ginger Tabby to play with the Tux as he is very high energy. :)
Our Tux cat is like a dog, he is smart and he nods his head at you to say hello. :) He always gives you a double head nod as a way to say hi. :) It's funny, as he's like a person since people often nod too. :)” End Quote

I decided to see if I could find some pictures of a Maine-Coon and a Tux Boy, here's what I came up with. A Tux is a Tuxedo cat and I didn't realize it but I believe Molly and Boo were Tux's! Go figure, the things you learn huh! 

Pictures of Maine Coons

Pictures of Tuxedo cats

Picture of Boo, the baby I lost just last year was definitely a Tux Cat!

Molly, Tux Cat!

Catspaw

Its A Molly-Sneak!

I can always tell when Molly is bored, she picks up and plays with the blue plastic ring from a peanut butter jar, happily yowling and chattering to herself while racing after it, getting it lost under the mini carpet in the kitchen or tossing it in the air. 
Other times she amuses herself sneaking up on an unsuspecting Sassy. Its funny to watch as she stealthily picks her time to give Sassy a 'what for' swat and waits to the predictable reaction. 

Molly's stealthy sneak on Sassy...

Sassy's predictable snarl and yip reaction

...

...leads to their mutual distrust of each other.

Life is never boring living with 4 cats! 

Catspaw

Introducing Zoomy a.k.a. Moggy

I got the story of Mr Sneakers and Moggy from friends of ours but was not informed of the cat's 'real' name, now so enlightened I will share it with my readers, in:

Mr Sneakers, the Newfoundland Mouse Meets Moggy... 

Mr Sneakers actually met Zoomy. I thought I'd better correct this oversight as I met Zoomy today at my friends place. 

Introducing Zoomy... one of the featured characters in the story.

Zoomy a.k.a. Moggy

Please let me know if you liked the story of Mr Sneakers and Zoomy as there could well be a sequel or two. 






Catspaw

Mr Sneakers, the Newfoundland Mouse, meets Moggy

Mr Sneakers had free run of the house when the human wasn't looking of course. He'd been silly enough to be seen the last time when he had paused from his mad dash about the place to clean his paws and she spotted him, commenting to her friend that he was cute she dubbed him: Mr Sneakers.
Miss Z’s confidant warned that where there was one, others would follow. How do they know these things? After that the conversation turned frightful; the companion suggested a CAT and knew a neighbor who had one to spare. ‘No’ came the answer, then she'd have to look after kitty!
When Mrs X visited again a week later, she found Miss Z hiding little traps all over the house. A few in the basement, a couple upstairs, several in the attic. Mr Sneaker found them all and cautioned is mates to avoid them.

“What on earth...” stammered Mrs X.

A troupe of mice were rampaging full tilt across the attic floor.

“Oh, state the obvious.” Miss Z remarked at the doleful expression of her cohort. “The traps are humane and I’m sure to collect them all and put them back outside where they belong very soon now.”

Looking doubtful, Mrs X suggested again that a small furred animal was the answer to the herd now amassing in the attic and mumbled again, ‘Where there was one...’

A loud knock came to the door and Miss Z responded. ‘Hello to the neighbor’, at least it would have been if he hadn’t brought Moggy with him. As it was cold outside and he couldn’t very well stand in the doorway allowing a draft to invade so she shooed him in.

“I heard you had mice so I brought Mog over to help out, he’s an awful good mouser.”

Ears attentive to the small scuttling coming from overhead, Moggy hit the floor and bounded straight up the stairs in a flash. Silence ensued. The three in the living room followed the sound of the creaking floor boards as the rodents were hunted. The wait seemed interminable until that wily tabby came slinking down into the room again as if nothing had happened. Indeed, there was some confusion as to whether anything was amiss in the attic so Mr. Neighbor volunteered to take a peek for the sake of the ladies wits. Cautiously he crept the narrow stairwell that led to the dimly lit chamber above and hesitated at the top. In the distance, toward the back of the alcove, an army of dormice were gathered. There seemed to be at least ten. Mr Neighbor duly informed the ladies.

Mr Neighbor positively insisted to Miss Z that it was absolutely no trouble at all for him to part with Moggy, then he was gone. Mrs X smiled in satisfaction.

After that Moggy was always about the house hunting Mr Sneaker and his accomplices; the tabby had a habit of lurking that would startle Miss Z every time she walked into a room. It was a deadly game of old fashioned cat and mouse but Mr Sneakers was clever; when the cat was searching the attic, he would led them into the basement and when Mog padded into the furnace room, the gang would sprint to the upper story. This continued, to the discomfiture of Miss Z, for over a week until she could not tell where the two parties actually were and at times both mice and cat seemed very confused themselves. Then one afternoon a series of wild little squeaks resounded from the cellar.

Miss Z took an awful start at the unexpected sound, hurried to the stair and snapped on the light. As she carefully descended Mog was right behind her tiptoeing all the way. There, in the corner, where she had left two open traps were the mice. Five in each humane trap, very agitated and jumping at the sides. They quieted at the stealthy approach of Moggy.

Miss Z stooped and raising the cages remarked, “Well, that’s that then. Outside you go.” And outside they went.

That very day Miss Z proudly announced to both Mr Neighbor and Mrs X when they came by to check on the situation, that the little rodents were decamped from her home. Moggy boastfully entwined all their legs as they listened intently to Miss Z’s telling of her story. She gave the impression that both factions had become baffled concerning who was where in the house in their efforts to either avoid altogether or to catch and eat; Miss Z summed up her tail expressing her sentiment that Mr Sneaker had become so confused that he led the rest to enter the traps by mistake to the happy conclusion of the whole episode.

Catspaw

Disclaimer to the Coming Story

Mr Sneakers, the Newfoundland Mouse, meets Moggy is based on a true story, with permission to share it with my faithful readers. 
The names and personalities have been changed to protect the innocent.
No mice were harmed in the telling of this story. 


Story to be posted January 31st. Please come back, enjoy the story and leave a comment. 

Catspaw

And Then Came…

And then came… Winston. Once again Sassy and this time Molly graced us with little ones. Now there were eight kittens and three cats in our family. Emmy was curious about them but highly concerned lest they take the attention away from her. I assured her this would not happen and she was happy, though she remained suspicious of them until they grew older and she realized, they were her personal animated ‘toys’. She was never too rough with them as they made a good job of nipping her if she did.  

I had found homes for them on one of the more popular classifieds engines online and as each one found a home, I found I had one left, a little tabby male with a darling personality. Compared to the three females he is mild and calm and half the time couldn’t figure out what all the ruckus is about with the sparing between Molly and Sassy. Winston is Molly’s baby; it seemed that people wanted females instead of males so we kept him for ourselves.

He’s a beautifully colored dark stripped tabby with a line of color that extends under his chin making him look as if he’s wearing a white bib. He is the calmest of the four and rarely gets excited about much, being more cautious about new things whereas Emmy will dive right in, regardless of the consequences. 

Being of an age now to be aggressive in play, a fact Emerald distinctly dislikes since she can be somewhat of a bully at times, their play can get quite yowly at times. Winny is strictly an indoor cat at this time, the one time he did venture outside he wasn’t impressed; he’s decided it has to be the right temperature for him to grace the world with his presence. He prefers to look out the window instead.   

Now that I have introduced them all, the intention of this blog is to not only share cat stories but to endeavor to offer other information from my own personal experiences with these unique animals and share them with my readers. In upcoming articles I will write about practical things like how to write successful ads that get immediate results when finding homes for kittens and cats, especially online; naturopathy that I have used for cat health and well-being, raising kittens, saving strays and throwaways; how to help farm and feral cats.  

I hope you will stay tuned for these upcoming articles, stories, quotes, ideas, names and even a cat food or treat recipe or two. Thank you for stopping by. 

Catspaw

As It Happened,

As it happened, Boo’s death coincided with Sassy’s birth of a single calico kitten. We christened her Emerald because we were moving to a hamlet of that name within a few weeks. Molly seemed lost without Boo, she’d wander the house and basement calling for him; she searched outside and Sassy would join her going to all the places Boo usually went. My husband and I weren’t the only ones mourning the loss of our dear friend. It was part of the reason we decided to keep Sassy’s baby, as a balm for all of us and in remembrance of Boo. 

Now older and wiser, Emerald lives in a world of her own where she, exclusively, rules and everyone else is her servant! A beautiful creature with semi long fur in calico colors, she spends her time preening and demanding treats. Highly competitive, she has to get her treats first because she will steal them from the others. Every morning begins the same with Emmy up on her hind legs, almost dancing to grab the treat bag out of my hands with her paws. Like Molly, she is very clever at getting what she wants. She uses her paws, usually with claws out, to steal food from dishes, hands and to gingerly pull treats away from the others.

Since the move she’s gotten used to going outside but demands re-entrance by getting up on her hind legs and in Grand fashion, furiously paws the outside of the patio door. She’s aggressive when she plays and is always the first to do everything. Though she doesn’t like to be picked up and cuddled unless it’s her choosing, the morning or evening crazies find her terrorizing the entire household while everyone tries to stay out of her way. Frequently she has almost successfully gone for a headlong nosedive down the narrow basement stairs. I swear there are invisible brakes on that cat!

Catspaw