Last week I started hearing a cat outside crying,  not yowling, but crying, on and off for several days.  It sounded pitiful…I know most of the neighbors’ cats and have never heard them make THAT kind of sound.  It tore at my heart is was so pathetic.

I figured someone might be hanging around and be hungry, so I started putting a bowl of eats and water out every night.  It’s been always gone by 10pm before bedtime. The third night I watched out the window to see who ate it.

Ha, this red guy shown above came to the porch steps, but the neighbor’s huge, overfed gray cat was already chowing down the eats on the porch.

Yesterday I got the idea to put food out in the morning around 10am, BINGO, these 2 cats came to my calls of “kitty kitty”.  The tiger won’t let the orange guy eat, so today I fed the tiger at the garage entrance and the orange guy on the back porch.  They both sleep upstairs in the garage, we have kitty-cozy-converted-foam-coolers for them.

Now I know who was howling, one of these guys.  Because I haven’t heard a peep since I’ve started feeding them.  Obviously they’ve been outside for a long time, their fur is heavy, winter hardy.  But they’re un-neutered, so that will be priority one.   After they get names.

The orange guy must have belonged to someone, he’s not afraid of me too much, the tabby guy is very skittish, so what’s his background is a guess.  Dumped ages ago by someone who abused him?  Born to a feral mom?  Don’t know.

We live in a small town, there are several people who feed abandoned cats.  Some, like me and my mom, will save up and have as many ‘fixed’ as we can.  Then they either stay outside and we care for them or if they prefer, they move inside.

So on my agenda very soon is to get listings going on ebay/etsy to save for medical bills for these two kitties.  And get them used to the trap so when our vet gets back from Florida, we can trap them one at a time and see to their neutering and shots.

My husband will want to have me locked up…….

How’s that?

Here’s a photo of a cat we rescued yesterday morning. Actually, he looks a lot better in these photos, taken late yesterday – after he had eaten several meals. His eyes were so sunk in you could see the inside of his eye sockets, they’re much better already, even in these photos.

He was hanging around a neighborhood in the next town, since last summer and a woman called to tell me she got him inside. She had seen him for months and last week decided to start feeding him…why she waited I don’t understand…anyway, we went and picked him up. Last night was an awful night, cold, sleeting and wind gusts over 60 miles an hour. I shudder to think of him out on that….

He’s the poorliest cat I’ve ever seen, just skin and bones. He’s been abused in the past, evidence of broken ribs, head damage, his right eye is damaged and his tail has recently been broken. But he’s so gentle and he’s eating well, using his litter box and his bladder and bowels seem to work okay.

So we took him to the veterinarian’s today and Dr. Ken said “Larry” -that’s what my husband calls him- is an old guy who’s had a very hard life. He’s got cataracts, he’s deaf, got arthritis and an upper respiratory infection but he’s so gentle and he has the will to live. So we’ll give him plenty of TLC, soft foods (his teeth are almost non-existent) -home made- proper vitamins, his round of antibiotics and we’ll see how he does. Ken said his tail will probably mend and be fine. As he is, Larry is in no shape to have tail surgery anyway, so we’ll have to wait and see.

He spent the day washing up his dirty face and body and eating and sleeping. And sitting on our laps, purring and smiling. And using his litter box. Also sitting on his blanket looking out the window.

He’ll live out his life, however long it may be, in warmth and comfort with a full belly and lots of love. And some occasional catnip.

We’ll keep him in quarantine for a while, at least a week, then carefully introduce him to the rest of the family. Or maybe he’ll be our ‘upstairs’ cat.

I’ll be posting on Larry’s progress, with photos, so stop back and see how he’s doing.

This lovely tortie was abandoned at my mom’s house last winter.

She was so scared, obviously not feral but very afraid of people.  Ma feeds the strays and we didn’t realize Sweetie was pregnant.  This Spring she had 2 kittens under Ma’s back steps, long story-more on that later, both kittens are 5 months old and inside now.

Well, Sweetie got pregnant again before we could trap her.  And as she got bigger and bigger, I told Ma we had to get her inside.

So Ma put food down and moved the dish indoors, leaving the door open.  After less than 2 weeks of this, Sweetie was coming in and walking around, quite comfy.  Ma just shut the door.  That was a little over 2 week ago.

Yesterday Ma called and said that she hadn’t seen Sweetie in s few hours, she wondered what she was doing.  As we talked, I heard a kitten cry in the background.  Ma is 91 and pretty deaf, she thought it was birds outside.

Anyway, I went to Ma’s house in record time and found Sweetie in a box under the bed, with 5 wet kittens.  Sweetie let me pet her, she was very proud and relaxed.  I stopped by later that day and took some photos, Sweetie wasn’t bothered by it.  I would have stopped after one if she was nervous.

So, we now have 5 really fresh kittens, 2 five month old kittens and their mom.  Gotta get making some money for all the vet bills and spaying and neutering to come.  Last time we had newborn kittens was 14 years ago when we took in a cat we didn’t know was pregnant.  We still have one of those babies.

So, here’s the new family: black male, calico female, tiger female, 2 orange males, one has a really stubborn jaw line, that’s how we can tell them apart for now.