Binky and Vince

I had to share this photo of Binky and his little friend, Vince (sleeping). Vince is one of the feral kittens we captured last summer. He has gone from being completely wild (His folder at the vet's office was marked "DANGEROUS.") to being the most affectionate cat we’ve ever had. He loves to cuddle with us and all the other cats. Tony, Vince’s brother, is taking a bit longer to tame but he is making progress. He doesn’t exactly love being held (like Vince!) but he tolerates it. He does enjoy a good belly rub – with much purring and kneading of paws in the air. And he gets along great with the other cats.

It makes me sad to think of all the potentially great pets that are destroyed because shelters don’t have the necessary resources or personnel to work with them.

“Nothing cures like time and love.” Laura Nyro

Cat Condo with Screened Porch…

Here is the temporary home for our new mom and babies. It’s a very old, reinforced screenhouse set back in the woods with a small shed attached. The shed is insulated and has a heater for the cold weather and a fan in the summer. The cats can go between the screenhouse and shed via a cat flap. As soon as we opened up their playpen (which we carried into the screenhouse, yesterday, they all ran into the shed to hide. The “floor” of the screenhouse is nice, new sand, but we had placed a small cardboard litterbox in the playpen for them. This afternoon, the little black kitten ran out of the shed and into his playpen to use the litterbox. How cute is that? By the way, the litter we are using is Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract. That is darned good stuff!

OH NOEZ! MOAR KITTEHS!

For the past few weeks, we’ve been feeding a feral cat and her two kittens. They were living in a sheltered area of the woods behind the house. Every morning and evening they would come into the yard for their breakfast and dinner. I had been sitting outside, reading, in an attempt to acclimate them to my presence, but they still remained very frightened and wary. We realized that in order to catch them, we’d have to come up with a gentle, but cunning plan. DH figured out a way to attach a cat flap to a large metal playpen and we started putting their food in it so they would get used to it. Then, in a stroke of pure genius, he rigged the flap so that it would close (and stay closed) simply by pulling a string from the kitchen window. This morning, when all three were having their salmon in the playpen, we got ‘em! We slid long poles through the metal at the top so we could safely transport the entire cage, "Ark of the Covenant" style!

We think the babies are about eight weeks old and are probably their mommy’s first litter. They are all completely wild so it’s going to take a lot of work to earn their confidence. I love cats but I do sometimes wonder why it seems to always be our responsibility to rescue them. And then I think of the words to a great song, “Treasure Island,” sung by Mary Black:

"O love is never easy
It's almost always out of your way
It's not the path of least resistance
It's not some words you get to say
It's a stream running up a mountain
It's a wave rolling out from the shore
Wish I could say I never felt that way before"


Pen with Cat Flap and String


Close-up of Flap


Nabbed!


Wooden Poles


Mommy


Babies