There is nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.
It’s Been Too Long – catching up
I love to write blog posts. It doesn’t seem like it though, does it? I don’t get them done because it takes me too long. I want to put in pictures I can’t find. I don’t like to write a lot because I think blogs should be entertaining and informative but not wordy. When I look at blogs I really like pictures and when I see long, wordy paragraphs and no pictures, I move on. Here is my new attempt to write a blog post, because I am sure there are things you want to know…right? So maybe a short daily post, we will give it a try. April 7, 2022
Let me tell you about Whiskers. I leave food out for the neighborhood cats on my porch. I even have small heated huts too. Nothing makes me happier when I see them use the huts, there are two. Whiskers started coming around every morning and evening about a year and a half ago. I would not see him during the day, he would leave like he went to work and then come back around dusk. He had been neutered by animal care because he had a clipped ear so I was glad about that, no more making little kitties. So we became friends and I would pet him, and eventually I could pick him up, but he wouldn’t stay but 30 seconds at the most. So he made his way into my heart and Toms too. As you can tell he made it into a painting. We would look for him and would be worried if he wasn’t around for a couple days. But he would eventually show again. We kicked around putting a cat cam on him because we always wondered if he had another family. But decided he wouldn’t put up with that. Once in the winter there was a 12 inch snowfall and I didn’t see him for a week but then here he came trotting up the driveway when he found a way around the snow. He was the toughest cat we knew. It would be 14 degrees out and he would not go into the heated hut, he would sit on our porch chairs. Finally I put one of the heated pads on the porch chair and he accepted that. He didn’t accept too many other cats to eat at the bowl when he was around, but there was one little tiger kitty that they would show up together. They would eat together, chase each other and when it was warm they would cat around at night. When it was cold she would go in the hut and he would sleep on the heated pad. She was a very skittish cat and I was never able to touch her. I could talk to her and she would roll around, and wait for the food bowl to be filled, but never get close. Finally, this winter we were going to have a big snowfall and I snatched him up and put him in our garage, we were tired of worrying about him. After a couple of weeks I had a plan to send one of our other cats to live at our sons house. One that was very attached to Kevin and introduce Whiskers into our house. I took him to the vet and they checked him out and tested his blood and he ended up being FIV positive. That means that he cannot live with us and our other cats. It comes from getting a bite from an infected cat, so he has to live in a one cat household. Change of plans, he is going to live with our sons. The stress of change of environment maybe brought on a urinary tract infection for him, so back he came, back to the vet for antibiotics (a shot) and pain meds. Took him back when he was better because I told him he will have a whole house to wander and windows to look out of to watch the birds. Warmth and plenty of food. Two weeks later the UTI returned, we got different antibiotic of which I gave to him every day and pain meds, we were so concerned we were not going to bring him out of it, especially with FIV. But we did it, and I am happy to report that he is back at the boys house living the good life. He is playing with toys, sleeping on the beds and the couch, watching the birds. He will always be on special food but he is worth it. Oh and Little Kitty comes around and eats, probably every night. She lets me talk to her, but never too close. We also have a look alike Whiskers (possibly a brother) another cat that has a diamond marking on his nose, a yellow striped cat too. They all stop by at certain times of the night. The food bowl is usually almost empty. I keep them in a big heated dish so the food doesn’t freeze and they also have a heated water bowl too. Sometimes I have caught two raccoons feasting and I shoo them on their way. Sometimes I have to shoo them twice because they will go in the bushes and peek out when they think I have gone inside, then I clap at them and tell them to move on. They pick it clean, pick up the plastic food bowls and move them to get to the stray pieces of food and discard them on the porch somewhere. No social graces with them.
