Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Just Another Manic Monday

It was a beautiful morning yesterday.  This weekend, Nik deliberately mowed around the wild poppies that have bloomed in the yard.


Muji and I took our walk by the sea, and had the camera along in case we saw any cats. And I thought you might like to see a few of our friends from the perspective of the seafront road. 

This is some of the land between the park and the apartments, two of our feeding stations.  We found Moonpie following Baby back to the apartments.  Baby is in the shadows right beneath the umbrella in this shot.



A little farther down, passing the park, we found  Mustafa (I think!)  lazing in a tree, and Greyboy resting on the pavement beneath him.  This was very unusual because we have never seen Mustafa at the park, only at the apartments.  (You may remember we just neutered Mustafa.)



We walked down to the marina, turned back, and on our way home we saw Blabby lying beneath the shrubs where we recently started hiding some food, at the upper level of the park.





And passing by the lower level, we saw Mustafa and Greyboy had moved down from the concession to under another shady tree.


Farther on, here we are passing the apartments and we got a glimpse of Starlight's head.  She was bathing in the sun.





 As Muji and I got home, Charity, Flissy, and Theo were the first to greet us.

Charity greets me while Muji heads for the water bowl for a much needed drink.

Flissy

and Theo.  We don't call him Theo "Underfoot" for nothing.

Later Cobbles came by and had some gourmet with Jazzy, Morris, and Mandy.  Jazzy is getting better and able to eat again!  Yea!  Cobbles was so hungry, she was growling at my spoon; it would have been the perfect time to trap her, but she would have had to stay in the trap until the next morning, and that is too long. 

From left, Jazzy, Cobbles, Morris, and Mandy

At the park after dark, near where Strike hangs out (BTW we haven't seen Strike for over a week, and we are assuming she has delivered - we just pray she's OK), I spotted Bugsy for the first time since we had him altered - a relief because we were getting worried about him.  We didn't know Bugsy at all, and we have found it really helps to establish even a minimal degree of trust with a feral cat before trapping or they are likely to fear people even more and/or you many never see them again.

Our first glimpse of Bugsy, right, since his trap and release; the cat on the left is new.  We haven't seen Strike on this slope in over a week.
The regular feedings help in preparation for that, and spending time with the cats helps even more. Sometimes I take my sketchbook and just sit with them for an hour. Or play with them. Trust and security develops that way.

Playing with Blabby on Sunday

Down below at the lower level, I was astonished to see Moonpie eating so close to Blabby and Greyboy.  I was starting to go all mushy and Walt Disney about it, and I  left them behind to go put some kibble out on the top level of the park, when Moonpie suddenly and aggressively went after Blabby and I lost it.  I chased him off down into the brush by the sea doing my best Rooster Cogburn and yelled, "Fill your hands you sonofabitch!"  He knew I meant business. 

Moonpie eating with the group made me lose my senses and think I could trust him

Later Gunther came and ate next to Petey, sometimes stealing off Petey's plate.

Gunther, right, eats next to Petey, left, when he wasn't stealing from her
Next, Starlight came.
Starlight on the right, Gunther on the left, likely thinking about stealing off her plate, too.
Starlight has been very needy lately.  She hasn't delivered yet and she seems more desperate on every visit for me not to leave.  I was so close to bringing her home with me last night.  Upon petting her I have discovered she has deep bite and scratch marks on her head and neck, and I know she has been getting a hard time from the cats up at the apartments, or she wouldn't be down at the park so much.

Should we bring her home? Where would we put her? Bette has one bedroom and Cindy is in the other.  We can't put her outside; we are even closer to the seafront road than the park is.  Not to mention, it's often a wild world in our neighborhood, too. 

The last to arrive was new mom Baby.

Baby ate and ran, if she could have gotten it to go, I think she would have

On the way home I stopped at Sammy's and was happy to see Tweets. 


New mother Tweets having a sip of water

When I got home I saw the kibble bowl by the front door surrounded by escaped kibble bits, and I knew Sylvia was there.  Sylvia knows I mix more expensive kibble in with the lesser expensive and she sorts through to find the choicer bits and tosses the others out of the bowl.  : /  Oh, Sylvia.  :)

I soon discovered I was right, because she then showed her sweet and always optimistic face, and insisted on drinking out of the watering can instead of the water bowl, and of course I had to fill it for her. : / Go figure.  Oh, Sylvia!  :D

Sylvia exercises her cat perogative and chooses the watering can over the water bowl to drink from
I stopped to play with Mandy a bit.



Yes, there were cats, cats, so many cats!  And I hadn't even walked in the house yet where I knew there were 14 more waiting for me!!

The day ended with a late night visit from Amber, who you may remember has been receiving endless harrassment from the other cats lately, and has been a nervous wreck.  I have seen her crossing the seafront road many times and it concerns me so much.  She has been running over to the fields across the street to escape the other cats in the neighborhood.  As I stroked her I saw she had been very recently injured on her side.  It looked like a fresh bite mark.  If I can find her tonight she is going to have to go into the vet. 

And that was my Monday.  It was just the start to another week in our lives with cats.  Every day we find them alive, or see one we haven't seen in a while, it's a good day. 


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