Monday, July 30, 2012

Meet "Mikey" Tyson

Remember this little guy?

"I used to bite"



Well, he has been living upstairs in the 2nd bedroom with Arsinoe and Tweets' kittens since the night he got back from the vets:

Arsinoe is in the little house with one of Tweets' two kittens, the other kitten is in front

Starlight and her kittens still live in the master bedroom, but we can open both bedroom doors now without concern, and they all can run around back and forth and have a very amusing kitten party.  When they need time out we just close the doors. 

Starlight


Starlight with Sophie and Cosmo


Mikey Tyson, the once feral biter, is now as sweet, cute, lovable, (and sometimes loud), as can be. 



Sweet


Cute

Lovable



 
(and sometimes Loud)



 Mikey

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Cats Are Waiting for A New Generation Of Better Human Beings - Artist Raul Gubert and His Cats

The Cats Are Waiting for a New Generation of Better Human Beings, by artist Raul Gubert,  copyright 2012

We are featuring some of artist's Raul Gubert's paintings today because we think they are deadly accurate.  From our experience we have come to understand that we do not have a cat problem in Cyprus. We have a people problem. We would say this is true the world over.  Every problem comes down to a people problem.

One thing we love about great Art is it keeps you honest.  A really great work gets under your skin and brings you face to face with your true self, the one sometimes you are running away from, or the one that has been lost as you go through the tedium of day to day living and forget what's important and become a kind of zombie.  When you are confronted with a truly great work of art,  you walk away from it different, changed, more in touch with your present self than you were before you viewed it.  If it is a truly great work, you will walk away from it more honest, but not always more happy.

That is the value of great art and that is why we build these little (or big) churches for it we call museums, because there is something sacred and religious about it - like the light of Christ reflects our true nature back to us, often making us want to run from ourselves, so does great art reflect back to us the current state of our souls.

Raul Gubert is an artist we met through FAA.  He is from Italy, but is currently residing in Ireland. We are proud to call him a friend.

Raul has the quality of work that stands out among the crowd and keeps us honest.  We believe one day we will see his work in museums.  Thank you for visiting our blog, Raul, thank you for caring about these cats you have never met, especially Zsa Zsa, and thank you for your encouragement.  Nik and I wish you much success. 

Art Prints




Photography Prints



Art Prints


Sell Art Online


Sell Art Online

What a Night - Looking for the Siblings

Last night we awoke to an ear splitting chorus of kitten mews and  yelping.  Our new little friend was outside in his carrier, isolated from the other cats because of his ringworm, awaiting his morning visit with George and Christina, our vets.  We have no idea who started the heavy metal chorus, but apparently this kitten has two, perhaps three or more, very tiny vocal siblings wandering the neighborhood looking for their mom.

The one with the teeth

It was so loud I was sure our neighbors would come out to complain. 

We could hear one of the kittens getting farther and farther down the road with his cries.  Another sounded like it was across the road.  As we went searching and unintentionally made noise with our big clumsy feet, they would become deathly quiet.  At one point, when we returned, we found one had made it to our yard, maybe because he was attracted to the mewing of his sibling in the carrier, and he had gone up under my car, somewhere in the engine or wheel well.


Kitten #2 was under here somewhere


We got food and a trap and pulled the crated sibling up close to the car.  We sat for ages.  Finally, how, we don't know, the sibling disappeared and we could then hear him at the maisonettes next door.  We have been trying to capture him/her ever since.  He is now the only one we can hear aside from our biting fighter in the crate.


We sat for ages

Tonight, we were creeping around the maisonettes with a flashlight totally trespassing, and we saw the sibling, and got it to eat some food, but we could not catch it.  It has wedged itself between two wooden fences.  Our best bet now is to gain its trust with food and keep going back hoping it will come to us.

Nik thinks he knows who the mother might have been.  He has not seen her since yesterday morning.  She lived around the maisonettes.  Obviously something has happened to her, or she would be with her young kittens and they wouldn't have scattered like this. I believe he has a picture of her, but right now he is getting some much needed sleep. 

As we sat outside last night with Sylvia and Amber, we had a visit from Sundance.  Today we had a visit from Big Van.

Sylvia kept us company last night and has been following us to the maisonettes


Right now I will leave you with  more  pictures of the kitten from yesterday.  We are able to handle him now.  A day with our vets, George and Christina,  seems to have done the trick, as he was handled all day.  Now he is rather docile and cries whenever we leave the side of his carrier.






Monday, July 23, 2012

More Than I Could Chew

I wish I had a picture for you of this one.  Nik took the camera today, so I will get one for you when he gets home from work.

Earlier this morning when out in the garden, I heard a tiny kitten crying.  Desperately yelping over and over, like they do when they are frightened or some such.  I checked all our cats inside and everyone was fine.  I thought it sounded like it was coming from inside the house next door, where a young family with three children is vacationing.  "Maybe they picked up a little stray kitten," I thought.  Later I saw them trying to get something out from under their car with a broom handle.  Thinking back, I don't think they were trying to be cruel.  I think they just needed to back their car out, so if there was a kitten under there, it was good of them to get it out before backing up.  But at that point I was still thinking that maybe their new pet stray kitten had gotten out of the house and crawled up under the car. 

But just now, hours later, I went to turn off the garden hose and I heard the same yelping begin and it was coming distinctly from our garden.  In fact it was super close to me.  I bent down to get nearer to the sound and sure enough in the corner of our garden behind a large blue garden pot hid a tiny pale orange kitten that was the color of Bette and Amber, and just a little smaller than Sophie was when we found her.  I reached down behind the large pot to pick it up, no easy task, and I learned the true meaning of feral.  This kitten is 100% curry phal.


pale orange like Bette

pale orange like Amber

and a little smaller than Sophie was


He/she (who had time to ask?), bit into me and would not let go.  I mean would not let go.  I sat there wondering how on earth I was going to detach this biting kitten from my tender epidermal.  And when it saw that it was getting nowhere with me, it just clamped down harder and began squeezing my skin, tendons, veins, and everything else underneath between it's tiny teeth.  Let me just say, it really made me appreciate Sophie.

The poor angry darling is covered in ringworm but doesn't appear to be starving.  We'll get him/her into George and Christina our vets tomorrow to see what's going on.  And meanwhile little Mike Tyson is outside in a very large dog carrier in case the Mom and author of this super featherweight orange prize fighter comes around.  George, Christina, get out your gloves...

Remember Nik's hand the night we caught Jazzy?  Well that's what my hand looks like now, only the female version.

Now Nik and I will have his and hers photos
  I guess I bit off a little more than I could chew.  Hmmm.  Ouch.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Baby Adopts Three Kittens

Well, we haven't been able to get any people to adopt any kittens this summer, but we have been able to watch as Baby, who already had four of her own, apparently adopted three who were in desperate need at the park.  (God is good.)  Here they are, entirely adorable, if just a touch feral:

Squiggles:

We first met Squiggles here

Rosie:

Rosie looks just like Sophie 


and Fuzz:

Fuzz is a cute little fuzzball

These motherless kittens appeared one at a time.  First came Sophie, days later, Squiggles.  Next came Rosie, and the last to appear was Fuzz.  At first they were all three trying to get the adult cats to warm up to them, without much luck.  But over the last two weeks they have made definite inroads, having travelled from being hissed at and batted, to being tolerated, to being accepted, to being played with, and finally to being protected.

The first cat to extend his paw in friendship was our youngest adult cat at the park, Mustafa:

We have known Mustafa, once feral, now our friend, since he was a tiny kitten

Mustafa is very playful and still learning good behavior.  We might even call Mustafa a little rascal in his antics.  Petey and the others are pretty quick to show Mustafa the hand. He will go running off when corrected by them, but he doesn't appear to get his feelings hurt too easily.  And when scolded, he will often dash just out of their reach (to annoy them), and then plunker down and devise a new strategy.

Mustafa seemed to think these new kittens were toys, and ironically that is how Baby started getting involved in their lives.


Baby


When Squiggles first arrived, Mustafa was trying to play with him, but Squiggles was pretty weak and skinny and desperately looking for food and a cat to call Mom.  Mustafa would bat at him like he was a play mouse, and poor Squiggles would squinch his face up and shrink back, and sometimes cry.  But then he slowly began following Mustafa around and trying to nurse off him.  It was the sweetest thing, but a most heartwrenching sight.  Mustafa tolerated Squiggle's attempts to nurse for as long as Mustafa could stand still, which isn't long.  But when Mustafa would try to play again, causing Squiggles to cry and scream, we noticed that it got Baby's attention. It was during Mustafa's one-sided play sessions with Squiggles, that Baby began stalking Mustafa.


Baby on the steps, in stalking mode.  Mustafa is hiding from her on the hill in the grass.  Strike is in front.

When Mustafa began trying to play with Rosie and Fuzz next, tackling them, causing them to roll around like a ball, or end up flat on their backs in terrifed submission, Baby didn't like it, and chased Mustafa to kingdom come and back:

Mustafa on the run from Baby


One time Fuzz became interested in climbing a tree after he watched his friends do it:


Squiggles, Fuzz's friend, went to climb this tree


Fuzz caught the bug

"Me, too."

Soon all three kittens were in the tree.


Here's a Where's Waldo? diagram.  (Baby's kitten watches from the ground.)

When Mustafa wanted to join the 3 kittens in the tree, Baby arrived to police the matter, and chased Mustafa clear away.

Baby chasing Mustafa from the Kitten Tree


Then Mustafa came and hid near me:
Mustafa takes refuge at my feet


But that correction was shortlived, when Rosie sashayed over toward the nearby food plate:

Tiny Rosie, in the bottom right, steps unknowingly into no man's land

Baby watches as Mustafa positions himself near Rosie's final destination

Mustafa left the safety of my feet, and positioned himself near Little Red Riding Hood's path like the Big Bad Wolf

Here the Big Bad Wolf creeps up...

...and tackles Little Red Riding Hood
Don't think Baby wasn't watching:

Baby, alarmed,  "Oh, that is the last straw!"
And she took off after him.


Rosie fled; Mustafa turned on a dime and climbed a tree.

Then Mustafa came down and went and sheepishly hid under the tennis table, but Baby wasn't letting it go:

Baby: "This ain't over yet, Grandma."

Baby confronts the wolf in Grandma's clothing

Several cats at this point tried make themselves invisible:

Mystery hid under the feeding table

Strike watched the whole thing wide eyed from the hill


Elder Petey came to make sure it didn't get out of hand

Satisfied that Mustafa is in good hands, Petey glances out to sea :)


We are glad to see these 3 motherless kittens have protection.  It remains to be seen how close Baby will become to them.