Last Friday Night at the Park

I couldn't believe how many cats were at the park last Friday night.  I am concerned about the upcoming summer, what on earth are the people who have summer homes here going to say about all these cats?  Going to do?  Will they be tolerant?  What about the summer concession at the park when it reopens?  How are the cats going to adjust to having people around all the time?  What about when they start bringing in the lawn mowers, the chainsaws, the strimmers, to prepare the park, now overgrown, for summer visitors?

When I arrived at the park Friday night I was met at my car by Strike, Topper, and Blabby:

Strike

Topper

Blabby

 

Then I spotted Clinton, who I don't think I've introduced you to. I don't see him often. He's an unusually polite feral Tomcat. He's nice to the other cats:

 



Clinton

Then upon entering the park proper, I saw Greyboy, Petey, Smirkles, Sose, and Fluffy:

 Greyboy

 Petey

Smirkles




Sose

 
 Fluffy

 Once I got to the lower level I saw Pookie, Junior, Wanda,...

Pookie

Junior

 Wanda

..Soupy, Templeton, Rex, Mustafa, Shorty, Oranj, Spooky, Mystery, Sunflower, and Milky, a new cat,...

Soupy

Templeton

Rex

Mustafa

Shorty

Oranj

Spooky

Mystery

Sunflower

Milky

...and who else?  I saw other eyes shining in the darkness, who were they?  I can't be sure. 

 



It's not all that unusual to have so many cats during the week, they straggle in and straggle out, but it surprised me for a Friday evening to have so many at once.  There are more people in our village on the weekends, and so the cats usually have a few extra people to put food out for them, scraps choicer than my morsels, like left over fish, souvlaki, etc.  So the kibble I leave behind does not get eaten as quickly as during the week. 

And please keep in mind there were some cats missing that often come: Baby, Princess, Sunflower's two sisters, Moonpie, Coral, Newt, Sonata, Soso, to name just a few, so there could have been even more had they all showed.

When I got back up to the top of the park, followed as usual by Strike, Topper, Blabby, Greyboy, Petey and Mustafa, I couldn't believe my eyes, Clinton was still there and there were a bunch of cats I had never seen before, and also some cats I rarely see.  The unpredictable Mrs. Beans was there (so sweet, on our adoption page, now pregnant and busted!).  Phoebe, Sotine, and Bowtie were there, none of them altered.  They are so rarely seen I don't even have pictures of them.

The unpredictable Mrs. Beans
 

Among the hungry strangers were two young long haired ginger and white cats who look a lot like Oranj, one short haired ginger and white cat (looks totally like a Clinton, Jr. Busted!), and one young brown tabby with white markings.

I thought I was near leaving.  I had to pull out three more cans of food and more kibble!

In total there were at least thirty cats I fed at the park last Friday night.

It was a lot of cats at once.  A whole lot of cats.  It will be interesting to see how many are there tonight.  What will happen when spring and summer arrive is concerning.