Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year. May this time be one of peace and happiness, and may 2012 be a year of good health and prosperity.

Pretty

I'm not a coffee drinker, but after being up almost all night making tourtiere, I need the caffeine!

The things you see...

My older daughter and I headed to the bookstore this evening to do a bit of shopping. We had split up to look at different things when she suddenly came up to me, grabbed my sleeve and dragged me across the store. There sat a wagon with a bin holding a tortoise, of all things.  She asked somebody about it later. It turns out that there is a regular customer who comes in every Sunday with his tortoise and does his shopping while leaving it in an aisle near the door.
To the guy who takes his tortoise out for walks, thanks for making my day!

Loom

I, for one, welcome our giant glass overlords.

Napping

Yes, I've got more cat pictures.  How can I resist?



First, the kitten decided to go for a nap on my daughter.  He slowly slide down her neck from this position.  Finally, Philippe came along and rescued her.



Which did not interrupt his nap in the slightest.

Whoever finally adopts this kitten is going to have a very well socialized cat.

Cold mornings...

(Philippe)

There was a four or five minute window where the light was hitting things just right, before the sun burned everything away...

Another follow up

Since I've already done one follow up post, I may as well do another.

I wrote some time ago about the stray cats visiting our balcony that we were trying to adopt out.  I did have someone interested in taking the pregnant mama.  Unfortunately, before that could be arranged, she had her kittens.  We had no idea where, so we delayed until we could find out and keep them together.  The papa, whom we call Horatio, was still visiting fairly regularly, but mama's visits were much more sporadic.  When I did see her, I checked and she did seem to be nursing.

With the temperatures dropping, we made a few changes on our balcony.  With a new dining table coming, we took the old table we'd been using and put it on the balcony.  It was a patio table, anyhow. We shoved it against one wall with the cat tower and pet carrier under it, along with plant pots, dirt, and so on, all put away for the winter.  We'd put an old blanket inside pet carrier to make a warmer shelter, but it hadn't been enough for Freya (which is what my younger daughter has named her).   The table has one of those vinyl table clothes on it, which is large enough to hang down and hide most of what is now under it.

I guess that made the difference.

Seeing Freya on the balcony one day, I headed outside to give her some attention.  The food and water was all topped up, so I sat down on the balcony swing to spend some time with her.  She's affectionate but nervous, and constantly dashing around, distracted by noises, in between cuddling.  Then she disappeared.

She hadn't left the balcony, as I was facing the doorway to the stairs and knew she wasn't there.  She wasn't at the food or water bowls.  She wasn't under the swing.  I finally got up to figure out where she'd disappeared to when she dashed out from under the table.

Could it be?

Looking under the table and into the carrier, way in the back, I saw movement.  A single kitten.  It's eyes were open, but from the looks of it, they hadn't been open for long.  I was totally thrilled.

After spending some time with the kitten and mama, who became incredibly calm when in the carrier with her baby, I happily sent off an email to the person who'd said she'd be able to take the mama and kittens and adopt them out through a vet's office.

I never heard back.

So now we're in a pickle.

We'd heard from someone else interested in taking the cats to their farm, but on discovering Horatio was male, they changed their mind.  Now we didn't even have someone taking Freya and her baby.

As long as the weather held, they would be fine.

The weather didn't hold.

Finally, it got to the point we just couldn't let them stay out there.  The kitten was too small to survive the dropping temperatures.  Things have warmed up since then, but I really doubt it would have survived if we hadn't taken steps.

We now have them inside.

We're not allowed to have more than 2 pets, but we've cat-sat before without issue, so for a temporary situation, we can do this, but we can NOT keep them.

Our cats aren't too happy with the situation, either.

The kitten, however, has become well socialized.



Just look at those eyes!

My daughter named her (him?) Finnegan.

That, by the way, is my nose.  I lay down on the couch for a nap and Finn joined me.  After thoroughly licking my forehead, s/he grabbed my nose with both paws and started licking it.  Then s/he fell over backwards, got jammed on her back between my hand and my face, and stayed there.

Finn napped with me like that for almost two hours.

The kitten has gone from barely able to crawl out of the cat cave alone, and needing help to get back in, to running around the house and tackling ankles.

Our cats are very unhappy with this situation.

Needless to say, we are still urgently looking for a home for these two.  Taking them to the local humane society is not an option.  For all that they're supposed to be a no-kill facility, they actually euthanize more animals than the pound.  My friend at the pound says we can take them there if we have to, but advices against it.  There are just too many cats at both locations.



Here is Freya and Finn.  A fantastic pair of cats.  Freya is still a bundle of nerves.  As affectionate as she is, she clearly had to fight off other cats to survive and is still a bundle of nerves.  Finn is a calming influence on her. 

Anyone up for taking in a lovely stray and her baby? 

(Since taking these two inside, we haven't been seeing Horatio on our balcony, so we don't know what's happened to him. )