Mama Returns !!!

This morning Mama Cat returned! She looks to be in good health. We are sooooo happy, since by now we had become very concerned.

More Snow

More snow fell; and our cats were tummy deep in the stuff as they trekked across the back yard, which is now littered with tracks. The cats seem to love the stuff, but perhaps they are also looking for Mama Cat, who has not yet returned. We, too, are getting worried.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Special things were happening at the cat colony on Christmas Day. For starters, the eagerly anticipated dishes of food served each morning came out topped with appetizing little morsels and were readily devoured. Alex probably communicated to them that these are special cat treats (that he, as the house cat, gets every day). When gifts were opened, there was a special blanket gift for the cat colony. The roof of the condo, a favorite perch, now looks like such a cozy place to sit thanks to Aunt Jenn and Uuncle Rob. (Unfortunately, nobody is showing a desire to jump up there. In the evening magical snowflakes began to fall, something none of the kittens had ever seen before. The only damper on the day was the absence of Mama Cat, who disappeared immediately after her return to the colony two days ago.

Mama Cat is Back Home

We brought Mama Cat home late in the afternoon today. She was very quiet and rested comfortably on a blanket at the back of the cat carrier. We set the carrier outside by the condos and cat food dishes and opened the door. Nothing. We left the door open, but she did not seem ready to leave. The light gray kitten came up and checked out the carrier, and then went inside, but Mama Cat did not move. The gray kitten left. Shortly thereafter Mama Cat was gone from the carrier. We did not see her go. At least we know that she had the opportunity to establish rapport with one of her kittens. It's raining here, so we hope that she is smart enough to spend the night in her heated condo. We'll be watching. Sorry, no reunion pictures are available. We waited with camera in hand for over an hour. She didn't leave until we, and the camera, were gone.

When All Else Fails

Last evening we were surprised to see the light gray kitten up in the tree in front of our house trying to get to the suet and seed we hang there for our woodpeckers. Harley was on the ground, presumably giving instruction. Perhaps Mama Cat has instilled this last resort action in all of them, and they were practicing - just in case. Oh yes, the kitten shimmied down the trunk of the tree with ease.

Mama is recovering

We got word from the vet that Mama Cat had surgery this morning and is on the road to recovery. At 2 PM she was awake and huddled in the corner of her cage. Because she will be returning to live outside, she will stay at the vet an extra day so she has more time to get back to normal. We're planning to bring her home on Wednesday.

Possum Visits the Colony

We've been taking the catfood inside in the evening, since after dark the raccoons like to visit and have a little dinner. Last night I opened the back door and a possum looked up from the food dish. He ran away slowly - probably because he is so fat. We think he has been eating out at the colony restaurant for some time.

Harley Moves Up

After breakfast this morning, the cats had a bit of excitement. Suddenly Scarface and Harley raced across the backyard to the deck with a small gray kitten following them. They sat there motionless for a couple minutes and then Harley raced to a large tree and began to climb. She got about ten feet up before she stopped and looked down. Oh no! We don't think fire departments come to help get cats down from trees anymore. But fearless Harley was not bothered. She just jumped down. Apparently they had spotted a squirrel, but it got away. Theyre not very good at hunting (life for them is pretty easy), so the rest of the wildlife is pretty safe.

All is well

We were a bit worried about the kittens' welfare since Mama is at the vet. Erv was happy to see Scarface walking to the back of our yard with the kittens at about 2 am this morning (bathroom break, we presume). This morning all 5 cats streamed out of the condo when breakfast was served.

We caught Mama Cat

We Caught Mama Cat !!!

This morning I took 2 bowls of cat food out to the condos. Mama Cat was sitting in front of the one she occupies with her kittens. The rest of the cats were milling around. Mama usually hisses at me when I bring the food, but this time she lashed out with a paw (and long claws) at the same time. I said, “Well, now you will have to wait for breakfast,” and took the food back inside the house.

Scarface went over and sat down facing Mama and just stared at her for the longest time. We think he was telling her, “Now see what you have done!”

I had an appointment, so the cats had to wait to eat until I got back. Then Erv and I put some food in the capture cage, covered it, and set it on the porch. To our surprise, Mama Cat sniffed around and then went inside – gotcha! Mama is off to the vet…

Welcome to our Wild Cat Colony

We retired five years ago and moved to a new home, one that is well suited to the lifestyle we enjoy. We are fortunate, also, that our property is lakeside and has lots of trees and vegetation that supports a large variety of wildlife. Our house has lots of large windows, and we are always on the lookout for the wildlife that flourishes here.

In late fall a year ago we spied a very thin gray kitten scratching underneath the bird feeders in front of the house for spilled birdseed. She looked so pathetic, and since we are both catlovers, we knew we had to do something to help her. We borrowed some catfood from our companion, who is a large Maine Coon named Alex, and set it out for her. She waited until we were safely back inside, and then immediately gobbled it all up. From then on, she would wait by our house every morning and we would set food out for her. She seemed to be feral and would not let us near her. Alex would amble up to the window to watch her eat, but did not seem overly bothered. Since it seemed she would be sticking around and neighboring housecats were beginning to notice the food, we moved her feeding place to the porch at the back of our house.

If we were away from home longer than a day, our son who lives in the same town, took over the morning feedings.

It was, of course, becoming noticeably colder each morning, and we worried that the kitten might not be able to survive (our winters get cold, and while we usually don't get more than 5 inches of snow at a time, the ground is often covered with snow. Also, we were aware of the many predators nearby (foxes, cougars, coyotes to name a few). But though we tried and tried, she was very wary and we were unable to capture her. We contacted our local shelter, but they are overwhelmed with the cats that are brought to them and could not enter into a capture program in our back yard. The kitten was very resourceful, and found a suitable home (probably underneath one of our decks) and weathered the cold and snow. We have no doubt she was able to scare off any other predator taking an interest in her - she has a wicked hiss.

One morning in May she brought three kittens when she came to eat. We were surprised and enchanted. Alex, who still watched when she came to eat, did a double take. We wish we had caught that on film. Thee new kittens all had tortoise shell coloring. Two were long hairs and one had short hair like it's mama. We named them Scarface (the largest which we think is a male), Harley (short for Harlequin, due to her markings, and Yellow Ears (although her coloring is mostly dark, the backs of her ears are bright yellow. Our gray cat now had a name, too: Mama. We immediately went shopping for kitten chow. At that time we began to notice a large yellow longhair with a proprietary air. Apparently this was the daddy. He seemed perfectly content to relax in the backyard and watch his family at play. But we realized that it was time to do some family planning.

We contacted our vet and borrowed a capture cage. We caught Harley and had her spayed. However, after that none of the cats would go near the capture cage. I usually spent time sitting on the porch in the morning after I fed the cats. The time Harley spent at the vet apparently made her friendlier to people, and she would let me pet her. Not so with the rest of them. Yellow Ears, who is the most standoffish of all of them, let me pet her one morning; and I took advantage and grabbed her behind the neck. My hold wasn't as secure as I thought as she immediately turned over and when her claws sunk in, I let go. We bought a fishing net, and I thought that I would grab it while I sat out with the breakfasting cats and bring it down over one of them. Never worked. The minute I reached for the pole, they made themselves scarce.

We are out in our backyard much of the time during warm weather as I have planted several flower beds which require constant maintenance. Erv spends quite a few mornings making sure everything stays watered. Even so, when we are outside the cats are nowhere to be seen.

During the course of the summer the yellow male disappeared and a sleek showed up from time to time. In September Erv noticed there were two new kittens in one of our window wells. They would disappear for a couple days and then reappear in the window wells. Mama moved them once a day. She brought them to the porch for breakfast in late October. Both are gray. One is the same color as Mama. The other is darker, and we're thinking of naming her Pepper. We are now back in capture and spay mode. We picked up the capture cage on Friday and are hoping that the cats have short memories.

Last month Erv built housing out of insulation sheets; and as winter begins our cats are wintering in a duplex cat condo – heated, no less. We learned that what we have is a cat colony. These wild cats have inspired so much fun for us during the past year that we want to share the joy.

You’ll also be hearing about our Maine Coon Alex. He was our only cat until last year, and his antics while he overlooks the colony from inside our house are part of the fun.