Tabby's Place...

...newsletter is here. And Tabby's Place itself is here.

You little MONSTERS...

I'll let the photo speak for itself:

Anyone local want a twin bed with drawers?

email me at info at americancat dot net if you want it and can pick it up in Spencer. It is barely used, but it is now disassembled and there are no instructions, so you have to be able to emotionally deal with reassembly.

(If you click on the photo you'll see the tiny specks of cat litter on the floor. This is the story of my life. Cat fur. Cat litter. Sigh.)

Take away the cats.....

Surprise...

...Surprise...

...Surprise.

Death is not easy...

I am sorry my posts have been fairly benign. This is why.

My father is dying. He left my family when I was twelve. He left us in New York, flew away to Alaska, and left us behind.

I saw him when his mother called me in college (I was 21). "Your Dad is coming to visit us in Florida. I'll pay for you to come down." I spent a week with him. Then in 1991, he invited me to Alaska. I went. He showed me a world he found to be beautiful. He was right.

In 2000 he came to NY and handed us his Living Will and some family heirlooms. He knew he had Alzheimers at the time but he did not tell us. He got lost several times on the way , as he drove. I asked him to return that fall for my wedding.

September 30, 2000, he gave me away to Mark. He didn't seem interested in tracking down friends who might love to see him. I realize now he was probably unsure he would be able to find his way.

In 2005 he came to us from Alaska, in the clasp of intermediate Alzheimers. His sister, a wonderful woman who had provided him with a home and love since his arrival in Alaska so many year ago, had health issues as well and could no longer care for him.

Today he is dying. It is 2007. I have spent perhaps twenty full days with my father since 1973. And now people are calling me asking me to make the decision to stop medication, since he will no longer swallow. I, who am a stranger, have power over my father's life.

I called his sister, who is also facing Alzheimers, and who just recently watched over her son as he died of cancer. She tells me tonight: "Let him go."

Let him go.

Oh, God.

Thank you, blog readers!

Concerning the post that was here this morning about the cat issue at "Great American University" I have taken it down as a good-faith gesture, as the university ombudsman's office immediately wrote back and offered to meet next week.

Thanks for all your suggestions and offers of help! You are the best.

Vistaprint.com...

...always has deals. This month's deal was free postcards and business cards (for the price of postage). So I designed some that are just to promote cat adoption. I don't know how they make money, but I recommend them highly. After you make an initial order (check out their free business card option), they will contact you when they have future freebies.

The truck is finally inspected.

I don't want to tell you how overdue the inspection was. Lucky for me, the old girl didn't have any issues to deal with, so she got an oil change, new wiper blades, and inspection for about $80. As usual, the chain store scammed me. It's a pity, because they used to be a pretty honest business. Now it seems like every time I go in, they either overcharge me for something (in this case, the $29.99 deluxe oil change ended up being $23.00 for the oil change and around $11 for the oil filter...which comes to around $34 bucks, right?), or try to sell me something I don't need.

So while the truck was being fixed yesterday (I can't believe I got MLK day off) I hung out and worked at The Smart Monkey Cafe, where there is wireless. It's a nice spot, and I'll probably hit it again sometime just to get out where there are humans. Jayme from work was also online, so we IM'd a bit. Yes, I know it was a "day off" but around here, "day off" means being able to relax working anyway, since it's so quiet. Jayme just got a new job at a well-known magazine/website, and I wish her well.

The second floor of the SMCafe overlooks the Fast Food Feral territory. It's thoroughly depressing to see how all that forest has been flattened into big box stores.

Downstairs cats are upstairs where it's warm.

I guess winter has decided to finally arrive, so I moved Shakespeare and Thomas upstairs, sniffles and all. Please keep your fingers crossed that no one upstairs catches what they have. But everyone is snuggly warm now, and both new cages are upstairs.

Trips to the vet today...

Shakespeare (formerly "Handsome") Puck, and Miranda (orange kittens) were fixed today.

Jack's been adopted!

...by Kat, who takes care of the Fast Food Ferals. So all of you who helped foster Jack and Jack's sibs this summer...thanks. You done good!

Jack has a huge half-a-house and a little black kitten to play with. So far he has presented the kitten (whose name is Sunshine, but is affectionately known as Fruitbat) with nothing but hisses, but I'm sure they'll be racing up and down those stairs in no time.

And I finally got a really nice shot of Bebe...

Donna was over today, so all the cats (especially Miles!) got some extra lovin'. And Miles got a good combing. Donna was able to get new doors etc. for these crates, plus another large one I had so now they are all back in rescue service, in dog rescue transport.

Wings and Dude

...are buddies. Once I have room, I think I'd like to put them in a run together and see if they could be adopted as a pair. Currently Dude is by himself in a cage, and Wings is with longtime friends Leo and Persephone.

For those of you who are asking...

Really quick (as I am blogging on a break from work),these kittens, are in fact these same kittens Valarie caught them last week. They are pretty sweet little bugs for being totally feral and five months old.

If you were reading Wildrun via RSS feed...

I apologize, but I've restricted this until I can learn more about it. Some person had set up a blog elsewhere on the web that was pulling and posting my blog entries (along with two other cat blogs) and had no other content. It also only posted the text and not the photos (which made the posts rather pointless). The purpose of this so-called "blog" (as far as I could see) was to support Google ads, etc. In other words, whomever this person is, sets up blogs using other people's content, in order to make a few dimes.

I am of course not going to link the blog in question, and I did try to email the blog owner (I think I tracked down the correct email address) with no response.

Until I can learn how to block just one feed--if that is possible--I've shut off the option. I see my stats have gone down a bit, and I apologize. If there are a few readers who really need that option, please email me at info at americancat dot net to let me know. You may be more important to me than my pride, and perhaps I'd be willing to turn it back on again.

love ya,

Susan

Cheap plastic crap that works.

OK. So I, despiser of cheap plastic crap, bought this last week, after resisting for SO long:



Yes, it is a Swiffer Wet Jet. I know, I know, I know....

Anyway, there is no running water in the cat facility. So to mop the floor, I have to haul water, which is fine every few days. But the floor should be mopped daily. I own a standard little (generic) Swiffer, but it's really only good for mopping up muddy people tracks. After five swipes, the premoistened pads are a waste.

So I was in the General Dollar in Spencer and there it was with a rebate that brought it down to $15. So I bought it, hoping it wasn't just a peace of crap that either A) wouldn't work or B) would immediately break or C) would just push the dirt around.

Well, you know, it works OK. I had hoped to replace the Swiffer fluid with Roccal D disinfectant, and I think they have it pretty well worked out that I won't be able to do that (we'll see). But the little sprayer works just dandy, and the pads are nice and thick. And the Swiffer fluid smells OK. The floors are a bit streaked, but that beats being dirty or dull.

So perhaps this little piece of cheap plastic crap isn't crap after all.

And look, two more buff kittens!

Building the new cage. Thanks, Mary!

Well, our newest cage, donated by Mary (adopter of the buff kittens), arrived last week, and normally I would not be able to wait to break it out and put it together. But the sniffly sneezes had still not gone away, and there is nothing worse sniffling around during a project, so the cage remained in boxes until yesterday.


Looks pretty simple, huh? And it is...the second time you put one together. There was about a ten minute swearing fest with the first cage until the lightbulb went on. This cage was a breeze now that I knew how everything connected.



They use these nifty clamps. These things drew about five minutes of the swearing fest on the first cage, but now I love them:



So does Dude. EVERYthing's a toy...give it back, you brat!




Here, have a close-up of Sir Brattiness:





The floor (and floor dividers on a multi-cat cage) is the reason you can't really make these yourself. This is one solid molded piece, and it's worth it. There are no little ridges for cat litter to get stuck in. No lips, no grooves---very easy to clean. Towels slide on it, but you have to pay a price somewhere.


However I am fairly certain the wire on top will not hold up the the usual free-roaming kitten lounging, so I have a piece of thin paneling up there for support. And now Annie the feral has a cage she can get some exercise in, until I have the stall in the barn below turned into a cat run for her introduction back to real free-roaming barn cat life (here on our property).



Having this new huge cage meant I had to do some rearranging. The second one is still downstairs with Thomas living in it (due to his continuing tiny sniffle that I don't want these kittens to catch). Once he's adopted, that will come up here.

This is so wonderful. Annie immediately forsook the cat den she ALWAYS hides in to hang out on the highest shelf instead, out in the open. She has been becoming steadily braver, and I've been giving her lots of treat. She's not particularly driven wild by treats or catnip. She's just a kibble sort of cat. She parks her butt when I open the door to clean her new cage and doesn't try to bolt, or hide.

Remember me? It's Knuckles!

Here I am, all grown up! Look at those beautiful legs. Can you believe I ever looked like this? Knuckles' name is Gnocchi now (did I spell that right)?



He's either still a little guy, or that's one big darned TV.

Here's his brother Tyco

And Brother Elvis

Sister Darla

And Brother Jack! (who is getting foster/adopted as soon as I get my butt in gear!!!)

And finally, sweet funny Mom cat Espie who still needs a home

January Petsmart Charities Webinars...

are here.

Adopter photos. Cassie and Marbles (Casper), almost all grown up.

To "stop, drop, and roll"...

...add "scoop and snuggle" to your litany of catch-phrases to make your life happier and safer.

I try to practice "scoop and snuggle" in my cat facility. For some of the stronger, shyer ones, it's more like "pet and snog" because picking them up isn't an everyday option. But I am making "scoop and snuggle" a New Year's Resolution because sometimes I realize I am spending more time cleaning around cats than actually hugging them.

And when they are short on chairs...

...they have to get creative.

This is how our house generally looks:

This is the den (what I call it) or living room (what Mark calls it). There is always a fire going in winter, so this is where you will find most of the living beings during the cold months. By the time summer rolls around and the animals disperse through the house again, I have had enough of having to fight for space on a chair.

And yes, the calico Cricket in the front is a blazingly fast tripod.

(Post-note. Uh-oh. Mark noticed I blogged him. :) )

Mundane blogging promised yesterday...

I did actually get my butt in gear and clean house yesterday. I had before shots, but can I figure out where I saved them? Of course not. So the whole point of the post is entirely lost. Nonetheless, I am subjecting you to it anyway.







(Mark picked up all the Christmas boxes in the great room so I can't take credit for more than neatening and vacuuming).

Great article on Cornerstone Veterinary Hospital.

Hey, I missed this article about my vets' clinic,, which is Cornerstone Veterinary Hospital in Ithaca. They did a great job on this! Good photos, too.

Due to lack of snow...

...the reindeer couldn't make it, so central NYS gift delivery was handled by non-migratory Canada Geese who, if the warm winters continue, may have to be considered our new state bird... (Photo taken at a residence between Spencer and Van Etten. These guess are regularly in seasonal costume)

after midnight...

...no one knows you stole the brie.

Ha, say the kitties.

Happy 2007.



Ah, God, who gave me $50 via Amazon for the New Year? I will fix Handsome for you. Thank you so much, and for all those before you who have also given. Bless you, and I wish you all the very best in 2007.