Happy National Feral Cat Day!

Farewell to Wildrun. Good morning to The Owl House

Please reset your links to the new blog!

Time to winterize!

If you have feral cat shelters (or need to build some), here is a great video on winterizing.



I've met Wheeler and I have to say it gives me faith in humanity to see an "adventure guy" holding and snuggling with a cat, and taking care of yard ferals. So often people who care about cats are stereotyped as ragged women who have nothing better to do with their lives. Wheeler has a LOT to do in his life, but he and Sara still take time out to make sure a living creature in his sphere is warm and fed.

Dumping cats

I often guess that some of the fixed cats that show up on my doorstep, like Portia and Arthur, were trapped away from loving homes and dumped here

Remember Simon?

Clearly he knows how to get in the spirit of Halloween:

Here's his original pet profile. Don't bother clicking on the video icon, as it doesn't work any longer.

Simon was one of those "I wish I could just keep him" cats.

Thank you, Cary!

A new Pauli photo from the home front

"Enzo and Pauli seem to be getting along well. I wanted to share this picture with you. After a rough day of playing the boys were very tired! Here they are napping together!"

It has been a great week for pictures. This summer has been a blur, and it sort of grounds things for me when fall rolls around and so many of these summer foundlings are safe in homes for the winter.

New slings

My mother and my sister Kathy visited a few weeks ago. They both have made tons of cat toys for the crew. Kathy took interest in the ferret hammocks that we've been using for the cats. I sent her an old one in the mail, and she sent back two "first issues."

One of them never even made it to a cage. An adopter saw them and ended up buying one. The second one I finally installed in Gawain's cage. I'm tracking how long it lasts, and whether there are any laundry issues, etc. so Kathy can improve on her design. I understand she as already made some changes.

I'll get a photo of Gawain in his hammock when he'll finally sit still.

Past Pauli photo I meant to post...

Pauli winding his way through the guitar collection in his new home. I took this on the night he was adopted:

Faith sure misses him!

Kittens check in! Couldn't have done it without you.

Awhile ago you endured my rant about a crate full of kittens that had been abandoned on my road. A number of you responded with donations large and small, and/or encouragement, to help get the cats fixed. I think you deserve the credit here! Five of the six are already altered (or in the case of one, scheduled to be altered) and in homes!

And not just "homes." They are the kind of good homes that send us back photos. Here's three!

"Frack" is now Mimi (a much-improved name)

Moses is Petie:

Orion is now Yoshie:

Thank you again. I just wanted you to see the goodness you have wrought. And thank you to their adopters. Welcome to the Wildrun family!

I don't want a dumpster.

But I may have no option. The garbage is piling up. Thank goodness I have the chicken coop in the barn to lock it all up in. The Barton Transfer Station is closed after being totally wiped out by the Flood, and all other waste disposal sites are for flood debris. "Home pick-up continues" but I don't have home pickup. I can't justify paying for the disposal of heavy heavy trash (cat litter) than I can fit in my vehicle. If I were to have to pay for bag tags for every bag of garbage I generate, my trash would probably cost me hundreds of dollars a month. You can only put one cat-box worth of cat litter in a single bag, and I dump 14 boxes twice a week.

Also, dumpsters attract critters and flies. In my nice cool barn, the trash stays fairly non-offensive. But out in the sun in a metal dumpster...not a good thing. Baking cat litter? This is not something I want to smell and I'm sure no one else wants to, either.

Maybe it's something I can just do in the short term. I just have no clue where I would put a dumpster where it wouldn't be the focal point of anyone driving up my quiet country road.

At any rate, I've made the calls to local trash removal companies, and we'll see.