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In case you didn’t see it over on the Love & Hisses Facebook page, Mercury was adopted Friday night! Kennebec and Baby Beans weren’t adopted this weekend, but there were adoptions of FOUR other kittens on Saturday, so hopefully their people will come along soon.
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Several months ago I put the game cam out and happened to catch a light-colored cat at the feeding station. Then we saw him off near the woods. Then, a couple of weeks ago, the camera caught him at the feeding station when it was light out!
Isn’t he pretty?
Saturday Fred called me into the computer room, and we looked out the window to see this.
We realized that the food bowl at the feeding station was empty, and that there was dried cat food in the bottom of that box (that’s the reason the box was out in the driveway, because it was on its way to the pile of boxes that were going to the recycling center, but I needed to dump out the dried cat food first), which he was eating. Fred felt bad for him (that dried cat food was… shall we say… regurgitated cat food. I’m trying to be delicate here, I know y’all have sensitive stomachs!), so went out to put food in the feeding station bowl. The instant Fred set foot on the side porch, that cat was off like a shot.
This is actually how Rupert showed up last year – we saw him on the game cam long before we ever saw him in person. Hopefully the new guy will start coming around more during the day, and we can get him to trust us. I’d like to trap him and see if he’s totally feral or if he can be tamed, but we have so many raccoons who visit the feeding station at night that I don’t know how we’d ever keep them out of the trap.
I can say for sure that he’s a boy – I’ve seen proof via game cam pictures. At least I don’t have to worry about him getting pregnant – but I’d like to, at the very least, stop him from fathering any babies.
He looks young to me (but then, so did Rupert, who turned out to be about 7 years old), and color-wise he looks a lot like Coltrane. I’m calling him Stefan.
One thing Fred’s been talking about is making a feeding station that the raccoons can’t get to. Raccoons can climb – but, as Fred pointed out (and someone let me know if this is wrong), they can’t jump. So if he made an elevated feeding station that the cats could jump up on to but made it so it couldn’t be climbed, the raccoons wouldn’t be able to empty the food bowl every night. Right?
We have quite the raccoon population around here, as the game cam has shown. I took pictures from February 8 – 9 and stitched them together in a video. That black cat is the one we call Blockhead Tom. He’s been showing up for a while now, and he’s completely feral. We can’t get anywhere near him. The cat who looks white is the new guy. Newt shows up as well.
Sorry it’s so long – I made it so that each picture would only show for half a second in an attempt to shorten it, and took out the pictures where nothing was happening, but it’s still over three minutes long.
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Batman, from before I moved them to the guest bedroom and installed Lilybet in the foster room.
Kittehs with attitude.
::pbbblt::
“I’m Batman.”
Not impressed.
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I don’t know, y’all. I go back and forth on whether she’s actually pregnant.
Sometimes I think well, there’s a little bit of roundness there.
And then I think well, maybe not.
She certainly is a snuggly lovebug.
She usually climbs right into my lap and lays there and purrs, and then she runs off and starts batting toys around.
“I could be pregnant!”
“Or not.”
Early early early Sunday morning, I woke up to the sound of Lilybet in the foster room (which is right next door to mine) singing – imagine a happy, high pitched, musical meow. She did it seven or eight times before stopping. I thought “She’s either having those babies or going into heat. I should go check on her” and then immediately fell back to sleep. When I got up a few hours later, the first thing I did was check on her. No babies, and not in heat. So much for that theory!
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No, I’m not snickering like a 12 year-old boy. Why do you ask?
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Previously
2012: No entry.
2011: And it’s QUIET.
2010: No entry.
2009: Kitten’s all “::Gasp!:: It’s Tom Cullen, the Ambassador of Love!”
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Lilybet is just so pretty!!! 🙂
I sure hope you can get Stefan (like the name) and get him snippity-snipped! Hopefully, he is sweet and can also get a home!!!
::snicker:: you crack me up, Robyn!
I had to really look to see what was there to snicker about!
Lol!
Take care
X
Love the game cam! Cracked up over the *snicker* picture 🙂
*pffff* Yes, we are all twelve years old, and I don’t think this is a bad thing. It keeps life on the lighter side. 🙂
Hi there Stefan. Orangies are pretty, yes, and my Pumpkin agrees.
Love the game cam. Raccoons are such fascinating little guys. Possums too. I had a hard time telling which cat was Stefan and which was Newt — I’ll have to go back and watch again. (Love the name Blockhead Tom, too.)
Apparently I like writing in short sentences today as well. Haven’t had coffee yet. Not eloquent.
between orange cats and snarky black teenages you have your hands full. 🙂
Enjoyed watching the “night life” at Crooked acres! Amazing what all goes on in the dark, when humans are (mostly) asleep.
‘Coons seem to be a “family.” Or at least it looks that way. When I lived on a farm, there was a mom coon who brought her babies to the feeding station. Oh, they would quarrel over the food, till one or other of the babies ended up sitting in the large bowl, hogging all the kibble.
I bet Lilybet IS pregnant; mom-cats-to-be always get extremely lovable. Even feral moms will tolerate some human contact. It’s like they know the human is there to help them through a tough time ahead!
LOL, yeah. I laughed like a 5-year old. Lookit your pee-pee, hee hee!
Babies, Lilybet. Ba.bies.
LOVE the I could be pregnant, or not.. pics…. I have a cat who sings too, Garfield. It is like when he comes in, he HAS to let someone know that he is there!
Yea Mercury!!! Glad she’s got a new forever home. Hopefully this one is forever.
Batman and Robin really are gorgeous, just saying.
hey, black is slimming you know.
Cats actually do a very good job of hiding the fact that they are pregnant because there is so much hunting and prework to be done.
I couldn’t help but wonder about this “white racoons can’t jump” theory you have, and thanks to google..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8sgHLjWsPg
which made me laugh out loud – so glad I wasn’t drinking anything I might have spit it out all over my screen.
but then there was this.. which is probably way more helpful
http://www.thewildones.net/raccoons.htm
I thought that elephants were the only land mammals that could not jump…..
Congrats to Mercury! So pretty it was a given that it wouldn’t take too long. Also, the video with the racoons reminded me of a commercial that was out not too long ago. It was for Vision World or Lens Crafters or some eye wear place. The lady walks out on to her porch before going to bed to call the “cat” in for the night. “Here kitty” is heard while she herds the racoon into the house. LOL! Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZOeWFBy75A
It’s one of my all-time favorite commercials too. Totally hilarious. They still run it every so often.
First we got Rupert, possibly a reincarnation of Coltrane, and now a new marmie, who looks like Coltrane. Coltrane must have really liked it there, he’s come back three times!
I had been meaning to tell you that I finally started reading Fred’s book “No Limit” (I downloaded the e-book some months past) and was delighted at Mister Boogers’s cameo. The book itself is good, fast-paced and exciting. Reminds me of Dean Koontz.
http://www.thewildones.net/raccoons.htm
To the Tune of the carol “St. Stephan”
Now Stefan he’s a lovely cat with bright and shinning eyes
But Stefan he is hard to see for all he’s like to hide
The elders left him out a box, so full of cat bits fine
But Stefan is a fee born cat and it he who will decide
To run so free across the yard or in the bushes high
Or brave that scary looking house, with the cat foodies inside.
Just couldn’t resist, the first two lines just jumped into my head and since I know you also sing silly songs to your cats they way we do yours and I’m in love with Sir Stefan already (my husband’s name is pronouced Stefan, even though spelled Stephan)…There’s got to be a verse about his coat of gold too, but I’m not there yet.
Oh, and I’ve seen urban racoons climb over entire back garden walls, up onto the sides of the fence and then knock the the trash to get at it – and this was in Oakland California..so yeah, they can climb…
I live with a 13-year-old boy. I needed no encouragement to giggle (and needed no help figuring out what to laugh at). You go on with your bad self, Sugarbutt.
I also more than once, thought “Hah! Raccoon butt!” while watching the video. Yes, I am aware that I need more time out of the house with people my own age 😉
Lilybet’s “Or not” face is priceless. Girlfriend’s got a secret and she’ll share in her own sweet time.
the feeding cam is brilliant. would work with all kinds of music too! Twitchy Stockhausen, Feelies, accelerated harpsichord…..
Maybe the singing is a tortie thing? My youngest cat, Daffodil, sings when she’s playing with her favorite toy. My oldest cat, Natalie, who is 15, started singing when she had a toy. That’s now evolved to sitting in the bathroom and meowing until someone acknowledges her (and preferably tells her how pretty she is). I’m not sure if personality and fur color are really connected, but both Natalie and Dilly are dilute torties and they both sing, splash around the dog’s water bowl and drink by dipping their paws in the water and licking the paw. I’m sure some of that is hero worship and the younger one copying the older one. But even at the shelter I volunteer at they say the calicos and torties have attitude.
Lilybet doesn’t look very pregnant, but I’m no expert… so what do I know. Perhaps being her first litter (I assume) she might only have two or maybe three babies & won’t show very much till right before she has them. That happened to one of the semi-ferals I feed at work a couple of years back. She was friendly enough to let me pet her a little & I swear she did not show any signs of being pregnant till about a week or so before she had them. I only found 2 kittens, so I assume that’s all she had. Lilybet may surprise you in the end.
Be careful of the raccoons – I luv em and they are sweet – but they are nocturnal. We have a problem in North Texas right now with raccoons showing up with distemper. You shouldn’t see them during the day.