Me And De Kitties

The photo is my 6toed friend. I decided 6Toes was going to be his name since when he walks, the first thing you see is his large feet and a strange way of walking whereby he crosses his feet one in front of the other, like it's impossible for him to pussy-foot straight on.

6toes, born under someone's house, out there somewhere and formerly wild and skiddish, has become quite domesticated at present. Now, when I open the patio door he darts in like he owns the place! Almost knocking me over, I've learned to move quickly to the side.

He comes in and instead of going to the cat food bowl, for some reason he goes to the large bag of cat food I keep near the door and proceeds to tear and claw at the bag until I relent and pour him some fresh kibbles in his very own cup.

If I don't do this deed, I have to listen to the bag being literally destroyed by all those toes he has. If I go to move into another room he darts between my legs, wraps his tail around my legs in a bid for affection. If I'm trying to make my way to the bathroom, I must stop and make sure he gets his daily hug first, or possibility I may not make it to the bathroom before the next day. There has been a total of 18 cats, all considered feral cats that have made their way to my door and I've managed to find a clinic, called "Heaven Can Wait" (great name!) whereby I could get them all fixed and released back to me. Once a month Heaven Can Wait clinic sponsors a feral cat spay day. As many as 250 to 300 cats are done in that one day, brought in by people like me, who found themselves being a cat caretaker without really wanting to be that.

Most ferals, when their numbers are too high for their area, get euthanized by Animal Control. Sanctuaries for cats are hard to find, so I've become their caretaker.

What the hey..guess I had nothing better to do anyway. The only problem I had was early in spring about half of them came down with a sneezing and coughing thing. I ordered some medicine online for cat colds. Do cats get colds? Yes, I guess they do. The medicine worked almost overnight so it wasn't serious.

One I took in as a kitten developed diarrhea. Another online research yielded up a $5 jar of cat medicine. Problem solved again, immediately. All appear quite healthy and playful.

As for fleas, I gave them a natural remedy of supplying garlic to their food and I've not seen them scratching since I started doing that. Garlic can be purchased in liquid form I noticed, it doesn't take much to do the job.

I haven't had any mishaps. Cross fingers. I did one day in the winter discover a cat in my engine compartment; however, I'd had an impulse to check the oil before starting the engine, and good thing too. One was on my roof the other day. I'd left a ladder near the edge. It didn't remember how to get down, but eventually it just flew off. It's a low roof and the desert sand is soft landing.

Two gray tabbies are brothers. At feeding time they act like Siamese twins..walking pressed up against one another, tails straight up and intertwined, they turn to see if I'm still bringing them food and if I like the show their putting on. These two brothers like to sneak inside also, and generally hide under the bed for awhile before whining to be let outside.

I only have 8 to 10 who are regular visitors, some have found another means of acquiring sustenance, perhaps even a more or less permanent home. Recently I befriended a man who was able to give two of my cats a permanent home on his homestead.

He told me he has an expensive saddle that mice were chewing on it and opportunity was knocking for me! I trapped a female part siamese and I'm pretty sure she'll be a good mouser.

Along with the green eyed beauty who had a twin sister just like her. Most of my cats have amber eyes. The siamese has blue eyes. I'm thinking in 6 months, the cats will be domesticated for him and be good pets. He lives alone, with no dogs, so this was excellent good fortune for me.