A Dance with Death

Mr. Turtle & I just before I released him.

Today, my dad's friend offered to take my dad, sister and I sailing.  Of course we agreed, and in the afternoon we set out to our meeting place.  On our way there though, we stopped at a 4-way crossing to see a man run out into the middle of the road grab something and then place it at the curb.  Soon we realized this man saved the turtle from the dangers of the highway.  But my family being my family knew that on the edge of this highway, this turtle was probably going to plod back onto the road and eventually face death in the form of a tire wheel.  So, my dad pulled over and I jump out and grab the turtle (which we named oh-so-cleverly "Mr. Turtle").  This whole time the guy who first moved him saw us take the turtle away.  I'm sure he must've thought we were painted turtle smugglers or something.  Anyway, after a nice little car ride with Mr. Turtle and my older sister taking him (or stealing) from me we finally pulled over by a bridge.  We made the journey through the long grass (there were more weeds than grass though) to the river below.  At this point my sister returned Mr. Turtle to me and told me to go down to the water and put him into his new home.  Unluckily for me, it was the hard part considering the bank was non-existent and more like a two-foot mini cliff and then the deep water below.  I did manage however to get Mr. Turtle into the water unharmed, and I'm sure now he's having the time of his life in the nice clean water free from cars and roads living out his life like he's supposed to.  I feel good now knowing I saved an animal's life.  Something is just so gratifying about saving a turtle.  Try it out if you haven’t already!

Family

Kitten & her kittens hanging out.

Kitten letting her kittens suckle.

They're now one big happy family.  It's good to know that although kitten is barely a year old, she's raised her kittens so well that three so far are still alive.  She seems like a good mother who does her best to protect her kittens.  I remember by this time Ghost Cat had pretty much left Kitten and her brother, who later went missing.  So all in all, I'm very proud of Kitten, under all the stress, being able to care for babies in a wonderful way.  I want to get her spayed first though so she can live a happy life without the stress of having more kittens on her young body and without the risk of ovarian cancer cutting her life short.  Remember to spay and neuter your own cats to prevent unwanted litters and to give your cat a better life!

They've Returned!

He's curious about the camera.

Trying to sneak some food from the can.

I went outside today to feed Kitten, and work on her taming.  Except I got a little sidetracked when a bunch of her kittens came to see me!  Well, kind of.  I saw three of them, the tabby with white and the two little black and white kittens.  Still no sign of the pure tabby kitten.  Wanting to get them accustomed to human touch while at a young age, I put wet food and touch them and picked them up while they ate.  Well, at least with one of them I did.  The other black and white one was VERY shy and hardly came out from under the deck.  The tabby with white came out and only barely let me touch her.  The black and white kitten in the picture was the best.  He would let me pet him, pick him up, move him around and play with him.  

Seeing if the coast is clear.

Trying to keep Kitten from eating all her kittens’ food was a problem though; I had to keep chucking little scraps for her.  But, I was happy to know that she trusted me enough to play with her kittens, most feral cats would be fairly angry when you mess with their babies.  Both the tabby and white and the black and white kitten ate from my finger.  I’ve noticed that they haven’t seemed to grow much since I last saw them a couple weeks ago.  I hope Kitten keeps bringing them by so I can see them again (partly because I want to tame them and partly because they’re so adorable). Now I just need names for the little buggers, can you think of any?  Feel free to let me know in the comments!!

Fledgling

Today, while going outside to throw some bread crust into the forest, I saw a peculiar shape on the ground.  Of course I (being the curious type) went over to investigate.  To my surprise it was a tiny fledgling on the ground.  It was starting to rain, and I didn't want a cat to get to it, so I placed it in a shoebox and took it inside.  After a while of thinking: "What am I going to do with this bird?"  My dad said that it would probably be best to just let it outside and let nature take its course.  He's right after all; the bird surely didn't like being shoebox in a house with cats.  Taking the bird outside and releasing it was when I remembered reading that even when a fledgling falls from the nest, the parents still care for it.  I did leave the shoe box propped over it incase it started to rain again (the rain had stopped at this point but the clouds were still dark).  An hour later I went outside to check on it, and it was gone.  I'm not sure if it found its way back to the nest, wondered off or was eaten by one of the cats, but whatever happened it was for the best and was meant to.  It may be a sad thought to think the cats might have eaten it, but in the ever-wise words of Disney's Lion King: "It's the circle of life."

Blast From the Past IV: The Creeper

Once upon a time my sister and I were watching television in our basement.  Our basement is half above ground, so there is large windows half way up the wall (but they're level with the ground outside).  Here we are, minding our own business while we watch Turtleman catch some animals, when my sister whispers: "Hannah, look out the window."  I turn my head to see Tuckercat watching the TV and us!  Seemingly startled that we saw him, he scurried away to who knows where.  Tuckercat has done this several times, and every time it's alarming because it's usually late at night.  Tuckercat is indeed quite the creeper.

A Reason Why I Dislike Tuckercat

This is Tuckercat walking.

This is little Oliver.

The main reason I dislike Tuckercat is the fact he attacked my cat, Oliver.  It was a nice day so I took the Tucker and Oliver outside on their leashes and brought a book.  A few minutes go by of me reading my book and I look up to see Tuckercat approaching Oliver.  Before I know it Tuckercat launches himself at Oliver and the two break out in a fight.  I run over and start scaring Tuckercat away.  Many times since I've seen him standing on the window sills watching Oliver most likely planning when to attack him next.  This is why Tuckercat and me don't have the best relationship.  (P.S. Oliver was shocked after the fight and sustained a small wound on his forepaw.  But he recovered and is now doing fine.  I make sure when I take him out that I keep a close look out for Tuckercat who might decide it's a good time to pick a fight again (which happened a couple more times but I stopped them before anything serious happened))

Kitten is Getting Better

When I was feeding kitten today, I put the wet food in my lap.  To my joy she climbed right into my lap and let me pet her while she ate in my lap!  Although, when she finished she jumped off of my lap, I was proud when out of curiosity she came over and sniffed my toes.  That’s excellent because she's usually too skittish to show any curiosity around me, so it seems she's growing more comfortable near me.

My Flyer for the Feral Cats

 I've made a flyer for the feral cats to try and get them spayed/neutered.  I'm going to walk around my neighborhood and canvas for money while handing out these flyers.  I'm hoping to raise enough money to at least get one of them spayed/neutered.  Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted on how much money raise!

Skunk-tastic!

Big ol' skunk.

My trail camera caught a picture of a skunk rooting around.  They're such funny creature waddling around like they own place.  Yet, I guess when nobody messes with you, you can afford to act like that!

A Sighting!

So a couple weeks ago I found where Kitten was keeping her four kittens.  To my disappointment though, she moved them and I haven't seen them since.  I knew they should be exploring at this point in their life, except I hadn’t seen them at all.  I started to get worried thinking maybe Gimpy got them or a rogue fox or possibly a coyote.  Thankfully though, last night I saw some animals running around our cul-de-sac.  They stopped under the streetlamp at the end of our driveway so I ran and got the binoculars.   My utter and complete joy was to see that it was Kitten and three of her kittens!  They were all playing together like a happy family.  There were the two black and white kittens (the boldest) and the tabby that has white marks.  There was no sign of the shiest kitten, the complete tabby.  Still, it's good to know at least some of the kittens are "safe" and I hope that Kitten brings them around to my house for me to see them soon!

A Breakthrough

I've been trying to tame Kitten lately so that when I do go get her spayed, she'll be easier to handle and won’t be some possessed demonic screaming cat.  To tame her, we've only been letting her eat if she lets us pet us.  That way she won’t think she can get away without us petting her while she eats if we just left food out and hoped she come up to us.  She adjusted quiet well to that and lets me pet her back, head, sides and neck while she eats.  At first she'll be a little skittish, but she always warms up to me and even lets me remove small burrs stuck in her fur.  The other day though, my friend and I took the taming to a new level and were holding the food in our hands so she'd have to come up to us and grab the food.  She passed that test with flying colours, so we stepped it up another notch.  Placing bits of food our knees, she'd have to put her paws on our laps to get the food.  She even briefly jumped in my friend's lap at one point to snatch a piece of pizza!  I'm very proud at how far Kitten has come so far and can only hope she keeps improving!

Blast From the Past III: The Gathering

Bernard the raccoon who's lookin' grumpy.

On May 3rd, 2011, I had the privilege of witnessing a very amazing sight.  At the start of the tree line I had placed chopped up potatoes, lettuce, carrots, grapes, bread, peanuts and cracked corn.  Later Bernard (another raccoon) and Ghost Cat showed up for the feast.  They ate from the same pile of food, no seeming to care that the other was there.  After, One-Eye (a raccoon that had cataracts in his right eye) and Betty (a skunk) dropped by and then they began to eat together.  It's amazing to see that animals that are constantly fighting for survival and their next meal were able to share food with each other and not fight over it whereas people who have plenty of food fight over it the entire time hoarding and collecting it.  Sometimes I wonder if people are really "the smartest species."

Spay & Neuter!

I've started a small fund for getting the feral cats spayed and neutered to prevent a total overload of cats in my forest.  Seeing as they technically aren’t a native species to Canada they can cause some great harm when gone unchecked by killing and eating the native fauna.  I'm NOT saying go out shoot yourself some cats because they horrible creatures to be despised.  All I'm saying is to spay and neuter your own cats and don’t just dump accident kittens in the wild or at farms (facebook is a great way to get rid of unwanted kittens.  Loads of people would be willing to take them; just post a picture and say that they need a good home.  Or you could post them on kijiji, which is another great way to get those kittens a good home.)  Be a RESPONSIBLE pet owner and if you can’t afford to get your cat fixed, don’t have one - end of story.

Gimpy & Co.

Gimpy brought her family to visit again a couple nights ago.  I now want a baby raccoon for a pet :)

Flipping Out

Sniffing around.

 So lately, I've been going in my backyard to put some leftover food in the bowl outside only to find it turned over.  This has happened every night since I've put the bowl out there and has become somewhat frustrating.  What I really wanted to know though was who is flipping my bowl over?! And finally my sneaky trail camera has caught the culprit red handed!!  In the following pictures you can see Gimpy (without her babies) eating whatever is left in the bowl from the day, and then flipping it over before promptly walking away.  It's like she's saying to everybody else, "I ate all the food, so don’t even bother looking!"  What's more interesting is that after I scrolled through more of my pictures I can see her flipping it over every night in the past too. Oh Gimpy, how you amuse me endlessly in your antics.

Eating the tasty things in the dish.

And then flip...

...and run away.

Curious, Very Curious

Kitten investigating.

The contrast isn't very good...in fact it's horrible in this picture.  But, as you can see, Kitten got a little curious and decided to investigate the trail camera.  I can imagine that the flash would've given her a fright!

Blast From the Past II: Meeka the Baby Mouse

Meeka the baby mouse.

Meeka the baby mouse was probably one of the most adorable creatures I've seen.  Now where did I get a wild mouse you may ask?  Unfortunately my cat isn't too keen on letting the critters roam free around him.  One night I suppose a nest of the baby mice started running around and they climbed our brick walls all the way onto the balcony.  Oliver started to chase one of the poor creatures around and my sister immediately ran outside and grabbed the cat then hollered for me to grab the mouse.  I picked the frightened mouse up and put him in an old hamster cage with food, water and the necessities.  My sister then gave him the name Meeka.  Later on I named one of my hamsters after him.  Sadly over the next couple days his condition declined.  He stopped moving around, wouldn't open his eyes and eventually had seizures.  Sadly he passed away in his sleep three days later after what I presume to be internal injuries from my cat.  R.I.P. Meeka the baby mouse.

Feral Cat Family Tree

Here's a quick family tree for you readers.  Ghost Cat and Tuckercat had Kitten together.  Then, later on Tuckercat and Kitten had kittens together.  And that's the family tree of the feral cats!

Blast From the Past: Wake Up

Tucker (dark tabby) & Oliver (orange tabby) spying on the pretty feral cats.

I can remember one night a few summers ago falling asleep peacefully.  Suddenly at 1 a.m. Oliver and Tucker bouncing around me and using me as a launch pad then rudely awakened me.  In my half awareness I looked out my window to where they were focusing the most amount of attention to see a big, fat raccoon precariously perched on the windowsill outside eating all the sunflower seeds from the bird feeders I have hanging from the roof in front of my window.  After the mystery of the freaked out cats was solved I quickly fell into a deep slumber filled with dreams of unicorns and rainbows...maybe.

Gimpy the Coon

Gimpy and the family.

Gimpy the raccoon came around this year.  Her name describes her very accordingly seeing as she has a lame paw.  Somehow or another she managed to brake her right forepaw so she limps around the forest.  This year, she had five children.  One of them has gone missing but considering how she's managed to raise 80% of them with a handicapped paw, I think she's doing marvelous!  

Tuckercat

Tuckercat eating.

Ah, the notorious Tuckercat.  Named so because he looks very similar to our other cat Tucker.  In fact, on several occasions we've mistaken the two and thought that Tucker had escaped to the outdoors!  I'm not especially fond of Tuckercat seeing as he attacked my cat Oliver.  Nobody messes with my cat without me bearing a grudge.  He's pretty beaten p from other at fights.  His one ear is folded over from being chewed on or something by another critter and he's got several scars.  I believe that he's father of Kitten and her kittens (gross).  Tuckercat likes to creep on my sister and I.  We've been watching TV in our basement a few times to look up and see him peering through the window watching us.  That only freaks me a lot.  He enjoys bothering my cats as well, he'll sit on the window sills outside just so my cats will start hissing and screaming to try and get him to go away all the while he just calmly sits there and does nothing.  So as you can see, Tuckercat is definitely not my favourite cat in the world and for good reasons.

Ghost Cat

Ghost Cat waiting to be fed.

Ghost Cat is the grandmother of the kittens and the mother of Kitten.  I'm not sure exactly where she came from (probably a drop off to the farm nearby) but she's been here a while.  She got the name Ghost Cat because she looks like my house cat Oliver but a lot paler, so like a ghost.  I just called her that once, but then everybody in my family started calling her that so the name stuck.  Just like her daughter she's fairly tiny, but has grown bigger since I first met her suggesting that she was probably very young when I first met her (around a year).  I'm hoping to get her spayed soon to prevent more an over population cats in the forest.

Kitten the Cat

Kitten walking.

I know the picture isn't very good, but it's one of the best I have right now.  I got it with my trail camera that is turning out to be exceptionally useful.  Anyways, this is Kitten, the second generation of the feral cats and the mother of the four kittens.  She's approximately around a year old, which is fairly young to be having kittens.  Considering her size though (she's very tiny) I'd say she's doing a fairly good job of taking care of her babies.  I've known her since she was a wee kitten and her mother brought her by.  She used to have a sibling but they've been missing for a while and a fox was around at the time.  I've been working on taming her so I can try and get her spayed, and I was very proud yesterday when she let me pet her while eating yesterday.  

Kittens

The kitten and I played with a feather together.

Isn't that kitten cute?  I sure thought so.  I found them under my neighbor’s deck.  Turns out this is where one of the feral cats (who goes by the name "Kitten") has been keeping her babies.  There’s four in total, two black and white ones and two tabbies (one of them has white paws).   My summer project is trying to tame them so I can send them out for adoption.  But to my dismay, after a couple days of visiting them and petting them, the mother moved them!  So now I must patiently waiting for them to come exploring with their mom to my house.   I estimate them to be about 7 weeks old, so they should come around soon, fingers crossed!  Now I'm just trying to think of names for the little guys!  Any ideas?  Let me know!