SOTK Update

A Special State of the Kitties Update

by Tanner

(Chief House Cat)

A lot has happened since I made my August report. Not long after I reported, Chloe went missing for nine days, and  Mommy was so glad to see Chloe when she came home. But because Chloe was limping, Mommy realized something was bad wrong and took her to the cat doctor where she had to have FHO surgery because her femur was dislocated and had a fracture. They shaved off a lot of Chloe's hair, so she had to lay in the sun to keep warm while she recuperated.

Soon she moved into a box where no one would bother her. 

Chloe has gotten a lot better and is walking with  only a slight limp now, but she has had to give up her cat-work job which makes more work for Jim-Bob and Alfreda and me. Mommy doesn't want Chloe to go outside any more, at least not for a while. Chloe is not too happy about this.

Chloe slept on this big cushion while she healed up.

The real big news is that our family has also got a lot bigger since a bunch of kitties came to live with us. A wild mama cat had four kittens in an old tobacco barn down the road last summer. 

The people who owned the place where the kitties were living had a big dog who didn't like cats, so they couldn't keep them. The mama cat was gone most of the time to hunt, so the little kitties were pretty much on their  own. Daddy started stopping by to feed them twice a day when he checked the farm down the road, and he got them so they were sort of tame.

But where the little kitties lived was near where coyotes roamed and where Mommy and Daddy had once seen a big bear, so it wasn't safe for them to stay there. Before long, Daddy started feeding them in the cat-crate. Back in September when all four went in at once, he closed the door and brought them home. So that's how we got Grover, Rufus, Orville, and Claudine.

Here is how you can tell them apart. Claudine looks like she was made from scrap cat parts. Maybe that's why she is such a scrapper.

This is a better picture of her:

Orville is the smallest cat but he has big ears. He look like an elf.

Rufus is the biggest. He was real shy when he came here but he got over it. He has a little orange spot beside his nose that makes him look funny.

Grover has two spots near his nose. They look lke he should have wiped his nose better. He is probably the smartest and most adventurous of the group. He gets into stuff.

They stayed downstairs for a while until they got used to things, but now they have made themselves right at home. And they have grown real big. The regular cats had a cat-meeting and the kitties were voted in by me, Alfreda, Otis, Charlotte, and my kitty Arlo (who only voted yes because I told him to).  Chloe abstained from voting, and Jim-Bob was the only one who voted no because he doesn't have much use for cats who don't work.

The four kitties are pretty much part of the cat herd now. Otis tried to teach them string theory, so now they play with his string.

The kitties get into a lot of things and cause trouble, but they are kind of cute when they sleep.

Orville has real good tiger stripes. They are not as pretty as my stripes but they are brighter.

Orville likes to sleep with Grover.

Otis and Charlotte have been teaching them how to use the computer to watch YouTube videos.

Otis has taught Claudine how much fun it is to get on the top of the cat-tower.

I think Otis and Charlotte might be teaching the kitties bad things. But since I have to work, I don't really know what is going on inside the house during the day.

I used to be against taking in homeless kitties, but I have changed my mind. Some of you might remember how I didn't want Arlo to live here when he was a homeless kitty, but I got over that. When Alfreda joined us, I didn't object too much. After all, she was a striped kitty like me. I was used to taking in stray kitties when Otis and Charlotte came; but I was glad that Alfreda raised them instead of me having to do it. I know now that all kitties—no matter where they came from—deserve a good home.

Anyhow, that's the latest news.

—Tanner (Chief House Cat)

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