SOTK 2022

 State of the Kitties Report: 2022

by Tanner (Resident Cat-in-Charge)

I haven't made a report for a while, but I have been real busy. I work two jobs. During the day, I go outside and rat-patrol with Jim-Bob. At night I rat-watch in the garage. Skippy and Cedrick also patrol outside but they have a different territory. 

Here is Skippy is in his bed; Cedrick is rolling on the porch and trying to look cute, but I don't think he's cute at all.

  

I have mostly got used to Skippy as long as he stays out of my way, but I still don't much like Cedrick and Jim-Bob hates him. Sometimes they fight.

I like to ride the golf-cart with Mommy. Sometimes she drives me out to the field where I work.

Skippy wants to ride it too, but I don't like to share the seat with him. Sometimes we smack each other over who gets to ride shotgun.  Skippy is on the floor in the picture below. You can see his tail.

 

Things have been pretty quiet around here this winter, except we had some excitement on Xmas eve. Daddy came home from riding the tractor down the road and didn't feel very well, so most of us inside kitties kept quiet all through the house so as not to bother him. But soon after Mommy made a phone call, outside there arose a big clatter, so all the other cats and I sprang into hiding. There was some kind of big truck outside with lots of flashing red and white lights, and most of the kitties ran downstairs where the good hiding places are. I hid but peeked out every so often to see what was happening. 

Somebody carrying a big machine came right in the house—even though Mommy has not been letting people in because of the pan-dem-ick—and hooked Daddy up to it and said he had to go to the hospital right away. More big truck-things—bigger even than Daddy's tractors—were in the driveway with all their lights going. I was getting scared now myself, but I didn't want the kitties to see how scared I was because I am the cat-in-charge. A couple more people came in and they put Daddy on something like a bed with wheels but it didn't look very comfortable and said they would drive him down the road to where a hello-copter would meet them and he would ride the hello-copter to the hospital.

When I have to go to the cat hospital, Mommy just stuffs me in the crate and puts me in the car. I guess it's different when people go to people hospitals. I don't know what a hello-copter is. I wonder if it is anything like Mommy's golf-cart. I like to ride golf-carts.

Anyhow, Mommy and I worried for a couple hours until Daddy finally called. He told Mommy he now had two somethings (sounded like tents) in his artery now and he was going to get better. He came back home two days later, but a friend brought him so I didn't get to see a hello-copter. He feels a lot better now.

Another thing that happened is that cold white wet stuff fell all around outside on Sunday. It was in the front yard and the back yard. I looked in both places to be sure.

 

I knew it was snow, but some of the younger kitties weren't familiar with it. They watched from the window.

 Jim-Bob and I tried to go out on Monday so we could do our cat-work, but we had to keep coming back in. We asked Mommy to let us out another door just in case the weather was better through that one, but the weather was still bad. After we tried the third door, we decided we'd better settle ourselves for a long winter's nap. Except we got up to eat supper.

In the picture above is Orville in front, Jim-Bob and me in the middle, and my kitty Arlo in back. Below is Otis, me, Rufus (who is a real big cat), Grover, Arlo, and Jim-Bob.

Sometimes I snuggle my kitty Arlo to keep him warm. I raised Arlo from when he was a little kitty.

Finally the sun came out, but the snow didn't melt. 

It was hard to get any cat-work done, but at least I tried.

Skippy tried too, but he didn't get much work done either. The snow was frozen so he didn't sink in.

I decided it was best to stay inside and sleep in front of this vent that sometimes blows warm air on me. I like warm air.

Chloe got a new cat bed, so she gave up her old cat bed which some of the other cats—mainly Arlo and Rufus—had been coveting. 

I guess the other cats think if the old bed isn't good enough for Chloe, it must not be good enough for anybody else, so no one else uses it. Arlo has been coveting the new bed and sometimes sneaks into it and won't let Chloe have it back. That makes her real mad.

As for the outside cat population, our oldest cat Twiggy—who was a fine and noble ratter—vanished a couple of months ago. I don't think she is coming back. A young wild kitty named Max showed up last summer and pretty much lives here full-time, but Mommy says he is too old to tame. She took this picture of him last fall.

That is about all the news I have for now. 

THE END!

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