SOTK 2024

Tanner’s State of the Kitties Report for 2024

 

 

I haven’t done any state of the kitties reports for a while, so I guess I’m about due. All of us cats are getting older. At eleven, I’m pretty much long in the tooth. Actually, I do have a long tooth. It is my upper right fang. See:

 

 

 Chloe will vouch that I have a long fang:

 

One of my favorite things is taking a nap with the some of the other cats. Mommy’s bed is our favorite napping place. Our favorite time to nap in winter is the late afternoon when the setting sun comes through the window and warms up the pillows, but some of us nap any time we get a chance. In the picture below, I have the coveted pillow spot and I am waiting for the sun.

 

In this picture, Rufus has the sunny spot. I think he is getting solar recharged.

 

I don't nap all the time. Sometimes I work. Jim-Bob and I still go out to do cat-work every day that the weather is good. Sometimes we work together and sometimes we work separate. Here we are on rat patrol in the back yard.

 

We like to work in other places too, but sometimes we have distractions. Since late spring, Mountain Valley Pipeline construction resumed. It is now mostly—but not quite—finished. Noise and traffic from the MVP—including incessant beeping some days from the multitude of heavy earth-moving equipment—has been within a thousand feet of us for months and puts us well within the blast zone if the 42-inch pipe blows up when it’s turned on. It has disturbed a lot of Jim-Bob’s and my cat-work that we like to do in what used to be the horse pasture.

 

I sometimes work at night in the garage. Something that disturbed my night cat-work is that Mommy had new garage doors installed last summer. The old ones were falling apart, had holes in the bottom, and the door openers sometimes didn’t work. I miss those old doors because there was a hole in the bottom of one corner where a rat could get in, and sometimes I’d get the rat. I miss being able to do that.

 

I guess the biggest news this past year is that Cedrick, one of the full-time outdoor kitties, vanished mysteriously in mid-October. Skippy, the old ex-tomcat, who is probably Otis and Charotte's daddy, raised Cedrick as his kitty.

 

 

Now, I have never much liked Cedrick, so it didn’t matter much to me that he was gone, but Mommy was upset. I don’t think Skippy was very happy either.

 

After a few weeks, Mommy figured a coyote had got Cedrick and she said we would never see him again. Then, one afternoon in early December, Daddy came up from the shop and said he saw a black cat down there. Mommy got in the golf-cart and drove to the shop. It was Cedrick! She brought him back to the garage and fed him, and he ate and ate. He was real thin for a while, but he has gained back all his weight now. He never told any of us where he had been or why he left. I guess I’m glad Cedrick is back because Mommy and Skippy like him, but I still do not much like him and probably never will. Cedrick walks around like he owns the place.

 

 

Last spring we had a big turtle pass through our yard. It was a snapping turtle that travels from the pond across the road to another pond across another road. Momy and Daddy decided they'd help him pass through a little quicker before he snapped one of us. Daddy shoveled him into a big can and Mommy gave him a ride in the golf-cart to a place a lot closer to where the turtle was headed. Then Daddy dumped him out and the big turtle went on his way.  

 

 

Well, that is about all the news I can think of. It is past time for my nap and all the good places have been taken.

~ ~ ~

SOTK Spring 2023

 State of the Kitties Report, Spring 2023

by Tanner (Resident Cat-in-Chief)

Here I am in bed with Rufus, Grover, Charlotte, Orville, Jim-Bob. and Arlo.

Not a lot has changed since my last year state of the kitties report. I am still in charge but I am slowing down a little, and I sometimes only work half a shift instead of a whole day. I only stay in the garage at night if it's warm. If it's cold, I stay in the house and sleep on mommy's bed with a bunch of the other cats. It is a good thing we all get along.

I am an old cat now. I turned 10 this winter.  There are only three cats on the property who are older than I am—Chloe and her brother Jim-Bob will be 14 in August, and the outside cat Spotz will be 14 in June or July.

Spotz in her domain—the shop window.

Spotz works around the pasture and goes in the shop at night. She has a friend named Max who is a feral cat, and they sometimes hunt rats together when Max isn't away for a few days. Mommy told me he is likely looking for love. Mommy golf-carts out to feed them twice a day. Spotz is always glad to see her, but Max won't come closer than a foot. He is the only cat on the property that Mommy hasn't been able to tame. He usually sleeps in a box on the patio under the deck.

Skippy and his kitty Cedrick also work outside, and they usually sleep close to the house where Mommy has fixed several cat nests for them. They often sleep together. Cedrick has been here for a few years now, and I still do not much like him. I can usually tolerate Skippy, though. Jim-Bob still hates Cedrick and wants to fight him.

Cedrick thinks he's king of the castle.

Jim-Bob and I are the only housecats who work outside during the day now. Chloe would like to go out the way she used to four years ago before she disappeared for 9 days and came home hurt real bad, but Mommy won't let her go out anymore because it cost a lot of money to get Chloe's fracture fixed. Jim-Bob usually only works half a day. Then he comes in and naps with some of the others. Arlo would like to sneak out if he could like he did a few times last year, but Mommy watches him whenever she goes out. Arlo and Chloe usually stay in the garage at night to hunt the rat, but we haven't seen any garage rats for a long time. The other cats have no interest whatsoever in going out.

Rufus, Jim-Bob, Otis, Orville, and Grover.

Late in the afternoon, the sun shines in the window and a lot of us like to sleep in its warmth. Claudine gets in the window and tries to hog all the sunlight for herself. Her brother Rufus is so big that he gets a lot more sun than anyone else.

 

Sometimes I'm in and out during the day. When I'm out, I do my catwork, which is mostly patrolling and watching. Two weeks ago, Mommy golf-carted me and Skippy out to the former pasture so we could check the fence line. Here I am inspecting it.

Skippy inspected it too.

The weeping cherry tree by the fence is real pretty when it blooms.

An even prettier one is across the pasture. A bird planted the see there a long time ago.

Here's a closer look at it. In summer, I sometimes sleep under it.

A few weeks ago, Spring was just starting to show itself. The corkscrew willow that Mommy planted a long time ago—before I even got here—was the first to show green.

Next to it is a cherry tree, which is in bloom. 

Here's a closer look at the cherry tree.

The redbud soon started showing its buds. I sometimes climb the redbud trees.

The forsythia near the mailbox really showed its color. 

The bridal wreath near the side yard bloomed early this year. Sometimes I sit under it because it is a good hiding place. 

All around the yard things are changing, but the view of the mountains doesn't change all that much.

That is about all for my report this time. It is time for my nap.

~

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)

~

Alfreda Moves Up

by Alfreda, resident mom-cat

We're movin' on up

To the south side,

To a deluxe cat condo

In the den. . . .

If you read my earlier blog-post, you know that I adopted twins about seven weeks ago and am now a single mom-cat. For six weeks, we lived in cardboard boxes in the dowstairs den which has been a mess since the water heater malfuntion of June 11 when the furniture got moved out.

My little family and I are facing eviction in two weeks when a new carpet will be installed, so we decided to move out early.

We are currently residing in Tanner's former condo, which offers a south-facing view onto the deck. It also has some artwork, so we don't have to do much decorating.

Otis and Charlotte like the picture of the gray cat. Maybe because they're gray, too. Tanner's old condo is next to the big one, so we have maybe taken over that one, too.

It is a tight fit for all of us in the penthouse section. When the kittens grow a little more, they will have to move down to some of the lower levels.

Tanner is aware of what my kitties and I are doing, but he isn't too happy about it. Right after we'd moved in and had lunch, Tanner stopped by for a snack and to see what was going on.

Tanner pointed out that it was his cat-condo, but he might sub-lease it to me. The problem is that I don't have any money to pay rent.

Before I adopted Otis and Charlotte, I was working part-time on rat patrol at night in the garage, but Tanner said I wasn't doing a good enough job, so I quit to stay home with my kitties. Good cat jobs are hard to find, and Tanner won't even give me a recommendation.

Plus I confess I have a bad addiction to Temptations Cat Treats (I especially like the Chicken flavor and Dairy flavor). Unfortunately, the kittens saw me indulging and picked up this addiction from me. I shouldn't have gotten them hooked, but what's done is done. But I cannot afford to support this habit for the three of us without a source of income.

Consequently, if you would buy some of Mommy's books that would help pay my rent and buy Temptations for me and Otis and Charlotte. Her books and ebooks are on Amazon.

~