SOTK 2025

 The 2025 State of the Kitties Report 

by Tanner (Resident Housecat-in-Chief))

Well, it's been nearly a year since you last heard from me. Things haven't changed a lot. We still have the same kitties in residence in the house. There's me (of course),; Chloe and Jim-Bob (who will be 16 in August); Arlo (who I raised as my kitty a good while back); Otis and Charlotte (who will turn 7 this spring); the four kitties Daddy rescued—Rufus, Claudine, Orville, and Grover (who will turn 6 this summer). Jim-Bob and I go out every day if the weather is good because there's a lot of outside cat-work that needs to be done. If the weather is bad, we take the day off.

Most of the inside cats sleep in Mommy's bed during the day.

Sometimes I join them. That's me against the pillow. Arlo is next to me, and Otis is in front of me.

Sometimes we sleep in a line. Here I am, then Rufus, then Jim-Bob, the Orville, and the Grover who has his high-beams on.

The only full-time outside cats are Spotz (who will be 16 in June or July) and Cedrick (who I still don't much like and who is about 7). Cedrick went missing for two months in 2023 and never did reveal where he was, but he must have learned a lesson because he sticks around here real good now. Or maybe he can't leave because of his promotion. More about that later. A part-time outside cat is Max who is too wild for Mommy to touch and who likes to hang around outside, but sometimes he sneaks into the garage at feeding time,

It's hard to classify Skippy, who used to be a tom-cat who lived down the road and is the father of Otis and Charlotte. About 10 years ago, Skippy used to visit here most days and his owner would come grab him and take him home but he would soon be back. Then his owner moved away, and Skippy started considering here as his home base. Every so often, he'd go looking for love and be gone about two weeks. About seven years ago, after he'd been gone for nearly a month, Mommy thought he was gone for good. But he finally showed up missing his manhood and the tip of his left ear. Anyhow, he didn't leave after that, and he became the chief patrol cat outside. If anybody came onto our property, Skippy always had to check them out. Skippy would also attack dogs and raccoons. A couple of times he even jumped on me. Anyhow, I guess Skip (I can call him Skip since we're friends now) got tired of so much responsibility and decided to become a house-cat. He'd been training Cedrick to be a patrol cat, so Cedrick took over the job. Now Skip spends a good part of his time inside and Cedrick patrols. Cedrick sleeps in the garage at night. Skip sometimes sleeps in a basket of clean laundry, but usually he sleeps in the bed. Once in a while he will sleep in the garage.

Skippy is sleeping above my head.

A closer look at Skippy.

We had some snow this winter, so I didn't go out much while the snow was on the ground. It was too cold and I don't like how snow feels on my feet. Here's how it looked out the front door. 

Here's how it looked out back:

Here's how the driveway looked:

Here's how some of us looked watching it.

We also had ice and wind which messed up the big pine trees. Daddy wasn't happy about how much he had to clean up.

I wasn't happy because all the limbs blocked a lot of my favorite work sites. It will take a long time to clean up all the mess, but Daddy hauls a load or two down to the farm every day or so if the weather is good. 

That's about all the news I have to report this year. I am looking forward to warm weather.

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