Tails

Cooper

                                  Look at that sweet little face... this is guy is a character.

Lately Cooper has had a facination with tails, this morning I woke up to my usual cuddles and snuggles from Cooper. In and out from under the blanket purring and getting as close to me as he can, then nibbles on my nose, ears, fingers and any other thing he can get his teeth on. All in an effort to wake me up so I will start breakfast.  This morning I guess I did not get out of bed fast enough so Cooper got down on the floor, layed within the fur on Harley's tail and began to play with his furr and "rabbit" kick his tail. Harley is my 100lbs Golden Retriever. As I began to get out of bed Harley started to get up to follow me... draging Cooper behind him. What a way to start the day, this not only brought me a smile but a laugh.

The other day Simon was resting compfortably on the back of the couch, Cooper decided to join him. They were being friendly and cleaning each other UNTIL Cooper spoted Simons tail...

Suki

Suki is one AMAZING cat! I am so proud of how well she took care of her babies for the first four weeks of their lives, outside with weather and animals and who know what else that could cause all five of them harm. I have been drawn to Suki since the day I saw her. I thought she was just beautiful and patient and even though she was a "feral" cat you could see sweetness in her.

When we first took Suki and the babies in, the plan was to home all four of the babies and spay and release Suki. We started feeding the kittens regular food and we were told by our vet that we could do the spay 2 weeks after the babies stopped nursing. Two weeks of spending time with her petting her and just getting to know her better. During the prep for the spay the vet said...  we would like you to keep her secluded for 2 weeks. What??? 2 more weeks... I surly did not mind I just did not know how my heart could handle this. I had told the vet to be careful not to be bitten or scratched by her, she was a "feral" cat that had never been to the vet, how would she react. The vet came out of the back and said... she a great cat are you sure your not going to keep her? Then a male vet tech comes in with her over his shoulder, no cage, no fear. She acted like she was home. Again I was asked are you sure your not going to keep her? I said no no, we have enough. So during the spay we had her ear clipped, this tells people that she is spayed so hopefully she will be left alone.

Suki outside, before she moved in.

In this picture you can see that Suki's left ear is clipped.

It really killed me to do it but the PLAN was to release her. Well OBVIOUSLY having her with us for so long we got really attached to her, I hope the feeling is mutual. She seems to be pretty happy in the house. I think she would like to go out to chase birds and lizard's but I can say that when it is raining outside sometimes I catcher looking outside and I get a strong feeling that she is content to be right where she is.

As I said she is AMAZING came into a house with 7 other cats and 2 large dogs, I was expecting mayhem, total chaos. She did some hissing, she chased and batted at a cat or two then all was good never payed a bit of attention to the dogs. Every now and then someone will chase her or vise verse and sometimes it gets a little ugly (sounding) but we have had no injured cats or dogs. An occasional scratch on the nose is about it. I could not have asked for a better scenario. Suki is hesitant with guest, they usually don't see her. She even shys away from my girls a bit, she just does not know them very well. My husband and I can hold her pet her love on her just the same as any of the other. She even gets on my bed for a short time with me, sometimes, I will take what I can get.

Suki on my bed cuddled up with Fergi (one of hers).

Tigger and Suki, Tigger chases her sometimes. Minutes before this picture was taken they were both curled up sleeping about a foot from each other.

Suki trying out one of the new kitty beds.

Snoozing with Simon and Gracie, again Suki was curled up touching Gracing.

Snoozing in the middle of my bed in the middle of the day.

Suki playing with the iPad game.

Here she is checking out the top of the TV cabinet in my room, a favored spot of several of the kitties.

Suki and Bigs eating next to each other is a big deal.

Bigs chases Suki sometimes too.

Suki and Tigger

Suki enjoying some perch time.

Curled up for a nap after some bird watching.

Suki and Lily squirrel watching together.



As I am finishing up with this blog Suki strolls of from under my bed, jumps up on the ottoman, comes to me and request an pet, then promptly perches herself on the back of the couch. She has never done that before. I think she is settling in quite nice.

I know that 12 is to many but there is not one that I could give up or trade and there is not a single on that I wish was not here. I love them all...

                                                                Just a little spoiled??

Some times I feel bad because I don't let my kitties go outside. Some people are very much for this for various reasons that I totally understand. After all it is a bit of a natural habitat for a hunter/cat. They can chase pray, climb trees for exercise, ect...  I just can't seemed to get passed the dangers that lurk outdoors. It does not help that a kitty I had many years ago was insistent on going outside. She came back very ill and passed away, she had gotten into something poisonous. I also fear that they will be hit by a car or attacked by another animal or many other icky things that I prefer not to think about. I am not always able to sit down and play with the babies... I do have two teenage girls and a house to keep clean and a yard to work in. I do try to have things available for them to play with. The cat trees are very popular, mostly for sleeping on but they do run up and down them and use the scratching post. I try to keep toys around, I have to be careful of what I choose for them, my 105lbs golden retriever likes to chew up balls if they are plastic so I have to get them the fabric ones or the squeaky mice. I hang ribbon from the back of a chair that they will bat around. They really love when we play with them with a teaser or a laser. The other day I was at Walmart... they have a laser that you can hold or set on a table and leave the house and every so often the laser will turn on for the cats to chase. I finally broke down and bought that because the majority of my cats love the laser.

                               (I love this picture, GiGi is playing with a bell on the end of a spring.)

 I know that some fur babies are far more spoiled than mine, I am working on it. I do feel mine have it pretty good. We purposefully place bird feeders near or on windows that the kitties are able to sit and watch them from.When its not bird feeding time though we occasionally turn on "The Pet Sitter"

This video is made for cats, it is hours of birds, mice, squirrels, fish, all kinds of fun things that they love to watch. Sometimes they even go behind the TV to try to find the things that they see on TV.

Gracie is always very curious.

Recently I was watching Must Love Cats on Animal Planet and they did a story about some guys that made an app for the iPad for cats. I thought it looked cool but did not act on it right away. A good friend of mine and fellow cat lover bought the app for her cats and told me how much they loved it.

Needless to say I had to have it... Boy do they LOVE it!!!

And of coarse they are always welcome to lounge where ever they would like...

                                                               In fact it is encouraged.

Kitty Playground...


Its no secret cats are very curious. They love to investigate high and low. Most cats really enjoy being up high as Jackson Galaxy would say a "Tree Dweller" cats that enjoy being down low he refers to as "Bush Dwellers" Our house has some high spots that my cats have loved to make their way up to, top of the refridgerator, tops of the kitchen cabinets, the overlook of our two story foyer. When we decided to get a fourth cat we knew that they would need more high places... more to share. A cat tree (or cat furniture) was our solution. They can get pretty expensive but I found a place on the internet that has a lot to choose from at reasonable prices. allpetfurniture.com.

This is the first cat tree that we got, yes they use it, I could not find a picture with them on it. It is in our master bedroom, the cats love it for a few reasons they can climb, get up high even jump to the top of the TV cabinet (they love that). They also get a great view of the birds we even have a bird feeder right on the window.

As I mentioned above we have a two story foyer. I was looking thru a cat magazine and came across an ad for a wood spiral staircase made for cats with a perch. This was a birthday gift for me last year. It is one of my favorite gifts...

This piece is 9 feet tall so the cats can get really high, I think this piece is a favorite of a few of them as well.

When we decided to keep Suki and her 4 babies we decided we need another cat tree. I went back to petfurniture.com to look for a large one. This is what we picked.

Dad putting it together.

Milo

Gracie

Milo again...

Cooper

Mia and GiGi

I think they kinda like it...

I hope so anyway...

CALL ME CRAZY... or maybe just Crazy Cat Lady.

Seven cats is a lot I will admit but everyday I can count on at least seven smiles. In October of 2011 two little kittens started to show up around our house. My heart always goes to the kittens. I love adults cats but kittens are small and "helpless". I put out food for them knowing that this would turn into a perminate venture, thats all good. Eventually their mom showed up with them so I kept her fed aswell. I am very finicky about my cats, I don't like any of them to go outside there are to many bad things that could come of it, I am just not willing to take that chance. I was however okay with Suki, Tidbit, and Rio (yes we named them) being outdoors technically they were not really ours (haha). My husband and I decided that we needed to get Suki spayed so that their would be no more kittens. I tried a few times to catch her, no luck. She came one day to eat and I knew when I saw her she was pregnent. We tried several more times to catch her, no luck.We decided to leave the garage door up a bit with bedding available in case she wanted to come in to have her babies. We put a plastic box outside with a towl as another option. She chose the bushes in our neighbors yard... the one with two dogs. I tried to take them to our house in hopes that she would follow. She would not, so I had to put them back because I was afaid for them to go to long without food. She took all four of them to the woods behind our house to hide them from me. I wrote on the calendar so I could track their age. Suki would come to eat 3 and 4 times a day, we made sure she got all the food she wanted and everytime she came to eat I told her bring your babies to me and I will help you with them. I said it ALOT! About 4 weeks after they were born, Easter morning... I went out to feed everyone and while standing in my garage I could hear a small meow. I followed the sound and found piled in a corner 4 small kittens. She had brought them all to me. They all looked really good, shes a great mom. Their fur was soft and theirs eyes were clear. About 2 weeks later they did get a little virus but even that is gone now. Three Black and one gray... a little black one stole my heart we had decided early on that we would keep her. Her name is Mia. We had Suki spayed and in the 4 weeks time that we had to house her we have not only fallen in love with her but with the other three. The shelters are overflowing with cats right now so we then decided that we would keep all of the kittens... and Suki.  Suki is still very unsure of the inside of the house, we are working to make her comfortable in her suroundings and with the rest of the animals, we are really hoping that she decideds to keep us. Our house would not be the same with out her.

Tidbit

Rio

Suki

GiGi

Cooper

Mia

Fergie

Beautiful Suki with GiGi