From Rebecca:
I was wondering if you have readership (besides me) in the Virginia area? I’ve got a feral-born tuxedo boy (around 12 weeks old) that has decided that people are way better than being “born free” and I am having him neutered/vetted this week. Know any tuxedo cat addicts in this area? 🙂
Mr. Boogerbutt (as I call him) was born to a 100% feral mom and we haven’t been able to catch her yet. He was the smallest of this litter, and his 4 siblings disappeared suddenly about two weeks ago. He lives in the flower beds at my office and all of us have been feeding and loving on him for about three weeks now. This little guy blows my mind – I have never seen weaned feral kitten choose people like this. I pick him up for snuggles multiple times a day…no hissing, scratching, or biting. I’ve tested his tolerance by flipping him over, messing with his ears and feet, and carrying him with nothing more than a little timidity from him. He’s pretty much the coolest stray baby ever.
If you have any ideas, please let me know!
Ideas, suggestions, questions, want to adopt him? Email Rebecca at eisforemail (at) gmail (dot) com for more info!
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Sights from around Crooked Acres.
“Where our snack, George? Where it at? It not on the ground.”
“Snack over there with the man? He waving his hands around and saying “Look up! Look UP!”, maybe he have our snack!”
“I don’t know, Gracie. That man don’t look like he got a snack.”
“The lady, George! She just said “Look at me if you want your snack”! I should get George’s snack too, lady, it’s only fair.”
Pretty flowers growing on Dirt Mountain. I don’t know what they are. Fred calls them “weeds”, but I suspect that isn’t the official name.
You can’t tell from this picture, but the water in the pond is actually staring to clear up. We threw a bag of barley in the deep end about a week and a half ago, and it seems to be making a difference.
The ducks are enjoying the water, green or not.
“If you has no cookies for us, you just go ‘way.”
Dolores, the Orb Weaver who lived in the front flower bed. The last time I saw Dolores, it had just started raining and she was running for cover, leaving a half-wrapped grasshopper behind. She disappeared after that – I guess she decided there were greener pastures elsewhere. (For size reference, I would guess that legs and all, she was about the size of the palm of my hand.) I know, ewww, spider. But she’s so pretty and she won’t hurt you!
The Hydrangeas in the front flower bed sure are happy.
This is a Red Velvet Ant. Her correct fancypants name is Mutillidae. Before this summer, I had seen MAYBE two of them. This summer, I’ve seen about ten.
The Sheriff had to come over and see what I was doing. I don’t know if the dry summer is what is encouraging the proliferation of these things, or what. They’re also known as “Cow Killers” not because they could actually kill a cow, but their bite is apparently very painful. They’re not actually ants, they’re wingless wasps. Actually, the males are less fuzzy, have wings, and don’t bite. The females are wingless and do bite. My mother-in-law told me that if they’re cornered, they’ll actually squeal, but I keep in mind the painful bite aspect, and try not to get too close. It’s been my experience that they do their best to get away if I’m walking in their direction. But if I see one in the back yard, I kill it. My cats are stupid and I don’t want them suffering painful bites because they think they’ve found a toy.
We have a miniature Meyer Lemon tree in a big pot on the driveway. It’s looking like it’s going to produce about 10 Meyer Lemons this year, but they’re taking forever to grow and mature. When the weather turns cold, we’ll move the tree into the garage, upstairs in front of the window, like we did last winter.
There’s a feed and seed place we occasionally visit up near Tennessee. Last weekend, we went up to see what they had in the way of cool animals (last year they were bottle-feeding a baby Llama.) This time, they had young Rheas, which are similar to Ostriches. They were awfully cute (and no, we don’t need Rheas. For one, the fence around the back forty isn’t tall enough to confine adult Rheas.)
When we moved into this house, I chopped down a ton of weeds and foliage around the trees in the back yard. Slowly, we’ve let some stuff grow back (the cats like hanging out under the greenery), including a Rose of Sharon (hibiscus) bush. I absolutely love the color of the flowers it puts out.
“Forget stupid flowers, lady. Bring on the cookies!”
“If he gets a cookie, so do I!” (It kind of looks like he has a chicken sitting on his back, doesn’t it?)
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Brandywine, keeping an eye on me.
She is just so PRETTY.
Rough life, ain’t it?
(Dingwall Scotty. Also, we think “Dingwallace” would be an excellent name. I thought of it last night and Fred and I laughed and laaaaughed, because we are dorks.)
Lazy monkeys.
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Tony Rocky Horror Pickle continues to do really well. He seems to have located his appetite, and when I walk into the room, he sits expectantly at the door to the carrier where he stays. When I let him out, he stomps (!) across the room, into the closet where I give them their canned food, and he meows up at me. Because he is STARVIN’. He’s finally putting on some weight, and yesterday he harassed Polly so much that she had to jump up on the cat tree to get away from him.
Oh, he’s going to be such a MONSTER.
“Girrrrrl, whatchoo been DOIN’ with your furs? I don’t know if I’m going to be able to fix this mess.”
Sleepy Petey. Oh, he is just the sweetest little guy.
More snuggling in the giant Croc slipper-bed.
“I’ll be safe up here.”
“That’s what SHE thinks!”
Joe looks a little worried, doesn’t he?
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After acting like he was too good to mess with Da Bird, Joe Bob finally gave in and lunged for it. Look at Elwood’s look of disapproval! He’s like “That boy ain’t right.”
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Previously
2011: Harlan gets his butt kicked while the Kong bird looks on, unconcerned.
2010: Miz Poo’s all “Do you SEE what I have to put up with?!”
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.