What camera did you use for this series of pictures?
It’s a Sony SLT-A55V, and I was using a zoom lens with it. I’ve had it for about five years, and I consider it money well spent.
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Does Archie defy the invisible fence or does he not wear a collar for it? Somehow I always wonder how those work when all they have to do is put up with the zap until they’re on the other side of the line, it can’t hurt that much, can it?
and
I don’t remember…is the area the cats wander in outside fenced? And how do you keep them from jumping it?
The back yard is fenced in, and there’s a space of about 20 feet or so before the fence to the back forty begins. The entire back forty (which is about 2 1/2 acres) is fenced in, but the fence only really holds in the chickens and George – there’s no way that fence will hold in (or out) the cats.
Archie, Stefan, Maxi and Newt are all free-roaming cats (though Maxi really only roams from the house to the garage, and Newt roams from the front room to the computer room these days). They usually come in and out through the side door (which isn’t inside the fence to the back yard), though if they want in and I’m not around, they can climb over the fence into the back yard.
Kara, Dennis, and Joe Bob wear collars that work with the underground fence that goes around the back yard. If they get within 10 (I think) feet of the fence, they get a warning beep. If they keep going, they get a short zap from the collar. Kara is the battery tester – if the battery in her collar needs to be replaced, she knows it immediately, and so I check her collar every day to make sure the battery doesn’t need replacing. Joe Bob is the Houdini: he can get his collar off somehow, and I have no idea how. Once or twice a week, I’ll look into the back yard to see him sitting there, collarless, staring at the house. When he sees me watching him, he very pointedly walks over to the fence, climbs it, and then walks slowly to the side stoop to be let in. He drives me CRAZY, but I’m grateful that he apparently only feels the need to send me a message every so often, and has no real desire to roam.
Alice and Jake used to wear collars, but they don’t anymore, because they were so well-trained by wearing the collars when they were small that they don’t even think about climbing the fence.
Stinkerbelle has never gone outside – she used to occasionally sit on the dryer and wait for Tommy to come back inside – and I’m glad, because I don’t know how on earth we’d ever catch her again.
I know that having cats who are free roamers is not the ideal situation – but it’s the only way we can have a semi-peaceful existence around here. If Archie and Stefan, especially, didn’t have a lot of room to put between them, I imagine we’d be awash in a flood of cat spray. As it is, we still see too much of the stuff.
(Just FYI, the fosters are never allowed to go outside. Usually they leave us before they’re old enough to figure out the cat door, but on the rare occasion we have an older cat who figures it out, or a smartypants, they go back upstairs, the screen door is permanently closed, and they don’t get to run around the downstairs unless I’m keeping a close eye on them, or the back door is closed.)
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I was going to ask, besides the cats and George, what do you farm at Crooked Acres?
We have chickens (see yesterday’s post), we’ve had pigs in the past, and most summers we have a pretty big vegetable garden. Oh – we also have a pond full of catfish!
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As a result of the 2007 flashback entry, I ran across the following:
“I’ll be leaving Smallville around 4 this afternoon to drive to Madison, pick up Joe Bob, and take him to the pet store. Yes, after he’s been with us for something like two months, it’s time for him to go and possibly be adopted. He’s adapted really well to life here and he’s such a sweet boy, but I really think that seven cats is just too many for us to have on a permanent basis.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! And HOW many Permanent Residents are in that top picture INCLUDING Mr. Going To The Pet Store??? 😉
Mock if you must, but he actually did go to Petsmart and get adopted and then returned – we didn’t adopt him until a year later, after Spot was gone. (This is why I try to resist making flat-out “We’re not keeping him” statements about fosters anymore!)
PS: Please note in the post from 9 years ago today I said: Fred feels sorry for Myrtle and Joe Bob because they’re going to get all comfortable here, and then we’re going to take them back to the pet store (eventually) and they’ll be all locked up in a little cage together. However, he also informed me that if we adopted them, it’d be the last time a foster cat ever came through our door, so there you go.
MY how the worm has turned.
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I live in Kokomo (Indiana) so I love these names for the new kitties!
We lived in Indiana when I was very young (my father was in the Air Force), and we had a dog named Kokomo. I keep meaning to ask my parents to send me a picture of him to post, but keep forgetting. He was a little white dog.
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Wasn’t Creed adopted? I noticed the sidebar today and saw there was not an adopted tag. Darn-I hope it was an error.
No, he hasn’t been adopted. He’s currently at the shelter, ruling the cat room. Susan said that he greets everyone who comes through the door and gets lots of love from them. I wish someone would adopt him, but he’s not doing too badly at the shelter.
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I’m too lazy to check, but isn’t that a new kitchen counter top? Very nice.
Yes, we got a new counter top, sink, and faucet a year ago, and I’ve been meaning to share before and after pictures. We still need to do something about the backsplash (the back of the new counters are not as high as the previous ones, and there’s an obvious space that needs to be painted or… something. A year later, we’re still pondering (ignoring) what we want to do.)
Here are before and after pictures. Be kind and ignore all the crap on the counter in the “after.”
Youuuuu doooo nooooot seeeee alll thaaaaaat juuuuuuuunk.
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I put Koko on the top shelf of the wall tree in hopes of getting a good full-body picture of her, and her attention was caught by the reflection in the window.
She immediately went down a level, staring at the window (it was at night and the overhead light was on, so it was like a mirror).
“What the – ?” Then she went over to the window.
“Are you pregnant TOO? Get in here, let’s form a mother’s club!”
But, alas. Once I turned the overhead light off, that other mama went away.
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I’d intended to make a little “Kathie’s Finishing School” category for the Coaches on the sidebar, but obviously never got around to it. Now the Coaches are headed off to Petsmart tomorrow. Fingers crossed that all of them get adopted very quickly.
They’ve been doing great at Kathie’s – Nubbs had the stitches taken out of his tail-nub on Tuesday, and Kathie reports that it looks great. She also reported that she has been able to bend over and pick him up from the floor, which is something I was never able to do here, he’d run away if I tried. So he’s becoming a more confident boy, yay!
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Behold Archie, the “free-roaming” cat.
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Previously
2015: “Don’t be stingy, lady. Gimme more.”
2014: I love how tossing a toy into a basket makes even skittish kittens come running over to see what’s going on.
2013: Mercury’s Glamour Shots pose.
2012: No entry.
2011: Updates on adopted kittens.
2010: Kara, keeping an eye on YOU.
2009: No entry.
2008: Spot.
2007: Obviously he just doesn’t love Joe Bob enough.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.