Dramatis Purrsonae: Tarmac

This little girl toddled up to the food dishes Sunday and I couldn't believe my eyes! Lovely little black coat with reddish undercoat, and not as wary as she should have been. I couldn't touch her but when I slipped my net under the barricade and tilted it up over her, she didn't react (too busy eating) so I got it over her and eased her back out from under. She was NOT happy, but didn't put up much of a fight. So there I was with a bagful of kitten and no carrier in the car (took it out last week while shoveling out the back... again), but luckily there was a milk crate I'd found roadside and a relatively heavy basket of laundry, so I popped her into the box, bag and all, parked the basket on top, and rolled for home as fast as I could without tipping the whole thing over. Parked her in a cage with wet food, which she gulped down in great quantities, and got a better look at her. About 8 or 9 weeks, I guess; judging from her color I'll bet she was the Black's last hurrah before I got him. Started phoning around for help and Adopt-A-Cat stepped up again, bless 'em; they have a build-a-litter of several unrelated babies who are being looked after by a mom cat who's feral but is a great mother. We put this little girl with the brood; Momcat sniffed her over, shrugged and started grooming her too! A volunteer who works at Hobby suggested the name Tarmac (for her color) and we got her on the spay roster in a few more weeks when she's got some weight on her. I was kind of worried; she had something of a belly on her and I realized that I had probably fed her too much for a first meal, but she digested it with no problems and is now munching her way determinedly through a bag of Royal Canin Baby-Cat kibble. The litter she was put with was mostly tame kittens, and I hear she's beginning to follow their lead and decide to be adoptable!

clinic day

What a marvelous day at the clinic Sunday! 130 cats fixed, no losses, and six kittens pulled for foster and adoption! Truly epic numbers! and an epic work day; long and hot, but all worth it! The only less than sunny note was that one feral girl gave birth in a trap; I was helping unload and saw one kitty kind of headbumping toward me against the side of the trap. I said, "oh, are you a little friendly guy then?" and pulled the cover back a bit, but that revealed a tiny little face with buttoned-down ears and squinched-up eyes. At first I was nonplussed; why did they bring a nursing mother to the spay clinic? Then it hit me, "Aw, $&%^; y'all got some newborns here!"
Apparently she had 'em on the hour-long drive to the clinic that morning. Although she seems young, she's still being a good mom and taking care of them (thank goodness!!); some youngsters get too scared to do anything for new babies. So she was set aside in a cool dark corner and will come back in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, back at the colony, there's a minor mystery I'll have to wait for the weekend to clear up. This time of year, it's dark by the time I get out there to feed 'em; there are area lights but they're on poles two stories off the ground so they're more show than go. Anyway, I was scritching the Black on his head and felt something crusty, but it was too dark to examine it. He didn't pull away, so at least whatever it is doesn't hurt. I'll have to wait till the weekend to learn more, when I can come during daylight hours.

Thing 1 & Thing 2 update

Good news! Thing 1 and Thing 2 are taming down nicely and are available for adoption from Adopt-A-Cat (www.adoptacattexas.org ) I got to visit them at the adoption center today. Thing 1 is not as ribby as she looks; that's just her stripes and the angle of the shot. They've both got good weight and live in a comfortable foster home.I'm happier about Thing 2; she's calm enough to face me even though I'm "staring" at her with the camera. That's a big improvement.

The rest of the colony is doing all right; today was kind of a "whew" day because yesterday I put some Revolution on the Black for his ear problems and maybe-mange, and it's always a tense time using it for the first time on a feral because you never know if they're one of the vanishingly rare ones who react badly to it. But he was headbumping and demanding food as usual, so all's well with that. He has an amazingly squeaky voice for such a large tom, and boy does he use it; it's nonstop squeak, squeak, squeak till the food is dispensed. He still tries to chase the others off; I guess I need to find him a barn to himself. We'll see.

changes

There seems to be a new sociodynamic deveoping among the colony. Formerly, everyone except Flame and Fancy Dan ate at the usual dish behind the barricade. Flame and Dan have a smaller dish across the parking lot; they can stand behind a chainlink fence (where they know I can't reach them), and I fill the dish and push it under the fence to them. Dan will even reach under and pull it if I'm not quick enough to suit him!
Well, over the past week, more of the other crew have been joining them at this remote dish. Yellow Fellow and Little Joe (and sometimes Bonita, though she still frequents both) now wait at the remote dish and eat there. I substituted a larger dish and push it halfway under the fence so they can surround it.
Meanwhile, back at the barricade, it's Big John, the Black, and Billie Jean. I suspect the Black; although he purrs and headbumps me, he also headbumps Big John kind of hard, pushing him aside (do cats do "passive aggressive"? I wouldn't think so) and he flat chases Bonita away (I've heard sounds of conflict from behind the barricade; he'll chase her under and there'll be banging and screeching for a few seconds). Only Billie Jean seems immune; she still bogarts the dish and pokes everyone away, even the Black. She doesn't come out from under the barricade until she's through eating, and then she does it several feet down from me. So I surmise he's either chasing everyone else away or they just don't want to be around when he starts up with Bonita. I'm not real fond of the arrangement; the remote dish is out in the open; it's not readily visible but four or five cats gathered around it ARE. I wish they'd stay behind the barricade but evidently that's not going to happen. I'm going to look into moving the Black if I can find a barn. Or even a home; he's tame enough to try bulldozing me off balance with that big ol' broad head of his, maybe he can re-learn to live with people again.