For those of you who didn’t see my updates in yesterday’s comment section: the latest on the cat story. Late in the morning, Don remarked that he saw a big male cat headed toward the orange tabby in heat (who was, once again, on our porch). I jumped up, scared him off, and watched our girl continue to rub and writhe and present her hind end as an enticement to our visitor.
I scared the intruder off a second time. And then I called my neighbor, all the while trying to keep their cat on our porch, and told her what was going on. She came over and managed to grab the cat. I didn’t see little Amber the rest of the day, so I assume they’re keeping her indoors. Meanwhile, the male cat came back twice, each time calling for her.
He finally gave up.
Two cats on our property are two cats too many. I don’t want them near our birds.
The hens and chicks in the garden bed in front of the porch blooms every year. I had to get down to ground level to get this photo. Pretty, don’t you think?
Don is headed out to spend the weekend at a music festival. This is the kind of festival where there are musicians performing 24 hours a day. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. He’s slotted at 12:15 am – early Sunday morning. He’s taking a sleeping bag, as everyone is camping on site. I can only hope the temperatures drop a bit, so he can sleep well. I’m driving him to a neighboring town this afternoon, where he’s going to meet up with a friend who’s giving him a ride. We’ve only got one car and I can’t be without a car for a whole weekend!
I hope he has a great time!
This will be a good opportunity to work on the Top Secret Project. Some paint choices need to be made and some more construction needs to be done. I’m really looking forward to learning new techniques as I go about creating the interior.
Today is my mom’s birthday. I miss you, Mom. Happy Birthday.
Happy Friday.
Glad your birds will now be able to feel safe. Have fun on the secret project. Picking out paint colours is always fun. Traveling blessings for Don. Hope he has a blast. How is Scout feeling? Hope the humidity breaks soon.
Hugs,
Deb
I have some ideas as to paint colors – now the question is which one do I want to be an accent and which one the main color on the outside of the structure?
Scout is hanging in there. She’s doing a bit better, Deb.
Your neighbor needs to keep her cat inside until all this passes or she will have baby kitties! Yikes! I had one cat go into heat at a pretty young age and it was awful until I could get her fixed. I love my cats but they are indoor guys so no catching birds! I hope Don has a good time, I’m just way too old to sleep out like that but in my younger days enjoyed such things! Time to work on the secret project is a good thing! Have fun!
hugs,
Linda
I will. Yes, that cat in heat was sort of out of her mind with the whole thing. I felt sorry for her.
I love your photo of the hanging baskets on the porch.
Thank you for the additions to your source list for miniatures – the Shaker furniture is just fabulous. Monday is a civic holiday here (hooray for long weekends), so fingers crossed that the mail today brings a new mini project to work on. I’m really enjoying watching the progress of your new build – please keep posting updates!
Isn’t that Shaker furniture gorgeous? I am in awe of the skill it takes to create it.
What’s your new mini project, Barbara?
Top secret mini gifts for Christmas!
I thought I’d better be proactive and get my orders from America in just in case our dollar decreases any further. Mind you, I always have all my Christmas shopping done by October 1st as I don’t like to stress about mail delivery.
Happy weekend Claudia! I love cats, but a cat in heat is annoying (that’s a nice way of putting it). I do hope your neighbors keep her in and then get her fixed ASAP. No need for extra kitties running around your place, that’s for sure. Lovely porch photo – thank you. And to Don – have fun! I do hope the weather moderates a bit so it can be a little more comfortable outside. The Festival should be a good time. And happy project time to you Claudia — enjoy! Can’t wait to see some updates eventually. Do hope Dame Scout is doing ok…our humidity has dropped a bit, but it is still HOT out there and forecast to be the same for the next 3-4 days.
I hope the weather is less humid so that camping is bearable!
Scout is doing better, Vera. Thank you!
Cats in heat are no fun at all. I hope your neighbor gets her fixed soon. We started to feed a stray cat and it stayed for 22 years. Hope Don has fun this weekend…you too!
Eileen
Thanks, Eileen! I’m allergic to cats, so having one stay around for 22 years might be a bit much! Love you.
best wishes to everyone – you for working on the TSP, don for sleeping outdoors and scout for the heat … may you all enjoy a very nice, hopefully cooler weekend!
love the porch (wish i had one). thanks for all the prettiness you share through your photos and words. may the politicians and we all follow suit. :)
kathy
Thank you, Kathy. I hope some positive changes come out of this. Have a wonderful weekend.
I’m still irritated with your neighbors….I hope they keep that cat contained.
Your porch looks so inviting….beautiful flowers. Have a great weekend.
When I heard some meowing yesterday afternoon, I was all ready to be indignant, thinking they had let her out again. But it was the male cat making his presence known. Have a lovely weekend, Marilyn.
Many years ago we had a female cat who went into heat before we could get her fixed. One evening she was just driving us nuts , I couldn’t take it anymore and let her outdoors. Several weeks later we had a litter of cute little kittens, ha, ha! Think I learned my lesson?
Enjoy working on your new project, Claudia. Love seeing your progress.
Thanks, Susan. I sure hope that little cat isn’t pregnant – she’s so tiny!
You segued directly from not wanting cats in your garden so the birds wouldn’t be bothered or harmed right to hen and chicks in the garden bed….for a slight milli-second, I thought, when did Claudia start raising chickens?!?! Oh….the hen and chicks plants! Whew…I’m tired this morning. We’re back to typical summer weather, cool and foggy in the morning and warm to hot in the afternoon. I can hear the fog horns this morning! And the weather person is teasing us with talk of possible rain…
Oh, and all three of you have a lovely weekend enjoying what you love to do. Then sharing your experiences Sunday evening.
I sure hope you get rain, Wendy! Have a great weekend.
Sometimes a nice weekend at home ~ alone ~ (well, w/ sweet Scout, too) ~ is just about perfect, isn’t it? As much as I love having my husband around, I get SO much more done when he is gone for a day. I love being able to turn the TV on to whatever I might want to watch, or just have some music going in the background. I do talk to the dog and cat throughout the day, but it is just so peaceful with no interruptions! And then I am recharged and so very ready for him to be home!
So, I hope you have a productive and peaceful weekend. Have fun!!
It is nice to have a day or so to yourself – not more than that – but this will be nice!
Sounds like Don is in for a fun weekend! He gets to do his thing….you get to do your thing. I’m glad your neighbor finally got her cat…I personally don’t have any respect for people that don’t take care of their pets…be it cat or dog! ‘Nuf said…Don’t mean to rant. Enjoy your day! ;)
They love their cats. They’re just waiting for her to finish her heat and then they’ll get her spayed.
not all cats go after birds. We once had a cat that would lay in the grass and birds would come within a foot of his nose and he would just watch that bird hop around. But he did like to protect me from big dogs in the neighborhood. I actually watched him beat up an Irish Setter once and then he just sat down in the garden and dared the dog to come back for more. Never saw that dog again!
Well, I’ve seen too many birds killed by cats for me not to worry about that sort of thing. I’m glad your cat left them alone!
I had no idea hen and chicks bloom, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Quit a few succulents bloom if conditions are right or the plant is old enough.
Now that your neighbor has her cat, she needs to get that cat spayed. I do not understand why it is so hard for humans to understand that their cats should be spayed or neutered. It is a one-time cost and best for their cat. Indoors is always best for cats, too, but I’ve encountered people who think it is cruel to keep cats indoors…
Oh, don’t worry. They plan on doing that. I don’t think they thought she’d go into heat this quickly, so now they have to wait it out. They’ll take care of her, for sure.
What is it today…first I find out from Dawn Cain that her Hens & Chicks is blooming…and then I come over to your post and find out that your Hens & Chicks are blooming..like I told Dawn..I have had them for years and I never knew that the could bloom…lol…I had better start paying more attention huh??..The male cat will probably hang around until the little girl is out of heat…I think they will be very lucky if she is not carrying kittens already…She is a pretty little thing…I thank you for trying to help her with food when you thought she was a stray…I do the same when a have a kitty come by here..Cats have given me so much love and happiness in my life…it is my way of giving back..Cats have rescued me from so much pain and darkness…They lift me up when I am down…Just like the love you feel for your sweet girl Scout…It is not a cats fault that it is outside..Any problems with feral cats are the fault of humans….Humans abandon these cats…they leave them with no source of food and not knowing where they are or what to do…therefore they have no choice but to find food any way they can..Cats are social animals so they will gather into colonies and live together…We have people now who are doing T/N/R….Trap/Neuter/Release…The feral cats are caught…neutered/spayed..so that they can no longer reproduce….and then released …Any kittens are put up for adoption…any cats with physical/medical problems are kept and helped…then either up for adoption or fostered or live their lives out at the shelter…Sorry to go on again but I am a big time advocate for cats and I know how you love and respect the lives of animals….Have fun with your project this weekend and Don have fun at the festival!
Cats and dogs are never the problem, it’s their owners who either ignore them or abandon them. You know how I feel about that.
Have a great weekend, Nancy.
My heart goes out to you about your mother. I’ve been thinking of my mom a lot, too…for some reason, hankering awfully for her cooking, from my childhood. Sometimes I want to ditch the chia seeds, kale and tofu for…heresy to say this…her Sunday afternoon pot roast dinners, potatoes and carrots all in the same Dutch oven, caramelized and scrumptious. I’m to the point where I balk at eating anything with a face anymore but it doesn’t mean I don’t miss the taste. I was raised in a beef-lov’in household, here Out West. Mom was a spare cook…nothing fancy…but I am literally hungering for that good, tummy-filling, old-fashioned food.
Gotta mention something about cats. I’ve been feeding a feral one for 8 years and, man, before I did the trap/spay/release, she was in heat, keening for a male, and I never had heard such yowling/screaming; glad we put that issue to a stop, soonest. True ferals really don’t even meow in your presence, from what I’ve found; they’re silent. I still can’t get closer than 5 feet to this little old girl…who initially came to me from the hillside with two adorable kittens she was trying to wean. (We kept one; neutered him when he was tiny. Other one, adopted out with the help of Animal Regulation and a rehab place which specialized in socializing feral cats.)
And orange cats (sometimes called gingers)? A vet confirmed to me once that they are largely males. Mom had an orange cat, I’ve had two orange cats; the neighbors have orange cats. ALL males. They are vocal! They love to talk to you! Clyde’s meow-conversations would drive my dad nuts and he’d banish him to the outdoors for awhile. Which was the cat’s undoing because, one time while standing at the driveway, he was attacked and killed by a loose dog. It was beyond horrible. The ONLY way to keep a cat safe is to keep them indoors 24/7 and I agree, though, with another commenter from this post or your last one, that there ARE some cats who absolutely REFUSE to be inside. Sometimes they’ll come in for a little visit but then they ‘climb the walls’ til you let ’em out.
I’m not a ‘cat person’ yet I’ve always had some kind of cat for the past 25 years…my husband came with one. Highly allergic as you are, any cat of mine has to stay outside, so it’s always been a worry for me. Besides the feral(s), I’m down to one domestic cat now; he’s old and lame. He is never allowed out of the garage unless I put him in a large outdoor pen because he’s just too vulnerable, so at least nowadays I don’t have to worry so much about a cat being outside in the big world. They’re by nature so curious, of course….cats roam; you can’t stop it. They can get themselves into tricky situations…and there are neighbors out there who are not cat-friendly; a roaming cat can come to a bad end at the hands of cat haters.
I can somewhat see that your neighbor may be trying to get a handle on ‘Amber’ and her wanderings but I think they need to put a little more effort into it. She’s no doubt impregnated now and they need to do a spay/abortion posthaste. Kittens are delightful but, just like with a litter of puppies, can a person REALLY find good homes for the babies? We don’t need more of the babies; there are SO many dogs and cats needing homes. The cat over-population is very sad. Especially during The Great Recession, and I know of at least three of these occurrences, when people were losing homes and/or moving around, cats particularly were often left behind to the mercy of neighbors. You’ve got bush cats (ferals) born in the wild…but mixed in with that are kitties who came into the world hugged and held by humans but then abandoned so that they are out there scraping for an existence, wary of humans who shush them away yet remembering that humans were once nice to them before they were forced to become alley cats/strays. It breaks my heart. Living outdoors with no help is a harsh existence…lack of food, water, shelter; exposure to disease and weather. Yes, Amber does not also need to be on next visits bringing you kittens!
I found a little kitten in our bushes several years ago. She was adorable. I have no idea where she came from, but I have a feeling she was dumped. We took her to a cat rescue (no kill) group, where she would be loved and find a home.
I’ve been missing my mom’s banana cream pie. She made such a wonderful pie – and every time I came to visit, she made it for me. I could try making it myself, but it wouldn’t be the same.
Claudia I have just signed a petition on change.com re the killing of cecil the lion. It is a petition to try and make his killer accountable for his actions. Just thought you and your readers may be interested in signing.
Thank you, Vicki. I’ve signed several since I wrote that post and I’m sure the readers of this blog will appreciate this link!
I hope you have a productive weekend with the Don room, and that Don has a wonderful time at the music festival. I plan to get back to working on my dollhouse this weekend. Several months ago I put everything away except the dollhouse and haven’t worked on it since. The other night a friend was here and wanted to see EVERYTHING. Once I had it all out it got me really excited to get back at it.