Month: August 2006

foster homing five wild kittens


The hissing has become a thing of the past. The sun porch they are living in is fully insulated, carpeted and has a variety of toys and climbing levels.  They like the space and race and chase each other. One of my human contact for wild kittens techniques is to lie down on the rug with a good book and wait for them to come and crawl over me.  Louie, short for Lucifer (he was the wildest of the five at first), is a black long haired and is going to be a beautiful cat, I think. The two little girl black short haired were the quickest to trust people. And the two calicos have come around as well. It is a treat to watch them play.

Team Houdini makes my heart beat faster


I tried making a larger space, or as I like to call it “compound” for the wild kittens in the boathouse, their foster home space. Did that this morning, thought I did a good job. Watched them for an hour, no problems.

Then lots of excitement for me around 4 pm. I checked on them and thought one was missing, but when I stepped into the “compound” I found only three. I think I figured out what small angled gap they must have got out through, blocked that and headed off in pursuit.

I went around looking for a few minutes. Went back to where I met them three doors down earlier this week, where they had been walking up to people for food after feral mom got chased away by a weekend visiting dog. Walked back from there along the shore. No luck. Then I got some food on a dish ready to set at the main door opening of the boat house (think garage door) to lure them if they came back. As I set it down, I looked up and spotted the two of them playing inside the boathouse outside the compound up near the small (that is, regular) door opening.

After a little effort and tipping up the old electric lawn mower (perfect hiding place for them – the round mower cover on the bottom – it’s where they spent a couple of nights three doors up, under a gas mower with a plastic tarp over it). I put them back inside the prison yard. And began redesigning their “compound”.

team wildcats ask who is the tall guy again?



team wildcats

Originally uploaded by canuckshutterer.

I am providing a foster home to these five feral kittens who will go to the OSPCA for adoption in about a month. They are about five weeks old and eating solid food. I have never dealt with kittens this young before. The last time I dealt with kittens was in 1989 with two desperadoes, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I bought them at a pet store for $29 and $35 dollars respectively. They were supposed to both be 9 weeks old but I think Butchie was a week younger than that. Butch went in his sleep in 2001, Sundance died of kidney failure at the beginning of this month. That’s right 17 years old. I am beginning to understand how much of a ghost he had become by watching the wild kittens practice kitten kung fu. Just makes it clear to me that I always saw him as a kitten.

keys on an old manual portable typewriter





keys

Originally uploaded by canuckshutterer.

West German Olympia typewriter came home to live with my family in the 1960s. My sister and I typed lots of essays on it. Me more than her, she studied nursing at university, I fell into English Literature.

Beautifully designed, it still works just fine.