To my relief, getting Ariel moved into the new cage went easily and well. I did it in stages, with time inbetween the changes to let her adjust. First, I opened the two ends of the cages and put the openings together. Then I removed her food, water and cat box.

I put the new cat bed we bought her at the far end of the new cage, and moved her towel covering to that end. About five minutes later, I looked up from my computer to see Ariel exploring the opening, then she moved into the new cage and settled onto the new bed. She seems happy with the new bed which is an oval-shaped, had thick suede padding in the cener and a thick roll of sheepskin around the perimeter.

The next step was to slip a piece of cardboard over the opening, move the cages apart and get the end door shut. Then I cleaned and packed up Lolette's cage and got it out of the way.

Next, I carefully slid the new cage around to the same position the old cage had been in. After more down time, I replaced her food and water. A bit later, I gave her the canned food and put the cat box back in.

She wasn't entirely happy about the proceedings, but took it much better than I hoped. Although this morning she wouldn't come over to me to get her canned food, as she always has. I finally had to put the bowl right next to her.

I'm discouraged to not make more progress after three weeks. Maybe I shouldn't be, but I wish she was responding better.

Randy and I took a day off for a driving trip. On the way out, we dropped the cage off to Lolette, who was glad to have it back as she had a need for it. She has one kitten that I was ready to catnap on the spot. It's the sweetest, spunkiest little thing. We're lucky Lolette didn't want to part with it.

This evening, I gave Ariel a new toy to play with, a furry ball-creature with feet fastened at the end of a string. I hung it from the top of the cage. Ariel had a great time with it. She batted it around and caught it on the backswing. Finally she went totally medieval on it and the furry creature came off the string and "died" at her feet. That's when she lost interest. [g]

Last night, Ariel was so excited about her food, she came out of the cage and crouched right next to Randy while she ate. As soon as she was done, she dashed back to the safety of her cusion in the cage, but still, that's a pretty big step for the little girl.

As near as I can figure, there's something in my posture or approach when I first open the cage door that sets her off with a hiss/ear flat reaction. This morning, she even threw in a small growl. Right after that, she calms down and we get along fine. I held the food bowl so that her whiskers were tickling my hand, and she was okay with that.

We've theorized that her reaction comes from being grabbed and put into carriers and cages in her first few days, when she had surgery, etc. Something in my posture must look like a person coming to grab her and do nasty things to her.

While I was cleaning cat boxes, I kept hearing her make a distress cry and found Puck right outside the cage intimidating her. I had to chase him off with scolding and whacks on the butt.

Tonight I attempt to move her from her current borrowed cage into the new cage we bought. Pray for my soul.

I got a couple of hisses from Ariel today, but overall she seems to be calming down. She was happy to get her canned food from me this morning and came right over, even though I kept my hand on the edge of the bowl. I get her to sniff my fingers two or three times a day, but I haven't tried petting her again. The timing doesn't feel right yet.

Other moggies keep raiding Ariel's dry food by knocking it out and dragging it through the grid of the cage. I've put a piece of cardboard in the way to put a stop to that nonsense.

The local vet arranged for us to dash to her place this afternoon and show the tape of Nefreet to a visiting orthopedic surgeon. Based on what he saw, he was definite about calling it a neurological problem, probably a pinched nerve in her neck or back area. But before a definite diagnosis, we need to get blood work and x-rays. I need to do that as soon as I can afford it, since we're pretty sure she continues to have discomfort in that leg, even without the limping.

Owl voluntarily spent the morning napping in his cat bed in the enclosure (with door open). Now he's next to my desk and Tosca has taken over that cat bed. Tribble loves to go in there to drink from the wate bowl. Something new and exotic, I suppose. [g]

Blue is recovering from the abscess just fine. Lucky for me it opened before getting too severe.

The happy purring Owl-lump is in my lap again.

Speaking of cats becoming lumps...we have a soft, old green blanket that we have folded in quarters and left on the end of our bed for Nefreet to sleep on. Usually, she curls up on top of it, but lately she has taken to burrowing inside the layers. If we can't find Nefreet, we know to look for the big lump in the green blanket.

I suspect it's because of the colder weather and she's getting older. Since we turn the heat down at night, we've taken to putting the blanket on the sofa when we go to bed. That way Nefreet has the option of burrowing into her "cave" during the night.

I've made a couple of attempts to shave Theseus' rear end with the new shaver, but I need three hands to manage it. I need one hand to hold him still, one hand to hold the shaver, and one hand to hold his tail up so I can get at the problem. Randy said he'd help me with it during the weekend, which is the only way I'll manage it.

It takes a lot to gross me out, but it happened last night. I was sitting very quietly next to Ariel as she ate her canned food. She was reluctant to come over by me at first, so I needed to keep things calm.

That was when Blue came alongside me on the right wanting a bit of attention. No problem. I was scratching his neck when I came across an odd bump on his back near the neck. I was fumbling around trying to figure out what it was when it burst and I had an ugly abscess on my hands. Rather literally.

And because of Ariel, I couldn't scream, "EWWW, YUCK!!!" like I really wanted to, nor could I make any sudden moves. I ever-so-calmly waited for Ariel to finish up, closed the cage door, scooped up Blue, shaved the area, and commenced cleaning out the nastiness. A lot of nastiness. I know the cause, too. That's where Puck often bites Blue when they get carried away with rough play. It was obviously a bite wound.

I had to clean it up again this morning and popped an Amoxi down his throat, but it doesn't look like it'll cause a problem. Blue was very good about it all, even though I could tell it was hurting him.

Owl, meanwhile, is a much happier boy. He's managed to curl up in my lap as I type this, after making a few visits to the desk and making walking passes through my lap as though he couldn't decide whether it would work to lie down or not. I had to stop him from stealing Ariel's dry food again, with Tribble hanging out ready to inhale whatever Owl left behind.

I find it amusing that the cat bed in Owl's enclosure has become Querida's favorite place for the day.

And back to Ariel, she didn't hiss at me once today, and didn't go Squinty on me either. That feels like a good thing.

And now, an interesting bit of story that shouldn't surprise any true cat servant.

Cats suffer stress, experts say

Cats can suffer from stress-related illness like humans, a study by animal experts suggests.

Rivalry with another cat is the biggest source of feline anxiety closely followed by moving home or the arrival of a new member of the owner's family.

Experts compared 31 cats with bladder disease to 24 healthy cats in the same households and used a control group of 125 other healthy cats.

Sick cats generally got more stressed by other cats in the house, they said.

Stress trigger

Dr Danielle Gunn-Moore, senior lecturer in feline medicine at Edinburgh University's school of veterinary studies, said feline lower urinary tract disease was frustrating for vets and owners because most cases had no apparent cause.

"This group of diseases of the bladder is most commonly seen in pedigree, middle-aged, overweight male cats which don't go out much and eat a dry food diet.

"We believed stress could be a trigger and wanted to identify differences in the cats' environments and temperaments which might cause this condition."

University researchers suggest cats with such illnesses should be fed wet food and encouraged to drink more fluid by adding tuna-flavoured ice cubes to water.

The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Animals has welcomed the research.

Spokeswoman Doreen Graham said: "We've always known cats are extremely sensitive and this study highlights a problem more widespread than previously thought."

This was a much shorter day in L.A. I left earlier this time and got Owl to the clinic by 10. I had a moderate wait, then got to consult with the surgeon who is quite happy with the results. While the bones aren't perfectly aligned, they're very solid front-to-back which is her main concern. And he's gained some weight, though he looks to me like he needs to gain another pound before I'll be satisfied. I'd like to see him stay around 15-16 lbs.

The good news is that while he's not entirely free from Kitty Alcatraz yet, he's at least on parole. She said I could let him out for an hour or so at a time while I'm around to keep an eye on him. I'm to do that for a week so that he gradually gets more exercise, then I can pretty much let him out for good.

Owl's been wandering around the office for a couple of hours now. He's already gotten up on my desk twice, using two short jumps. I try to set him down instead of letting him jump down just yet, though when I mentioned to the vet he would probably be jumping, she didn't seem overly concerned.

I noticed Owl almost trips sometimes from getting his claws caught in the carpet, so I've just trimmed his claws. He's entirely calm and patient about that, I'm glad to say.

A few minutes ago, I heard the sound of Ariel's food being knocked out of her bowl. I went over to put a stop to it, figuring it was Puck yet again, but noooo, it was Owl. Probably because I've been giving a full-calorie food to both Ariel and Owl and he could smell it. I'd put his bowl out of reach temporarily because all the other moggies empty Owl's bowl if they can get to it.

I swear, it's a standard cat thing that whatever food is in the *other* bowl must automatically be more interesting than whatever is in the bowl in front of them. Even when it's the exact same thing.

Ariel's still doing her hissy-squinty routine, though she does seem to be calming down a trifle. In the evening, Randy sits next to her with the cage door open and last night she was so excited about the canned food on the way, she actually came halfway out of the door with Randy right there next to her.

Here's Ariel playing with her feather toy. A before and after.

Three more days to go until Owl's next check-up (no x-rays this time, thank Bast) and with luck, Owl may be released from captivity after this visit.

Last night, Owl got one of his claws stuck on the child door grill on the front of his enclosure and for some reason couldn't retract it. He had a panic attack and absolutely HOWLED. I don't think I've ever heard Owl make such a loud noise, let alone howl. He got himself loose a few seconds later, but it's pathetic how all brain function in a cat ceases when Panic Mode sets in.

I've had rather a discouraging time with Ariel. We had some kind of a set-back and I can't fathom what brought it on. She's now quite reactive to me and I can no longer pet her as I was doing. I'm trying to work up to that again, but must be very careful. We had a good play session with the feather toy this morning, but if my hand strays even slightly in the wrong direction, I get whacked. My left hand is covered with itty-bitty scratches and prick marks.

When I bring out the canned food, she can't decide whether to be excited and meow, or put back her ears and hiss, so she does both.

Randy spends a good half hour or more with her at night and is making good progress on his end, but he's a more cautious and laid-back person than I am. ;)

I knew this was going to happen. I managed to talk the vet out of it since July, but this time she put her foot down. She wouldn't renew the Tapazole unless I brought Tribble in for a blood test. It's a damned expensive test, hence trying to avoid it. I made the appointment, but then faced the problem that he had to fast from 10 pm onwards. Short of taking the food away from the entire Horde, I have no way to keep him from eating.

Ignoring the howling protests from my credit card, we nonetheless went to Petsmart and purchased the same large, sturdy cage that Ariel is currently living in. Randy and I have been forced to conclude that taming Ariel is going to take a long time, and we don't like to keep Lolette's borrowed cage indefinitely when she might need it. There have been other times when a cage like this would have been handy, so now we have one. We picked up a nice bed for Ariel and I further gave in and finally got that blasted heavy-duty shaver. Now I can go after the Butt of Doom aka the Crap Magnet aka Theseus...when I work up the courage.

Yesterday was especially bad with Ariel. She was exceedingly feral in the morning, to the point of lashing out at my hand when I was putting in the fresh water. Randy thinks she's being harrassed at night. This is possible as the towel we put over the cage is always on the floor by the next morning. She greeted me with flat ears and hisses this morning, but calmed down sooner than last time. Right now, she's having a relaxed nap and looks so sweet, she makes me want to reach in and rub her belly. I have to remember that she would turn into a Fury and disembowel my hand if I did.

Back to last night, I waited as long as possible to put Tribble in the new cage. He had the old bedspread to sleep on, a new cat box and a bowl of water. When I put him inside, he gave me the most utterly bewildered look I have ever seen. He said, "HUNH??!!"

This morning, the cage was a disaster. Litter everywhere, nearly all the water knocked out of the bowl and all over the floor of the cage. Tribble reamed my ears out. He is incessant. Nobody can whine, winge and complain like Tribble.

Randy came along because he's the only one who can operate his very expensive prosumer video camera. While Tribble was off having his blood drawn, the vet watched the few minutes of video we took when Nefreet was limping and having her pain. She's thinking it's more likely a nerve problem or blood clot, but she offered to have us come back in a week and show it to a visiting orthopedist, so we'll do that. Meanwhile, Nefreet is completely recovered from whatever it was, to the point of running around and chasing after her ball.

When we got home, I figured the first thing Tribble would do after not eating for 12 hours, would be to stick his nose in the food, but he didn't. He went and stretched his claws on the scratching post. I put out some canned food and that went over well.

Then I tackled cleaning out the cage. Such fun. I've given Ariel the slightly larger cat box, and the plan for sometime in the next couple of weeks is to transfer her from Lolette's cage to our new cage, so we can return Lolette's.

I learned a new thing from the vet that was a shock. I was asking her how long I could wait to give Ariel the follow-up shot that I have. I was told to give it to her in three weeks, which will be one more week from now, and I don't see that happening. I was also told to give her the injection in the back of the neck. When I mentioned that to the vet, she nearly freaked out. She trotted out horrific photos of cats with massive tumors on their necks and gave me a long dissertation on how giving certain shots in the neck has been leading to these neck cancers. This was the first time I'd heard about it. Instead, I'm supposed to pinch a bit of skin on the back leg and give it there.

From what has been observed, giving insulin shots in the neck area doesn't cause this same problem. No one has quite pinpointed the cause, but in the meantime, better to be cautious.

Nefreet is now completely asymptomatic. No limping, no indications of the problem. It's weird. I cancelled her appointment for tomorrow, though the vet would still like to see the tape we made when she had the symptoms. When we aren't so tight on finances, I still want to get the x-rays done, but we've been hit with too many other expenses at once to do it right now.

It turns out that Ariel's squinting isn't just due to stress. She's done something to her eye. I've seen it on many of my cats over the years, where it looks like a clear film is coming off the surface of the eye. Her eye was watering last night between squints and we finally could see that something is going on. There's no pus, redness, swelling or other signs, and she only squints some of the time. Other times, her eyes are wide open. I'm hoping it means that it's nothing serious and will clear up on its own, because I can't imagine trying to get eye drops into this girl.

I got another set of scratches this morning when I was only trying to get her to sniff my fingers. She seems to start out wild and bad-tempered in the morning and mellow out a bit by late evening.

Part of the cleaning routing involves sweeping the concrete floor around the cat boxes. I had set the dustpan on the top of the low shelves and propped the broom there while I cleaned Ariel's cat box. The Prince of Mischief decided to play with the broom, knocked it over, which in turn knocked off the dustpan, both of which bonked me on the head. I swear, never has a cat lived up to his name as often as Puck.

Tough day that began with a major setback with Ariel, but which may have turned out all right after all.

My first action of the day was a series of phone calls to the vet to bring Nefreet in for x-rays. Finally got that all arranged and headed for my office to very quickly give out pills, food and clean the boxes before heading to the vet.

As soon as I stepped outside, I saw the broken water pipe and a big hole full of water which led to a major PITA that took all day and too damned much money to resolve. I had to cancel Nefreet's trip to the vet and reschedule for Thurs.

Then when I finally got into my office, I discovered that Ariel had a major mess in her cage. The cat box was askew, half the litter kicked out and she had entirely missed the box when she took a pee. There was a large puddle of urine stretching all the way from one corner of the cage over to her cushion, which had soaked up a lot of it.

I had no choice but to take everything out of the cage, including the cushion, plus I had to get way inside the cage to clean up the mess entirely. This caused Ariel serious stress and she reverted to Terrified Wild Cat. She didn't strike out at me or try to bite me, but I think that's mainly because she's a rather timid cat. That's the conclusion I'm reaching. I keep reminding myself that it's only been 12 twelve days.

When she's deeply stressed, she squints her right eye. Randy and I debated renaming her Squinty or Blinky. Okay, it can just be a nickname. She's been Squinty all day now. That's taking a long time to get over something that shouldn't have been quite that big a deal.

I put a new cushion in for her and have the other soaking in some anti-smell stuff to neutralize the urine. I visited with her a couple of times during the day, hoping to get back to where we were before, but she kept doing Squinty at me.

Tonight I tried playing with her. I tried the plastic string, the string string, the feather toy. Only the tiniest vestige of interest. I went back to something Randy and I have been doing for a few days. We've been using a goose feather to gently stroke her paws, then stroke down her back. We've been using it as a step to get her used to being stroked by something and to having our hands get closer to her. So far, she has seemed to enjoy it.

I thought, why not go for it? She had calmed down, wasn't being totally Squinty, was relaxing under the feather, so I set it aside and verrry carefully, used my hand to stroke her back several times. And she let me! She didn't get upset, didn't react, and didn't move away.

That feels like a nice win to me.

Nefreet continues to have intermittent problems with her leg. Randy managed to videotape her limping and having a milder attack of the pain. I have pain medication leftover that the vet gave me for Owl, and she told me it was perfectly good to use on Nefreet.

I gave it to her with a syringe last night, then made the happy discovery that she really likes the taste of it! Now all I have to do is put the dosage in a dish and she laps it up.

At any rate, no matter how tough it is financially, I really do have to get the x-rays and try to do something for her. The problem isn't going away.

Emergency visit to the vet this morning. It began early yesterday evening when Nefreet developed a sudden, inexplicable limp and wouldn't walk on her left front paw. But the real moment of alarm came when she jumped into my lap where she usually likes to curl up after we've had dinner. Instead of relaxing, she began to snarl and hiss and behave as though she was going to attack me. This was because she was in some kind of terrible pain.

It was so bad, she jumped down to the floor and kept rolling around, yowling with pain, unable to find any position that didn't hurt. We watched her carefully for an hour and she went through that a second time. She would only hobble around on three legs, holding up the front leg. We debated a trip to an all-night emergency clinic in Bakersfield, but it's very expensive, not to mention a long trip.

Later, she went up the stairs to follow Randy to his office. What was weird is that she wouldn't walk on that paw, but she would use both of her front paws on the scratching post.

First thing this morning, I checked on her and she was still hobbling on three legs. I left an urgent message for the local vet. She's only open two Saturday mornings a month and luckily this was one of them. The second piece of luck is that they were booked up, but had a last-minute cancellation. So I rushed through breakfast and off we went.

I had Nefreet's records from my previous vet. I'd forgotten that she had an incident like this, same paw, in July of 2003. Back then, the vet though it was probably arthritis and a sprain.

This vet doesn't think so. Naturally, as soon as I let Nefreet out, she was no longer limping. Don't you love it when cats do that to you? It's like taking your car to the mechanic because of a rattle and the rattle stops the minute you get there.

She gave Nefreet a thorough exam. She didn't detect arthritic problems and no problems with the bones. It could be a sprain, except for the way she was rolling around in pain. That was clearly much more than a sore paw.

Which leaves a couple of not very good alternatives. One could be a nerve problem. The other could be a heart problem that is sending intermittent blood clots into her leg. When that happens with a cat, the clots usually impact the back legs, so this is slightly unusual, but far from impossible. I had to forego getting x-rays of her heart this time around for money reasons, but the only way to find out how her heart is doing is x-rays and echocardiogram.

While we talked about it, Nefreet cruised around the exam room, not a limp in sight. "Adrenaline works wonders," the vet said.

So we're in a wait-and-see mode for now. The vet said to try and videotape her the minute she exhibits that kind of problem again. She could tell a lot more if she could actually see what Nefreet does.

And that was the first half of my day.

And now for something a bit more fun. Photos! Featured in this session: Ariel, Randy, Puck, Owl, Querida and Blue.

Ariel is getting more talkative. She seemed to think we might give out the Good Food this morning, too, so she asked about it. She is becoming more outward-oriented, taking in more of the world around her and becoming more playful. During the morning play session, we gave her some catnip and that REALLY got her going!

This afternoon the office was getting stuffy, so I turned on a large fan that sits on the desk which forms Owl's enclosure. Apparently, something about this fan disturbed Ariel a lot and she began to talk and talk. Blue went over and they sniffed noses. Then Owl began to talk back and the two of them had a conversation. I gave up and turned off the fan, since she was so unhappy about it.

Kate has been the main lap potato recently, and being a chunky girl she occupies a lot of lap.

Puck really loves the tripod box. He dives inside it and scrabbles around, making lots of silly noise.

The surgeon got back to me today. She confirmed that Owl's leg bones have shifted a bit more sideways from the first x-rays (which showed some shifting), but that the critical alignment, forward and from top to bottom, is still good. It's not an ideal situation to have the bones shift sideways like this, but it's not a disaster...as long as it doesn't get worse.

Meanwhile, Owl is more determined than ever to escape every chance he gets.

Not only has Ariel learned the sound of canned food being opened, she is getting excited enough about getting her food that she even speaks! It's the only time we've heard her use her voice...if you don't count hissing. ;)

We caught Puck stealing her dry food this morning. She didn't knock it out of her bowl. He's doing that. He reaches through the wire grid, bats the food around, then scoops up whatever bits land outside the cage.

I've had my first blooding, courtesy of Ariel. I knew it had to happen sooner or later. I was sitting near her with the cage door open, letting her sniff my fingers, getting my hand closer, but I made a wrong move and she whacked me with her paw. As chance would have it, she sunk a claw into a vein on my hand, which bled profusely. I kept talking to her in the same soothing voice while I worked at staunching the bleeding. After I got it cleaned and bandaged, I went back and let her sniff my hand some more. She'll let me touch her paws without much reaction, but as soon as I head even slightly upwards toward her back or head, watch out!

Yesterday was another long day in L.A. I left early enough in the morning, but it took me nearly 2 hours to get to the surgery clinic because the traffic was so bad. I dropped off Owl to have his second follow-up set of x-rays. I had lunch, did various errands and picked up Owl at 4 pm.

No more rigging! The cover letter they gave me said that the fixator had become so loose, they removed it. I know Owl must be a happy boy about that. There was another note about the bones shifting slightly and I don't know whether the surgeon meant even more shifting from last time or was referring to the same shifting as before. I haven't been able to connect with her to find out. Unfortunately, I have to keep him strictly confined for another month, and have to take him back for a recheck (no x-rays) in two weeks.

About an hour into the drive home, Owl burrowed his head under the towel in his carrier and stayed there. He seemed to still be woozy when I got him home because he staggered when he got out of the carrier. I think he felt pretty much out of it.

When I came back to my office after dinner, Owl complained loud and long. I've never heard him complain so much! And he's been complaining ever since. I think he is very pissed off that he has a free leg, but remains in Kitty Alcatraz. I also think he needs to time to adjust to using the leg without the support of the rigging. He was unsteady on it yesterday and only slightly better today.

On the other main cat front -- Randy adores the name Ariel. I figure it's only fair to let him name the new girl, since he's the one who was set on adopting her.

Randy's been spending a lot of time with Ariel, talking to her, whistling for her (she seems fascinated by that, as is Puck), and playing with her. He has to play at a safe distance using a rod and string, but she's getting more playful, which is a good sign. I've also tried to sit by her with the cage door open and get her used to me. Today, I got her some new dry food (a full nutrition food rather than the senior and lite food I give to the others) and hand fed her. She wouldn't take it from my fingers, but I would place a piece of food right in front of her and she would eat it.

However, she does NOT like to be touched. I've made a few attempts to carefully, gently give her a little stroke on the back. She hisses and instantly goes feral on me, though she hasn't tried to bite or scratch. Yet. But that is a major obstacle we have to overcome, so I need to keep doing it.

She's already learning the routine with the canned food. Randy was lying near her when I opened the cans for the nightly treat and he said she immediately got excited and began looking around to get her food.

Puck the Prince of Mischief just went over to Ariel's cage, found a couple pieces of loose cat food that were knocked out of Ariel's bowl, and used his paw to drag them through the grid wire so he could eat it. Mind you, he has huge bowls of food right behind him, but obviously stolen food must taste better.

We make progress little bits at a time. Randy spent another bout of time next to the cage this morning. Tabby-girl sniffed my fingers and didn't react when I ever so carefully stroked the fur on one of her paws. She sat up for us once, rather than lying in a defensive posture. And Randy even got her to play for a minute with one of the cat toys. Nothing too extreme, but it indicates she must be relaxing slightly.

Last night, Randy came out to give tabby-girl her bowl of the dry food when I doled it out to the Horde. She polished off every speck of it.

This morning when I opened the cage to refresh the food and water bowls, tabby-girl deigned to tentatively sniff my fingertips without growling. Though when I opened the cage to put the bowls back in, she flattened her ears and looked as fierce as she could manage. Shortly afterwards, she ate some dry food.

She used the cat box and all is good in that department.

The other cats aren't paying as much attention to the cage as I thought they might. I let Owl out briefly while cleaning his enclosure and he had a sniff at the cage. He's not using his injured leg as well as he was before, so I'm deeply worried about that. I'm glad he has a follow-up on Tues.

Before we went to dinner, we spent some time sitting near tabby-girl. Randy figures it's good for her to see us interacting with the other cats, watching us play with them and so on. We gave her a catnip mouse, but she's nowhere near ready to relax and play with something while we're around. Or maybe not at all.

We gave Owl a catnip mouse, too, and he had a grand old time batting it around his cat bed.

Randy wants to be here to give her the canned food again. He's fallen head over heels for this little girl.

Randy and I headed over to Lolette's around 10:30 this morning. I had great fun wrestling with an adorable orange and white kitten, and petting lots of sweet moggies. It's a miracle I didn't come home with a couple of those kittens in my pockets.

Lolette loaned us an excellent large cage for the tabby girl's temporary new home. I'm not sure just how long this taming process is going to take because she *is* half-wild. Getting her out of the holding cage and into my carrier began as a serious battle of hissing, growling, climbing the wire grid and hanging on. Then she dived into the carrier to escape, so that worked out.

Quite the contrast to Puck, who adores getting inside the carrier and just hanging out in it.

We set the cage up next to Owl's enclosure, in the only open space that would work, and installed a small cat box, cushion, food and water. She wouldn't come out of the carrier. We tried leaving the carrier in the cage while we had lunch, but she hadn't budged. Randy ended up taking the carrier apart while keeping it inside the cage. Once he lifted off the lid, she went "What the hell?!" and dashed over to the cushion.

We spent time sitting by her, talking to her, while the Moggy Horde investigated. She's settled down enough to take a nap, but when I tried to get her to sniff my fingers, all I got was a hiss and a warning to keep away. I suspect this is going to take a lot of patience.

Here is tabby-girl's current home arrangement:



Here is St. Randy with Puck and Tribble (who is draped over Randy's leg for a nap).

I had a bad moment with Owl a couple of days ago. I was visiting him in the enclosure as I try to do several times a day. He was trying to change his position in the cat bed and somehow got the injured leg twisted in some position that was so bad, he actually cried with pain. And this is a cat who very rarely ever cries! Fortunately, since I was right there, I immediately picked him up so his leg was freed from that position. I've been watching carefully since then and hoping like hell he didn't do some kind of damage. Only a few more days and he'll get his second set of follow-up x-rays.

We haven't brought the new girl home yet. Due to a clash of schedules on both ends, this wasn't a good day for it. Besides, it gives her another quiet day to recover from the surgery. We plan to bring her home tomorrow morning.

Lots of catch up to do.

We took the two strays to Lolette late Monday night. Randy came along, which qualifies him for sainthood to be around that many allergy-causing cats. Lolette has a house that is packed floor to ceiling with lovely cats and we gave out a lot of scritchies. She has some gorgeous kittens, including one that was such a character, we would have nabbed her on the spot if we weren't already committed to this one.

Lolette truly is a saint, taking care of so many cats, and constantly taking cats to L.A. to be fixed and for treatment, etc. She took our two down and would have brought them the same day, but the vet had too many emergency surgeries. They were done today instead.

It's a good thing I wasn't taking bets, because I would have bet any money the aggressive white cat was male. They're both female! About 6 months (which had been my guess) and--thank Bast--not pregnant!

I talked to Lolette tonight and she's keeping the tabby until tomorrow because we haven't gotten the results of the blood tests yet. She's going to call the vet in the morning to make sure everything is okay. Then she's going to loan me a large cage, so I can keep our new girl separated for a few days to recover while she and the Horde get to check one another out. I sense hissing and growling in my future.

The time has come to start clipping Tribble's claws. He keeps getting them stuck in things and can't get unstuck. And he has the weirdest trait of going utterly limp like a ragdoll so I end up with this limp fluffy orange thing dangling from my chair by one claw. Not to mention using them for his attention-getting technique. Yesterday, while I was giving Owl some attention instead, Tribble stuck his claw in my butt. Today, I almost jumped out of my skin when he gave me a bad puncture on the back of my upper arm. Those claw tips have gotta go.

The second time I nearly jumped out of my skin today was when there was a terrible racket of things falling and going thump and metal clanking and it sounded like half my office was coming down. It turned out to be Puck (of course) knocking over the tall tripod box, and with it came a bunch of cardboard and some large levels and metal T-square, which were what made most of the noise. By the time I got over there, Puck was heading inside the tripod box, now that it was lying on the floor where he wanted it.

Hours later, I went to set the box upright again, but it was too heavy. I looked inside and found Querida lurking deep inside it. I think she's looking for good places to hide when it's time to give out the pills.

The stray moggies are mine! Bwwaaa-haaa-haaa!

I got in touch with Lolette this morning and we made arrangements for me to drop by and pick up her trap. What's great about her trap is that it has an additional holding cage. You place the two cage ends together, open the two sliding ends of the trap and the cage, and it enables you to transfer the cat from the trap to the cage.

We waited until dusk and set up the trap. In no time at all, the little tabby took the bait. He was terribly upset at first, of course, but he quieted down relatively quickly. We took him into the laundry room and with much coaxing and urging, we got him to back up into the holding cage.

Then we set the trap up again and about 30 minutes later, kaboing! The little white cat is now our prisoner. He was rather more pissed off, but he has calmed down now. We have both of them in the laundry room with the cages covered by towels.

I have a call on Lolette's answering machine to let me know when she gets home tonight. Randy and I are debating whether to take the tabby to our local vet, at greater expense, rather than risk sending it off to an unknown vet for a much cheaper price. We're worried about integrating him/her with the Horde unless we're absolutely sure it's healthy, not carrying any viruses, etc.

Here's a first glimpse of the unnamed tabby.

Things have been hopping in Moggyville.

I finally managed to connect with the right person at the right place to get two free vouchers for spaying stray cats. The vouchers go to the vet and reimburses $20.00 of costs per cat. Two vouchers were the most I could get, but every little bit helps.

Mid-afternoon, I set the trap, covered the sides with a towel, and set a bowl in the far end baited not merely with dry food, but a dollop of canned food. Oceanfish and tuna. Enough to reel in any moggy.

And it did. The white boy went in, ate his fill and danced out again. I figured it was luck or cunning.

Early in the evening, I was about to go outside and rebait the trap. I opened the door and there was the little gray tabby with the white chest and feet. We hadn't seen him/her in over a week and have been worrying about him. I went out with the can of food and the tabby didn't run off. On impulse, I put some food in the bowl (which I'd taken out of the trap), sat crosslegged on the porch and put the bowl only inches away from me.

The little tabby's nose overcame his fear. With a few half-spooks and some trepidation, he came all the way over and ate ravenously right next to me. I had to remain still as a rock, but I was within easy reach. So he's certainly not feral, just shy. Randy enviously watched the whole thing from inside the door.

The tabby retreated, so I put a little more of the food in the bowl and put it inside the trap. I checked after dinner and once again, the food was gone. Randy and I checked the trap more closely and realized there's something wrong with the tripping mechanism! Bloody hell. I could easily have caught both of the strays today if it had worked.

Limping Tom also came around wanting the canned food. Usually I can't get within touching range of Tom, but tonight he was so interested, he let me scratch his ears. I had to run him off to home, though, because he was keeping the little tabby away.

Around 9, we decided to close up the trap as a precaution, since we don't want anyone trapped during the middle of the night, even though we couldn't get it to work. The tabby came from under the porch, looking at us expectantly. I put more canned food in the bowl and this time, both Randy and I sat very still on the porch. The tabby worked up his nerve and ate right next to us again. Afterwards, he went and sat by the trap for a while instead of running off.

So I think this is going to work just fine, once we get the frickin' trap working right. If there's too much wrong with it, I can borrow one from Lolette. We've pretty much decided to adopt the little tabby, who is extremely pretty and seems to have a nice personality. Bast strikes again.

We had an entire flock of robins show up this morning. Usually we see one or two at a time. I saw four or five on the birdbath at once with others on the ground and in the trees. They had arguments and aerial chases and mini-battles over the water rights, but it looked like everyone got to have a drink, or in some cases a bath.

A bit later I looked out, and there was the little white cat perched in the spruce tree as close as he could get to the bird feeder. Urchin that he is. I went out and had a chat with him. He finally decided to vacate the yard for a while. This afternoon I move the cat food into the trap and we'll see what happens.

All is well with the Horde. Puck is being his usual puckish self, prowling around, knocking things off shelves. Owl tries to escape Kitty Alcatraz every chance he gets. Querida is still on the anti-biotic, but her nasal congestion has gotten worse in the past few days, which I'm unhappy about. Knobby threw up in my sandals, luckily when I wasn't wearing them. Also luckily, they're rubber and were easy to clean.

Also, a couple of new entries in the Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics.

After lunch, I drove down the road to meet Lolette and her husband who run Cause4Cats, their own private cat rescue service. We'd spoken by phone about taking in the cats when I trap them here, but I wanted to meet her in person ahead of time and see her situation. She's in the middle of incorporating and becoming a full-fledged non-profit so she can get grants and donations.

I was very impressed with what she's done on her own. She has a lovely piece of property full of flowers and lush plants, very quiet and private. I met Pete, a black and white patched loverboy who enjoyed having his belly rubbed. He's the lord of the manor.

Lolette is taking care of about 100 cats so far. She has extremely nice outside catteries built, filled with lots of cat furniture, aerial walkways, and content cats. Each outside cattery has a cat door to an inside area for the winter.

They're in the middle of building yet another, really cool outdoor cattery that includes sheltered bunkers with a sod roof, complete with sprinklers, so the cats will have their own lawn in the summer, and warm bunkers to lay up in during the winter.

We had a long chat, mostly about cats, of course. Terrific lady, and I'm very impressed. She wants (and needs) a website, so I've offered to do the website building for her when she's ready.

When I left, she was getting ready to give medicine to 30-40 cats, which certainly put into perspective only having to give meds to 4 cats here at home.

I need to get that little white cat trapped soon. He's decided that this is his yard and he's driving all the other strays away. This means we keep having to break up cat fights and the other cats aren't able to come around.

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