A quick update on Nefreet, since I have to leave for a meeting in L.A very shortly.

We got to bed around 2 am and the emergency vet called just before 8 am to give me her report. She said it could have been worse. The damage just barely missed her urethra and anus and the bite on her side, while large and nasty, didn't go deep, so she doesn't think there's internal organ damage. However, one thigh muscle was completely torn. She pieced it back together, but there's no guarantee that will work. At this stage, it still looks about 50-50 whether the leg can recover or will have to be amputated. Even if we can save the leg, it will certainly never function like a normal leg again.

I drove to B'fld around 10 to do the transfer. I took Nefreet's medical report and x-rays with me to give to my vet. I almost lost it when I saw my poor girl. We put her in the bottom half of the carrier, minus the lid, to transport her. The entire back end of her body is shaved. Numerous stitches from smaller bites, plus bites and scrapes that couldn't be stitched. The major damage and stitching extends from the base of her tail all the way down the back of her left rear leg.

She's in a lot of pain, so she was fairly well tranked up and quiet. I got her over to my regular vet hospital where my favorite vet there had a look at her. Those who are squeamish should skip the next paragraph.

I heard from the initial triage tech at the emergency clinic that Nefreet had some maggots on her when we brought her in Monday night. She was probably lying under that porch for the entire night and a hot day before we found her. While I was waiting for my vet this morning, I saw a maggot squirm out of the sutures. I was seriously grossed out by this and instantly called for the vet. By the time he made it into the room, the maggot had vanished somewhere. He wasn't particularly worried. He said they looked more gross than they were. I'll have to take his word for it. I bothers the hell out of me, though.

He was concerned about something he saw on the x-rays which might indicate some injury to the pelvis, though nothing major and nothing definite. He's equally concerned about how the leg will heal, but mostly he's concerned that she'll be able to pee and poop normally. He'll be watching her closely for a couple of days to see how that goes before we can think about bringing her home.

I want to thank everyone very, very much who have been donating. I don't have time to list names right now, but I will do so. I'm going to set up a Roll of Honor page for all my donors. I should have done that sooner, but it's never too late to let people know how much you appreciate them. Thank you all.

Newfreet is in the hospital fighting for her life. She managed to sneak out the front door late last night. When we realized it, we went searching for her and couldn't find her. I've been crying all day because I knew she's never simply run away like this, but I was calling her all day and she didn't return. Late in the afternoon, Randy and I went out to search the neighborhood. Our next door neighbor asked if it was our cat under her front porch.

It was Nefreet. I kept calling her to me and realized with a sickening jolt that she could barely move toward me. When she finally got close enough, I saw that she was severely mauled, apparently by the neighbor's dog (no fault of theirs, since Nefreet should never have been there).

We rushed Nefreet to the emergency clinic in Bakersfield where we spent the next five hours trying to determine whether we could save her. She's having surgery tonight and I'll know more in the morning. She may end up losing her rear right leg. I have to go there in the morning to transfer her to my own vet hospital, providing the surgery goes all right. Total cost will run to $2,000 or more...which I can't afford at all. More credit card debt.

We only got home at 12:30. I'm exhausted and an emotional wreck. More later.

I finally saw Bowie this afternoon, but we're having no luck at all catching him. It's profoundly frustrating.

The tortie-girl is doing all right, though she's mostly hiding in her carrier-bed. She hasn't used the cat box yet, which worries me slightly. She loves the canned food, though. I had a problem when I went to feed her this morning. We have a type of wasp around here commonly called meat-bees or yellowjackets. I have a dangerous allergy to their stings. Last time I was stung, I ended up in the emergency room and I really don't want to risk what would happen if I were stung again.

These wasps go after meat. They're carnivorous scavengers. I quickly found myself surrounded not by a few of them, but a swarm. I hastily retreated, along with the canned food. We have a trap set up for them, but the lure needed to be replaced. I did that and hung the trap at the far end of the porch. That pretty well did the trick. In a relatively short time, the swarm was around the trap, then in the trap, and I was able to feed the girl.

Later tonight, I have to go to Lolette's to pick up the lovely Siamese boy who was fixed today. He doesn't behave like a feral cat, but he may simply be too overwhelmed or afraid. It's tempting to keep him, but that last thing we need is another cat like Ariel that can't be touched or caught. Or another cat, period. Sigh...

The Three Mouseketeers are gathered around my keyboard, just hanging out, waiting for their next opportunity to wreak kitten havoc.

Pippin has become the Flashing Paws of Death on the fridge magnets. I have a thing for fridge magnets, so there are a lot of them for him to go after.

Randy found one of the ping pong balls this morning. He found it when he tried to put on his moccasins and one moccasin, oddly enough, wouldn't fit. {g}

I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Lyn Palmer and Mary Sutherland whose generous donations have covered a good chunk of the cost to have tortie-girl and the tabby-boy neutered. I'll give Lolette a check tonight when I pick up the Siamese.

I would greatly appreciate donations to cover neutering Siamese-boy and the left-over expenses, which come to roughly another $65.00. Anyone who would like to donate directly to Lolette can click on the Cause4Cats button to the left of the page. Thanks much.

The cat wrangling continues. Last night, we trapped a young male tabby. He went to Lolette's vet today.

Bowie is resolutely refusing to be suckered into the trap a second time. Randy keeps wanting to take pity and feed him, but hunger is the only tool we have if we're going to catch him and try to fix that eye. It looks worse each day.

I set up our large cage on the front porch and installed a cat box, small carrier with a towel to use as a hidey-bed, and so on, in preparation for our guest.

We kept the trap baited and ready and late this afternoon, we caught "Smokey", a beautiful Siamese feral that's been coming around. I took Smokey to Lolette's and came back with the tortie and tabby, who had been neutered. Tortie girl had a few sharp words for me when I arrived, but hasn't uttered a sound since.

Tortie girl is set up in the cage so she can recuperate for a couple of days before we let her go. She's not happy about this, but she's eaten and has settled into the carrier to rest.

Tabby boy was still groggy from his operation, so I kept him in his trap for a few hours. When he seeme perkier, I gave him a bowl of food, which he gulped down. A short time ago, I opened the cage. He thought about it for a few minutes before he came out. He didn't move all that quickly either, so I think he's not feeling quite himself yet. Not to mention that he's now a tim instead of a tom.

I've been giving Tribble a special canned food called Precise, in the hope he would be as enthusiastic about it as Nefreet is. The Precise Oceanfish is the only thing she'll eat. He showed enthusiasm for it at first, but that has waned. His appetite is variable, I think. He urgently needs to put on some weight, though, so I keep trying.

Around ten last night, I drove to Lolette's and borrowed a couple of traps. I set them up on the front porch. About half an hour later, we heard one trap being set off and then a lot of thumping as the cat fought the trap. I went out to have a look and found a young, very pretty tortie.

There's a reasonable chance that she could be the mother of my four kittens. We tried and tried to catch momma cat at the time. It would be ironic if it's her and she wandered right into our trap after eluding us all that other time. She sure looks a lot like Opal and Sapphire. Very wild, very upset, poor thing.

Then around 1:20 am, I woke when I heard the other trap go off. I was too tired to get up then, but it turned out to be the black cat with a possibly tipped ear that has shown up fairly often.

I took them to Lolette this morning. She confirmed that the black cat's ear is definitely a surgical tipping, which means someone has already caught and neutered that one. Tortie went to the vet and the black cat came back with me. She moved like lightning when I let her out.

I brought both traps back with me and we set up one in the hope of catching Bowie. Someone got in there and ate the food without setting it off. Late today, Bowie showed up pleading for food. His eye still looks bad. We didn't want him in the trap as long as that, so we gave him some dry food. We'll set the trap late tonight and hope to get lucky.

I'll get the tortie back tomorrow, then will have to set up the cage, probably on the front porch, so we can take care of her for a couple of days before setting her free.

While I was at Lolette's, I discovered that she has Zoe's other two tabby sisters. The nitwit Goth girl gave them up after all. I'm incredibly aggravated about that. She was so admanant about keeping them, and now they're stuck in a cage with dozens of other kittens, unable to get the kind of personal attention they badly need. They were reaching through the cage to me, desperate for some loving. It breaks my heart. They're such sweet, beautiful girls, just like Zoe, except with even prettier markings. I really, really want them to find a good home.

If you live anywhere between L.A. and Bakersfield and could adopt these kittens, please email me!

And if you can contribute something to cover the cost of spaying the feral cat, that would also be appreciated, so that I can reimburse Lolette, who is paying for it.

Meanwhile, here at Moggy Central, Pippin has gotten big enough to carry a ping pong ball around in his mouth. That's a funny sight!

The Three Mousketeers engaged in some concentrated office mayhem. Saffy picked up pieces of paper from my desk and made off with them. Jetta simply tried to eat the papers on my desk. Zoe knocked a paperweight onto my hand, which hurt, but my hand was also on the mouse and it made the mouse do peculiar things to the script I was working on.

Little imps, they are.

We've had some catfights around the yard lately, and now our outdoor feral boy, Bowie, has an infected eye. Looks like he was scratched. Randy wants to trap him again (if he'll even let us) and have the eye treated. I have no idea how a vet or we are going to deal with treating an eye on a feral cat. This should be...interesting. But my biggest worry is that he'll remember that trap from the first time and won't come near it.

We haven't seen the young orange and white cat, Junior, for a week.

Hey, thanks to Zoe, I have discovered that there are buttons on my keyboard that control a CD in my CD drive. If not for her dancing paws, I might never have known about that.

Pippin sat at my feet while I was washing the dishes and told me how bored he was. He doesn't often say anything, so I was entertained to hear these rare meeps. Opal never meows, but she frequently chirps and trills.

He has also amused me with his new trick of making a huge leap off the end of the bed trying to get at the kitten in the mirror.

A couple more photos: Ariel, Sapphire, Zoe.

We returned from a day of shopping with loads of cat food and another batch of new toys. I had to replace the catnip-stuffed fabric toys because they've been ravaged and are losing their stuffing.

We gave Pippin and Opal a ball with a bell inside and they went nuts over it. They also lost in within five minutes. We are totally baffled. In the course of making a thorough search, we found 3 of the ping pong balls, but not the new one.

I don't know how they do it.

After a year and a half, the neighbor's skittish black cat, Salem, has finally decided I'm all right and will come up to me to get scritiches. Her other black cat, Gizmo, came up to me nearly right away. He's a braver boy. Salem was a long-term conquest. ;)

I'm worried about Tribble because he won't eat canned food. I've been trying to get him interested by putting a bit of the food on my finger, but that didn't work. This morning, I went further and put the finger-tip of food directly into his mouth. That inspired him to eat a very small amount of it from the bowl. Nefreet and both indoor kittens are crazy about a different kind of catfood we have for them. It's too expensive to feed to all the cats, but it's about the only thing Nefreet will eat. I'm going to pick up more of that and try it out on Tribble.

Puck went mad over the Pantene "catnip" in my hair and kept jumping onto my back every time I had to bend over to do something. The last time he did it, he also left a painful set of scratches on the back of my neck as I went to remove him. Yowtch.

The latest silly kitten trick is that Pippin and Opal decided it was great fun to get into the large potted umbrella plant in the bedroom and dig dirt out of it. Randy went to put on his gym shoes and found them full of soil. We've had to place large rocks around the bottom of the plant to discourage the fun.

Zoe and Saffy are both pawing at my screen, trying to catch the moving objects. I have to keep cleaning my monitor, because it ends up with kitten nose smears all over it.

A few more pictures: Puck, Zoe, Jetta, Sapphire.

Once again, Pippin got onto the freestanding kitchen counter (a separte unit from the rest of the kitchen counter area), destroyed the rest of the roll of paper towels and ran amok in the paper napkins. He and Opal get up there via a pair of tall kitchen chairs that came with the house when we rented it. We never use the things at all. Mostly they just take up space and collect stray pieces of paper and random objects. Today we finally hauled them out to a storage space and it's amazing how much more space we seem to have in the tiny kitchen now. We should have done that a year ago. At any rate, it ought to discourage the kittens for a while, until they get big enough to simply jump up there.

Randy and I woke up the other morning to the sound of a particularly beautiful and unusual bird song. We couldn't place the song at all. This morning, I heard it again and traced it to our nice neighbors across the way (the same place from which we rescued the four kittens). I stopped by there after our walk and discovered they've just taken in a small gray cockatiel (yellow crest, orange patches on cheeks). Their son found it lying on the side of the freeway and rescued it, so they're calling it Freeway. It seems to be a wild bird, not someone's tame pet. Wonder what his story is?

I've lately been appreciating the beautiful eyes on the four kittens from that litter. All four of them have a green-gold combination. The girls' eyes, Opal, Sapphire and Jetta, are mostly gold with a small ring of green in the center. Pippin's are mostly green with a small rim of gold that makes it look like his eyes are jade.

And now, a metric tonload of cute photos: Pippin, Opal, Sapphire, Jetta, Zoe, Theseus, Tribble, Kate, Nefreet, Sly.

Pippin has learned how to get onto the freestanding kitchen counter where he disembowelled a roll of paper towels and savaged the paper napkins. He's also starting to take swipes at the fridge magnets.

We discovered two more major black holes containing lots of catnip mice and catnip fish. One is beneath the oven and the other is underneath the fridge. We have to get way down flat on the floor with a flashlight to see what's under there. A long-handled wooden spoon has been commandeered to fish the toys free...usually once or twice a day. We have yet to find the new black hole that is eating all the balls, however.

Nefreet had violent sneezing fits for a couple of days. She sounds better today. I'm hoping the kittens didn't catch the cold from her, though I wonder how she came down with a cold in the first place.

Someone said I haven't mentioned Puck lately. He's in his prime at four years old. He's matured into a big, hefty boy (Randy says he's gotten fat). He's not happy about having to be an indoor cat, and I think that makes him moody. He's taken to sleeping between my keyboard and the monitor stand, and he's way too big to do this, which means I am constantly fighting for control of the keyboard and constantly having to move his paws off the keys. He still goes nuts over my hair after I've shampooed it with Pantene.

Our front porch has become Stray Cat Central. No surprise, since we keep putting food out. We have regulars now. Bowie, of course, and Bowie Junior, are getting quite bold about being close to us. Lately we've had a lovely young Siamese boy and an older black cat (I say older because of the stomach pouch on him/her). The black cat looks like he/she already has a tipped ear, meaning someone may have already trapped and fixed him. There's also a young tabby that shows up occasionally.

Not counting all the neighbor's cats, of course. We're feeding way too many moggies.

As if that weren't enough, I was royally scolded because I hadn't refilled the bird feeder. You haven't lived until you've been cussed at by a Stellar Jay.

Sapphire has developed a passion for plastic bags. She's small enough that she can worm her way into the carton of plastic bags that I have on a shelf where Owl can't get to them. I know she's there because I can hear the plastic rustling madly. I haul her out of there so she can't accidentally suffocate herself.

But she also attacks the plastic bag I'm using when cleaning the cat boxes. Last night, this resulted in having the contents just removed from the litter box dumped onto my foot and the floor. Gee, I loved that.

The little darling is asleep in my lap now, all innocence and cuteness.

Pippin, meanwhile, thinks it is great fun to drag the tissues out of a a box of tissues. Or out of wastebaskets. Wherever he can find them.

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