And the winner of the Feral Cat Naming Contest is Lyn Palmer who informed me that David Bowie has two differently colored eyes (the result of being punched in the eye at age 12 in a dispute over a girl, according to The Straight Dope). "Orange boy" is henceforth dubbed Bowie. It suits him.

Tribble seems to be doing better. He's still way underweight and not eating as well as I would like, but he's acting more normally, getting into my lap demanding head rubs, that sort of thing, and not throwing up as much. The poor old guy stopped to give Sapphire a sniff and a lick and the next thing he knows, he has this crazed kitten wrapped around his head. I had to rescue him.

Diva is also pretty much back to her normal self. She's talking to me again, taking her treats, and not running away every time I look at her.

Randy and I have noticed that Nefreet is showing more tolerance for Opal than for Pippin. She whacks Pippin any chance she gets, but will take more contact with Opal without reacting as badly. I wonder if it's because Opal is also a tortie, or a female? Or maybe both.

And now: cats, kittens and keyboards.

There was a large bowl of potpurri in the living room atop a bookshelf. (Note the word "was".) The bookshelf is adjacent to the stairs, giving Pippin and Opal easy access to the bowl of potpurri. They found this handy for nabbing bits of bark shavings and miniature pine cones to bat around. A few days ago, I thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the potpurri. It was extremely old, so it wasn't doing anything in the fragrance department and would be no great loss.

But I didn't get around to it and that's why I got go spend quality time cleaning the bowl of potpurri off the carpet after one too many exuberant pounces by the kittens. I got rid of the rest of the potpurri, but kept the little pine cones as cat toys. Hmmm...those would not be fun to step on in bare feet. Maybe I should rethink that.

Henh henh, I came upon Ariel sleeping in a box, so I gently put my hand out to her, let her sniff my fingers and carefully went to touch her. She couldn't get out of the box fast enough, so I got to stroke her belly a couple of times before she fled. She remains stubbornly untouchable, but I keep trying.

The fluffy orange and white cat with the one gold and one blue eye who we trapped and had fixed has become a permanent resident in the yard. We feed him every day and call him "orange boy". "Orange boy" seems like a ridiculous thing to call such a beautiful cat, even though he's only a stray feral. And besides, there's another, younger, orange and white tabby that's showing up (time to get the trap out again), so it could get confusing. Anybody have a cool name idea for a cat with two-colored eyes?

Hah! I located one of the black holes the kittens created in the living room where I found three ping pong balls and one plastic golf ball. It was a place we'd often look beneath a bookshelf, but this time I went searching with a flashlight and was able to see waaaay into the very back beneath the bottom shelf.

I still don't know to where they disappeared the catnip fish, however.

Since it's summer and I wear sandals all the time, my feet are crisscrossed with scratches caused by exuberant kittens dancing across my feet, usually racing after a toy or after one another.

A pair of neighbohood kids came by yesterday and tried to pawn off another kitten on me. They found a small black kitten, I'd guess about 5 weeks old. It looked to possibly have an infection in one eye. I said absolutely not, I can't take on any more kittens. Full up. Can't do it. I gave them Lolette's phone number and the number of another local kitten rescuer and wished them good luck.

One of my great worries is what would happen if we suddenly have to move. Finding another place to rent with 17 cats, something we could actually afford...it's a nightmare. We never should have taken on these kittens, but here we are, here they are, may Bast be merciful.

Kate has been terribly cranky lately. She is getting old, after all, and she's lost weight. She may not be feeling well. Whatever the reason, she is most cranky about the kittens and frequently takes swats at them even when they're doing nothing to her at all.

Sapphire was sleeping in my lap last night when Zoe decided that was where she wanted to be, so she simply plonked herself down on top of Saffy. I had kitten layer cake.

I played a CD this morning for the first time since the kittens got here. I didn't see Jetta's reaction, but Saffy and Zoe were rather spooked by the noise and the vibrations coming through the desk (lots of bass and drumming). They both vacated quickly.

Jetta has taken to hanging over the top of the monitor with her two front legs stretched down across the screen. Makes it hard to work. She will also sometimes stand up in front of the monitor and paw frantically at it, as though trying to dig her way through the glass. Silly girl.

The house kittens and the office kittens have both been enjoying some new catnip toys I brought home for them yesterday, but Pippin and Opal have once again activated their mysterious black hole and every blasted toy we've ever given them has disappeared.

We search and search and I swear it is amazing how well those toys have vanished beyond the ken of woman or beast.

Jetta's been such a clown today. She keeps trying to catch things on the screen. She tries from the desk. She tries by hanging over the top of the monitor. She paws and paws and can't catch anything. It perplexes her.

The kittens are now about the equivalent of 8 year old children, except Zoe who is closer to a 6 year old. A precocious 6 year old.

A whole bunch of cute kitty pictures: Pippin, Opal, Sapphire, Jetta, Zoe, Nefreet, Owl.

Owl's been doing well and his fur was growing back when he suddenly developed another hot spot. I don't know why this happens, but he's licked one small spot bare on his back again, blast it.

Diva seems to be feeling a little better. She remains elusive and difficult to catch for pilling.

Note to self: you MUST begin storing the mouse next to the keyboard and underneath the protective Rubbermaid box when you leave the desk. When I came back to my office after dinner, I had to go spelunking under my desk to find the mouse. I'm down to one broken mouse and one working mouse, so if this one goes kablooey, I'm screwed.

The kittens also managed to unplug my scanner and one other device. SAVE ME FROM THE KITTEN MONSTERS!

Pippin was funny today. Our handyman came over to fix a leak under the kitchen sink. I picked up Opal and introduced her and she was fine. I picked up Pippin to do the same and he gave Bob a big hiss and tried to bite him. But a minute later, he was under the sink "helping" Bob with the repairs.

Not a good day for the elderly moggies. When I got into my office, I found that Tribble had thrown up a large amount in the Cave. Now I know for sure that he's the one who has been throwing up like that for weeks (because it's quite distinctive). Querida threw up twice. Knobby threw up once, but I didn't get around to cleaning his small amount up until the end of the day, by which time the ants had claimed it for their own and I had an ant invasion.

I really should take Querida and Tribble back to the vet, but I can't afford the time to go all the way to B'fld, or the money. It's a terrible bind to be in.

I had a long, hard time getting hold of Diva this morning to do her meds. She really didn't want it to happen. I had to use the old distraction technique of doing other things until she thought I'd forgotten about her. Then...NAB!

The rest of the day was spent rescuing papers, pieces of equipment (like my DLS portal) and anything not glued down from the ravages of the kitten monsters.

Although Nefreet is still pissy to the kittens and aggravated about their presence, we've also noticed since we got home that there's something suspiciously like play going on every now and then. I think she's determined to be a curmudgeon, but a part of her wants to be a kitten again.

Zoe has given me a whole new batch of scars tonight as she used my leg for a climbing pole.

The moggies were all very glad to have us home again after four days absence. My three kitten girls in the office gathered around me and were all purring at once.

When we first came into the house, Pippin and Opal charged down the stairs. Pippin abruptly realized it wasn't the people he was expecting and he teleported halfway up the stairs until he realized it was us, then we got a proper welcome.

Everyone seems to have done fine while we were gone. Tribble seems okay, though I did find some vomit in the Cave when I let him out. And Diva hid from me for the longest time because she didn't want to endure the pill and eye ointment.

Sapphire spent most of the day in my lap and right now, Zoe is determined to interfere with my typing by chewing on my fingers while sprawling across my lap.

I found a new site that is much fun, especially if you like The Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics. It's called Stuff On My Cat.

I headed off to B'fld yet again around 4 pm to pick up Tribble. They said he's doing well and want me to keep him on a special diet. Fortunately, I have several cans of the special food lefover from when I was feeding it to Owl. But will the finicky boy eat it?

Since I was making the trip, I took Diva along for an exam. She has so much snot in her nose, she can barely breathe, her eyes are running like faucets and the poor girl is miserable. I have Amoxicillin and some eye ointment for her.

This is bad timing for having to be out of town for several days, but there's not much I can do about it. The petsitters will have their hands full.

The three kitten-monsters in the office -- Sapphire, Zoe, Jetta -- have shredded my legs by climbing up and down into my lap. I have constellations of puncture wounds.

The destructo-kittens also have broken the paper holder for my color printer, rendering it instantly obsolete. sigh....

Zoe, in her boundless enthusiasm to get in my face when I'm preparing the kitten food, knocked two cans of it into the water bowl, creating a tsunami. Half the tsunami landed on me.

We bought a package of ping pong balls as kitten toys. The kittens find black holes to bat the damn things into. They disappear almost as soon as we toss the balls to the floor. But kitten soccer is fun to watch.

Randy tried out the laser pointer on Pippin and Opal. They love it! They chase the little red dot all around the living room and then wander around perplexed when it disappears. We are such naughty humans.

Tribble is in the hospital for one more night. They said he's doing much better, responding very well to the fluids, and eating everything they put in front of him. The vet I talked to this morning theorized it could be stress. I told her about the kittens. We're thinking the kittens may have stressed him into not eating, which sent him into a downward spiral into dehydration, something that can happen fairly easily to an old, hyperthyroid cat.

The plan is to bring him home tomorrow afternoon, then let him remain in the cave for the next few days while we're gone on a trip. That way, my sitters can keep an eye on him and he won't have to deal with the kittens.

Meanwhile, Diva has a bad cold and a snot-filled nose, and Theseus seems to have laryngitis.

Bast, please give me a break.

Sly finally stopped drooling on Sunday and seems to back to his normal self. I guess he ate something that taste bad, like a nasty insect, and finally got over it. However, I've been increasingly worried about Tribble, who's not doing so well. Since I already had the vet's appointment, I showed up with Tribble instead.

I put Tribble in the Cave last night in order to get a better sense of whether he was eating, drinking and using the catbox. He's down to skin and bones, and he hasn't been showing interest in food or treats. He's been crawling into a dark box and not budging. This morning, he looked weak and in bad shape to me. He wouldn't touch food.

Tonight, he's in the hospital. The vet said he was badly dehydrated and needs to be on fluids. There's no definite idea about what may be wrong with him. He recently had blood tests in which the major functions, such as kidney and liver, were good. They made need to do x-rays. I see a large vet bill in my near future.

But the reality is, Tribble is 16 and that's pretty old. He may simply be nearing the end of his days. We'll see what the vet says tomorrow.

Owl shocked me terribly last night. He went after Theseus. Really went after him. I've never seen Owl be so aggressive and I would never have expected it from him. I had to play cop and break up the confrontation and even chase Owl off. He must be feeling better. The anti-histamines are working and most of the fur he pulled from his back has grown back. He's overall looking like he's in better shape, though he needs to put on more weight yet.

Poor old Sly is still drooling. I called the vet first thing this morning, but they're only open half a day on Sat. and simply couldn't fit him in. I've made an appointment for Mon. as a precaution. He doesn't behave as though anything is seriously wrong, though cats are notorious for hiding serious illness until it's too late. At least, that's been my experience. Meanwhile, I keep wiping his face and mopping up the desk.

Our landlord came by today to introduce us to his ladyfriend, and to introduce her to the Moggy Horde. We've been extremely lucky to find a landlord who is such a cat lover, and she's every bit as much or more a cat lover. They adored the kittens, especially Zoe, but I failed to talk them into adopting one. They have their own small horde of moggies already. ;)

Querida hates the liquid meds and fights me every time. It also gives her very bad diarrhea, which is not good. I'm giving her acidophilis to help with that, but am not seeing improvement yet.

Zoe and Sapphire are shaping up to be lap cats. They take turns most of the day. Actually, in Zoe's case, I think it has more to do with getting my attention. This little girl is NOT shy. She talks and talks until I finally get the message, and most of the time the message is FEED ME! She was reaching up to, I thought, have a sniff of my nose. Instead, she nipped the end of my nose. As I said, she knows how to get attention. She doesn't give up, either. She's indefatigable.

My big worry of the day is Sly. I don't know exactly how old Sly is, but he has to be around 12-13. I'm wondering if he could be older, because he's been looking older. He hasn't been interested in treats lately and not showing much enthusiasm for food.

This morning, he was drooling. Not just a little bit, but long ropy strands of drool hanging from his mouth. There were puddles of drool all over my desk. A stack of papers on my desk was soaked with drool. I would keep wiping his mouth with a tissue, but he kept on drooling. I actually had to mop up my desk with paper towels. His front legs were drenched.

The problem is that it's now 12 hours later, and he's still drooling. I called the vet in mid-afternoon, but they said there were so many potential reasons, they couldn't possibly suggest anything beyond the most obvious ones, like eating something really bad for him. I can't think of anything dangerous he could have gotten into. Usually when a cat drools after eating, say, a stink bug, it's short-lived, not something that goes on all day and into the night. I took a look inside his mouth, but couldn't see anything obvious, such as a bite or inflammation or broken tooth.

Unfortunately, my vet couldn't see him today. They were bombarded with emergencies all day and they're booked up solid. If he's still drooling in the morning, I'm going to try and get him in anyway. All I can do right now is hope it isn't serious and will clear up overnight.

And now I must feed Zoe before she chews my nose off.

Just a quick observation -- it's really hard to make revisions to a manuscript when there are kittens dancing on the keyboard.

I've been seeing bloody urine in the catboxes for several days and have been trying and trying to catch the cat that was leaving it. This morning, I came in and found Querida licking blood on her hindquarters. I rushed her to the vet who luckily was able to see her without an appointment.

Querida is back and hopefully not too much worse for wear. She's on Clavamox again. That worked pretty well last time. I'm afraid she'll probably have a regular cycle of these infections as she cruises along in her waning months. She might make it to 19, who knows?

She also has some upper respiratory trouble and a small ulcer on her mouth that was worrying me. The vet is hoping the Clavamox will clear up both of those things, but I need to watch it carefully.

It has become impossible to keep my phone on my desk. It gets knocked off about every ten minutes.

I have cleverly discovered that all three kittens will eat kitten food voraciously if I locked them up together in the cage and make them compete for it using two bowls. Suddenly, an entire can of kitten food vanishes! In minutes!

More photos: Theseus, Zoe, Jetta, Sapphire.

Pippin and Opal now have the run of the house. Last night...or was it the night before?...I took down the cage and set up that room to be their room with their catbox (a bigger one) and their food and toys, etc. During the day, they can romp upstairs or downstairs. When we go to bed, we close them in that room as a precaution, until they're big enough to stand up to Nefreet.

In the office, wild kitten romping took place after I let Zoe out. Zoe and Sapphire became instant play buddies and Jetta joined in pretty soon after. I tried to take pictures, but they rocket around like furry dynamos at a million miles an hour. I put Zoe back in the cage when she needs to eat because naturally all that the other cats want to do is get in there and eat her food. In fact, Tosca and Owl stick their paws through the wires of the cage, drag the hard kitten food out of the bowl to the outside so they can eat it.

I gave Zoe food before letting her out. I had also brought a plate of cooked chicken skin for the rest of the Horde. The first thing Zoe did was head to that plate and eat about half of the pieces!

In the afternoon, the Mad Romping Kittens found napping places on, under and near my desk. Saffy again napped in my lap or right next to the keyboard. That gave me the opportunity to get a totally adorable shot of Puck giving her a bath.

Photos: Puck, Sapphire, Jetta, Kate.

I let Zoe out for a little while. She and Saffy got rambunctious. Romping was done. Zoe got a bit wild, actually. Not that I can blame her, having all the kitten energy and being stuck in a cage for weeks.

I'm worried about old Tribble. It took me a good ten minutes of solid searching to find him the other day. He's been hiding out in dark corners and inside dark boxes. He's not interested in treats and I'm not sure he's eating much. Here we are with a big holiday weekend, so there's nothing I can do except keep an eye on him.

Saffy is chasing the cursor, which makes it hard to see what I'm typing. Earlier today, she snuggled up in my lap for a nap, which was totally endearing.

I finally gave in to the inevitable and have added THE KITTEN HORDE to the Moggy Horde index page.

A bunch'o'photos: Puck, Zoe, Owl, Sapphire, Jetta.

The kittens discovered new things today.

Bad -- the Sucking Monster aka vacuum cleaner. (Run! Hide!)

Baffling -- the printer. (Paper goes in. Paper comes out!)

Fun -- the cursor. Saffy chased it.

Heard from Lolette on the results of Zoe's tests. As I expected, negative results, no problems, at least for two of the possible diseases.

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