I've been finding scabs and minor hurts on Diva's head and neck area. I suspect that it's from Puck giving her a hard time when I'm not around to protect her.

I turned around and found Ariel lying not far behind me on a pile of clothes and old towels that some moggy had conveniently knocked off a shelf and onto the floor. Of course, she had to leave once she'd been spotted.

And then there's Saffy being cute.

There was some sort of chaos and mayhem afoot in my office overnight. When I came in, I found my keyboard in two pieces on the floor (luckily not broken, the other piece snaps back on) with the mouse and Rubbermaid cover also on the floor, along with some of my papers. And they overturned the large tub that holds the dry food. I demanded to know who was responsible and received many innocent looks and no confessions.

Zoe's butt.

Opal was the one who nearly took a swim. We were sitting at dinner when we heard SPLUNK! Opal raced out of the bathroom and proceeded to lick her wet hind leg. I figure she was playing with the floating toys and half slipped into the water. I let the water out of the tub after that.

I had Zoe nestled in my lap last night as I was trying to log in and do some online banking. Each time I tried to enter my password, Zoe would move around and I'd mess up. After several times of messing up, the site decided I was a would-be hacker and wouldn't let me in! I had to call customer service today and get it cleared up. Ah, cats... ;)

Pippin and Opal sat by the glass doors in the bedroom where they did a chatter duet at the birds. Pippin doesn't only chatter, he also makes meowy moans. They are frustrated moggies.

Our water company up here is completely inept. We received a notice that our side of town would have no water all day while they dug up and replaced some pipes. So last night we filled the bathtub with water to have water for flushing the toilet. As usual, the water company failed to do what it said, the water was never turned off, but we've left the water in the tub as a precaution. They'll probably do it tomorrow or some other annoying time. Anyway, a moggy whose name probably begins with Opal decided the bathtub needed to have toys in it, which is why I came into the bathroom and found three rubber frogs and a rubber duck floating in the tub. Pippin thinks the toys are fascinating, but fortunately isn't inclined to go for a swim.

Poor Randy. When I came into the house for lunch, he showed me his bloodied arm. He had a long, ragged scratch on his forearm, along with smaller scratches and some puncture wounds. While he was washing dishes this morning, Pippin decided to jump onto the top of the stove. There was a large skillet full of soapy water left to soak on the stove. When Randy went to pick up Pippin to remove him from the stovetop, Pippin latched onto a small handle on the skillet. Randy didn't realize this until he lifted Pippin and the skillet started to come along. But of course Pippin then let go. The skillet CRASHED back onto the stove top and Pippin went ballistic in the kind of mindless panic attacks that cats can do so well. Hence the blood and war wounds on hapless human.

The people behind us went away nearly all day and left the puppies without a drop of water. All they have for a "water bowl" is an overturned lid from a large plastic container. I dragged my hose over to the fence and filled it as best I could. I also had another chat with the AC officer, who I think had a chat with them by phone. At any rate, they suddenly remembered to feed the puppies after I made that phone call.

After lunch and my walk, I stopped off to chat with T. again at the House That Is The Source Of All Cats. She's every bit as annoyed about the neighbor with the puppies as we are. The kittens that were in the high cabinet are gone, so she has to explore her attic and figure out where they went. I offered to help her with some trapping when she gets back up here on her next trip.

Zoe took lessons from Jetta and perched on the monitor, hanging her paws down on the screen. But she's a heavier girl than Jetta! She was making my monitor rock. Luckily she got down and is in my lap, a much safer place for her to be.

Opal and Pippin have been complete lunatics lately, racing around the house at lightspeed, up and down the stairs, bouncing off the furniture. They launch with such force off the top of the cat furniture that it rocks violently. The other night, I swear, it almost fell right over. I expect that to happen any time now.

Jetta's been helping me type by hanging over the monitor so I can't see anything. She got offended when I kept moving her front legs, so she sat up, turned around and draped her tail down the center of the screen.

Puck continued with the mischief today, but then what did I expect? Even as I typed that sentence, I caught sight of him in my peripheral vision and realized he was about to pounce on Theseus, who was using the catbox. I gave out a stern "PUCK!" which in turn set off a cat grenade. Even Theseus ran. Everybody but Puck ran. Puck has been giving Theseus a hard time the past few days. When I thought about it, I realized that I'm down to only two male cats in the office Horde - Puck and Theseus. Other than Pippin in the house, the entire rest of the Horde is now female.

Maybe Puck thinks they're his harem. {g}

Puck is driving me INSANE. It's like he's trying to make up for all those days I had him on tranks by outdoing himself in the chaos department. He's been chasing cats, starting fights and generally behaving badly.

The moggies knocked down the box of styrofoam peanuts yet again, and since I had taped it up too well, they simply tore a hole in it to get at the peanuts. There weren't as many to clean up this time, but they were more shredded which made for more small bits to pick up. Do you think I've been hit over the head enough times with the clue bat? As in, get rid of the peanuts already?

Bast has it in for me.

Happy arbitrary unofficial birthday to Kate! A grand old lady of 15. Though she's lost some weight recently, she seems to be doing fine and is eating well. She needed to lose some weight as it was.

Puck has been raising hell and is back to his old tricks. He just jumped Theseus after harassing him a bit first. I intervened during the initial harassment, but the minute I put Puck back on the floor, he went after Theseus. I know what I need in my life. I need a water squirter!!! I'll squirt his mischievous brains out.

Knowing Puck, he'll probably just learn to ignore it.

How many black cats can squeeze into one catbed? Tosca, Jetta and Diva find the answer to that.

I'm glad I found that igloo for the puppies because it got unexpectedly cold last night and we woke to a smidgen of snow, though it was soon gone. As the morning rolled on and the neighbors did nothing to contact us, I decided to call Animal Control again. I talked to an officer at length about my liabilities, what I was responsible for vs. what the owners are responsible for, the condition of the puppies, etc. The officer who was up here before wrote in his report that he judged the condition of the puppies to be normal. Well, what the hell do I know?

At any rate, because I had made prior arrangements with the neighbor to feed the puppies, I couldn't claim them as simply "found", and I needed to make what he called "reasonable attempts" to get in touch with the owners. Since I don't know their last name and don't have a phone number and can't go into the yard, that limits my options. He suggested leaving a note on their gate.

I wrote up a simple note explaining how I came to have the puppies here and ended by saying that if I didn't hear from them by tomorrow, I'd take the pups to a rescue shelter. I walked around to the house where I saw some kids outside and one of them took the note into the house. I walked home and about five minutes later, the kids were on my porch ready to take the puppies back. We handed the puppies over the back fence to the man one by one. I chatted with him a little bit and he claims the puppies are getting a series of three shots for worms. I hope he's telling the truth.

So the puppies are gone, to my mixed sense of relief and frustration. I can get back to concentrating on work and my own moggies. But we're keeping the igloo in the back yard...just in case. Meanwhile, the puppies have been fighting and making a lot of noise right outside my office window. Sigh...

It's 10:25 pm. The neighbors got home about 15 minutes ago and have yet to come over and inquire about their puppies. Have they even noticed they're gone?

Between the father dog barking all night and the puppies having a short yip session early in the morning, we haven't had much sleep. We put out three good-sized bowls of water, but they were dry by morning. The first thing Randy did after we got up was to get water to the puppies. They drank and drank and drank. Here's what the sweet things look like:

Diva came around and gave me a good talking to about how she wasn't getting enough attention lately, so I brushed her and petted her up. Looking at the condition of her coat and eyes, I can see it's time to start giving her Lysine again. My few free days of no pills to give are over.

My life is filled with chaos and distraction, and it's all my bloody neighbor's fault. I went out this morning to feed the puppies. I went up to the fence and called them. They are usually there instantly, clamoring for food and attention. There was silence and emptiness. No puppies. Obviously, they had escaped the back enclosure. I called for them, hoping they were in the rest of the fenced yard with Hercules. No luck.

Randy and I stood in front of our house debating what to do. We can't go into the yard because of Hercules, but I wouldn't be able to feed the puppies if I couldn't get to them. I put the food in my old car, about to drive around to the front of the neighbor's house when I saw three happy puppies, tails wagging and ears flapping, prancing down the street. They came right up to us. With the additional enticement of food, they followed us into our yard and we put them into a smaller, well-fenced area that is immediately behind our bedroom and small back deck. We gave them plenty of food and water, then debated even longer over what to do.

The puppies have been frantically digging at the base of the fence, which borders the yard they know as home, and they've been chewing at holes in the fence. We're worried about the damage they may do. But we can't get them back into their own yard first because of Hercules, but also because they'll simply get out again. They can slip through a gap in the wire gate across the driveway. They have no collars or tags, so they're fair game for anybody if they're running around, not to mention the hazards of cars and coyotes. I checked on the fourth puppy (there were six, but the neighbor took two with him to go to new homes) and found that he was in the main part of the yard with Hercules and had no interest in coming over to me. I think he's slightly too big to squeeze through the gap, but since he seems intent on staying put, I'm not worrying about him.

So we figure we're stuck with the three until the neighbors get back on Sun. The next worry is that it's supposed to get below freezing tonight. There's no real shelter for the puppies, they're short-haired, and we can't do anything else with them (like put them inside). I started making phone calls. Lolette gave me the number of a woman who lives nearby who had a large dog igloo she wanted to give away. Our wonderful neighbor up the street took Randy and I over to the woman's house in his big pick-up and we brought the igloo here. The instant we set it under the deck, the puppies bounded into it and made it theirs.

They're the sweetest puppies, desperate for love. We think they have a serious case of worms. We can see their ribs and bones, but they have huge distended, hard bellies. I'll bet the nitwits didn't worm them properly. I've called the direct number for the AC officer and left him a loooong detailed message about all of these events and my opinion about the puppies' condition. Unfortunately, I know he won't get the message until Mon. at the earliest.

Pippin and Opal were fascinated by the puppies, of course. They've never seen a dog or puppy before, so they have no fear. Pippin even pawed at the glass.

I was going to my office when I saw Gizmo, one of my other neighbor's sweet black cats. He was a bit freaked out by the puppy sounds. As I opened the door, Puck shot out, went INFLATE! and immediately chased Gizmo out of the yard. I quickly caught Puck and put him back inside. Poor Gizmo.

Zoe and Kate had a smellathon when I sat down. I had puppy smell all over me. They were fascinated. I'm waiting for them to accuse me of two-timing them.

I was too depressed yesterday to make an entry, and have been busy with work, so I must make this quick.

I've had an outpouring of condolences and sympathy, and I appreciate every bit of it. Thanks to everyone.

On Wed. afternoon, after I got home from the vet, I took a walk. I needed to clear my head. I saw that T. was home. T. owns The House That Is The Source Of All Cats, but she works in a city about 90 miles away and is rarely up here. Basically, the house has been turned over to the feral cats. A neighbor comes by and puts out food every day, the cats can come and go freely. Nice arrangement for the cats.

So I stopped by to visit with T., who is a terrific lady. She's managed to trap and neuter about 18 of the 30 adults, but the last batch are proving too cunning and elusive to catch. She was extremely happy to hear about the ones I managed to neuter. She was in the process of doing a kitten inventory. When I came in, she was in the kitchen on a stepladder. On the top shelf of the very highest cabinet in the kitchen, she found five kittens! Mama cat somehow got up there to have her litter (probably via the attic). She handed me a tiny ball of adorable fluff and I held it for about ten minutes. I can honestly say I had no desire to bring it home. That litter looks about 4-5 weeks old. She had a feral mama in an open carrier who was nursing three kittens about two weeks old. Bast only knows how many more she's found since. She has a good shelter in the city where she works that will take them, so she's going to be hauling all the kittens that are old enough to go back with her.

But none of the ferals live all that long around here. The coyotes know that this house is a source of snacks. It's well-fenced, but cats wander.

On the puppy front, I've had a couple of cordial talks with the neighbor who seems to harbor no anger about the visit from the Animal Control officer. If anything, the situation has improved. He left this weekend and took two puppies with him to new homes. Before he left, he dropped off bags of dog food so that I can toss it over the fence to the rest of the puppies while he's gone. It's an improvement.

I quit giving Puck the kitty valium. It was turning him into a sluggish, sleepy zombie and I hated it. He's bounced right back to his old puckish self, fully of mischief. I know I'll still have problems, but I like the Prince of Mischief much better than zombie cat.

Querida Jan. 1987 - 12 April 2006

Knobby mid-April 1991 - 12 April 2006

This day was looming inevitable and it came. Last night it became painfully obvious to me that both Querida and Knobby had reached the end. Knobby was having trouble with his back legs and could no longer walk properly. Querida had lost a devastating amount of weight and spent hours hunched at the water bowl with her chin resting on the edge of it. Knobby seemed to want water, yet couldn't or wouldn't drink. Neither one of them would touch food, not even baby food.

This morning I called my vet and took them to Bakersfield. You can imagine what sort of a day it's been for me. Querida, my Grand Old Dame, made it to 19, which is a good long life. Knobby made it to 15, give or take a few days.

Losing Querida is like losing a big chunk of my life. She was around for much of my marriage to my late husband and his death. As go the cats, so goes my past.

I've now lost the last of my blue-eyed cats. No more blue eyes in the Horde. And Knobby was the last of my tuxedos. Also, I suddenly no longer have any medicines to give out or worry about. That feels wrong, somehow.

Kate now becomes the Eldest at 15. Then Theseus who is approximately 12, though his age is quite vague. Tosca's 11, Diva's 10. The rest are considerably younger, so I'm hoping the number of the Horde stablizies for a time.

The asshats came home around 9 pm last night, but did nothing for the puppies around the back. I saw the Animal Control officer show up this morning and talk to the man, but we had to leave, so I was unable to talk to the officer then. I've been checking on those puppies all day and I see no sign that they got either food or water!!! Damn it all. I've left a couple of messages for the officer and hope to talk to him tomorrow.

On the moggy front, things are the same. The young'uns are full of energy and bouncing off the walls. The old ones are hanging in. Querida will eat baby food by itself, but isn't interested if I mix it with other food.

Much of today was spent worrying about and taking action on the condition of the puppies in the house behind us. Some of you might remember that I posted about one of the puppies, a little female, that was being beaten up by the other 5 puppies. We intervened. Then one night, the owners left the little girl tied by a short leash to some stairs for about 12 hours, no shelter, no food or water that we could tell, they came home late at night, it's below freezing and THEY LEFT HER THERE. We finally went over around 10 pm and intervened again.

Well, these asshats have been gone for FOUR DAYS and have left the 6 puppies and father dog WITH NO FOOD, NO WATER AND NO CARE. Worse yet, the little female is tied to a short leash on the upper deck, so she's had to crap and pee in the small radius where she is. No one has been coming around to feed or water them. No one can get in the yard because Hercules, the father pit bull, will take your arm off. But the puppies are being starved. You can see their ribs and backbones. They are STARVING, and not just for the past few days. Given that there is no mother dog, it looks fairly certain (though we can't prove it) that these puppies are being bred to fight.

Plus Hercules BARKS ALL NIGHT. We've had precious little sleep for the past three nights. We are furious about the entire situation.

And so, it turns out, is one of my next door neighbors (who has three dogs and is a serious animal-lover like us). She's been talking to other neighbors and getting them to call Animal Control. It began when I called Patrice, who is a trained Humane Officer for this county, and got advice from her. She told me my neighbor had already called about this and has intervened to help the puppies a couple of times herself.

Phone calls were flying. Then I called Animal Control who said they were coming out this afternoon. I gave them an earful and told them to come see me, because you can only see the four skinniest puppies from our side, at the back of the other house. He did come by, was a great guy (loves dogs and has 3 Labs), but he was unable to do anything today because he couldn't enter the yard without injury from Hercules. While we were talking, it began to rain, so we moved to the porch and talked some more. At least with the rain, there's a chance for the puppies to get water into them.

He plans to return tomorrow with an assistant, so that one of them can deal with Hercules while the other feeds and waters the puppies, and puts up a 48 hour notice. If the people do not call by and prove they've changed the situation within 48 hours, the puppies can be rescued and taken away for adoption.

After he left, my neighbor gave me a couple large bowls of dog food which I dumped over the back fence for the four starving pups, who attacked it ravenously. I only regret I can't help the little female. I didn't feed Hercules or the other male pup that is in the larger part of the yard with him. They've been tearing apart bags of trash and have probably gotten something from that.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I want to rescue that little female. No, we can't really accomodate having a dog, but damn...she tears my heart out.

Querida is getting very, very thin and hardly moving. The strong antibiotic did nothing to help her nasal congestion and she continues to wheeze. I thought she was eating well until I decided to feed her separately from Kate. Then the food was barely touched, so I think it was Kate who was eating most of it. I'm glad Kate is eating well, but now I'm even more concerned about Querida.

I got out the laser pointer and let the moglets chase it around. Saffy is so smart that the minute she hears me open that particular drawer where I have it stored, she races over and waits for the Red Bug to appear. Even Theseus did a bit of chasing, when I could get him a space free of the three crazed girls.

The three Moglets of the Apocalypse - Sapphire, Jetta and Zoe - wreaked much havoc this morning in fits of boundless energy. Numerous boxes were knocked over, pounced upon, and generally terrorized. All in good fun, of course. Puck got into the act for awhile and Saffy ran to me for protection as Puck's idea of "play" gets pretty rough. I had to rescue Zoe from him yesterday when play degenerated into beating up on her.

Jetta is being a monitor ornament. She hasn't done that for a fairly long time. I'm glad she stayed a small cat, though!

My darling moggies knocked down the box of styrofoam peanuts again. There weren't as many to clean up this time because it fell on top of the flaps which kept most of the peanuts from escaping. I taped it up again, but I can't find my heavy-duty tape gun and had to resort to mere sticky tape. I suppose this could keep going on until I finally have the brains to just get rid of the peanuts completely. :P

As expected, the munching of the greens led to the throwing up of the greens. It wasn't too bad, though. I'd rather clean up bits of grass than the other messes they leave for me.

Querida is looking and feeling terribly frail these days. On the plus side, she's eating well. I will be amazed if she makes it to 20, but she's a tough old thing.

The house moglets love to chase balls. Opal prefers the ping pong balls, while Pippin loves the jingle-balls (plastic balls with a jingly bell inside). He's big enough that he can pick up the ball in his mouth and carry it off as a trophy when he's tired of chasing it. Yesterday, he decided to stash the ball inside one of Randy's hiking boots, which is where Randy found it. [g]

Neither Opal nor Pippin have shown much interest in the pot of grass we set out for them, so I brought it into the office. In no time at all, the moggies were mowing it down. Here's Jetta, Zoe, Saffy and Puck munching their greens.

The moggies decided to greet me with an April Fool's prank. This is what I found when I came into my office this morning. An entire box of styrofoam peanuts on the floor.

That's Diva in the picture, though I doubt she was the original culprit. She does't go up to the very top of the shelves where the box was stored. It may not look like much here, but there were peanuts strewn from one end of my office to the other. Peanuts in the food. Peanuts in the water bowl. Bits of peanuts stuck to cat fur by static electricity. I started picking them up by hand, but quickly gave up on that and swept them in batches into a dustpan and tossed them out.

And here's Jetta being cute with another box.

Happy birthday to the four moglets from the feral tortie cat's litter: Pippin, Opal, Sapphire and Jetta. I don't know exactly when they were born, of course, so I picked the closest approximation and gave them this as their birthday. One year old today! Although Opal and Sapphire were nearly identical as kittens, I can see more distinct differences in build now that they're older. Saffy has developed the classic, somewhat round-faced tortie look, while Opal has a more narrow, refined Oriental face. Opal also has black whiskers and Saffy has white whiskers, which is an odd difference. They're still much the same in personality, though.

I gave the same honorary birthday to Puck and Ariel. Puck is now five. Wow, five years old. Hard to believe. Ariel is two.

Diva turned 10 sometime in March, very approximately, which means her mother, Tosca, must be at least 11.

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