5 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

I did indeed mean guys, not guts.   😁   To accuse a feline of having a beer belly is very rude indeed. Felines only drink water and the magical nectar written about in the ancient texts, not bear.

You OK there, Mart? 😄 

"Magical Nectar"  Cream?  Mead? 

A good friend's father claimed to hate the family cat, but one day Lonnie got up early and caught his father sharing morning coffee with the cat.  For many, that qualifies as "Magical Nectar." 🙂 

I was walking by the bedroom and saw a single kitten in the middle of the room.  I said "hi" and waved and it ran toward me. Little guy liked being picked up. I petted him for a while then put him back with his stack of littermates and his momma in the closet.

Cali, the Old Lady cat loves people but hates other cats. Laid back, meows every time you pet her. Very sweet disposition. Just can't stand other cats. I wish her best of luck. Leo and Katie (momma cat) are good friends, even share the food bowl.

Some years ago someone dumped a female black cat on us who hated other cats to the point of being straight up neurotic. Ohana wanted to be an only cat in the worst way. Once I went out to sit by a bonfire far from the house and other cats and she jumped in my lap... poor dear craved human attention. One day she disappeared and I hope she found a house where she could be the Only Cat.

Months later a black cat wandered in like it owned the house, meowing loudly.  "Ohana?"  Nope, this was a male. Midnight liked other cats well enough, which is how I was finally certain it wasn't Ohana. 😄  This is why I was hoping for a black kitten.

One kitten has a unique face, all black with thin white upper lips and chin, and white paws. Also has the stripe pattern in the black. Would I get in trouble for naming it "Al"? 😄 😄  Probably end up calling it "Socks" after the Clinton cat.

I've seen all black cats with an obvious tabby stripe pattern, black on black, but only when the light is right. They even have the M on the forehead. The black and white "tuxedo cats" do not seem to have this pattern, being plain black (and white, of course. 🙂 ) 

More pictures to follow when the kitties discover then can explore outside the bedroom. They're coming up on four weeks old.

Hook

 

Hmm.... first I typed beer, then bear. That must mean something. Some kind of Freudian slip? 

 

3 hours ago, LHookins said:

Cali, the Old Lady cat loves people but hates other cats. Laid back, meows every time you pet her. Very sweet disposition.

 

My cat has a sweet disposition too. As long as you don't touch his no go areas, the typical feline off limits locations. Back paws, etc. 

That's if his adrenaline tanks are only partially full. If not, he expects your full cooperation with his zoomies and for you to be the willing recipient of extreme combat training. 

The above is when he's not lying on your chest with his arms round your neck looking at you like you're the best thing since sliced bread.

 

"Welcome to the bathroom. A cat will be with you shortly."

Or in my case, three kittens.  Mommy cat wasn't happy about it, but when you have a "chaos of kittens" or a "maelstrom of kittens" there's not much choice. 🙂 The bathroom is right across the hall from their bedroom. I think I've identified one of the grey stripe kittens as being the most forward all the way back to when they were still on the bed.

Wife says to start wearing long pants as she's already had kittens climbing halfway up her legs. They have sharp little claws.

We had a stripey orange cat show up at the front door yesterday and momma cat ran him off. I think I know who the father is. Probably belongs to our newest neighbor. Am I supposed to offer them pick-of-the-litter?

Life keeps getting more and more interesting. 🙂 

Hook

 

Got four kittens scampering around the living room. They follow anything: their mommy, the dogs, us, each other. 

Layla-the-Little-Brown-Dog loves 'em. She's gonna be a perfect babysitter. Cali-who-hates-other-cats hissed and batted one of the kittens and Layla jumped right on her. Next time through Cali ignored all the other cats. Sentry-the-foxhound noticed them but not much more. "Oh look, a kitten." Winston was interested for about 15 seconds. Then he came over to sit on my foot and Layla wouldn't let him! That's new. The kittens follow Jojo-the-racoon-hound and she runs away. She's not ready to be an aunt. She may never be; it took her three years to fully warm up to me. I think she must have had a rough puppyhood. 

Wife picked up the black face kitty (she calls her Sammie) and the kitten purred! I think she's gonna be a keeper.

Poor Katie-the-momma-kitty looks to be worn to a frazzle. Human mothers of triplets probably have the same experience at some point, and Katie's got twice that many. 😄 

I wasn't expecting Layla to have such strong guardian instincts, but I'm happy about it. She used to carry Katie around in her mouth when we first got Katie at about the same age as the kittens are now and Layla was still mostly a puppy. Only scary the first time.

Kittens gonna be peak photogenic in a week or two. Expect plenty of pics.

Hook

PS. The other day Wife was telling me that the kittens' teeth weren't quite in yet about the time one of them was biting the snot out of my big toe.

H.

Edited April 17, 20251 yr by LHookins

23 hours ago, LHookins said:

Layla-the-Little-Brown-Dog loves 'em. She's gonna be a perfect babysitter. Cali-who-hates-other-cats hissed and batted one of the kittens and Layla jumped right on her. Next time through Cali ignored all the other cats. Sentry-the-foxhound noticed them but not much more. "Oh look, a kitten." Winston was interested for about 15 seconds. Then he came over to sit on my foot and Layla wouldn't let him! That's new. The kittens follow Jojo-the-racoon-hound and she runs away. She's not ready to be an aunt. She may never be; it took her three years to fully warm up to me. I think she must have had a rough puppyhood. 

 

Kitty chaos time! 😁

 

23 hours ago, LHookins said:

Kittens gonna be peak photogenic in a week or two. Expect plenty of pics.

 

Looking forward to it.

😺

Yesterday the "rorschach" kitten climbed on the sofa with a minor boost by Layla the last couple of inches.  Wife calls the kitten Nosy, after DiNozzo from NCIS. Kitten just laid there chilling for 15 minutes, happy as anything.

About 3 AM wife stuck her head in and said she had kittens crawling all over her on the bed. I laughed.  She said, "Your turn's coming."  I can't wait. 🙂  I'm gonna guess Nosy was the first and the rest followed.

One of the kittens started trying to eat the dog's food, so we put some Purina Cat Chow on the floor for them. I don't know if they're quite ready for solid food yet, but I think momma cat appreciates the break, as she's still pretty small and the kittens are wearing her out. Normally I'd dump a bit of cat food on the floor occasionally to give the dogs a treat, but they didn't bother the kittens eating it. Need to get the family to buy some kitten food, as I don't drive these days and wife never did (visual problems).

We've had a few litters of kittens born over the years, but for some reason this is special.  Probably because I was so involved in their birth. I can only imagine what it was like for a friend of ours who said her cat insisted in having the kittens on her lap.

Oh yes... final count on the sheep was 9.  One of the ewes they thought was having twins had a single. Two of the lambs ended up being bottle fed when the mothers ignored them. If you've never dealt with lambs, they follow you around everywhere like puppies, and the word "frolic" was probably invented to describe how lambs act. 

Sherri had a baby sheep whose fleece was brown and white;
It followed her all through the day from morning until night.

Apparently that rhyme about Mary was a true story. 😄 

Hook

On 4/19/2025 at 10:16 AM, LHookins said:

Probably because I was so involved in their birth.

 

You do realize that when the feline overlords take over you will be treated like royalty for your services to catness. If it had been canines, of course, the infamous canine empire, you would be akin to Gaius Baltar! 

 

 

Edited April 20, 20251 yr by martin-w

OK, time for a long-overdue update.

Not long after my last post I bent over to keep a bunch of kittens from escaping out the front door into the dark, lost my balance and fell hard on my back, landing on my wife's wooden cane on the floor and breaking two ribs quite thoroughly.  Lucky it hit where it did as it could have been my back or my hip.  If I have been less than gracious in some posts it's likely because I was in some pain.

Some combination of this injury and the meds I describe in another thread left me in pretty bad shape.  My balance was shot and I had to use a walker for a few weeks.  I also had no strength and had to use my arms to stand from a sitting position.  I could barely move around in bed.  Because of the walker I wasn't able to use the camera.  A couple of days ago I got my strength back, and I haven't needed the walker in a while.

Luckily my wife got lots of pictures on her phone the whole time. Now that I'm feeling up to it again, I'll work on getting pics published.

Two of the lambs come up to the gate on our front porch and they love to be petted.  Layla-the-little-brown-dog has decided she lives with us full time now.

Katie-the-momma-kitty has brought in dead adult squirrels twice for the kittens to amuse themselves with. Jojo-the-racoon-hound got upset at this and attacked one of the kittens, but didn't hurt it. Jojo doesn't care much for the kittens, and doesn't hang around me as much as she used to.  Layla has taken her place.  Lately Katie has brought in live tiny frogs and the kittens love chasing them.

The kittens scuffle hard among themselves and bite our fingers.  Nosie attacks our feet when we're walking.  Nosie is the only one to climb on my bed  so far but he bites my feet through the covers and likes to lick my face.  My wife wears her shoes to bed.

Unfortunately we haven't seen Sammie-the-black-face-kitty in a couple of days.  They go outside during the day, so we don't know his status.

The big box of cat litter that used to last 3-4 months is now down to 3-4 weeks.

These little guys should have found new homes before now, but I'm not in charge of that.  Whenever someone comes to the house I ask if they want a kitten, so I'm doing my part as best I can.

Pics when I get around to it, but getting them up for publication is a bit of work. 

Hook

2 hours ago, LHookins said:

The big box of cat litter that used to last 3-4 months is now down to 3-4 weeks.

Cat litter is the bane of my existence.  20 years ago, I had no problem dealing with 40 lb. sacks.  But as I’ve aged I’ve transitioned to 30 lb. buckets, then 20 lb. jugs.  Now I got a funnel so I can split one jug’s contents into two empty jugs so I can easily make it from the garage to upstairs.

Why 40 lb. sacks originally?  My wife is a cat collector.  We’re down to five cats now.  20 years ago, we used to wait until Safeway had a sale on cat food and then fill a shopping cart. I hated when the checkout clerk would inevitably ask “How many cats do you have?”  I wouldn’t say it out loud but show all my fingers.  Thank goodness we eventually switched to Chewy.com and its anonymity. 🥸

5 hours ago, LHookins said:

Not long after my last post I bent over to keep a bunch of kittens from escaping out the front door into the dark, lost my balance and fell hard on my back, landing on my wife's wooden cane on the floor and breaking two ribs quite thoroughly.  Lucky it hit where it did as it could have been my back or my hip.  If I have been less than gracious in some posts it's likely because I was in some pain.

 

😯 Very sorry to hear that Mr. Hook.

 

2 hours ago, Mike A said:

Why 40 lb. sacks originally?  My wife is a cat collector.  We’re down to five cats now

 

Most I've ever had in one go was way back before I was divorced. We had 4. It was entertaining, thats for sure. 

"One can never have too many cats."

The most permanent cats I've ever had at one time was 12... then one had 6 kittens.  The kittens all found homes.  Generally we only ever saw 3 at a time.

I recently ran across an old message bringing a very old friend up to date and mentioning we had 11 cats.  This was during the time I was going on "cat walks" every evening, where the most I ever had go with me was 9.  And three dogs.  Anyone who made it all the way to the far end got special attention and "Thank you for walking with me, I do appreciate it."  I was a self-described "cat rancher."  Yes, they all had names (and some would even respond to them).  Yes, they were all fixed (except that one).  🙂 

Why so many?  Some were born here.  Others... well, you know how people tell kids their pet went to the country to live on a farm?  We were that farm.  Some of my most beloved pets were someone else's unwanted animal, or one they couldn't keep for whatever reason.  My son and his wife acquire various animals for their own reasons, often for food.

I wouldn't mind keeping the remaining 5 kittens except they are pretty rough around the edges and we need to find someone who will give volume discounts on neutering.  I used to be able to afford that.

Leo and Layla sleep with me most nights, and they help keep me sane.  This has somehow gotten more important as the years go by. 😄 

Hook

8 hours ago, LHookins said:

The most permanent cats I've ever had at one time was 12... then one had 6 kittens. 

 

9 hours ago, LHookins said:

"One can never have too many cats."

 

I think you need a special service to cats award. 

 

 

 

The Following is hereby awarded to Mr. Hook for his lifelong service to our glorious feline masters.

 

 

Special Service To Felines

Award - 2025

😺

On 6/9/2025 at 4:45 AM, martin-w said:

The Following is hereby awarded to Mr. Hook for his lifelong service to our glorious feline masters.

Hey, not bad for someone who is actually allergic to cats! 😄 

I didn't care.  I just totally ignored it for years until it finally went away.

The last time I had any problems was many years ago.  I was petting a very fluffy long haired white cat when I felt a sneeze coming on.  I put my petting hand in front of my nose and mouth, and reflexively inhaled for the sneeze.  I ended up with something resembling industrial pneumonia for a while. It was worth it.  Never had a problem since.  Lordy, that was 40 years ago!

Hook

On 6/10/2025 at 5:14 PM, LHookins said:

Hey, not bad for someone who is actually allergic to cats! 😄 

 

OMG!!!

So you suffered physical discomfort, too, in order to home and worship our feline overlords.

You, sir, will earn yourself a place on the feline galactic councils human advisory board. 

4 minutes ago, martin-w said:

So you suffered physical discomfort, too

I suffer physical discomfort every time one of these tiny monsters wraps itself around my foot when I'm trying to walk!  Frequent swabs with alcohol on a cloth are necessary.

But it's worth it, every bit.

Hook