Scratch That....

The plan WAS to catch and home Kumquat one day and catch the others the next before they noticed anything amiss. Mom, however, neglected to tell me her back was out enough to prevent us to go through with the second half of that plan. She said she wouldn't be able to help... the only help I was gonna have her do was close the carrier door after I drop a kitty in. She said she wouldn't be able to drive. Okay. It was a short drive, but better safe than sorry I guess... But still, now we have them for another week. Had to buy more cat food. HOPEFULLY, she'll be better this weekend. Cute as they are, the longer they're here the more attached I get. And let's face it, I'm already attached. And there's the whole cost of feeding that many cats thing... adds up fast.

One of the kids from Kumquat's new home told me they let Kumquat outside... that it was "okay" and playing in their neighbor's yard. I turned around and saw him/her on my porch with the others. >.< Really? I go through the trouble of catching the little bugger and you let him out???? Freaked me out when I caught him the first time, trying to do it quick and gentle before K squirmed away or I hurt him/her and worrying I'd traumatize the kitten or anger the mama. So now I have to catch Kumquat again. The question is... do I give him/her back or take it to the shelter with the others?

You know, the wife asked when it would be safe to let it out. Said they wanted it to be an indoor/outdoor cat. I warned her that there were cats with Feline HIV around and not to let it go outside. She said OK. New kitty owners, they didn't know and now they do. I figured that was that. They seem like nice people. But if they're not gonna listen and K's just gonna be another "rescue" that I end up having to feed, I'm thinking maybe their home's not a good fit. We'll see. If Mom's back is willing, Saturday is shelter trip day. So I have til then to decide what to do with Kumquat....or wait to see if they come and ask about him/her. For now, it's out in the bed box with the siblings.

One down... Six to go....

Okay... So I usually just shove the food plates (up to three now for mama and her babies to share) under a partially opened screen door so I don't have to go outside and they're right there to bring in when the kids finish. I TRY to do this quickly so Spumoni doesn't take a swipe at me or the kittens don't end up inside. Wednesday, I wasn't so quick at dinner time. Kumquat wound up on the wrong side of the door and while I tried shoving her back under (as I've done with others in the past) he/she was just too far in to  be scooched back under. I had to pick him/her up and for a moment I thought, of course I catch Kumquat now...when I don't know if the neighbor who wants him/her is awake or out or what. Kumquat squirmed some and I opened the door and put him/her outside so he/she could eat with the others. Ah well.

Yesterday (Thursday), Mom said we had to try and take the babies in soon. We've both been saying that for a couple weeks now. :-P But after I told her what had happened, I guess she really wanted to try. I called the shelter about available hours for drop off and walked to the neighbor's house to see when they were around and what was too late. Met the wife as the hubby was out at some fight thing. She seemed nice and I heard her tell the kids they "might get the kitty after all" as I was walking back home. :-)

Tonight (Friday), I planned to try and recreate the feeding trap from Wednesday. :-P But I ended up just grabbing a straw and partially opening the door to play with the kittens for a while until I could lure the right one under the door. Wow, can these babies squirm. I ended up having to put her in a shopping bag (reusable not plastic) or I'd have lost my hold on him/her. I scooped Kumquat up, dropped him/her into the bag, and put on shoes all as quick as I could. The other kittens and mama were outside still expecting dinner and not totally freaking that one of them was missing. Whew. So I successfully caught one and delivered him/her to their new home. Hubby and kids weren't there, they'd already left for pet supplies! :-D I hope all goes well for them. :-) But if not, at least hubby will be responsible and take it to the shelter if for some reason the family and kitten don't do well. Least I think he will as he had offered to help me catch the others to take to the shelter. Wife seemed nice. Seriously, these folks are the nicest neighbors I've met since living here. Too bad all the rude, noisy, and jerky ones are the ones that live in the closest houses and the nice ones are some houses away. Ah well.

Now the plan is to catch the whole family at breakfast feeding, using food to lure them into the carrier or inside where I can close the door and close off space to make it semi easier to catch by hand. Shelter is open 24/7 for drop offs. I hope we can catch them all, but at least the babies. Once they're all gone, I'll worry about catching Snickers. She has an owner, technically. But that useless mother and her children clearly don't deserve to be pet owners. Poor thing was rescued from a shelter only to be neglected by that family. Anywho!

I actually prayed for success in the catch Kumquat plan. I expected a lot more squirming and fight. He/she bit the husband when he tried to catch him/her before. I expected the kittens to get scared and scramble and the mama to cry and hiss and generally hate me. But they were just focused on getting their dinner when I got back. And then the fact that the family had already gone out to get supplies before I even delivered the kitten.... Praise God, I do believe tonight's prayer was answered. :-) I've also prayed the morning capture goes well.  God willing, Spumoni, Inkblot, Hazelnut, MiniMe, and Espresso will all be at the shelter and maybe even adopted next adoption day. Though, Lord knows, Mom and I would love to take in even just two of the kittens. As with Oreo and Pixie, when we need another, another will come.

Real Life Invading Dreams... :-P

I hate it when I have a really awesome dream with an interesting story line and then wake too suddenly to remember anything more than the feeling of its awesomeness or what little I do remember is nothing more than a silly detail that would otherwise have been ignored.

Last night I was having a cool sci-fi-y dream. I can't remember what the folks were doing in space on a space station or large space ship. Investigating or discovering something I remember thinking was really interesting. But two brothers or friends were on leave for the weekend and were teleported back to Earth or maybe an Earth-like colony. A whole cool space-y dream and most of what I recall comes from the tale end of the dream with these two boys. Oy. And even then details are fuzzy aside from the younger of these two young guys falling asleep at a party and resting his head on.... and this is the detail that made everything else go fuzzy cuz it was so funny.... resting his head on MY stuffed Mickey Mouse....the one I've had since I was 15-16 years old, with it's flopping ears sewn on cuz they tore and all... :-P Some girl at the party covered him with a blanket and that's where I woke up.

The Mickey thing made me laugh when I got up and I forgot everything else about the dream. Which is a shame cuz now I want to know what they were doing in space that was soooo interesting! Le sigh. I wish I had perfect dream memory cuz some of my dreams are so awesome I would love to write them down and turn them into stories. Ha! As if I had the focus to actually stick with writing an actual story. I can't even focus long enough to write an RP post these days. :-P

Cat Costs

Okay. It's time to seriously think about taking the cats into the shelter. I mean that was the plan anyway, but time to actually try catching the cats. The cost of feeding seven strays is starting to add up. We;re going through the canned wet food sooo fast, and we're still not feeding them enough I think as they are still super thin. Should have looked for a bulk supply when Dad and I were at Sam's Club. Definitely going to look for some this weekend.

In the mean time, I keep trying to gain their trust so they don't flee from me when I'm on the same side of the screen door as them. :-P They're fine so long as I'm sticking plates outside from under the door, but once I'm outside they keep their distance. The distance is less and less, but still not close enough for me to grab them. Well not for most of them. MiniMe and Hazelnut are braver or don't care so long as I'm playing with them. Mom tossed one of those feathers on a stick toys. It's got a bell on it, so we can hear them playing with it all night long. :-P But Hazelnut LOVES it the most and will risk close proximity with me just to play with it even when I'm holding it. I've even managed to pick him/her up for all of a few seconds...he/she's quick to squirm free! And tonight MiniMe let me pet him/her for a second before realizing what I was doing and backed away. :-P

Right now we've got an old litter box (our kids use a bigger one now) on the porch with old rags and things for bedding. It's cute to see the five kittens all snuggling inside. When I try and get close to them, I usually try luring them there so it's a smidge easier to grab them. If I weren't worried about ants, I'd leave the cat carrier outside to make catching them easier. Oddly enough the ant problem hasn't been a problem even with all the extra cat feedings and lack of ant prevention (cuz I can never get out there when the cats aren't on the steps or don't want to expose them to the chemicals at their young age). But I keep thinking the moment I assume it's safe is the moment the ants will start crawling all over the porch and steps again and anything on it. When it is time to take them in, I'll have to either catch them by hand and drop them into the carrier while Mom stands guard or ready to close the carrier door OR lure them into the carrier with bait and be ready to close them in. Ideally, I'd like to catch all seven cats, not all at once of course. Snickers and the lil family would have to be separate trips or they'd shred each other or me for even attempting. But hopefully I can catch all the babies and the lure the mama (cuz no way will she let me grab her) in one  go. Kumquat would be delivered to the neighbor and the others to the shelter.

If it weren't so expensive to get them tested and treated, we'd probably take them all in, or at least one or two of them. As is, the shelter may charge us for dropping them off as technically they're our cats since we feed them. Least we don't have to worry about TomDickorHarry (the cat I think  is the daddy since mama and kids aren't afraid of him) since he doesn't trust me at all and runs when I just walk up to the screen door. Hopefully, when/if we get them all to the shelter, no one else will show up. But I had that thought when we left Norwalk too.... Le sigh. Stupid Oreo advertising about us feeding strays.

ANYWHO! On a more positive financial note..... In a few months I should be able to pay off another credit card! That'll leave the Care Credit card that gets used for the vet trips, student loan, and two bigger cards that er um have been left delinquent. But with one down, I'll look into getting one of those into some sort of reasonable payment plan. Either way, two credit cards paid off this year! Yay! :-D

K.... time to go do dishes and kitty feedings (indoor).

Too Much TV?

Yesterday I woke from what I'd consider a really cool dream but Mom thinks I'm weird. :-P I guess I watch too much TV. I take that back. I don't guess. I KNOW I watch way too much TV. I mean I sit down and plan the recording schedule for the week so Mom and I don't miss anything.....And yet, Dad manages to record more than the two of us combined. :-P

ANYWHO! I think my dream was sort of a cross between BBC's Being Human and AMC's The Walking Dead. I was seeing from the point of view of one of the humans travelling with a growing group of surviving humans and a werewolf. We came across some facility where a vampire had been hiding out until we arrived. Of course his fresh blood supply was gone, though no one asked what that supply was (animal or human). So he had to get out and find a new place just like the rest of us. I, or the person I was seeing out of, got cut climbing into the pick up truck the little band were fleeing in and the vampire caught the scent. He did his best to resist.... And then I was actually me and not in someone else and the driver wasn't some random driver but my Dad. We kept ahead of the zombies okay, but the vampire was starting to worry me. Next thing I knew we were all scrambling out of the truck and splitting up. I took off without even waiting for Dad. Sorry DAD! But ya know when a vamp has your scent, ya don't stick around! :-P At some point I met up with Mom and had to explain why I'd run off without Dad who was with her anyway.

I think my dream was about to take an even more bizarre twist "V" style, but I woke with a phone call and realized I was running REAL late. All that running (dreaming and lateness :-P) gave me a monster leg cramp. Crazy, cool dream.... :-P Too bad I woke too rushed to remember more of the details.

Kittens and Kids

Terry (the neighbor who wants Kumquat) and Caleb (his son) are actively trying to catch the kitten now everyday. Unfortunately, Caleb has a tendency to be too noisy and or fast and ends up scaring the kittens. Last night Terry even brought a bowl of sardines in hopes of appealing to the kitty. :-P It's amusing sometimes. I just hope he or I can catch him soon before all the kitten hunting traumatizes him/her too much. Apparently Terry had Kumquat in hand this morning but got bit. Le whoops?

Practically all the kids (particularly the girls) in the neighborhood are all gaga over the kittens and sometimes even step into my yard to grab them without even asking! I mean if they're gonna adopt, fine. Well not fine, not the run and grab part cuz that just scares them. But oh hey never mind come on into my yard without asking. Sure why not! And what ya all wanna run up and try and grab the kittens like a herd of cattle? Sure.... The kittens won't mind. I'm sure they'll run right up to you! >.<  Seriously. As if it weren't bad enough that I have to stand out there and keep guard while Snickers (one of the old regular strays) eats cuz she keeps getting run off by the mama and her babies, but now I have to referee the brats in the neighborhood? And the younger ones here can barely speak English..or at least barely speak it properly so I just loooove it when they talk to me. So not a kid person.... Soon as Kumquat is adopted, I think I'll try and catch the lot and just take them to the shelter so I can be rid of the kid problem! I mean we were gonna do that before too long anyway. But ugh!

I think if I ever end up living on my own, I'll look for a kid free apartment. It's a shame really. It was a quiet neighborhood when we first moved here. Damn kids had to grow up into noisy monsters.

Whooooo!

One of the neighbors wants to adopt Kumquat, the orange kitten. Hopefully he or I can catch the little fur ball so he can take it home. :-) The kittens are getting braver. They don't flee as far when I'm outside with them. Trying to get them used to me and somewhat socialized so they're more adoptable. Kumquat, Inkblot, and Hazelnut are ALWAYS around for meal time and still act starving when I feed the other ones. :-P Bottomless pits, the lot of them! Kumquat and Inkblot play much rougher than the others. It's fun to watch or referee when they make each other squeal. Silly kitties. Ah if only we were in a place to take the whole family in. :-P We'd truly be the crazy cat ladies. :-P

ANYWHO....

BBC America's been airing a Doctor Who marathon since yesterday. Season 5 yesterday and season 6 today. Even though I have 6 on DVD (except the Christmas episode which they stupidly sold separately!) I've watched more of it than I did 5 which I only have a sort of okay recording of. :-P Ah well, 5 I've seen more times in reruns and previous marathons anyway. Later, I'll watch the DVDs...or at least the second half of season 6 and then I'll watch the season 7 Christmas episode on TV before..... the new episodes!!!!! Weeeee.... Sonic Screwdriver in hand, I am soooo ready for new Doctor Who episodes! :-)

I think it's funny how they advertise for the new seasons as the season "where everything changes." It's the Doctor! When doesn't everything change? :-P Oy! And hopefully they ditch that lame ass intro with Amy telling her story. Seriously. Anyone who doesn't know the story, doesn't deserve to watch Doctor Who. :-P Anywho! Off to dreamland for a....nap..... Going to fall asleep to "The Doctor's Wife".