Cat update for week ending January 19

It’s that time again, Caturday! And don’t duck out from reading the blog tomorrow; I’ll have some exciting news then. Stay tuned!

Lots of pics this week. I usually aim for about 20, but today we have 31. Including some new visitors.

But first, some cuteness:

This may be a little hard to see, but there’s a cat climbing a pole in the background (and one eating):

The gray alien cat:

Stretch!

A screenshot of my iPad, showing cats on all four cameras: Pansy in the shop, and some outdoor cats:

A non-cam photo of the cat house. You an see the outdoor cam housed in a stack of concrete blocks on the left (one day I want to make a nicer enclosure, but this works):

Another angle, looking from the path by the bird feeders to the cat house, with the white gazebo and pond deck in the background:

Closer to the cat house. I really wish the two signs were more readable from a distance; I’ve thought about painting the lettering. They say “Cat House Saloon” for the shelter side, and “Mercantile” for the feeder side:

Double-decker cats (Porcini on the awning, Poppy on the deck):

Pippin is fascinated by the cats on my iPad:

With the big and small ponds frozen, birds have been taking advantage of the heated water dish (when the cats are elsewhere):

Poppy:

More snuggles:

A daytime screenshot of my iPad, showing Pansy in the shop and others. I really gotta put her on a diet:

What’s this? More snuggles! How shocking:

All five cats inside:

Breakfast queue:

Me refilling the heated water dish. Since the garden taps are disabled for the winter, I bring out a bottle of water (a reused creamer bottle) to flush and refill the dish:

A couple of cats watch as a possum walks by:

Porcini looking at the camera inside:

And her outside:

The alien gray cat ventured into the shelter:

Here he’s coming out:

A bird having a bath in the heated water dish:

Doesn’t want to share:

A couple of smaller birds (sorry, I’m no good at recognizing species):

Porcini the burrito:

Rolling over on the edge… this isn’t going to end well:

Saw that coming; everybody freaked out:

The gray alien again; pretty sure he lives north of us somewhere:

Porcini again:

That’s it for this week! What do you think; too many photos? Would you prefer I limit it to around 20 as usual, or the more the merrier?

Cat update for week ending January 12

Enough with the chickens; it’s Caturday! (I will try to post pictures of the chickens more often than in the past, though.)

This week we have the usual assortment of awning antics, alien visitors, and cute snuggles. I couldn’t think of a title that summarizes the photos this week, so went with a generic one… maybe I should just stick with that?

One of the awning antics:

There have been fewer raccoon visits this past week; since getting back from my Xmas trip, there hasn’t been leftover food, so their visits have been decreasing:

Portabella:

She caught an insect of some kind:

Oh deer:

It’s the alien gray cat again:

The alien gray cat inside the feeder area:

Hey there, mind if I join you?

Snuggles:

Porcini looking rather relaxed:

Portabella again:

More awning antics:

A good vantage point for watching birds:

One of the twins:

Portabella on the awning, one of the twins in the doorway:

Drinking and watching:

Waiting for breakfast (there’s actually four in there; one is mostly obscured):

Yawn! Somebody needs their coffee:

Poppy watching (probably Rory on the deck), along with Portabella behind the cat house:

Lazy morning:

That’s it!

Cat update: hello 2019

Welcome to the first #Caturday of 2019! Your weekly check-in with our family of feral cats.

…And some not-cats, like this lucky raccoon.

The cat house has an internet-connected food dispenser, which has a schedule of set food amounts, plus I can use an app to tell it to dispense additional portions. To avoid attracting wildlife like this raccoon, I normally have the scheduled feedings set to a bit less than what the cats actually eat, and I watch the feeder area via the IP camera there and dispense more if they run out. The goal being to have no food left after dark, when the raccoons and possums are about.

However, while we went away for a late Christmas, I increased the scheduled dispenser amounts, since I wouldn’t be able to watch the camera (it’s only available on our local network, for bandwidth reasons). Apparently the cats weren’t that hungry on this evening, leaving a lot of food for the raccoon, unfortunately:

That naturally encourages the raccoon to come back again, which it did each night. Though the cats seem to be getting used to it, not running away:

Poppy is modeling a high fashion accessory; a cobweb or similar:

All five cats inside:

Another raccoon encounter (and an eye upstairs):

All five again:

An encounter of a different sort; a cat watches as a deer walks by:

A sequence of four photos; two cats on the awnings:

One of the twins (Spud?) hassling Porcini as she drinks:

Porcini leaves (and you may notice Poppy looking out the door):

Rubbing on the edge of the awning, and a shadow of Porcini on top of the camera housing:

Three inside:

Stretch:

Another not-cat: a disappointed possum. I adjusted the food dispenser again to reduce the food after we returned from our trip:

Another raccoon visit, disappointed this time:

The alien gray cat:

Soaking up the warmth from a heating pad:

A couple outside:

That’s it for this week!

Cat update: goodbye 2018

As another year comes to a close, one last #Caturday update for 2018. But fear not, the updates will continue in the new year!

A visit by the alien gray cat:

Stretch!

Four cats snuggling (can you see all of them?):

Three not too concerned up top, one below, facing off a raccoon:

The raccoon backed off and left, and the cats fell back asleep:

Porcini looking at Rory on the deck in the distance:

Three cats enjoying the warmth of the heating pads:

Porcini by the heated water dish:

A meeting by the feeder entrance:

One of the twins inside:

A queue waiting for breakfast, sheltered from the rain:

Porcini upstairs, Poppy enjoying the warmth downstairs:

See you in 2019!

Cat update: let’s go to the shop

I usually post photos of the outdoor feral cats (and will this time, too), but let’s start off in the shop. We have a 2,400 square foot workshop building, that is divided into two halves. The front half has storage shelving, workbenches, garden equipment, lots of junk, and where we park the car in winter. The back half at one time was a bit more finished, and includes a bathroom, but is somewhat torn apart now; it’s where we store outdoor furniture in winter.

We have two feral cats that live in the shop: Pepper and Pansy (sticking with our “P” name theme). They are both female. Pepper is a long-haired black cat, who sleeps in the front of the shop, and Pansy is a short-haired stripy cat, who sleeps in the back. Unlike the outdoor ferals, they don’t snuggle, and actively avoid each other.

We got these two a few years ago via a shop cat program at a nearby county, where they place feral or otherwise unsocial cats in barns and shops like ours, where they can be safe, fed, and comfortable, and earn their keep by providing rodent control services.

Here is Pansy:

You can see a bit more of the back of the shop in this picture, including their food dispenser on the right, with the water dispenser behind it, bee supplies beyond that, and furniture storage on the left:

And Pepper; hard to find a good picture of her, since she’s so dark, and only visits the back to eat:

This is where Pepper sleeps, on top of shelving in the front. She has a foam nest on the left for summer, and a large padded bed with a heating pad on the right for winter (Pansy also has a heating pad):

Pepper is somewhat used to me; she often supervises from her high perch when I’m building things at the workbench. I pretty much never see Pansy, other than via the camera.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled cuteness; the outdoor ferals.

Too bright:

Snuggles:

Cute head tilt:

All five cats… though you can only see a tiny bit of the back of the one eating:

Lick:

Poppy didn’t appreciate being sat on:

Did you see the YouTube video of that?

More snuggles; I like how Porcini has her paw on Poppy’s leg:

Queue for water:

Poppy expresses her displeasure at an empty food dish (an hour before breakfast time):

Up close and personal (you can see the ring of infrared lights around the camera in her eye):

Poppy again. She always looks mildly annoyed:

The twins:

One of the twins by the heated water dish:

That’s it for the penultimate cat post of 2018!

Video

Video: The Squeaky Cat Gets the Licks

Porcini is vocalizing and stretching, and gets licked by Pommie, then sits on Poppy, who isn’t entirely thrilled, but then they snuggle happily. Just another day in the feral cat shelter.

Cat update: snuggles, staring, stretches

It’s time for more cat snuggles!

And a bunch of staring off into the distance:

And playfulness:

But let’s not forget the (disappointed) possum menace:

Interestingly, there was a cat sitting in the doorway, and just watched the possum walk by, without retreating:

There is a water dispenser inside the feeder area, but since it has been below freezing lately, I decided to add a heated water dish outside. This dish warms up the water just enough to prevent it freezing, and only comes on when cold enough to be needed (I have a larger version of this for Rory’s dog water on the deck):

Hey there:

Breakfast queue:

Another visitor, this time a raccoon; again, was watched from inside by a cat:

Stretch and snuggles:

Can’t have too many stretches (watched from the window):

A meeting outside, and an observer inside:

Porcini staring at the camera. Oh, and if you look closely, you may notice an addition to the images from now on: I’ve added a watermark as a copyright notice and URL of this blog. I use the excellent Retrobatch app to convert the large BMP images from the cameras to a more compact HEIF format for importing into the photo library, so I now also add the watermark to ensure the images have proper attribution if shared:

A pile of three cats snuggling, and another greeting with a lick:

Snuggle pile:

Staring off into the distance again:

Cat update: raccoons, playtime, snuggles

An invasion this past week: a couple of raccoons went inside the shelter, and one even went onto the upper level (which I hadn’t seen before). Fortunately, no cats were present at the time:

Snuggles:

A couple of cats peering out the shelter windows:

Another raccoon visit, this time with a cat in the shelter doorway:

I added a second screw to each of the thermal mats on the upper level, to stop them flopping down over the edge:

With the sub-freezing temperatures overnight, the cats have been spending a lot more time on the lower level recently, directly on the heating pads:

Kisses:

All five cats inside:

A sequence of three stills of Portabella falling down while playing; always impressive the way cats twist around to land on their feet:

Did you watch her playtime in the YouTube video?

A deer walks by, watched by a cat in the doorway:

More playtime:

And more snuggles:

Portabella looks at the camera while waiting her turn for breakfast:

And Porcini:

Porcini and Pommie (or Spud… but I think Pommie?):

Portabella is ready for her close-up:

Sleepy cats:

That’s it for this week!

Video

Video: Portabella Playtime

One of the feral cats, Portabella, plays around inside the shelter, and gives an opportunity for an instant replay.

Cat update: eyes, teeth, snuggles

It can sometimes be a challenge thinking of a title for the #Caturday posts, since they’re typically an assortment of cats doing cute things, and sometimes wildlife.

This week, no wildlife pictures (a few visits, but nothing notable). But there seems to be a number of pictures of the cats staring at things, and showing teeth while either hissing or yawning… and as always, lots of snuggles.

Here’s an example of the eyes, briefly concerned by some noise outside: