Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Indoor cats (October 2012)

 After we moved Tinkerbell and family inside, we set about making our back bedroom a nice playground that they would be comfortable in.  Don had the idea to buy a used bookshelf and cover it with carpet.  They approved.

E. B. White

Sinbad, Sherlock, Willow, E. B. White, Haiku, & Pixy

Willow

E. B. White

Haiku

I took tons of pictures of the kittens.  On Flickr I gathered them all in the cat album, but there are other cats in this album too: https://www.flickr.com/photos/twobears2/albums/72157629871356922 

Thanks for Visiting!


Monday, December 19, 2022

. . . And Then There Were Seven (September 2012)

 Continuing on from the last post, where we met Tinkerbell and her kitten, Pixy-- before Tinkerbell was even finished nursing Pixy, she had a new litter that was born in late August.  

We'd already been considering how to catch Pixy and Tinkerbell to get them to a vet where they could be checked and treated for pests and fixed. Now we had to delay that visit for Tinkerbell until she'd finished nursing her newest litter, but we wouldn't wait that long this time to bring her in, since we'd just learned that a cat can become impregnated immediately after delivering a litter.  POOR CATS! 

It was probably unusual that Tinkerbell only had the one kitten, Pixy, when we met her...one can only speculate what became of the rest of that litter, but it had to have been a sorrow for Tinkerbell, who looked quite proud of her new litter.

She was also so protective of the new litter that once she'd moved them from under a thicket of asparagus ferns, where she'd delivered, to a more spacious nursery under the bougainvillea bush, where she'd been staying with Pixy, she was warry of letting even Pixy visit.  When pixy batted one of the kittens (Willow) back, after the kitten batted her first, Tinkerbell chased Pixy all over the backyard and tackled her for a fierce reprimand.  

Pixy insisted on being allowed to visit her new siblings though and was soon seen in the nursery with all of the kittens gathered around, looking as though SHE were the mother.

We went ahead then, with getting Pixy fixed, and then brought her into the house.  I had been sitting near the food dish each time I fed she and her mother outside, and had eventually been able to pet them as they ate.  So picking her up to get her to the vet had not been as difficult as I'd feared.  

A few weeks later, not wanting to risk Tinkerbell's fury, I very gingerly lifted her kittens one by one and carried them into the house, and then I brought in Tinkerbell.  She too, was not as difficult to pick up as I'd feared, and actually came quite willingly.  She actually seemed to understand exactly what was happening.  I'd left her for last, so that she could protect the ones that were still outside during the whole catch and carry procedure, as it was not unusual to see hawks on the wires above our backyard.

A couple of the kittens, Haiku and Sinbad, fought being handled, and whether it was from that experience of being brought into the house and deposited in a bedroom, or that was always going to be their attitude, they've remained disinterested in being touched.  

So, below are photos of Tinkerbell, Pixy, and the new litter (Sherlock, Willow, Sinbad, Haiku, & E.B. White) both outside in the bougainvillea nursery, and then, inside in their new room.

(Above image) Sherlock and Haiku

(Above image) Sherlock

(Above image) Big sister Pixy playing mother cat with Willow, Sinbad, E. B. White, and Sherlock

(Above image) After they were brought into the house, Tinkerbell with her new litter: Sherlock, Sinbad, Haiku, E. B. White, and Willow

(Above image) E. B. White has always had a unique seating posture--it reminds me of a frog

Willow has always had this pretty ladylike posture.

(Above image) And Pixy's face has always captured my heart.

(Above image) Pixy

(Above image) Sinbad and Sherlock playing

(Above image) Pixy is the one with the feather. Her sisters and brothers look on (or not) in varying degrees of interest.

(Above image) E.B. White seems to be watching Sinbad for signs of admitting defeat.

(Above image) E. B. still playing with Sinbad, and back in his frog posture, while Pixy's interest stays with the feather-string toy.

Thanks for visiting!

Friday, December 16, 2022

Kitty Discovery May, 2012

 So, as mentioned in the previous post, in late May of 2012 Don and I discovered a mother cat (since, named Tinkerbell) and her kitten (since, named Pixy) in our backyard.  We had put up a picket fence that kept the dogs on the patio and out of the yard area because when we first bought the house there were a pair of pet rabbits roaming free that Don's mom had left us when she moved to North Carolina.  The kitties seemed to think this arrangement had been made with them in mind.

So here are some photos, primarily of the kitten because the mother stayed hidden in the bougainvillea shrub most of the time.

Pixy (6/2/2012)

Pixy (6/2/2012)

Pixy (6/2/2012)

Pixy (6/21/2012)

Pixy & Tinkerbell (6/28/2012)

Pixy & Tinkerbell (6/28/2012)



Pixy (7/25/2012)

Pixy (7/25/2012)

Pixy (8/2/2012)

Pixy (8/2/2012)

Tinkerbell & Pixy (8/2/2012)

Pixy & Tinkerbell (8/2/2012)

Pixy (8/18/2012)

Pixy (8/18/2012)

Pixy (8/18/2012)

Pixy (8/18/2012)

Pixy (8/23/2012)

Pixy (8/23/2012)

Pixy (8/23/2012)

Pixy (8/23/2012)

Pixy (9/5/2012)

Thanks for visiting!



Kittens

(It looks like I forgot to post this back in 2012.  It sort of triggers a memory of why I discontinued this blog.  I created a new one about the cats on a different system. Wouldn't you know, I can't recall what that was. . .I think it was more of a personal website than a blog.  I might as well post this now, since I've begun trying to catch up my various blogs.  12/16/22)

(August 2012)  My last post was on the "Southern California Day Tripping" blog.  And in that post I briefly introduced Tinker Bell and Pixie.
Tinker Bell and Pixie are cats that I met at the end of May.  The first time I saw Tinker Bell, I was wondering what Merlyn was barking so animatedly about.  Merlyn is our largest dog, you may recall.

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Early one morning in late May, as I watched Merlyn stand at the white picket fence that keeps him on the patio so he doesn't go excavating in the rest of the yard, I saw a long thin white furry arm reach up toward his snarling face.  Then there was a flash of fur with a pattern that reminded me of a cow (except for the size and the small pointy ears) as, spotting me, it bolted and ducked under the very large bougainvillea bush a few feet away.
My thought was, "Huh.  Maybe there is a cat who would consider befriending the large scary noisy fluff-ball we know and love as 'Merlyn'."  
A few days later; Saturday, I saw it again, under the bougainvillea bush, and with it was a much smaller version in gray and white.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

2011-04-12 Tuesday


Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! I've been focused on my Flickr uploads and seriously neglecting the blogs.

So, let's see, what's new? It seems I've been in this dilemma before...do I pick up where I left off (I think November 2010 was my last post) or do I not worry about trying to catch up and just start from here?

Maybe I'll start with the present and work my way back. I've heard that's how memory works anyway. If you play your memory back from the present you can remember things more clearly than if you say, "Now what did I do two nights ago?"

So, I took this photo this morning in response to a colleague's curiosity about the plant I told her we purchased at the UCI Arboretum last Saturday. It's a "Creeping Cape Lilac" ("Plectranthus ciliatus" according to the UCI Arboretum website). The leaves look and feel like a mint plant's leaves. I've read conflicting information about it's bloom period--the UCI arboretum says it blooms in Fall. That's ok, the leaves are pretty all by themselves and that will give the plant time to get established.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

2010-10-24 More bugs and flowers

Today I'm practicing with the 60mm lens. I've read that fixed length lenses make better macro lenses than telephotos, so I decided to test that theory today.

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