Tortitude Watch

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Leah

(Mary) Shelley

A teller of tales, adding Mary to her name was an afterthought. That’s why Mary is in parentheses. It’s also because, people mostly think of Percy when they read, Shelley. She’s very sweet and affectionate. She’s also a major chaser of tomcats. Recently there was a day called “Fix Your Tomcat Day”. All ours are fixed, but Shelley thinks they need more fixin’.

The kitchen here connects to both Shelley’s area and the Kittens’ rooms via two different doors. The windowed door to the Kittens’ room is mostly kept closed but when it’s open, the Kitten boys love to wander into the kitchen. There’s no door on Shelley’s entrance, but she doesn’t often enter. Sometimes we leave the door open to the Kittens’ area, in the hopes everyone will get along eventually. One day, this formidable fellow pictured below walked into the kitchen. Shelley sent him on his way. I saw it.  There were no menacing growls or sounds. All she had to do was stand in her doorway and raise a front paw, curling it into a swiping motion. Lynx ran back to the safety of Kitten space.

A canny house Lynx

The next guy pictured, Stripey, decided to take a kitchen walk with his brother Lynx one day when I was sitting with the Kittens.

Sunlit Stripey

He’s sweet, and rather large. Next thing I knew, both boys ran full tilt back into Kitten territory. Only scampering sounds, no growls. Not even a hiss. I looked, and Shelley was indeed standing there at her entrance, looking cross. She’s rather large herself.

How about this big, sagacious fella:

Bossy Buddy

All three Kitten boys wandered into the kitchen one day. All three quickly ran back out, scrambling all over each other to get away. I looked in the door and there was Shelley, standing at the other entrance. There had been no squalls. All she had to do was stand there.

I’ve mentioned in past posts that Shelley has chased Franklin back to the Kittens’ rooms, and kept Silver away from the windows by running at the window. So, number of tomcats in and around the house: 5. Number of tomcats chased by Shelley: 5.

Swanky Frankie (Franklin)

Silver looks

Not a very good picture, shot through glass. He looks sad here, but he comes inside now, and he’s really happy about that.

Our less adventurous little black and white girl Kitten, Spooky, isn’t pictured here as she’s never been chased by Shelley. She’ll probably be the lead cat on the next post.

Note: We did adopt an entire litter of found feral kittens. We didn’t forget the feral mom. She’s now spayed, lives in the yard and is kept fed, and has a standing invitation to come in to live with us. She does not wish to accept.

Earth Day  is coming and to that Shelley says, “Earth to tomcats, scram!”

We are making progress, though. We’ve never had so much trouble combining cats from different backgrounds … but the other day, Shelley came into the Kittens’ room and looked around without incident, and left peacefully. To try to make progress we’ve left the door open at times, and Boss and Lynx love to go into the kitchen together and look and sniff around. They head bonk each other as they go; they have a big time. So long as Shelley is elsewhere, that is.

Today, April 20th (Happy Easter and Happy last day of Passover.) is the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster in the Gulf. Here is my water essay: https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/tributary-becoming-green-warriors-of-the-red-earth-country/

For Earth Day I will try to do a link to the only metal song I ever liked, partly based on writings of Darwin. (This may not work, we’ll see.)

For the newly released Kindle Edition of Catwoods, my book about our kitties in prior years, here’s the link:https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08382X7L9

For the print copy: https://www.borgopublishing.com/product-page/catwoods

The book tells the stories of our cats in prior years. Sales of my book help  us care for these kitties that we have now. (If I’m ever able to finish Book 2, these cats’ stories will be in that volume.)

Posted in Cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | 64 Comments

MoonPie Remembrance

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Leah

MoonPie lounging

This was supposed to be her turn to introduce a post. Instead, she slipped away to the Rainbow Bridge with no warning. She was, and is, one of the kittens. It’s terrible to lose kitties this young.

She had very tall ears. I still look for her when I enter the Kittens’ area. The muscle memory of looking around the rooms for each cat persists. There should be five of them, not four.

She was named in the tradition of naming cats after confections, like “Cupcake”. A Moonpie is a popular southeastern U.S. confection. It’s traditionally consumed with an RC Cola. There’s even a song about that. I should have named one of her brothers “RC Cola”.

She was the smallest of the Kittens. Here she is with Stripey, the largest Kitten. They were pals.

MoonPie and Stripey, Lynx in background

All the boys liked her. Boss used to slap at her, but she just slapped right back and they had fun together. If a cat wanted to be at her favorite window, it had to be shared with MoonPie.

Boss and MoonPie window watching, MoonPie chatters

There are so many beautiful pictures of her.

MoonPie window lounging

MoonPie Summer

I will continue to post her pictures sometimes, when I’m able to post. She is still so much a part of this group of Kittens. As an exquisite black cat, she’s a good representative for my writings about the beauty that black cats add to our homes.

Kittens, Moonpie on left

I want to thank Ingrid of Meezer’s Mews and Terrioristical Woofs,            https://mrjackfrecklespipominko.wordpress.com/2025/03/09/sunday-selfie-time-2/                                                   for the lovely remembrance picture she made for us. I’ll see if I can post it here but my tech skills are few:

Beautiful memorial image for Moonpie, done by Ingrid

Many thanks also to Ann Adamus for the lovely memorial image she made and placed on the Cat Blogosphere:

MoonPie Forever

I will again be slow to answer comments. I do hope to come back sooner this time and do a few more cheerful posts.

Posted in black cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | 131 Comments

Franklin Brings Book News and Cat News

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Leah

Franklin Watching and Editing

My MUSE Award winning book Catwoods, Stories and Studies of Our Feline Companions, Volume 1, is now available on Kindle. The cost is 7.95, much lower than the print copy. I’m sorry this wasn’t available before, but the publisher would not permit it until recently. You do miss out on the beautiful cover with an e-copy, I think.

Here is the link for the e-copy: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08382X7L9

If you want a print copy, go here to Borgo Publishing: https://www.borgopublishing.com/product-page/catwoods

Due to a publisher decision not to list books on Amazon any more, Amazon now says the print copy is no longer available, but that’s just not true. You can get it at Borgo Publishing, a small publisher.

All sales will help us enormously as my husband and I both continue to weather difficult health conditions, and keep our cats fed and cared for. We have a new ear-tipped friendly guy named Silver, who now comes in every night through a carefully engineered window entrance, to stay in a small back room. After he comes inside, it’s closed to keep the possum out. (We love possums and we willingly allow them to get a little cat food, but I don’t think it would be wise to let them into the house.) Silver is let back out during the day. We have three groups of incompatible cats, one is Shelley, another is Franklin, and then, there are the grown Kittens. And now, Silver.

Franklin just doesn’t like any other cats.

(Mary) Shelley is a tortie diva. Once Franklin made a run for it to her rooms, through the Kittens’ room. A few minutes later he came running back, with Shelley hot on his tail. Silver, though ear-tipped, was friendly. He would come to the windows and hollar to get in.  One night he found the bedroom window and began to wail continuously. He’d have done that all night, but … I saw a calico blur zip by and then heard a thunk as paws hit the pane. Shelley took care of that. Silver never came back to that window, but confined his efforts to the back. Shelley is formidable at chasing tomcats and putting them in their place! If other cats start to enter her territory, the hubs warns them that they might “meet the dragon”.  We had at first talked of finding Silver a home, but the hubs has become quite fond of him and I think he’s going to stay. Mom Groucho is still out there and well fed, and will not come in. Other ferals and/or strays have shown up too. Most have come and gone, one was a black-and-white who was friendly and well-fed, whose owner must have later returned from a college break and taken him back inside. We don’t let any cat stay hungry. Since 1990 our family has been taking in as our own, rehoming, and TNRing strays and ferals from this one city block. Even so, in this college town surrounded by farm lands and coal mines, cats keep showing up here. There would have been even more over the years if we hadn’t TNRed every cat we encountered in those years. TNR is so vitally important. Now we’ve seen a white cat out there. It looks well-fed, but we’ll see. We know to look out for two-timing cats who are working two (or more) houses/homes. They’ll all be fed, though.

Speaking of cats and agriculture, there’s a meme that goes around, “We owe our existence to a 6-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” I don’t know who to attribute that to. I think that “and to cats.” should be added. There’s no way humans could have stored grains and crops without cats in the past. We’d still be hunter-gatherers. It would have been hard to go deep sea fishing, too, without cats on the ships.

To do more posts I really need to do some more photo editing. I had these pictures ready from last year. So we’ll see. I’m far from the best photographer or photo editor but I can usually edit pictures to something I at least like. I’ve never tried the newer effects used by so many to artify pictures. I see many pictures being worked this way that I do think look really fabulous. But I’m not sure if I’ll ever try this myself, or if it’s a technique for me. And, I will certainly NEVER use AI in pictures! The online AI pics I see look so overly polished. And LOL, sometimes the cats have extra ears, etc. I sure won’t use it in writing, either. That’s one advantage to having a quirky writing style, with regional aspects that sometimes alarm a reader or two, while charming others. I don’t think AI could reproduce it and pass off something as mine that I didn’t write. Especially since those from other regions who try to imitate southeastern ways of speaking often get it wrong.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to publish Vol. 2 of Catwoods now or not. It was almost ready in 2021 when the setback occurred. Now, I have notes on so many more intense observations of our cats and would really like to add those. And I don’t know if I can, as I went from bad to worse last September.

I’m so sorry that my present health condition means I can’t get around and comment on everyone’s blogs. There are many I visit, and many I just can’t get around to. I’ll try to explain the illness more one day. I may also be even slower to answer comments here than I have been in the last few setback years. Comments, and likes too of course, are still much appreciated though!

I have some really sad news that I am not up to fully covering at this time. We’ve lost one of our kittens, our sweet little girl, Moonpie, suddenly, with no warning. The vet thinks it was an aneurism. It has wrecked me, and I don’t have anything photo edited to do a proper memorial post yet. It’s still hard to sit up at the computer to work due to illness problems. So I will have to do that later.

Happy Dr. Seuss Day to everyone! I’m sorry I don’t have a picture prepared.

Here’s a picture of two other Kittens that I had ready. Sweet boy Stripey was always protective of both little sisters.

Stripey and Spooky

Posted in Book topics, Cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 85 Comments

Boss, A Shadow, and Third of June Music

Posted on June 3, 2024 by Leah

Boss Shadowed by MoonPie

MoonPie is visible behind Boss here. That’s her tail behind his ear on the left; over his head, you see her back. On the right side, maybe her ear tip, I’m not sure; those are definitely her pawpads next to him.

It’s actually Franklin’s turn to do a post, so we’re out of sequence. However, Cranky Frankie is always here on the header.

Zoomleader Boss has a really quiet purr that is barely audible. I only hear it when he’s sitting on me. And then I have to place my ear close to him to be sure that’s what I’m hearing. He compensates for being soft of meow and purr by being the cause of most of the clatters and squalls heard in his vicinity. He loves to zoom, slap his brothers, and chase his little sisters.

I’m going to try to post the song “Ode to Billie Joe”. This haunting song was Number 1 on the charts for 4 weeks in 1967, knocking the Beatles out of the Number 1 spot.

This is the version with the views of the actual old bridge. Every year on this date, a joke meme goes around. It shows the new bridge and says, Billie Joe should have survived that fall. But the joke picture is actually a newer bridge, not the one that was there at the time this was written. The vocal is actually better in the version that shows the shadowy family dinner table in the background. Both are on youtube. One reason I like this song is because the language and accent sound authentic to me. I feel that authentic voices tell the most affecting stories. I’m fascinated by the wordways of all regions. That sometimes ruffles feathers, especially if it’s southeastern regional language. I employed some in my book Catwoods, along with expressions from many other regions and languages. To me it’s part of the aural ambiance that I and the cats in the stories lived in. It’s like Kerouac opening his window to the sounds of people talking in New York, then writing “Old Angel Midnight”. (I’ve read some Kerouac but not that one. But I will one day.) I like the southeastern speakers and accents, they’re rhythmic and musical. The sounds fascinate me. So do the melodic sounds animals make, and I also like “The Kiffness”. I also enjoy voicing animals with human words at times.

I always loved Shakespeare, and here from New Zealand, written in Shakespearean English, is a blog with some of the best voicing of cats I ever read. As I noted in my last post, I enjoy fictional works when the cat characters behave like real cats in at least a few ways. In “The Earl of Southhampton’s Cat”, I feel they do. I think “toutparmoi” means “all for me” in French. That blog isn’t updated any more; I hope it stays up. Hoping this link still works. It does for me, and I can find the blog by typing in the title.

https://toutparmoi.com/

“She’s right behind me, isn’t she.”

Lynx front right, MoonPie on left. This beautiful little shadower will be along to head up a post after Franklin does one. And of course, Lynxie boy will get his turn again later, too.

The strays and ferals will also have their own post here one day. When several other kitties came to dine with us on a steady basis, Mom Groucho moved her campgrounds to another side of the house. She’s closer to the house which is good, and now she’s close enough to blink at us through a window. We always blink back. She had already started to meow to the hubs when he brings her food, before her move. So, progress! Now he makes additional treks around the house every day to make sure she is fed.

Just as I’d been bragging on how we’d reduced the stray and feral cat population in two places in our immediate area by adopting, homing, and TNRing for decades, there is a surge here in the population of stray animals this year; all rescue groups are saying, don’t ask us for help, we are overwhelmed. It’s statewide actually and I think, nationwide now too, but in this region we’ve been surrounded by agricultural lands for long times. Farms have always survived partly due to barn cats. I want to research more and write something in my Volume 2 of Catwoods, about my thoughts that this may be part of the reason for such a high population of cats in various areas. It’s also a college town, where abandonment is sadly common. That’s also true, I was told by an online friend in the Upper Midwest, of college towns there. One day I still hope to do a post on the many marvelous cat and animal rescue persons and groups we have here now. Always spay and neuter, there would be many more if we hadn’t.

We are so grateful for everyone who has purchased Catwoods! We still need more book sales to help keep us afloat and keep us able to help all kitties who come along. We’ve had two new ones recently. The best place to go is still Borgo at this link: https://www.borgopublishing.com/product-page/catwoods

You can also find it by clicking the cover picture at the top right.

Amazon is still listing used copies at higher prices first, and it’s hard to find the new copies there. Used copies don’t pay the author. Only go to Amazon if you’d like to read the 5-star reviews. The correct price of the paperback is 23.95 before shipping.         I do now have a Kindle version out. I’m sorry it wasn’t available from the start, but the publisher wouldn’t permit it. That decision has now changed and it’s available here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08382X7L9

Catwoods is the only Deep South cat memoir other than My Cat, Spit McGee, by Willie Morris, that I know of. This being the Internet, someone might soon arrive to let me know I’m wrong, LOL.

I’ve touched on music in writing here a bit, and in this post I talk a little about color in the writing of my book. As well as in my old art:

Color in Black and White, With Cats

I so appreciate all the comments on my posts, thanks everyone! I do try to respond to each of them. I may be really slow to answer this time, as everything is becoming more complicated. I so regret not being able to get around the web more and comment on everyone’s posts. I try but I’m very limited in what I can do these days.

Posted in black cats, Book topics, Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 131 Comments

Shelley Arrives At Springtime

Posted on April 23, 2024 by Leah

Shelley at Sunset in October 2021

Actually this picture goes back to right before my health setback in October 2021. We have both come around to this spring. She was found running down the street at about 6 weeks old in 2018. A neighbor caught her and handed her to the hubs for homing. A friend became attached to her and gave her a good home. She’s very affectionate. When he had to go into constant assisted care, she became ours. In the unlikely event he recovers, she will go back to him. And we do know that we need to make arrangements for our cats should we both ever become incapacitated and need 24 hour care.

This picture doesn’t show the gorgeous green of her eyes. Eyes that one morning, looked at me with “J’accuse” in them. Spring is lizard season here. She’d caught one. I got a paper towel and grabbed it when she dropped it. The hubs took it outside and placed it in a secluded spot amidst undergrowth, to give it a chance to recover and thrive.

“Why’d you eat my lizard?” Shelley said. “I didn’t catch it for you.”

” I didn’t eat it, we let it go.”

“You’re not making any sense.” (Cat logic.)

It was Earth Day recently, I’m late, but that should be every day. I knew when I was a kid and was told not to go in certain creeks because they were polluted, that something was terribly wrong. We have to reverse the damage. Water sustains us. April 20 was the anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill disaster in 2016. I researched it at the time for a pet food and industrial safety forum I joined in 2007. I turned up lots of links and info, much of it regionally based info that wasn’t making it to the rest of the nation. Unfortunately the forum had to delete the thread later for space. I’ll put the link to my water essay of 1990 at the end of the post.

I am also late wishing Happy Passover to all who celebrate.  (I’d hoped to get this out on the 22nd, but didn’t make it.)

Moonpie startles Spooky

This was taken in spring or summer of 2022. So, we’re a little seasonal now, though we lag behind a bit. It was a lucky catch, I just happened to be there with the phone when Moonpie jumped out of a box, surprising everyone. It’s one of two times in several decades of photographing cats that I’ve ever caught a jump. So, here’s all three of our indoor girls in one post. Most cat jumps go more like this one a week or so back: I didn’t even see it start. Suddenly Boss was in mid-jump and my water and tea cups were splashing all over the floor. The hubs cleaned up the floor while I took a damp paper towel and cleaned up a wet area on Boss’ fur in case it was tea. I don’t actually think it was, and he’s fine. Major zoomies!

We were clouded over during the recent eclipse. It only looked slightly grayer than a regular cloudy gray day. In 2017 we had a partial on a sunny day. I photographed the weird light in the forest, and posted it with some sass from the street cat we adopted the day after. I named her Ultraviolet, but I’d chosen that name before I knew about the eclipse. I’ll put the link in at the end of the post.

I’m not doing much reading these days, getting through the day is task-heavy for me. But I did read this children’s book by an online friend. I really enjoyed it! When cat books are fanciful, the stories I like most include some behaviors seen in real cats. In this, the cats slip off to have adventures when they are outside. Cats who are outside will totally do that! I also love the natural settings. A link to Pamela Knudsen’s post about her book: https://catladyinthecanyon.com/my-childrens-book-two-cats-a-mermaid-and-the-disappearing-moon/

There is a surge of cats coming to our yard really hungry and of course, we feed them all. After I had been bragging on how we helped reduce the numbers of strays and ferals in this place by adopting and TNRing, now we have a burst. In discussing the “universal cat distribution service” with a friend, the hubs told her, “We have a subscription to that service”. Some have come and gone. I will tell about them more one day, and post pictures, but find myself tiring now. Two were intact toms; one, a gray cat we named Silver, is ear-tipped, and was absolutely starving. And, this young kitty meows to us and likes to be petted! All local rescues are overwhelmed and post that they cannot come take cats for anyone now. So, now that it looks like we will be feeding even more kitties, I’m really grateful to all those who have purchased my book, and I hope for more purchases. Here is the link to Borgo; and, the book cover at the upper right can be clicked, although it doesn’t always work exactly well as wordpress is changing things around. The Borgo offices will be closed for the last two weeks of May this year which will slow down orders at that time only. Before and after that time, delivery should be fast. If anyone who orders has any problems, let me know in comments. https://www.borgopublishing.com/product-page/catwoods

Catwoods is now available on Kindle. The publisher would  not permit it at first. I don’t seem to be able to attach the link, Just go to Catwoods on Amazon and then click on my name, and the Kindle edition is offered there. Well, here ’tis: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08382X7L9

There was a New Yorker article dissing TNR, and an excellent response from Alley Cat Allies. That continues a discussion we had here of those issues, but I’m out of steam for today.

My water essay: https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/tributary-becoming-green-warriors-of-the-red-earth-country-2/

2017 eclipse pictures: https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/eclipsed-sunlight-cattitude-by-ultraviolet/

I’ll likely be really slow to answer comments …

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 87 Comments

Spooky Cat Regards A Little News

Posted on March 3, 2024 by Leah

Our Spooky Spookums

Sweet Spooky, with the soft little “mew”, has her mom’s white spotting gene. She’s not as large as the other pictures as I had some trouble resizing her. Nothing works well these days, including me! This pic has been on Instagram but she’s much more photo edited here.

Thanks so much y’all, for your kind expressions of sympathy on the loss of Uncle Jack. We still miss him. Mom Groucho still looks around for him before eating. She always used to wait until he came up to eat alongside her, before chowing down herself. She used to hiss at the hubs every step of the way when she came up for feeding, but now she sometimes meows to him. Maybe there is hope that she might one day come live inside with us.  Clearly cats are not the indifferent animals they are sometimes portrayed to be, she is plainly grieving the loss of her friend.

Thanks are also overdue to those who sent me holiday cards, I appreciate it very much. It’s very hard to get cards sent out as I used to, and I may have failed to thank people online, too. But I appreciate it so much!

I am also so sorry not to be able to comment on everyone’s posts, I used to get around to many more blogs and now I manage with only a few. I always did sort of like the “like” avatars, a visual “calling card” to show support, in my view. I know others don’t like them. I worked hard on mine, from an old film photo I think, and I had to stretch to include enough visual abstract clues to get a forested area look. So I don’t like it when WordPress rounds the corners off, and everything at the edges goes away; I meant for that to be there!

We really enjoyed the movie about Louis Wain, the cat artist, “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain”.  Although, his life was very sad and that part was difficult to watch. But his pictures really made a difference in how cats were regarded in Victorian England. Before, they’d just been vermin control, but Wain’s drawings helped reveal what marvelous companions they are. That’s part of what I was trying to do with my book, Catwoods, it was a labor of love to show that cats are really fascinating, distinct characters, and should be remembered and celebrated the way humans are. That is part of the book’s purpose, and of course, cat bloggers are doing that too!

Boss at the Golden Hour

This is our Boss cat in evening light. We have wild, mad photons in the southeast US. They’re stellar. Well, actually, all photons are stellar. That’s gradually morphed from an astrological term to an adjective. This pic of Boss has been posted elsewhere but this one’s a bit more edited.

We still need book sales, they will help us help these rescued kitties! Direct from Borgo Publishing is the best place to order. There was an unexpected delay in delivery when I first came back to post last October, so if anyone has any trouble ordering, please let me know. One thing, although they are now shipping to Canada, UK, and the European Union, those fees are still fairly high. Here is the link: https://www.borgopublishing.com/product-page/catwoods.                                                             You can also find the link by clicking on the book cover picture at the top right of the page.

This post of mine has some of my old art as well as one of my own favorite descriptions of what I was trying to do with the language in the book, as well as other aspects of writing. I’ll have lots more to say at a later time as I’m fascinated by language, but for now: https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/color-in-black-and-white-with-cats/

There have been some more articles about birds and cats. I meant to include some discussion but must now wait until next time I post. Meanwhile, birds are flourishing around here, coming back for spring, starting to mate, chowing down on cat food while the feral, and a few strays who have been trying to join us – more on them later – simply disregard them. Everyone is getting well fed. All wandering cats are fed here. Friendly strays are being photographed and posted on found and lost pet pages.

Posted in Art, Cat Topics, Cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 71 Comments

Stripey Cat Presents Assorted News

Posted on December 26, 2023 by Leah

Stripey Shining in Winter Sun

Stripey is a sweet cat, an absolute ray of sunshine, in every way! And when sun sparkles on tabby cat fur; there’s nothing like it!

-The cats here outfox me every day, like when one wants to dash past me into a room that’s currently off limits (we’re slowly trying to combine several groups who aren’t used to living together.) I wonder if the term “outfoxed” will ever morph into “outcatted.”

-We think Uncle Jack has moved on to the Rainbow Bridge. The hubs kept him eating and lapping up tasty liquid nutrition for awhile, but eventually Jack slowed down and stopped consuming and appeared very frail. Mom Groucho would look for him every day, and would wait to eat her food until Jack walked up and ate his. She would pawtap him lightly when she knew he wasn’t feeling good. Cats are capable of love, friendship, comprehension, compassion, and sorrow. It’s astonishing that some people don’t know that. He would meow to the hubs, who’d talk to him, but trying to pet him gently would make him jump away in fear. He had hiding places we never found. And one day, he never returned. We do think he has crossed over now. He had to be pretty old; he was TNRed when he came to us and we didn’t know his age. I’ll put a link here to another post which I think shows his tail as he darted under the house when he first arrived. The post says he’s the same as the other Jack, who left about that time, but now with a closer look, I don’t think so. The 2011 tornado had smashed the whole neighborhood, and the cats swapped locations frequently, driven by the noises of rebuilding and the shifting, and therefore unfamiliar, populations.

Cats Wander Plains After Tornado

Well, that works differently than it used to, or I’ve just forgotten how to do it. Anyway we are both so sad to lose this guy who we loved to see every day, feral and standoffish though he was. We loved him.

– A new study has kicked up the old controversy about cats and birds, and other wildlife. What the general public doesn’t know is that there are good studies and bad, ill-thought out studies, and it’s important to look at them critically. I have a chapter on the controversy at the time in my book, Catwoods … and my current shamelessly anecdotal evidence (depending on who it is, they observations of a thoughtful observer are worth noting) is: Every day, I’ve seen many birds fly down and eat the leftover cat food of two well-fed ferals. The cats just watched and there was never any evidence of bird predation. A duck even brought her ducklings into the yard this past summer. Why do we have so many birds? Because we don’t clear and shave away every tree and living green plant. Birds raise their young in our trees and bushes. With feral cats around. My historical anecdotal evidence is, I remember the time when no one kept pet cats inside, neighborhoods were full of them, and I saw many more birds. I’ve lived in a porous house in a forested neighborhood for several decades and I’ve seen the insect population plummet. Something else is killing off wildlife, not cats.

One thing that does not help at all is the way the articles on the study are worded. Using “murderous” to describe cats. Here’s that article:         https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-12-12/the-murderous-creature-you-live-with-is-a-murderous-creature-a-study-confirms                 No one says this about the hawks and eagles who snatch small birds right out of the air. Or the several bird species that prey on eggs and nestlings of other species. I feel really let down by the news source behind that article, one I usually trust. There was another article that had more reasonable coverage, but I can’t make the link work here even though I can find it myself. If interested, try typing in the title:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cats-prey-on-more-than-2000-different-species-180983429/               There’s now a link that works in the comments.                                                    Here’s one article of mine on this topic, pictures aren’t too good but here ’tis: https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2016/11/02/analysis-of-cat-bird-and-tree-life-in-a-us-neighborhood/

– I have been remiss in my thanks! There are so many I haven’t thanked yet for their kindness while I have been ill. This includes those people who run online contests and then if you win, send you charming things they either crafted themselves, or thoughtfully selected to purchase. Those are Cathrine Garnell of Bionic Basil, Ellen Pilch of 15 and Meowing, and the Facebook page, Teddy, Billy & The Black Cats, a major black cat advocacy page. I’m happy to know there are so many positive images of black kitties out there these days! Many thanks to all! One day I hope to photograph pictures of these charming cat toys and fabrics with the cats!

-I’d like to provide links to everything but I am completely overcome now. One thing to note is, I’m still using the Classic Editor. If WordPress ends it in 2024 as they were saying they might, it’s unlikely I can learn to use the Blockhead Editor at this time. Maybe never. With the old editor, everything is right there. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So, this could be my last post for awhile.

Posted in birds and cats, Cat Topics, Cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 118 Comments

Dreamy Days With Cats; This and That News

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Leah

Our Lynx

Who would ever dream of finding a domestic cat who looks like this? This is our fuzzy Lynx, one of The Kittens rescued from the street. I did my fastest cat naming ever with him the day he was brought inside. It went sort of like this: Me: “Eek, where’d you get the baby bobcat?” Hubs: “From the feral tuxie in the yard.” Me: “We’ll call him Lynx.” (A bobcat actually is a lynx. The scientific name is lynx rufus.) He looked even more like a lynx when he was younger. There’s a younger picture in the post Big Cat Identity Kerfluffles.  

A feral cat showed up and quickly had kittens. Mom Groucho was later spayed and now she is kept fed and sheltered in the yard. She declined our invitation to come live in the house. Her feral pal Jack had been around off and on for years. He’d been TNRed by someone else when he arrived, so we knew he wasn’t the Dad. So we called him Uncle Jack. He’s now older and having trouble eating. So the hubs takes him canned food several times a day, topped with extra savory stuff. He’s now eating better and even eats the dry food again sometimes. Since it’s been cold, the hubs takes warm water out to the ferals in the morning so they won’t have to drink the night-chilled water.

To complicate matters, another cat has now showed up outside. This one is friendly, a black and white tom who seems young. We are trying to keep him on lost and found pet lists to find an owner who may be missing him. So far we haven’t found anyone. We hope he isn’t abandoned because all rescues are just overwhelmed this year, and we really are at catpacity. Now the hubs is trying to feed two groups in several different places around the house. Jack and Mom do fine together. The new guy isn’t aggressive, but Jack appears uneasy around him.

It’s still really hard for me to sit upright long and work on the computer, and I have no idea how to post on the blog from the phone. So I can’t yet do the other posts I’d planned, like the one on rescues in Alabama. I was upset and astonished today, as was the rescue person, that there are people asking rescues to take their adult cats, so they can bring home a kitten to someone in their home for Christmas! Ay yai yai, they have no idea what having a pet is all about! What a horrible example for a child! I so wish I could have done that Rescues in Alabama topic for this post, but it just couldn’t happen this time. So I may have to make posts that are mainly, one picture and a little bit of news, for awhile.

Topics I want to cover soon as I can are, Rescues in Alabama, Language in Books and Life, and a list of the huge number of books, cat-themed and otherwise, that I read while writing Catwoods. That will take some doing that I can’t do now, because they are scattered all over and in some cases, packed away. I recall some, but not all. Some writers state they don’t want to read books on the same topic as the book they are currently writing. They don’t want to be influenced. But I wanted to know what had already been done, so I could avoid writing anything too similar, and be sure I was doing cat literature in singular and quirky ways of my own.

A bit of good news is that Catwoods can now be shipped to UK, and to the European Union! For awhile after the pandemic started it was not being shipped to UK due to the cost. I owe lots of thanks to the many who have helped us, the kind friends who have helped us take care of things since the health setback, everyone who has purchased, read, and reviewed my book, and to those who have helped me with publicity for my book. Thanks goes to the The Cat Blogosphere People, Debbie DeLouise, Mollie Hunt, and The Big Buddy at Pain in the Bud (for his kind comment)! I was going to include links to all their work; all are doing excellent cat writing, several with marvelous books that are available. But I am now out of steam. I can perhaps do this later, as quick editing to a post already published is something I do know how to do from the phone. More good news, Catwoods is now available on Kindle. I’m sorry it wasn’t before, but the publisher wouldn’t allow it. Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08382X7L9

I will be slow to answer comments.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

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Posted in Cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats | Tagged , , | 94 Comments

Odds And Ends From Zipped-By Years; Cats Always

Posted on November 10, 2023 by Leah

Boss with Yellow Leaves

Some yellow leaves showed up a couple of weeks ago. They only lasted a few days, then they crisped up and dropped. That’s because we’ve had a drought. Since then, more leaves are gone, never having become colorful. That’s what happens in drought years. So only that bareness is here, along with the resilient greens, and the sad undercurrents that come with fall. Red leaves visible from another window are now vanishing. Boss, and the other cats, all enjoy the sun puddles.

A huge thank you goes out to all who so kindly responded to my last post about my absence and illness! Many thanks for all the kind words in comments, and the likes! To those who ordered my book, Murphy’s Law rules my life and there was an unforeseen delay in book delivery in October. I am so sorry! That has now been resolved, but if anyone has any trouble ordering Catwoods, please let me know in the comments and I will contact the publisher; she and I will fix any problems.

I’m trying to relearn photo editing. I still think the visual balance on this computer is off, and everything here is extra contrasty. So I don’t know how this will look on someone else’s computer or device.

I’ve enjoyed taking photos for this site but I’m far from being a real photographer or photo editor. I was a painter and mixed media artist when I became ill, lost a lot of fine finger coordination, and lost strength in my hands. So I started snapping photos. I’d never learned photography, but always loved to take snapshots. I know I don’t have the skill of real photographers. But I do get pictures I like, and lots of treasured family snapshots of my cats. Some of my old artwork appears in earlier posts, listed I think, in the “art” category here. ETA: I just realized that the art category here has too many entries, so here are the main posts that show my old art: Cat-Inspected Art: https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/cat-inspected-art/                                        Color in Black and White, with Cats https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/color-in-black-and-white-with-cats/        Black Cats in Sun and Shade, A Painter’s Eye View, second picture down is the complete “Cat-like Image Appears in Landscape”    https://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/black-cats-in-sun-and-shade-a-painters-eye-view/

These three posts are also now in a new category on the right-hand side, called Art, My Old Mixed Media.

(Mary) Shelley is now entirely under our care. Her person had to go to assisted living, and the facility does not take pets. Our hearts are breaking for both of them. The part of our home where she rules is now under a constant Tortitude Watch.

You won’t ever see any writing or photos here done by AI, no matter how inept I may become. Not unless you consider traditional photo editing to be AI. I don’t see photo editing that way because you, the human, make the decisions as to how much to increase or decrease an effect. Having an AI write a post for you is not writing, IMO. If I write flawed stuff, well, it’s my own flawed stuff.

I know many bloggers have lost beloved cats, and dogs, while I’ve been absent, and my heart goes out to them. There are too many for me to mention here but I send purrs to all, I know how it is to lose a beloved animal. There has been a recent sad loss of a blogger, Pattie Kleinke, who did the blog Stunning Keisha. Her writing and artwork were stellar, and the kitties and I miss her.

There were people from the cat world we lost these last few years that I haven’t seen mentioned in the blogging world. In 2021 we lost Melanie Neer, who started the Facebook page, Black Cats Are Beautiful. Her friends arranged care for her cat, Ouija. A friend took over her page, and it is now a private group. We also lost Wayne Morris in 2022. He created the August 17th Black Cat Appreciation Day as well as the Black Cat Appreciation Group on Facebook. This may also now be a private group. There was another blogger named Cordelia Feldman who passed within the last several years. Her family had a big fluffy orange cat she called “The Fluffy Monster”. I think her blog was named something about Rapid City cycling, but I can’t seem to find it now. She was a good writer and some of her books may still be available on Amazon.

All very sad.

There’s now a category on my site called “Smartmouth Budcat”. Those are the posts in which our late Bud, my feline editor, smarts off at me. I haven’t found them all yet. Bud just started talking while I was writing the posts, and he just wouldn’t stop. This is the basis for what I am very optimistically thinking, might be my third book. First I have to complete Volume 2 of Catwoods. I was thinking Bud’s book might be for children but now I’m thinking graphic story maybe? Because words like anthropomorphism might be a bit much for children(?) Bud got into my dictionary, as well as Shakespeare, at night.

There are more posts I hope to do soon … one will be a list of a few of our animal rescue groups in Alabama, We do have plenty of them and I’d like to showcase them after that awful publicity we got when two elderly ladies were arrested awhile back for trying to feed feral cats. I think that case was later thrown out. But we do have lots of people feeding ferals. We do, ours just won’t come inside to be house cats. One of them just stopped eating dry food so the hubs takes Uncle Jack canned food, slightly heated, three times a day. Of course, Mom Groucho gets some too. Another post I’d like to do will be about language, in all its’ variants. That’s a fascination of mine.

I’ll probably be even slower than I was the last time answering comments. The kitties and I send purrs to all!

Posted in Cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 105 Comments

The Cats Are Fine; Me, Not So Much

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Leah

Moonpie, sweet and petite

The cats you’ve seen in the pictures on this site are all fine!

This is my first post in over two years. I’ve had a rare chronic disease since about 1993. It limited me and I worked slowly, but I still was able to do some things. In October of 2021 I had a serious setback. I am now much weaker than I used to be. I can’t do much per day. We are still seeking ways to improve my situation, but it takes time to get stuff done. I’m not only weak, I’m in a lot of discomfort constantly. I’ll perhaps explain more later as/if, time opens up for me. In 2018 I had a somewhat similar setback, but I was able to get back almost to where I’d been before, in about eight weeks. Not so this time. I hope to do posts again slowly, with perhaps one picture per post. I’m now very housebound and can’t get out to take land and water scape pictures. I still have posted cat pics on Instagram, however.

I’ve tried to keep up with all commenting I can around the cat blogosphere, but I haven’t been able to get to everyone and I’m so sorry. In a few cases, the notifications for some blogs stopped working.

I still have plans to complete and publish the second volume of Catwoods. I’m not sure I can do that, but I’ve learned so much that needs to be added; I’ve had even more time to sit with the cats and observe their behavior, and I find myself not only smiling and laughing alot, but taking notes.  And after that, I hope to go on to write some humorous stuff starring some of my smartmouth cats, especially the late Bud, who was my editor for Volume 1. Something with illustrations, perhaps a book for children.

Meanwhile, Medicare did not pay for all my expenses, so we are in need of funds. I’m hoping more people will purchase Catwoods, my first book. It has all five star reviews and those who like it, really like it, and tell me they read it over and over, get copies for friends, and get another copy if theirs gets damaged.

If you do get a copy of the book, please go directly to Borgo Publishing, a reliable publisher local to me. The link from clicking the picture in the right upper corner should take you there. Amazon has messed up the listing because Borgo does not sell through them and is only listed along with used book publishers, making it hard to find the correct price of a new copy which is 23.95 before sales taxes and shipping. Often Amazon lists the used publishers first, at higher prices, making it hard to find Borgo under “Other sellers on Amazon”. Therefore some people don’t understand that there are indeed new copies on Amazon, from Borgo. They are a publisher, not a used bookseller. And I know some people have gotten a used copy at a higher price from these used booksellers. Sellers of used copies don’t pay the authors. Direct Borgo sales do. People have every right to sell their used copies to used booksellers and used booksellers have every right to sell those copies. But they don’t compensate authors and when the cost of a used is more than a new copy, that does seem unfair to the customer. So do go to Amazon only to read five-star reviews and nice comments by readers, but go to Borgo Publishing to purchase a new copy if you would like.

Comments are welcome and I will try to answer as soon as I can. I might not be fast.

I hope to be back soon but can’t guarantee it. Not only health, but tech problems occur daily. Tonight as I worked on this, the keyboard stopped working. I’m using my husband’s until I finish this. Murphy’s Law rules at our house. Meanwhile, y’all take care of those precious black kitties this time of year!

Posted in black cats, Cats, Feral Cats, rescued cats, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 160 Comments