Pearl Cat and Her Family

Our neighbor’s girlfriend needed to find homes for kittens. We were glad to get one.

We go out to the pickup and there is 3 scared orange kittens in a cage. Butterscotch was over by herself. I grabbed her up.

Yes, an orange female! Orange female cats happen only 20% of the time. Most orange cats are male. To add to the oddity is her mom is orange, and all of her 7 siblings were orange females.

As she got older she got a bit of a mean streak like Pizazz. Which was probably static annoyance. Like she feels attacked when zapped by static.

It was scary to get another the fallowing year, but Lulu did not have much more time. I didn’t want Butterscotch to be alone.

From the same mother came, Ember

It’s interesting how the first toy you give a kitten, becomes their favorite all thier life. Here is Ember with her favorite toy.

Ya, it was rough for a few days, I thought Butter was going to killer her.

But Ember doesn’t seem to be bothered by anything not liking her.

One day…

Ember melted Butter’s angry heart. Not we can pet Butter most of the time and she has become a great cat. I think the play fighting has toughened up Butter’s skin so the static doesn’t bother her so much.

So how do we tell them apart?

In the dark we cant tell, except Butter is a little softer.

Ember has a more pointy face and slightly darker fur.

Tiny Pearl, Lulu Bell and Cosmo were all that’s left at this point

For years Tiny Pearl had allergy issues, usually in spring and fall. The vet noticed, since he had it written down. So it was more about pollen than food. She would scratch and lick until she was sore. It got worse as time went on. The vet didn’t want to give her cortizone all the time or she would become diabetic. Lulu already had that. I didn’t need 2.

Tiny was eating a special food and was on Atopica. Sadly it has a side effect that can hurt the lungs. Even with all of that she still had allergy issues and was not happy most of the time. Especially as we got a new kitten, Butterscotch.

We wanted to get a new kitten while Lulu was still with us because she is really good about showing them the ropes. Which was a good thing as Butterscotch didn’t know how to drink water. I also had to mix her soupy food.

Tiny always had a drinking problem. We had a fountain for a while, that worked very well, but after we moved here, she started to accidently breath some in. Of course by the time I get to the vet, she was fine. It got worse, then one day she just freaked out and couldn’t breath, then she was gone. My bestest friend ever.

She passed 2 years ago.

Lulu Bell became diabetic well before we moved. Most I hear of, dont make it but 2 years. She did very well for I thinl over 5 years. A blessing.

We got another kitten, Ember, so Lulu could teach her the ropes and so Butterscotch would have a buddy. Ember came from the same mother but a year later.

Last summer Lulu started to fail and got to weak to be given meds, since she quit eating. I just wanted her to go peacefully instead of in fear at the vet. she would get scared if she thought I was going to sweep her away to the vet. She passed away in my arms here at home. We miss her so much. A cat super full of love and caring.

Luckily we still have cute Cosmo 🙂

Last I posted we were living in WA on Camano Island. Like 5 years ago.

We still had Pizazz, Lulu Bell, Pearl, Lenny and Cosmo. Oh and 4 snakes. Sam, White fire, Rose, and Dawn. Sadly all old. I know what was ahead.

I could see the state falling apart, traffic jams 24/7, neighborhood corrupting. We were living in a paper house and wanted something interesting. Also the value of the house would leave us with some equity.

Jim found an odd house in NM, that was cheap enough to leave us with some extra, and it is quiet, no neighbors out each window and 40 acres. But it does come with the biggest bugs ever and crazy weather.

Before we moved, Lenny got weaker and weaker. Being feral left a toll. One day he just kept crying and going in a circle. It was frightening. We got him to the vet and them helped him to the stars.

Lenny had realized that inside was better than outside in the winter and would sleep with us. But it was only for a short time.

When we moved, we had 2 big cages in the van, one for Pizazz and one for Lulu and Pearl. Snakes were in the big tank on top of the cages, and dog up front with us. The trip went well.

Once we got to the new place, there was a lot to clean and fix before it was very livable. Soon we fixed the doors and screens in the front catio. A big area that is in front of the main rooms that is a barrier from the heat. Sort of like earth ships. The cats have the biggest catio any cat could ever wish for.

Then we had the yard to deal with, which is walled in. Animals had dug open a huge hole to the outside in one corner. At night rabbits and who knows what else would come in and party. Tumble weeds were up to 6 feet tall. Rat houses and more. Once it was cleaned the cats could come out, but only under supervision. We had seen a golden eagle a few times.

Above is an Ameranth. Once the monsoon season starts, they pop u everywhere.

Pizazz got kidney failure before we moved. She was a mean cat, no way we were going to giver her fluids. So several times a day I mixed us some soupy food for her. It worked very well and she kept going about 2 or 3 years. Later she came down with cancer and went to the stars after being here about a year. I was glad that she got some time in a big roomy place and some outdoor time.

I forgot to mention that before we moved, my Aunt’s son in law took in my last 2 chickens. Blondie and the bigger white one. They got to live on a real farm with other chickens and animals.

Sam and Rose were both in their early 30’s, and were looking like they could use a cane if they had arms. Eventually getting so they could not digest food.

Not far behind them was Dawn and white fire. Dawn got tangled in some fabric which seemed to mess her up and she passed soon after. Whitefire always had an odd deformity which seemed be her demise. They were all 30 +.

Before we moved, it looked like Diane got in a fight with Rose and lost.

Continued in part 2…

At a seemingly young age of 9 we lost our Ion kitty to some thing called Idiopathic Chylothorax. Fluid build up around the lungs. Why that happened, we never found out after many various tests. It must have been something very bad inside since it took him… in only 3 weeks time. So shocked that it has taken me 3 weeks to get to this. One thing is for sure if, your cat is not breathing well, it is serious and quite possibly dire. The looks on the vet’s faces say it all.

About our fancy guy, Ion:

He was about 16 lbs with medium long fur. Luckily he was part Maine Coon which seemed to make him easy to brush and very few matts. He loved being brushed and loved any attention from his humans. When petted, Ion’s tail could touch the back of his head. He also had extra toes just like Tiny Pearl.

Even though we could not hear him purrr, he was purring, but the only way to tell was to feel his chest.

He was so hard to get a good photo of, but in the sun his fur was dark blue.

We are missing him so much. Those little things he did and the spaces where he always hung out are empty.

Like a lot of male cats, he had to be pearched up high, so at breakfast time he would eat up on the counter. He loved a little water mushed up in his food and after he had licked up a bunch of it, a little more watter was added and mushed in. Mama’s boy! In his last days he had to be lifted up, and he came to eat every time anyone went to the kitchen.

He also had a spot when it was treat time. Like circus tigers, each of the kitties have a perch they jump up to for treats. Now his perch goes unused.

We also got one of those laser toys that goes on its own for a few minutes. He loved that toy so much. He would come running as soon as it was switched on. He would never tire of the laser or catnip process time.

It will be hard when we need to grind catnip in the blender when it dries. His favorite thing. He would play with the sticks and like a child licking cake mix, Ion would stick his whole head in the blender jar and lick the dust off the sides getting dust all over his head.

So quiet here now. Ion loved to get the zooms. The bad part is that he was a total clutz and often knocked things over and busted stuff up. In the middle of the night if we heard a crash, we know it was just Ion.

Ion was always there after the humans got out of the shower. Not sure why. We also cant leave any tissue paper out or on a roller, it is kept in a nearby cabinet or behinds some bottles of stuff. If a roll got left out, he would get it. He could silently shred a roll in seconds.

Originally we got Ion as a play pal for the dog when they were both young so they could grow up together. A few days before Ion passed, Cosmo went and sat with him.

We miss our big huggable Ion.

I cant believe we didn’t do a post about the chickens.

They are already 4 years old!

We got 4 chicks and kept them inside till they were big enough to go in the pen that we got on sale.

2 light Brahma’s, Sara and  Amanda

and 2 Easter Eggers(Ameraucana), Blondie and Robin.

They started out with a pen and truck that could be moved around to different patches of the yard. It was too heavy and we really dont have enough yard. The pen seemed too small and wasn’t built with a decent egg laying place.

I built a nice pen with removable bins for eggs, lots of room and perches, vents and lighting. It connects to the truck run I had already made and we found a nice spot for it under a tree where it could be cool in the winter and electric can be hooked up.

For fresh space we have tunnels made from hard fencing that they can zoom thru to one of 4 big areas for to dig around in. And also we have a puppy pen that can be put up anywhere and add the tunnels to it.  So any direction and distance needed to fresh grass if there is any.

They were laying so many eggs that I gave many away to friends. No they don’t lay anymore, so they are just someone to talk to and care for outside.

Sadly we lost Robin to Merek’s disease about 2 months ago. She was the best one, always layed and she was the leader. After she was gone the others didn’t know what to do. I had to help them to bed and they would sleep till 10 am. Even now I still have to get them up.

The dry weather has been hard on the grass but the chickens look good from not having muddy feet all the time.

Feral Lenny hanging out by the chickens.

After years of using the internet, I got burned out and discouraged from changes that sites constantly do.

There are so many social sites and other sites that need other sites to do business with so many passwords and emails, places to store photos.  It just eats time and causes a big bum.

Some sites I had put a ton of work into to make some income, were sold or changed the way they do things that ruin it for those making money there. So many!

Even this one started putting ads right into the posts. And they are not always proper ads. Please dont think I am putting them there!

Recently Photobucket going off the hook with greed with out warning, totally destroyed several of my blogs.

Also people all over just becoming mean.

I have really backed away from the internet as much as possible.

So excuse me for being really far behind.

I hope to do some updates.