On to the post.
The grays. I have a lot of gray cats. Most of them are from the Lebanon colony, those 60 cats and kittens left behind by the "A" lady. (A is for asshole).
Sometimes it is not that easy to tell them apart, especially the long hairs.
Most of the summer I don't see many of them very often. They remain out in the cat yard and only come in when I am gone, to cool off in the house, or once the cold and rain start up in the fall.
Every now and then I worry I'm not seeing all of them and flush them out to be sure everyone is ok. The four gray short hairs are easy to distinguish. They are Vino, who is almost tame now;
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| Vino, with Slinko behind him. Vino likes being in the house. |
Mopsy, who is outside all summer but in the house and half tame winters;
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| Mopsy, sleek and beautiful, with that tiny white chest spot. |
Willy Wonka, the light gray boy with a tiny white chest spot;
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| Willy Wonka, a lighter gray boy, with down turned long whiskers and a larger white chest spot. |
and lastly Storm, the most elusive of all the gray short hairs.
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| Storm up in the cat run this morning. His hair is slightly longer than the other "short hair" grays and his face more rounded with pronounced whisker "cheeks". |
But he has a roundish head and no white chest spot. Vino has no chest spot either.
If you want to be particular Sam is gray too, but a gray tabby and very friendly.
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| Friendly Sam |
How time flies. Sam is getting older now. He has his devoted groupies---Mums, Jade, Shady and Juno. Sam's clan! He mostly gets along with everyone here but every now and then goes on a tear of attacking everyone, in evil mischief. Buffy and Mops both love him. However, he does not like Miss Daisy nor does he like Slinko. He used to love Slinko, so something soap operaic has torn them apart of late. Ah, the drama.
The gray long hairs are far more difficult to tell apart. I know my own girl Blueberry well. But as for the four from the Lebanon colony, Bluebell, Gracie, Di Vinci and Hawkeye, they are not that easy to distinguish. So again, now and then, I get freaked and think one is missing and go on a hunt down. Invariably I am able to locate and distinguish each and then feel a bit foolish for the worry.
Di Vinci and Hawkeye do not have white chest spots, but Gracie and Bluebell's distinguishing spots of white can easily vanish into their long hair when sitting.
Evil mischief describes Jazz perfectly. He purrs as he attacks too.
ReplyDeleteLove your cats - and am relieved to know that you too can sometimes have difficulty distinguishing who is who.
The long hair grays are my constant worry, are they all present and accounted for, I think, often late at night, when I should just be asleep. Last night was one of those nights and so this morning, I hunted them all down, as everyone, tame and wild, stampeded in a panic like I'm the boogie woman which makes me feel put off and unloved, but not for long. Jazz and Sam sound much alike!
DeleteYou have some seriously handsome grey cats there :-)
ReplyDeleteNo kidding!
DeleteHow do you decide which cats stay with you and which ones you release after getting them fixed?
ReplyDeleteIf they have a feeder, they go back. I wasn't supposed to end up with any of the cats from that huge colony. But circumstances collapsed around one person who was taking in the last dozen of them, and they were unable to take them. Then the woman who had pledged if I helped that she would find them homes and support them til they found homes, bugged out on that. And I gave up, knowing how difficult relocation is on feral cats and how many end up dead anyway, from predators and because people rarely actually follow relocation procedure. So they stayed. They are the last cats I took in and I still officially do not take in more cats. I have however taken in many since then but only temporarily until I can place them with other rescues or shelters as I am full.
DeleteTwo of the 13 Lebanon colony cats I ended up with have now died of congenital heart problems. I ended up with them, when things collapsed, not just the final home lined up, but especially me, having injured myself badly there, trapping them, so that I couldn't even walk for a few days. The injury to my sacro illiac joint took months to heal. Also just after trapping them the weather took a turn into the freezer zone and just trying to keep them warm was difficult. I had built a garage cage for them in a little over a day, a very large spacious and delightful cage, but went broke running a space heater to warm them when temps dropped into the lower teens for two weeks time. I then moved them into the second bedroom to save on the heat bills. They were here long enough they began loving the indoor life and I couldn't bare the thought of them being eaten by coyotes, a fate many cats in this area meet. So no problem, they have fit in nicely, are no trouble, and there's enough room with the contained yard and all the amenities here.
DeleteI think I would have a hard time letting any of them go, but I know it is a necessary part of the job.
DeleteI stopped by the 34 cat colony I trapped late last fall. Over half have disappeared. They won't even talk to their neighbors to tell them the cats are all fixed and not to harm them, although he told me he thinks coyotes are to blame. He's the softy in the family but he had to be mean about it, say he secretly wished the neighbors would kill them, then said "they've been good food for the coyotes". I know he's probably saying this because he's a man and can't be seen to care, but it hurt for him to be so mean about the cats dying. His wife has to get a young man to get a body off the road, if one is hit by a car, he is such a soft heart. I know he doesn't mean it, but.....it hurts me to know many of those lovely cats are dead, via neighbor or predator. Yes, it is hard to return any outside allowed cat, knowing what they go through, with some people more so than with others. I do not know why so many people have zero courage to defend what they love or the defenseless. It's pathetic.
DeleteThe greys do look nice...
ReplyDeleteI hope it rains there..
We got no rain here. Looked promising for a bit. Southern Oregon got some and there was rain in a few places, not much however. Now it is supposed to heat up again, upper 80's next week.
DeleteI rather like Willy Wonka. Can you freight him to here?
ReplyDeleteWould love to, Andrew. He's a shy boy, born wild, but follows me like a dog, from a distance, clearly wanting more than the wild life. I think he wants to cuddle.
DeleteAh, how delightful. My Jezebel is a gray girl with adorable stripes on her tail. Oh, and I forgot to mention about your next post that I like the animal figurines. What a fun idea to place them around your yard.
ReplyDeleteJezebel sounds beautiful, Darla. I like the animal figures around the yard too.
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