No, my book is not autobiographical...contrary to popular belief
Lately, jokingly, mind you, a friend questioned if Diary of a Crazy Cat Lady
wasn't autobiographical. As much as I would love to have the farmhouse described therein, complete with wrap-around covered porch and decked out sunroom, I still have to say no, its 98% fabrication, with a smattering of past events thrown in just to make it more personable.
So, why the question?
Well, it seems that I have a "kitten drop-box" in my closet.
Yeah, you read that right, a kitten drop-box. Let me explain. A year or so ago (it all sort of blends sometimes), we had a tallow tree grow right beside the house and up through the eaves. Those are what are known here in Texas as trash trees or weed trees. The reason being is because they grow like 'em. It doesn't take more than a few weeks for them to get the strength and height to get to and through an eave. The fact that we don't visit that side of the house that often (our drive-way is on the opposite side of the house) except to check (at that time) to see if the a/c was frozen over, made it more amazing at the height it gained since last check. At any rate, we cut the tree down and at the time I had some plywood that covered all but about three or four inches of the hole, so we patched it with what we had, not thinking that the small hole would be a big deal since it was on the bottom side.
Apparently it does.
Let me just give you an aside note. We have an older couple here on the block who feed the feral cats here, so when there's a storm, they take shelter where they can. You can go down any block and see garage doors lifted a few inches for the cats to get out of the weather. To say it's a feral-friendly neighborhood is an understatement. Anyway, so last year, just before we fixed the hole, we found out that we had had a fat raccoon visit up in our attic. We knew the animal was big because we could hear the ceiling squeak when it walked over head. We knew it was a raccoon because our neighbor spotted it squeezing its rather ample behind through the yet un-repaired hole. Anyway, somehow, we managed to scare it away, but not before it caused some damage to our copper tubing for the a/c, and the ceiling in our main bathroom. That was another really good reason to fix that big hole. So, as I mentioned, we repaired all but the small hole, fully intending to complete the repair, and promptly forgot about it...until this year.
Now we have had feral cats in the attic before, and they've always vacated quite quickly. Not this time. A mama, about a year back, had a litter up there and was moving them all over the attic. Two of the kittens, who were barely four weeks old, if that, fell in between the walls of my family room and laundry room. We got them out and took them to the vet around the corner. They were taken on by one of the techs and we thought we were done. We inspected the hole, and couldn't figure out how she'd gotten up there. Again, we intended to repair the hole, but life got us distracted.
Fast forward to this year. One or two mamas decided our attic was prime real estate for kitten bearing. A couple months back, we kept hearing mewing and couldn't locate it. Finally found it and put the darling's picture up on Facebook. Sweet little girl was gone in a day to a great family. Since kitten season is generally twice a year, we didn't think anything of it, until about three or four weeks ago...way before any of the next litters would be due.
A mewing was heard again, so we went on the hunt for it. Found a darling black kitten...put her up on Facebook and again, gone within a day.
Two, almost three weeks ago, my husband heard a mewing coming from the general direction of our bathroom. We located it, and found it was between my closet and the vanity. Got the stinker out and put him on FB...no bites. A week later, Mouse was cleaning our cat's boxes when she heard a bunch of bumping in the wall and I opened the hole that I'd made and not patched yet to find a very feral kitten spitting and hissing at me. The other kitten came bouncing in, check on the fuss being made in my closet. The two got nose to nose and the one we'd had for a couple of weeks took off and hid. It took a while to get the spitter out of my wall, but out it came.
I put it in a large box, one it couldn't climb out of, and went outside and around the corner with it. When I set it down to look at the hole, which, by the way, is still no bigger (I'll be repairing it now that I am relatively sure all the kittens are gone out of the attic), but there was a beautiful grey tabby mama watching me like a hawk through said hole. I set the box down and watched from a distance while she jumped down and inspected the kitten. I'm assuming she got it to safety, the box was empty later on.
All that to say, I'm putting the kitty drop-box out of commission tomorrow. I'll be repairing the outside hole of a few inches and taping and spackling the hole I made in my closet. Then I'll be inspecting the rest of the eaves for any other small holes that the mama cat can shimmy through. I told my husband the other day, when the spitter was rescued out of the wall, that the mama cat needs a new hobby.
As a PSA, if you are feeding feral cats, there is probably a colony of them nearby. They probably will never be able to be domesticated, unless you happen on one of the kittens, but there are programs called TNR (Trap. Neuter. Release) that can cut the kitten population down. If you are interested in this program, check with your local animal control office, and they can give you the information. The feral cat populations are, for the most part, good rodent and snake control, just not good pets. They, like other wild animals, have a function in the ecosystem, but tend to get out of control in the population department if they go unchecked.
Have a blessed week, everyone, and pray that I can find all avenues into my attic and patch them up. ;)
So, why the question?
Well, it seems that I have a "kitten drop-box" in my closet.
Yeah, you read that right, a kitten drop-box. Let me explain. A year or so ago (it all sort of blends sometimes), we had a tallow tree grow right beside the house and up through the eaves. Those are what are known here in Texas as trash trees or weed trees. The reason being is because they grow like 'em. It doesn't take more than a few weeks for them to get the strength and height to get to and through an eave. The fact that we don't visit that side of the house that often (our drive-way is on the opposite side of the house) except to check (at that time) to see if the a/c was frozen over, made it more amazing at the height it gained since last check. At any rate, we cut the tree down and at the time I had some plywood that covered all but about three or four inches of the hole, so we patched it with what we had, not thinking that the small hole would be a big deal since it was on the bottom side.
Apparently it does.
Let me just give you an aside note. We have an older couple here on the block who feed the feral cats here, so when there's a storm, they take shelter where they can. You can go down any block and see garage doors lifted a few inches for the cats to get out of the weather. To say it's a feral-friendly neighborhood is an understatement. Anyway, so last year, just before we fixed the hole, we found out that we had had a fat raccoon visit up in our attic. We knew the animal was big because we could hear the ceiling squeak when it walked over head. We knew it was a raccoon because our neighbor spotted it squeezing its rather ample behind through the yet un-repaired hole. Anyway, somehow, we managed to scare it away, but not before it caused some damage to our copper tubing for the a/c, and the ceiling in our main bathroom. That was another really good reason to fix that big hole. So, as I mentioned, we repaired all but the small hole, fully intending to complete the repair, and promptly forgot about it...until this year.
Now we have had feral cats in the attic before, and they've always vacated quite quickly. Not this time. A mama, about a year back, had a litter up there and was moving them all over the attic. Two of the kittens, who were barely four weeks old, if that, fell in between the walls of my family room and laundry room. We got them out and took them to the vet around the corner. They were taken on by one of the techs and we thought we were done. We inspected the hole, and couldn't figure out how she'd gotten up there. Again, we intended to repair the hole, but life got us distracted.
Fast forward to this year. One or two mamas decided our attic was prime real estate for kitten bearing. A couple months back, we kept hearing mewing and couldn't locate it. Finally found it and put the darling's picture up on Facebook. Sweet little girl was gone in a day to a great family. Since kitten season is generally twice a year, we didn't think anything of it, until about three or four weeks ago...way before any of the next litters would be due.
A mewing was heard again, so we went on the hunt for it. Found a darling black kitten...put her up on Facebook and again, gone within a day.
I put it in a large box, one it couldn't climb out of, and went outside and around the corner with it. When I set it down to look at the hole, which, by the way, is still no bigger (I'll be repairing it now that I am relatively sure all the kittens are gone out of the attic), but there was a beautiful grey tabby mama watching me like a hawk through said hole. I set the box down and watched from a distance while she jumped down and inspected the kitten. I'm assuming she got it to safety, the box was empty later on.
All that to say, I'm putting the kitty drop-box out of commission tomorrow. I'll be repairing the outside hole of a few inches and taping and spackling the hole I made in my closet. Then I'll be inspecting the rest of the eaves for any other small holes that the mama cat can shimmy through. I told my husband the other day, when the spitter was rescued out of the wall, that the mama cat needs a new hobby.
As a PSA, if you are feeding feral cats, there is probably a colony of them nearby. They probably will never be able to be domesticated, unless you happen on one of the kittens, but there are programs called TNR (Trap. Neuter. Release) that can cut the kitten population down. If you are interested in this program, check with your local animal control office, and they can give you the information. The feral cat populations are, for the most part, good rodent and snake control, just not good pets. They, like other wild animals, have a function in the ecosystem, but tend to get out of control in the population department if they go unchecked.
Have a blessed week, everyone, and pray that I can find all avenues into my attic and patch them up. ;)
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