Cats | The Beauty Around Us

Wedding Anniversary Celebration – Day 2

I got up on September 27th at 7:00 am, after a good night’s sleep. Bob got up about an hour later. Shortly after 9:00 am we drove to the nearby Confluence Food Market handpicked up a few groceries. Back “home” Bob made us breakfast — scrambled eggs, sausage links and orange juice.

Around 10:00 am we left on a bicycle ride, which you may find details and photographs of by clicking here. This blog post begins where the bicycling blog post ends.

Shortly before 3:00 pm Bob returned to Ohiopyle from Confluence. I met Bob in the Ohiopyle State Park parking lot. Bob loaded my bicycle on the carrier. Then, we walked back to the Ohiopyle Falls overlook for one last look.

Nearby the falls overlook we happened upon a cat.

The cat’s tag reads:
Tonto
I live in Ohiopyle. I am not a stray.

Tonto is not an ordinary cat. There are many articles on the Internet about Tonto. Click here for one of the articles I found about Tonto.

On our way back “home” from Ohiopyle we visited three sites — Cucumber Falls, Baughman Rock Overlook and Youghiogheny Dam.

We hiked down to Cucumber Falls. Thankfully the hike wasn’t too far, as my knee still hurt from our earlier bicycle ride.

The waterfall was OK, but I was disappointed that the water flow was low.

All we saw from Baughman Rock were trees. The view from there is supposed to be Pennsylvania’s deepest gorge. We didn’t see the gorge; all we saw were trees.

The view was disappointing, after hiking up Baughman Rock’s steep face. That hike was painful for me. My knee complained loudly! The view from Baughman Rock will be beautiful, when the leaves change color. When the trees shed their leaves I believe, then, the gorge will be seen.

Our last stop before returning “home” was at Youghiogheny Dam.

We drove across the dam and back.

Youghiogheny River Lake was established in 1944
with the construction of the 184-foot high, 1,604-foot wide Youghiogheny Dam.

We returned to our Airbnb, the Birdhouse Inn Confluence, around 4:45 pm. We spent rest of the afternoon and evening at ”home” relaxing and allowing my knee time to recuperate.

Lucky

Since late April a calico cat has been frequenting our front porch and back yard pavilion.

This is a short video of the calico cat on our front porch.

The calico cat is on our back yard pavilion.

We shared the above-displayed video and photograph of the cat on Facebook, asking if she belonged to anyone. One of my Facebook friends wrote that the cat might belong to one of our neighbors, who moved into the neighborhood in late 2019 or early 2020. I found that neighbor on Facebook and sent her a message via Facebook Messenger. On May 4th we learned that our cat visitor belongs to our neighbor.

The name of our neighbor’s cat is Lucky. She is 11 years old and a rescue cat and is classified as a Tortie with white, not a calico! Lucky was an indoor cat for years before her family moved into our neighborhood. She went outside and has absolutely loved it, so she stays out quite a bit.

We absolutely LOVE having Lucky visit us. She is very friendly and loves to be petted.

The only negative thing about Lucky’s visits is that a tomcat hangs around her. He chases Lucky and pisses on our hedges.

We believe that the tomcat is feral. He is standoffish and won’t come anywhere near us. Thankfully Lucky is spayed, so there are no babies in Lucky’s future.

We discovered this morning that Lucky has skills!

Black Kitty

I wrote about Black Kitty earlier this year.

Black Kitty (a feral or stray cat) had been coming around our house at least twice a day since the end of July. We fed it twice a day. We went away on vacation in September for a couple weeks and had a neighbor feed Black Kitty and Patches, our indoor cat. On September 23, when we came home from vacation, our neighbor told us that Black Kitty came around at feeding time, but did not eat. Our neighbor assumed Black Kitty was being fed elsewhere. That wasn’t the case.

Before we went on vacation, Black Kitty would not allow us near him. The closest encounter Black Kitty would allow was looking at each other, with a glass door between us. Soon after returning home from vacation, we saw Black Kitty. We stepped outside and called to him “Hey Black Kitty”. In the past Black Kitty would just look at us. He would not come to the porch, until we had gone inside and some time had passed. This time was different. Black Kitty came running to us.

I believe Black Kitty knew he was in trouble and put his trust in Bob and me to help him. Black Kitty had been injured. His chin was scratched badly, and he had a broken canine tooth. He had a very bad smell to him, and he was very weak. We were able to capture Black Kitty in a cat carrier. We took Black Kitty to our vet, where he was administered antibiotics and tested for feline leukemia. At home we applied good dewormer and flea removal products. We later had him neutered, vaccinated, and the broken canine tooth removed. Black Kitty became a resident of our home in late September.

I took this picture of Black Kitty on September 26. His chin looks better than it did, when we first caught him. Where Black Kitty’s chin is scratched, it had been turning brown. The antibiotic is working because his chin is looking more healthy.

I took this picture of Black Kitty on September 28. He allowed Bob to comb his hair. Doesn’t he look handsome? He no longer smells. Black Kitty prefers to be indoors, not outside.

On September 30, Black Kitty met Bob’s daughter and our granddaughters.

October 2
Black Kitty likes his new bed.

October 20
What a sweet kitty!

Unfortunately, we could not keep Black Kitty. Patches, whom we have had since February 2011, was a brat. She would not accept Black Kitty. We were told on numerous occasions that it takes time for cats to get along with each other. Neither of us had the heart to wait “enough time” for the cats to get along.

On October 31 I posted a plea on Facebook, asking for someone to please adopt Black Kitty. Valerie, who lives about 45 minutes from our house, answered my call. She has a 2-year-old male cat named Brutus, and she wanted a companion for him. She wasn’t looking for a kitten as a companion. Black Kitty seemed a perfect choice for a companion. We re-homed Black Kitty with Valerie on November 7. Black Kitty likes his new home. According to Valerie, Brutus is having a hard time with Black Kitty. Black Kitty doesn’t let much faze him. He loves Valerie’s son and spends a lot of time on his lap or follows him around like a puppy. I hope in time that Brutus and Black Kitty will be friends. Thank you, Valerie, for adopting Black Kitty!

Black Kitty

I wrote about our black feral cat for the first time here. Black kitty has been coming around, to be fed, for about 3 weeks now. I captured a couple photographs this morning that I wanted to share with you.

Black kitty, deciding whether or not to come up on our front porch.
She decided NOT, until I was out of view.

There are four eyes looking at me!

Our Feral Cat

We have been feeding a black feral cat for several days. The cat comes around at least twice a day and eats every morsel that we place in the dish. Until today I haven’t been able to get good pictures of the cat. Whenever it sees me, it runs and hides. I figured out a way to outsmart the cat. I captured the photographs shared in this blog post from the comfort of my living room, via the Remote Control feature of the Olympus Image Share App. I am very pleased with the experience!

THOUGHTS OF A FERAL
by Annette Easdon

I sit beneath the bushes as she fills my dish each day,
I only venture out to eat when she has gone away.

I know it will upset her when I turn away and hide,
As every day she tries her best to get me by her side.

I wish that I could let her know that I don’t want to run,
And hope that she will understand it’s nothing that SHE’s done.

I’d like to have her stroke me and pat my weary head,
But fear will overcome and I’ll run and hide instead.

For all the kindly people who feed the strays each day,
I pray the Lord will care for them as they have cared for me.

We Grow Grass

Our cat, Patches, is an indoor cat. We do allow her to accompany us outside to our front porch. We keep a close eye on her, though, so she doesn’t wander off or go out on the street. When Patches is outside her favorite pastime is to prance down the front steps onto the sidewalk, where she nibbles on grass. The ground has been covered with snow since early January. We thought Patches might be missing her daily grass intake, so we began to grow cat grass indoors for her.

Patches likes the cat grass that we grow for her.

I like the planter in which we grow the cat grass. My friend, Barb, gave it to me several years ago, on my last day of employment with an internet service provider.

This is one of several articles that I found on the Internet that discusses questions you might have about cat grass, for example: Is grass good for cats? Is it necessary? and Why do they eat it?

Take Me Too, Mommy

My husband and I spent the weekend in Niagara Falls, NY. On Friday, as I was packing for our 2-day vacation, Patches watched. At one point, she looked as though she asked “take me too, Mommy!”

Patches stayed home and was well taken care of by one of our neighbors.