THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE & MEN

The full modern translation of Robert Burns' famous quote from his poem To A Mouse is "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". And boy did my plans ever! Go awry, that is.

Extremely early Saturday morning, I let Annie in the yard to take care of business and get a bit of exercise before the day turned impossibly hot and humid. There is still a gigantic pile of weeds, the end result of our yard clean-up effort, that need bagging. Annie has been using them as her own canine version of a jump bar in some kind of doggie Olympics but this particular morning she didn't jump over. Instead she kept circling the pile and crying.

Realizing what was going on, I chased her away from the pile and gave her the voice/hand commands to get on the porch. She did and I closed the gate. After a quick visual once over of the weed-mound I noticed what appeared to be an opening in an inconspicuous spot. Now I knew the reason for the circling and crying. "Great," I thought to myself, "Now I've got cats sleeping in the pile of weeds." Not realizing what exactly was going on.

Sunday morning came and the day was shaping up to be even hotter, more humid and definitely more uncomfortable than Saturday. When I opened the back door I decided to only allow Annie on the porch. Much later on I decided to take a peek at the back to see if any of the strays showed up since I didn't see any of them the day before. There was the first girl sitting and licking her paws.

I grabbed some pouch food and went into the yard to fill her bowl. As I approached she hissed at me. She held her ground then made a defensive move towards me but thought better of it, ducking under the fence into the adjoining yard. She sat there hissing at me. "What are you hissing at me for, dummy, I'm feeding you." I said to her. I poured the food into the bowl from a standing position since she was acting funny. She skirted around me to sit next to the opening in the weeds hissing all the while. Dummy me! Then I was hit with the dawning realization why the defensive behavior and what I heard next confirmed it - a kitten crying!

Now I have a pile of weeds in the backyard that can't be bundled up until the babies emerge. Annie will have to be confined to the porch, I don't know if my brother and I will be able to do any other cleaning and I need to get some expert advice on how to handle the next couple of months.

The weeds Girl and her babies call home.

The dark area against the cinder-block wall is the opening to their den.

STRAY ACTIVITY

The daily offerings of food have prompted the strays to come through our yard on a regular basis - at least the girls do. We haven't seen Brother in more than a week - I think.  A few days back the Norwegian Forest Cat was in our neighbor's yard along with the girls.

Artie put out food but he retreated to the farthest end of that yard, settled himself down in a reclining position to watch the proceedings without availing himself of a meal. The refusal marks two ocassions in the past week we were not able to get him to eat. I suspect he will be the hardest one to persuade to the dinner table.

At least the girls show up like clockwork every day looking for their handout. Both are very thin now which means there is a batch of newborns somewhere nearby or there is yet another cat that looks like Mommy, pregnant and somewhere in the area.

Yesterday, the second girl showed up first. She is really timid and is generally bullied by her sister. If she tries to get her share of a meal her sister swipes at her. She will shrinkingly back off to sit patiently and wait for her sibling to finish. Ever so cautiously she came into the yard only to shy away if I moved too quickly. Once the food was down, she watched me until I was on the porch. Deeming it safe to commence eating, she proceeded to "chow down" once I closed the porch gate.

While she was having her meal, I managed to get a decent picture of her.  She looks like her sister with the exception of darker coloring. As of this posting, I have yet to see Brother.

The next TNR class conveniently located for me is scheduled for September 5th in midtown Manhattan. There is the 8 lesson online course but I would much prefer the human interaction to sitting in front of my computer so I keep telling myself it's just four weeks away. The time will pass quickly. Then I will be able to trap them before winter sets in.  Once there is no longer a concern about offspring, I can focus on not only feeding them and supplying fresh water but concentrate on shelter from the cold.

Slightly darker coloring than her sister; otherwise they look exactly alike.

A decent meal before my sister shows up!

BACK TO BUDDY

The second of August and the start of another month without Buddy.

What changes a few short months have brought. When Buddy was here and needed my care, I never thought about managing a feral colony but I'm taking the first steps to do that now. While I was in nursing mode, I never realized how much effort and time went into Buddy's care. I never realized how much his care took away from Annie. The past few months have enabled me to give her more time, deepening our bond and settling us into an Annie-centered routine. I'm not saying the care and nursing were negatives but only remarking on the difference between a home free of chronic illness and a home coping with it.

Do I miss my Buddy? You can be sure I do. The simple act of writing about him makes me very sad. I don't believe that will ever change. Instead of taking care of Buddy I will now take care of the cats he would talk to from my back window. Life goes on...

FROM ASHES TO ANSWERS

Entitled "From Ashes To Answers", this beautiful sculpture of a firefighter and his arson investigation dog is our country's newest national monument. The bronze statue created by 22 year old Colorado firefighter Austin Weishel recently finished a 12 city tour with a scheduled stop in NYC before being permanently installed in our nation's capital.

A reminder of one of the many services our canine companions perform for us. The service dog reminds me of Annie...

To learn more about the monument and arson dogs:

http://www.nationalfiredogmonument.com/photo-gallery