Cats of the Farm: The Pride Goes On

[dressagetraks]

How to fail to take a picture:

1. Notice through the bathroom window that there is a low line of clouds just above the horizon in the east, nice fluffy ice-cream scoop clouds, just enough to be pretty, not threatening. They are picking up the setting sun from the west beautifully. Above them, the moon is rising. What a picture!
2. Get out cell phone for the picture through the bathroom window and discover the paw marks on said window. Ah, well, better from the back deck anyway.
3. Retreat to the back deck. Meanwhile, the horse has come up and is grazing perfectly horizontally in the shot below the clouds below the moon. Wow! Raise phone.
4. Decide that this shot ideally needs to be a bit closer.
5. Retreat back inside the back door, shooing inside cats back. Apply farm boots at the front door and go out onto the porch.
6. The horse hears the front door, which has only one possible (or at least hoped-for) meaning in the universe, that it’s feeding time. Even when it isn’t feeding time. He breaks his beautiful position beneath the clouds and moon, canters on closer to the house, and stands awkwardly legged, looking very unphotogenic at the moment, with grain ears.
7. Retreat toward the other end of the pasture in hopes that the horse will follow and recreate the shot.
8. The horse does not follow. He is at the feeding area still with grain ears.
9. Decide to at least get clouds and moon, even if without horse.
10. Realize that being several feet lower when not on the deck has taken away some of the cloud view, now lost in tree line.
11. Retrieve the small stepladder.
12. Position said stepladder and climb it.
13. Not only is the stepladder a bit short still, but three farm cats immediately climb it with me.
14. This shot still isn’t as good as the one from the deck. And now I’m losing the angle of the sun on the clouds as the sun continues setting.
15. Implore the horse to come over and position himself again so nicely horizontal to the fence beneath that cloud line and moon to at least give me a shot, even if not the perfectly lit one I almost had a few minutes ago.
16. The horse stubbornly remains at the feeding station with grain ears.
17. Descend the stepladder, carefully avoiding cats.
18. Pet cats.
19. Pull weeds from a flower bed for two minutes just to accomplish something with this interval.
20. Back inside.

[dressagetraks]

Today was bag day at the big library sale in the city. They hold week-long sales twice a year, HUGE sales. Several semis worth of donated books in a gigantic room (Walmart-sized), usually make around $150,000 per sale, and prices are very cheap all days. But on the last day, they don’t want to reload everything and are trying to get rid of stock, so they have bag day. Brown grocery bag (provided, so everyone gets the same size) is $1.

The cats always approve of bag day.

[dressagetraks]

Rascal. She is not a lap cat; she is an against-you cat. And there have only been two people in her life that she would get against and purr. I do love the reserved, opinionated ones.

And throwing in a plug for a book I got at the big library sale on Sunday. I had never heard of this author or this book at all, but given prices Sunday (around 2 cents per book since it was bag day), the “give it a try” threshold was quite a low bar to get over. I’m about halfway through, and it’s delightful. A nice old-style children’s book, and by old style, I mean that it isn’t about sex and teen drama. You know, like horse stories used to be about horses and a plot instead of all that other stuff. This is kind of reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie, but with a cat. Not anthropomorphized, though; he is definitely a classic cat. Told from the POV of his young-teen person. I’m enjoying it. By the way, the paw coming into the shot at top right is Psalm.

[dressagetraks]

Cat drama:

Out the office window, I saw Cory walk by, amble around the front yard a bit, then settle in a cat loaf.

Rascal came across the yard, walking toward Cory. She stopped five feet away, studied this situation, then walked on and slapped her. That got my attention. Rascal does slap other cats, frequently. However, the world’s usual offense is to encroach upon her. She does not go out of her way to walk 50 feet over just to slap somebody. If they leave her alone, she leaves them alone.

Cory ran. She’s not going to take on Rascal. Rascal parked herself in a cat loaf right where Cory had been. By this point, I was starting to wonder what was over there.

After a couple of minutes, Rascal suddenly made a spring about three feet forward. She came up with a something (presumably mouse, but the distance was a bit too great to get detail) and had a grand time with it, rolling around, tossing it, snagging it again.

Meanwhile, Cory, about 30 feet distant, stood there watching. Rascal had taken over her promising hunting hole. She wasn’t going to do anything about it, because Rascal has enough attitude for ten cats, but her expression was eloquent.

[dressagetraks]

I’ve realized that Atticus got a bite last night, not a deeply serious one but definitely a bite with intent, not just a nip.

I have eight cats indoors, but I’ll eliminate six of the seven suspects right off the bat and narrow down the culprit to Solo. She is my “leave me alone” cat indoors. Life would be fine except that once in a while, the other cats refuse to leave her alone. Atticus and Brio are the main ones I’ve seen doing this. Not that they dislike Solo, they just want to play, and she happens to be the nearest cat available. Wrong selection, boys. Draw again. Of course, when she gets offended, she has great sound effects, which starts to make things more fun. If she got in a good chomp on Atticus last night, I’m sure he was the instigator and deserved it. Solo reminds me of a somewhat-distilled-down Rosalind. (Nothing had quite as much attitude as Rosalind the original, whom I described as “Katharine Hepburn as a cat.” But Solo is that type of personality, too, just a little dialed down from Rosalind’s inimitable level. Not a fan of other cats at all, is affectionate with me but in her own style.)

Mary, by the way, is a totally different type of reserved cat. She is very sociable and playful with the other felines, and with me, she isn’t as much standoffish as she is thoughtful with a touch of wary. She will never be a snuggly lap cat, I don’t think, while Solo does have her snuggly moods and moments. Until she decides she’s had enough. And warning to Atticus, when Solo decides she’s had enough, she does bite.

I’ll keep an eye on the wound, but it looks clean and licked. I’m sure he’ll be fine.

Picture of Rosalind, by the way, just for reference. She predated my COTH days, but boy, was she a memorable cat. The picture tells you everything you need to know about her.

[shiloh]

THAT face. “Bow down peasants.”

Only a Siamese can get that look of utterly royal scorn.

[dressagetraks]

A video clip that got more interesting than I had intended. Hope it works and the COTH site squirrels aren’t out today.

I had burned a windfall branch yesterday morning. It was all burned down, and the air was still, but I still went out several times yesterday to check the fire and make sure it was staying in a nice simmer circle where put. Coming back, I spotted Cotton and decided to get a video of him climbing a tree on command. In the process, I also got Rascal enforcing social distancing, sweet one-eared Cory, and Bagheera tackling me, which is his own specialty, though not on command. He just makes a running dive-bomb at my legs at random moments when I’m outside, sometimes from several dozen feet away. It’s a game to him.

Anyway, here are several of the Cats of the Farm doing their various things.

https://www.facebook.com/deborah.hall.12/videos/1057833994977648

[skydy]

It’s clear how much you love them, and they you. Lucky kitties.

[dressagetraks]

Pulling burrs off Rascal. I pull a burr, she puffs up and retreats, then turns around and comes straight back. Repeat for each burr. She liked the result but not the process. Just had to express herself.

[dressagetraks]

A very neat picture I got this morning. I usually wait until daylight to do morning outdoor chores, but Sunday morning has a tighter schedule, because I must get to church (which is a one-hour drive) early for sound check, which is an hour before all other activities start. So with sunrise getting later, I was forced to tend critters in the dark this morning. All outdoor critters were present and glad to be tended in the dark, and the horse is gray, so he looks like a ghost out there but is easy to do a quick eyeball check of soundness and such on, even in darkness.

As I was coming back up to the house after feeding and inspecting all, I noted three of the indoor cats in the window watching me. Had to get a quick shot with my phone. Very neat moment.

[skydy]

Great photo!

[dressagetraks]

Psalm with the stuffed fish. They do love that fish. It isn’t one of the ones that wiggles or anything, but I find it all over the house.

And Cotton in the early morning sunshine. One-eared Cory below.

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Autumn is the season for planting things to prepare for next spring. Here Satin helps me with a box of tulip bulbs.

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My refrigerator decor.

Feline-themed couch legs.

Scene from my library, starring Pusheen, Blake (“Tyger, tyger, burning bright…”), and Mary. I do love my library. I was in the reading chair in the middle when I looked over to see this, thus the angle. I do have a designated cross-stitch kit that goes in that blank wall space and is a cat among books. Some year, it will get made and up there.

[dressagetraks]

Happy National Cat Day.

Here are six of eight inside. Clockwise from base, Psalm, Atticus, Pharaoh (with a treat stuck in his withers), Mary, Brio, Pilgrim.

The two indoor holdouts who didn’t come to treat call. Obviously, they were just too comfortable to be bothered. Solo behind, Mystery in front.

Most of the rock-solid regulars outside. It is a wet, icky, dismal day, so there are some drifters/not-quite-as-committed who weren’t coming out in this weather for breakfast. Bagheera closest to camera, Cotton, Cory (pinto), and Rascal/Satin as the two-tailed cat.

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Changing the sheets, a very popular program each Saturday.

Mary, Atticus, and the Meow Pillows

Autumn scene with Rascal.

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Brio looking deceptively innocent.

A kitty pinwheel! Note the, yes, what is your problem, look from Solo. This was just a treat bite for them and was never intended as a full meal where each needed a measured portion.

[ravenclaw]

Love the pinwheel! At my house, the behavior would turn ugly pretty fast.

[Marla_100]

I know, I’m always amazed that her multiple cats get along so well. I only have 2 and they despise
one another.
That pinwheel at my house would be a circular Blur of Fur.

[dressagetraks]

Presenting the annual autumn photo shoot with Cotton, whose tree-climbing-on-command allows me to position him and set up shots.

Just warming up and testing the light, no trees offered yet.

Now we get into trees and next to the burning bush, which is too small and dense to climb.

And at the end, I decided to try to get a picture of both of us. This picture was the hardest test I’ve ever given him. I had the phone propped on something which wasn’t quite perfectly angled, and of course, Cotton was with me while I was setting up the phone. He bumped it twice, and a few times, I just wasn’t satisfied with the angle. So it took several takes. I would position the phone, hit the timer, and have just seconds to run to the tree, get the cat up the tree, and get us both in position. Over and over again both of us raced back and forth and he raced up on request and down (not on request, but he only climbs on command, doesn’t stay). Never have I tried this trick in rapid-fire sequence like that. Cotton never refused to climb, but he was beginning to think I’d lost it. I do love this tree. It has character. If I were more coordinated, I’d be tempted to climb it myself.