But lemme give y'all a little back-story.
Not sure just when it was but about 2 to 3 months ago we were sitting at the dining room table eye-ballin' the critters in our world. Out of nowhere and without preamble here comes this momma cat and her two half grown kittens in tow. They were moving at a trot and scanning the area for any threats. You could tell that Momma was nervous being out in the open and exposed like that. They went over the wood fence and were out of sight from then on.
Ever since then we have had our eyes open for them. We have an 8' X 10' Morgan building in the back yard and I can say with complete confidence that there has been more than one litter of kittens born under there over the years but we haven't seen anything recently. Still we have been watching that building for any sign of momma or the kittens.
Two days ago we saw Momma cat in the back yard. She was not very close to the building but not all the way in the back of the yard either. Yesterday we began again looking in earnest for any sign of a cat "move-in".
This morning we saw Momma stick her head out from under the building. GOTTCHA! I have a small concrete pad in front of the door to the building and I took a can of cat food and a bowl of water out and set it on the pad. By the time I got back in the house and looked out the window she was bolting the food down. I went out a couple of hours later and picked up the plate and a little while after that I chopped up a left over hot dog weenie left over from last nights chili dog feast. I took it out to her and she pounce on it with obvious glee. Cats have a special way of eating when they are starving. We hadn't seen that since we rescued Frito.
After she ate the weenie she stayed out on the pad and "bathed" herself and drank some water. She sat out for quite a while. She is a beautiful cat. Not a calico but subtle shades of gray with some lite tan here and there and a gray and white face. Miss Pam and I think quite a bit alike these days and we locked eyes and at the same moment I could see it on her face; we gotta give her a name. If we are going to continue to feed and water her (and we ARE) then she is gonna need a name. We went through a few and rejected them all. It had to be appropriate to THIS cat and not something that is the name of every other cat you see.
I wanted something that reflected wildness but goodness. I happened to remember a song from back in the '50s by Gogi Grant. "They Call The Wind Mariah". One line goes something like:
The Earth is Tess.
Fire is Go.
And They Call The Wind Mariah.
We liked the name Mariah because like the wind this cat will come and go as she pleases but is always pleasant to have around, but we didn't want a 3 syllable name. Pam came up with the idea of shortening it up to Myah. So we will henceforth refer to our new lodger as Myah.
She doesn't appear to be pregnant and I don't think she has had time to have another litter. We are also pretty sure that her last kittens are off and on their own by now. So as far as we can figure out she is alone. We know that she may be pregnant or become pregnant at any time. We'll just have to see how the situation developes.
In the years that we have lived in this house we have had two different periods where "Neighborhood" cats would come by and see us and get a treat and/or a few minutes play time with us. The first one was a little gray and white short-hair. She would come by nearly every day and we'd give her a bite to eat and a bowl of water and play with her with a broom straw under the back screen door. She eventually let us pick her up and hold her and we would sometimes let her in the house for a few minutes. We didn't have any other pets at the time so there were no turf wars.
She had no collar or tags so we didn't know what to call her so we just called her "Bum". She didn't seem to mind. We never found out if anyone in the neighborhood owned her or where she lived. Dow Park is just on the other side of our back fence so I always figured she made her home there. She was a regular at our back door for about 6 or 7 years. We really missed her when she stopped coming around.
Then there was Miss Kitty. The feisty little black and tan and white Calico that lived 3 houses down. Her owners let her fun the neighborhood at will. Much like Bum she would come to our back door and beg for food (which we happily supplied) But unlike Bum she was never too interested in playing games. She wanted to stalk the birds and squirrels at our feeders. Never saw her catch anything but that never deterred her from trying. We had about 5 years with her and then, like Bum, and other outside cats I expect, she too disappeared. We still miss our little huntress.
When we got these three (Duke, Cody, and Dink) we very briefly pondered the idea of letting one of them keep his front claws and letting him be an inside/outside cat. All our country relatives have outside cats and they are a hoot. It's a different way to enjoy a cat and we really enjoyed the two experiences we had with that. But we quickly decided against that. The life-expectancy of inside cats is significantly longer and we wanted to take the best care of our boys that we could.
Myah has an injury on her right shoulder. We are going to work on cultivating a relationship with her and we'll be feeding her every day and watching to see how she gets along. If she isn't thriving after a time or if the injury on her shoulder seems to get infected or won't heal I may try to trap her and take her to the no-kill shelter here in Deer Park. If Need be I'll take her to the vet first. This appeares to be a quality animal and deserves a chance and we want to do all we can to see that she makes it.
More on the story as it evolves......and pics as I can get 'em.
Not sure just when it was but about 2 to 3 months ago we were sitting at the dining room table eye-ballin' the critters in our world. Out of nowhere and without preamble here comes this momma cat and her two half grown kittens in tow. They were moving at a trot and scanning the area for any threats. You could tell that Momma was nervous being out in the open and exposed like that. They went over the wood fence and were out of sight from then on.
Ever since then we have had our eyes open for them. We have an 8' X 10' Morgan building in the back yard and I can say with complete confidence that there has been more than one litter of kittens born under there over the years but we haven't seen anything recently. Still we have been watching that building for any sign of momma or the kittens.
Two days ago we saw Momma cat in the back yard. She was not very close to the building but not all the way in the back of the yard either. Yesterday we began again looking in earnest for any sign of a cat "move-in".
This morning we saw Momma stick her head out from under the building. GOTTCHA! I have a small concrete pad in front of the door to the building and I took a can of cat food and a bowl of water out and set it on the pad. By the time I got back in the house and looked out the window she was bolting the food down. I went out a couple of hours later and picked up the plate and a little while after that I chopped up a left over hot dog weenie left over from last nights chili dog feast. I took it out to her and she pounce on it with obvious glee. Cats have a special way of eating when they are starving. We hadn't seen that since we rescued Frito.
After she ate the weenie she stayed out on the pad and "bathed" herself and drank some water. She sat out for quite a while. She is a beautiful cat. Not a calico but subtle shades of gray with some lite tan here and there and a gray and white face. Miss Pam and I think quite a bit alike these days and we locked eyes and at the same moment I could see it on her face; we gotta give her a name. If we are going to continue to feed and water her (and we ARE) then she is gonna need a name. We went through a few and rejected them all. It had to be appropriate to THIS cat and not something that is the name of every other cat you see.
I wanted something that reflected wildness but goodness. I happened to remember a song from back in the '50s by Gogi Grant. "They Call The Wind Mariah". One line goes something like:
The Earth is Tess.
Fire is Go.
And They Call The Wind Mariah.
We liked the name Mariah because like the wind this cat will come and go as she pleases but is always pleasant to have around, but we didn't want a 3 syllable name. Pam came up with the idea of shortening it up to Myah. So we will henceforth refer to our new lodger as Myah.
She doesn't appear to be pregnant and I don't think she has had time to have another litter. We are also pretty sure that her last kittens are off and on their own by now. So as far as we can figure out she is alone. We know that she may be pregnant or become pregnant at any time. We'll just have to see how the situation developes.
In the years that we have lived in this house we have had two different periods where "Neighborhood" cats would come by and see us and get a treat and/or a few minutes play time with us. The first one was a little gray and white short-hair. She would come by nearly every day and we'd give her a bite to eat and a bowl of water and play with her with a broom straw under the back screen door. She eventually let us pick her up and hold her and we would sometimes let her in the house for a few minutes. We didn't have any other pets at the time so there were no turf wars.
She had no collar or tags so we didn't know what to call her so we just called her "Bum". She didn't seem to mind. We never found out if anyone in the neighborhood owned her or where she lived. Dow Park is just on the other side of our back fence so I always figured she made her home there. She was a regular at our back door for about 6 or 7 years. We really missed her when she stopped coming around.
Then there was Miss Kitty. The feisty little black and tan and white Calico that lived 3 houses down. Her owners let her fun the neighborhood at will. Much like Bum she would come to our back door and beg for food (which we happily supplied) But unlike Bum she was never too interested in playing games. She wanted to stalk the birds and squirrels at our feeders. Never saw her catch anything but that never deterred her from trying. We had about 5 years with her and then, like Bum, and other outside cats I expect, she too disappeared. We still miss our little huntress.
When we got these three (Duke, Cody, and Dink) we very briefly pondered the idea of letting one of them keep his front claws and letting him be an inside/outside cat. All our country relatives have outside cats and they are a hoot. It's a different way to enjoy a cat and we really enjoyed the two experiences we had with that. But we quickly decided against that. The life-expectancy of inside cats is significantly longer and we wanted to take the best care of our boys that we could.
Myah has an injury on her right shoulder. We are going to work on cultivating a relationship with her and we'll be feeding her every day and watching to see how she gets along. If she isn't thriving after a time or if the injury on her shoulder seems to get infected or won't heal I may try to trap her and take her to the no-kill shelter here in Deer Park. If Need be I'll take her to the vet first. This appeares to be a quality animal and deserves a chance and we want to do all we can to see that she makes it.
More on the story as it evolves......and pics as I can get 'em.
