Pictures!

We haven't moved forward, alas. I haven't heard back from TNR Group #2 yet, you see. So we'll try again in June. Why not May, you ask? Because I am going out of town. No need to worry about our Colony-- people I trust very much will be taking care of the fuzzies for me, stopping by every day.

Come back in June when things will gear up, one way or another. :)

'Til then, enjoy these pictures...

Below, Daphne contemplates me with uncertainty, while Bessie tries to do a photobomb. Okay, Bessie probably was just wondering whether to run, but still...

Tuxie in the sunset. She's usually within earshot of my front door.

Streeeeeetch and yawn, wee Agatha, stretch!

Agatha, aka Crooked Kitty, close up. I'm always so happy to see this little girl.

It's Daisy! I have no idea why she looks so cranky here...

And finally, Beatrice, the not-feral, though you wouldn't know it to pet her, says you'd better come back in June for more updates and pictures!!!

It's Never Easy-- So Thank Goodness for Help

::Sigh:: Another water bowl gone. (The one in the above picture, in fact, with Bessie-the-Former-Tomcat.) I think I may need to go to a big box store and purchase a dozen cheap dishes. I have no idea if it's gone thanks to neighbors or thanks to management...

I spoke with the wonderful person from AZCats who helped me last time (2008), and it turns out that there's been some kinds of machinations in animal groups in the past two years. I didn't get details, but suffice it to say that due to distance (Phoenix is a big city, especially for transporting angry caged animals in) I have been referred to a different group. I'll update more as I know it. She also referred me to some online resources which may help in the on-going communications with the management here.

'Til I know more, I leave you with pictures. Everyone likes pictures! These are the fuzzies you are directly helping when you donate to Project-Cat.


Mr Mistoffolees from above-- He seems to be saying, "I can see you up there. But I know the food is up there. How do I get to the latter, and not the former..."


Tuxie, being her adorable self. Behind her, however, is one of the two Problem Tiger Tabbies. These are two gray tabbies that belong to a neighbor. They are not, however, neutered.

Walsingham, lounging in the desert.

Feeding time at the zoo. This is by no means an ideal place to feed a number of cats, as you can see by the congestion in the next two photos. But since DNL is fearful of my feeding them in the old spot (seen in the photo following these two), I don't know what else to do...

Cats in photo directly below: Tuxie, Pigpen, Aloysius and Barnaby.

Cats in photo directly below: Walsingham, Agatha, Mistoffolees, Aloysius (I think), Tuxie and Pigpen.

The old feeding spot-- much bigger, much more secure for cats (in that they can run from people easier. Note the water dish-- it's also gone. Cats in the picture include: Daphne, Mistoffolees, Athos, Tuxie, Daisy, Walsingham, and one of the Terrible Tiger Tabbies (who is really friendly and affectionate and I call him Tigger, but he is also very, very clearly not neutered.)
This is Paint. She's cute, no? But she's very shy. She'll get her own post-- just as soon as I get some more pictures of her!!

Walsingham and Agatha. They're always together, which warms my heart.

No updates, 'cause no news...

The ferals are chillin', doing their feral thing. It's getting warm here in AZ-land (82 today and 91 tomorrow! Yikes.) I'm finding occasional tufts of fur around the feeding area as they blow coat. I imagine that Tuxie is not enjoying the return of the hot weather, what with her long fur.

Another neighbor-- though I'm not sure who-- has started occasionally leaving food for the fuzzies, which I appreciate greatly. (Food's expensive! Well, it gets expensive when you're feeding so many.)

The TNR Fund for this go-round is at $125, and I'm exceptionally grateful to my two donors. (I don't know if they want to be named at all here in the blog, so I shan't for now. But if you're reading this, know that you have my thanks!!)

I've just gotten in touch with Altered Tails, the fabulous people who helped last time, to see what the upcoming schedule is like for high volume spay/neuter days. I suspect that we shan't be able to TNR 'til June, which I regret as we'll be deep into kitten season by then. But alas, April is rapidly running out and I, lucky me, will be leaving town for May. (I'll try to get a guest blogger-- perhaps she'll be better at updating than I am!)

I do have pictures, I promise... but I also have a list of things to do a mile long, so ... um... sorry. (I know, I'm a terrible blogger. But at least when I do post pictures they're of cute, cute kitties.)

GOOD NEWS!

I spoke with the office people today, and pointed out that it is Spring. It is warm, and it has been warm. There are two (2!!!) unneutered male cats belonging to my neighbor, and there are several cats in the colony who are either new or whom I couldn't catch last time. There will soon be kittens. Can I, I asked, TNR? Please? Or would you like some kittens?

They said yes! I haven't made any arrangements yet (I didn't want to start any balls rolling, so to speak 'til I'd gotten a feel for where management/owners stood), so watch this space for more news.

I have to let the office know when *I* (and you) know more, so that they can leave notes on people's doors about what's going on. The office person I spoke with said that people had come and asked what they could do to help about the cats, so that's a good sign.

And, uh, if you have a few dollars to chip into the TNR-fund, now might be a fantastic time to do so. The fund is empty (I've been paying for cat chow out of my own pocket, which I don't mind, but at $50/cat for speutering, even if I only catch a few, it becomes costly for one person. ) Even just a few dollars helps a lot.

(More updates -- and cat pictures-- next week. Maybe sooner. But life has gotten crazy 'round here...)

In Memory

I haven't updated P-C in a few days partly because I've been busy (as always), partly because there's no news on the Office Management front (still), and a lot because every time I sat down to write this post I didn't know how to write what I need to write... So I've been putting it off.

Being a feral cat is hard. It's not the worst life, I imagine. It's better than many other kinds of wild animals. It gets a lot easier once you've in a managed community-- getting food and water, and, once you're speutered, free of the dangers of territorial fights and the unhealthy effects of near-constant pregnancies.But still, there's no way of knowing how old the cats in the colony are, with the exception of Paint (who I have yet to introduce to you all because I can't get a good picture of her) and Tuxie, both of whom showed up as kittens this past summer. And there are dangers, mostly from humans. So it's no surprise, although it is sad, when one of the ferals doesn't show up for a long time. Gremlin, for example, has not been seen in a long time. Even more worrisome, Little Grey (Amaranth) hasn't been seen for months now, either.

(Then again, sometimes they just aren't seen for months and months and months and magically reappear, the way Creamsicle did a few weeks ago...)

But it's more surprising, and more definite, when something happens to cats who've been adopted.

Last week I got a phone message from the woman who adopted Dolce, the littlest of the last litter. She'd gotten very, very sick. The vet's best guess was that she was poisoned by something, although she was an indoor cat, and her constant companion (a Chihuahua) is fine. It's hard to process this news, knowing so little, and knowing how young Dolce was, and thinking about her as a tiny bottle-fed kitten. There was little to be done, and what there was was astronomically costly and unlikely to work, and so little Dolce was euthanized.

Then, a few days ago, AZMum wrote to let me know about Gandolf aka Skinny Kitty. You may recall that Gandolf was not actually feral-- in fact, once he started getting regularly fed gooshy food by AZMum, he was quite a lover. AZMum had also been giving him daily insulin shots to take care of his diabetes. When AZMum and her family moved away from the apartment complex, they took Gandolf with them to be their outdoor kitty. Unfortunately, this past weekend Gandolf was attacked and killed by either coyotes or a neighboring dog. I'm grateful that Gandolf got so much more time, thanks to AZMum's care, but of course I'm also very sad to think of him gone.

I don't know how to end this update. I wish I had some cute pictures of kittens or cheerful news about being allowed to TNR, but I don't at the moment.

As for the rest of the colony, life continues, I'm glad to say. I've been feeding them up on the second floor, as per DNL's wishes. No one has taken away the new water bowl. Tuxie seems to live by the food dish, meowing to get my attention whenever I leave my flat. Mistoffolees can be counted on to be around most of the time too. Other regular vistors include Pigpen, Barnaby, Agatha, Walsingham, Bessie, Athos and Aloysius. I'm still regularly seeing Daisy, but not up by the food dish. Paint comes and goes, and again, not usually up by the food. Creamiscle is ghostlike, disappearing into the wood work just as soon as you've come to expect him.

I'll try to update again soon, with something more cheery.

Not Looking Good

I spoke with someone in the office on Monday and she said there'd been no word (yes or no) regarding the cats, feeding them, TNR, etc.

I spoke with DNL on Sunday. She has decided she will no longer feed or water the cats. She thinks that management is trying to push her out of the complex and that's part of it. She doesn't care if I still feed/water them, but she wants me to do it somewhere other than in front of her flat/beneath the stairs, where the cats have always been fed/watered.

This, of course, puts more responsibility (time and finances) on me. Great.

For the lack of a better place to feed the cats, I started feeding them on the landing between the second and third floors. (The stairwells are open air.) I moved the water dish upstairs, and put out dry food. Because some of the cats are too skittish to come upstairs, I've also started pouring out a bit of food closer to the drainage bolt holes.

When I left today, Pigpen and Agatha were going for the food downstairs and Tuxie for the food upstairs. There was a water dish there.

Today when I came home, about 8 hours later, the water dish is gone. Just like the food dish was gone two years ago. But this water dish had been in use for almost two years, and today they decide to get rid of it?

Mind you, there were maintenance people in my flat today, so they may have noticed it up on the second floor for the first time and that's why it's gone. I don't know.

But now I have no water dish.

Should anyone like to donate a water dish, please feel free. :( See, I use the kind where you have a reservoir so that I only had to refill it every other day. This is ARIZONA. The desert part! It's hot! Even today, in early March, it's 75 degrees (Fahrenheit.) The cats deserve freshwater.

I am so angry. And so frustrated. And sad. Who steals water from cats?!

ARG.

Typical

I was on my way out the door to meet some friends for dinner, but as I was locking up, I saw Barnaby out in the grass. Clearly I had to run back inside and grab my camera as pictures of Barnaby are on the scarce side.


So I had my camera and was locking up when Tuxie came bounding up the stairs, squeaking.


Clearly I had to run back inside and grab some food since Tuxie seemed hungry.

So I had the food and my camera and was locking up when Mr Mistoffolees came peeking up the stairs.

I poured out the food and stepped back and Tuxie came on up and started chowing down. Knowing that pretty much any other kitty would be too nervous with me there, I went down the second set of stairs, ready to head for my car.

And found Walsingham bounding towards me.



Then Athos showed up, but he's a spooky kitty and not so sure.


Walsingham led the way up the stairs.




Tuxie showed him where the food was.


The others weren't so sure 'til I was farther away.


Barnaby even finally joined the party.


Need I mention I was late for *my* dinner?


-----


In other news, two things:

1. Still no word from management. I'm playing it a bit coy, for now. When I pay my rent this week, I'll ask. As a professor of mine just put it, I want to be the squeaky wheel who gets the grease, not the wheel that squeaks so much it gets replaced.

2. It seems that DNL is no longer feeding the kitties. I think that's why Tuxie was so brave to come so close, squeaking for food, and the other cats all came running when they heard me pour out the fuds. I haven't seen any food out near DNL's usual feeding spot. Worse, the water dish-- one of those deals where you fill up a reservoir and gravity does the rest-- was completely empty. DNL always took care of that. I haven't yet spoken with DNL, so I don't know if this is a temporary lapse, if she's away, or if she's abiding by the rules that appeared on our doors last week, but it means more responsibility (and more financial issues) for me. I'm not pushing for donations just now 'cause I haven't heard anything yet about being allowed to TNR, but if you wanted to put a few dollars in to go towards buying food, I'd appreciate it. (And sooper special thanks to Duckierose for her recent donation! Pigpen and all the others thank you.)

Meet Pigpen

(Each, um, every-once-in-a-while Project Cat will post a profile and pictures of a Colony Cat, whether it's one who has been around from the get-go, or a new comer. Today? Pigpen.)


Name: Pigpen, named for the Peanuts character who is always followed by his own little cloud of dust. Pigpen, as you can tell from her pictures, always looks dirty.


Sponsor: Yes, by the wonderful Duckierose.

Joined Colony: Pigpen's been around as long as I've been watching and taking notes on the colony.
Altered: Alas, no. During the great TNR-Adventure of 2008, Pigpen became my nemesis as she consistently investigated by avoided all the traps we set out-- both the usual kind triggered by an animal walking in, and drop traps, where cats can walk under what amounts to a box and have a stick pulled out from it. The only reason I can, with any certainty, call her a "she" is because calico markings are genetically sex-linked-- only female cats can have both orange and black spots (generally.) Calicos and tortoiseshells are almost always female.

(The picture below is one of my absolute favorites I've ever taken of the colony. And you wonder why I call her my nemesis?)


Distinguishing Characteristics: Pigpen is precisely the style of cat I think of when someone says calico. Technically a calico is any cat with orange, black and white spots, and Pigpen certainly exemplifies this style, being mostly white, with the other two colors as splotches. Also, as I mentioned above, she is almost always dirty looking. I don't know if she's actually dirtier than the other cats in the colony, or just appears this way because she's mostly white.


Most Likely to be Found: Miss Pigpen seems to very much enjoy hanging out underneath a set of bushes directly across the courtyard from my apartment. However, she also seems to enjoy a good laze in the sunlight, so you'll occasionally see her spread out on the rocks (and her coloring-- dirt included-- provides excellent camouflage for this) or sometimes just being a kitty-loaf right in the middle of the grass.

There isn't any BAD news...

Okay. So, after a nailbiting day during which I heard nothing, I decided to show them all how determined I am and went to sit in the apartment office so that I could be convenient whenever the owners were ready to talk to me.

Well, instead, the manager spoke with me-- as far as I can tell in the grand hierarchy of the apartment complex, she is the highest local person since the new company took over in the summer. She told me that it's the management company, not the new owners, who put out the "stop feeding the cats" directive. And that she gave them my information (which I had put together yesterday), and they weren't interested in dealing with it just now. However, as soon as they tell her something, she'll tell me.

Sound just like February 2008? It should because it's precisely what happened then, too. I did, however, forthrightly tell the manager that I will be continuing to feed the cats until I hear more. She agreed that I should do what I need to do.

Honestly, I think the company saw a lot of cats and went, vermin! What shall we do?! And thought, hey, if we don't feed them, maybe they'll go away. (Admittedly, one of the women in the office told me she tried calling every shelter in the area to come get them. I could have told them no one would come get them-- actually, I did tell them that in 2008. So they did try to take action.) But as my dad pointed out when I was filling him in on all this, it's not like there are marauding gangs of cats wearing black leather clothes and eye patches just roaming the complex in search of small children to eat. I don't think that the company considers this a pressing matter, but still, better to be proactive on our part.

So, in concrete terms, what does this mean for Project-Cat?

Honestly, not much. It means that we're in a holding pattern as far as TNRing the rest of the cats goes. I had started to think that maybe I could trap/etc. during Spring Break, when I'm not teachign, but that's in mid-March, so fundraising would have had to start now. I'm not comfortable doing that 'til we know more. So that's on hold. (But hey, if you were planning on donating, feel free to keep an eye on that money and send it later...)

As far as everything else-- well, I'll keep feeding, I'll keep tracking, and I'll keep posting. And, I'll keep in touch with the office to find out if they've heard anything. I don't want to be a nuisance (although I suspect many already think I am) but I also don't want to be forgotten. I'll also be continuing to speak with advocates of various sorts to see what other advice might be out there for convincing people to keep these cats safe.

No need for any action on your parts yet, other than to keep following along. I'll keep carting my camera around, and tracking the cats. You keep reading and letting other people know they should read, too. :)

The Suspense... arg! THE SUSPENSE

I know that the owners are visiting the apartment complex today, and that the question of the cats will come up. I do not know when this conversation will happen, whether I'll get to be involved, what the answer will be, or when I'll hear anything.

The waiting and uncertainty are driving me mad!

So, as an antidote, have some pictures, never before posted here. (I was saving them for the posts about individual cats, but when I do those, I'll just have to get more pictures is all.)

Below: Athos, Walsingham, Mr Mistofolees and Cyrano